{"id":21,"date":"2023-03-06T23:30:31","date_gmt":"2023-03-07T06:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/span312blogdc\/?p=21"},"modified":"2023-03-08T14:24:09","modified_gmt":"2023-03-08T21:24:09","slug":"week-8-garcia-marquez-one-hundred-years-of-solitude-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/span312blogdc\/2023\/03\/06\/week-8-garcia-marquez-one-hundred-years-of-solitude-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Week 8 \u2013 Garcia Marquez, \u201cOne Hundred Years of Solitude\u201d II"},"content":{"rendered":"

Extending from last week, Gabriel Garcia Marquez\u2019s One Hundred Years of Solitude<\/em> was a fabulous read that brilliantly sewed together fantasy, abstraction, philosophy, and reality. Engaging in the latter half of the book, what stood out to me most was the cyclical nature of time and the inherent connection between people (civilization) and their environment. Using magical realism almost as a literary tool in depicting the events of Macondo, the book raised thoughts and questions about the notion of \u2018solitude\u2019 in both an individual and societal scale. Lastly, engaging with the ending, the closure of the book felt cataclysmic. While there were certain parts throughout the book that perhaps mildly foreshadowed Macondo\u2019s fall, the ending was still quite shocking for me because it felt sudden and unexpected; it left me with a feeling of emptiness, perhaps something close to \u2018solitude\u2019.<\/p>\n

Undoubtedly, magical realism was central to the novel, effectively blurring the line between reality and fantasy. The novel was filled with impossible events, such as a woman who ascends to heaven. While the theme of magical realism still feels abstract and sometimes daunting, the use of magical realism made this novel more accessible and enjoyable, and it also made it more profound. For me, it was a way to explore the larger\u2014and perhaps \u2018heavier\u2019\u2014themes of the novel, such as the nature of time (e.g., everything comes to an end) and the mutual relationship between a civilization and its environment. While \u2018magical\u2019 imagery like Remedios the Beauty\u2019s flight to heaven gave the book a more fantasy-like feeling, the book also balanced this playfulness with a philosophical point\u2014as reflected in a quote that resonated with me, \u201cthe secret of a good old age is simply an honorable pact with solitude\u201d (216). This constant negotiation and renegotiation between fantasy and reality was at first confusing, but going back to the book, this is what truly made this book a masterpiece. In this sense I totally agreed with Professor Gerald Martin when he stated\u2014in the conversation video\u2014he \u201cdidn\u2019t know what to say about the book\u201d (3:28). The book was certainly a master of play<\/strong>, \u201cplaying with time\u201d as described by Professor Beasley-Murray and \u201cplaying with the fact that we\u2019re reading the book[,]\u201d as Professor Martin had put it (9:10; 10:00).<\/p>\n

Question:<\/strong> Who was your favourite character from the book, and why? Please specify as there are a lot of repetitive names.<\/p>\n

Lastly, I would like to end by reflecting on solitude. Apart from the earlier direct quotation, one other quote touched upon solitude: \u201cHe [Melquiades] really had been through death, but he had returned because he could not bear the solitude\u201d (53). Growing up as an only child, I thought I understood what solitude meant. However, at the same time, I still don\u2019t understand what it is and how to properly cope with it.<\/p>\n

Question:<\/strong> What does solitude mean to you? For you, is solitude good or bad, pleasant or unpleasant?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Extending from last week, Gabriel Garcia Marquez\u2019s One Hundred Years of Solitude was a fabulous read that brilliantly sewed together fantasy, abstraction, philosophy, and reality. Engaging in the latter half of the book, what stood out to me most was the cyclical nature of time and the inherent connection between people (civilization) and their environment. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89812,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[11,8,58,40,6,52,53,57,54,28,42,55,9],"class_list":["post-21","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-garcia-marquez","tag-abstraction","tag-context","tag-destiny","tag-existence","tag-literature","tag-magical-realism","tag-novelty","tag-order","tag-pattern","tag-perspective","tag-play","tag-repetition","tag-temporality"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/span312blogdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/span312blogdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/span312blogdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/span312blogdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89812"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/span312blogdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/span312blogdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/span312blogdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions\/23"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/span312blogdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/span312blogdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/span312blogdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}