Week thirteen- Conclusion

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And just like that, the term is over! Looking back at my opening post, I am glad to say that I thoroughly enjoyed taking this course as it has taught me so much more than I thought I would have learned from a “literature requirement” course. To go further into this, this course has blown away all my original expectations of “a literature requirement” and allowed me to really engage with all the material presented in a way that I never had before. The class has taught me how to think deeper about the literature I am presented with, as I didn’t fear judgment for sharing my thoughts with the class throughout the weeks. Additionally, viewing the texts through a playful lens/through the eyes of a game has shown me that reading literature isn’t all that boring after all haha. This course has truly been a pleasure to be a part of and I have gladly recommended it to all of my friends.

Out of all the books I read this term, I would have to say that my favourite story was “Cartucho” by Nellie Campobello. This story was one of the very first we read and it really drew me in and started to play with the idea of viewing history from the stories that don’t generally get told while also allowing me to research a historical event that I didn’t know much about before the course. The graphical and detailed description within every vignette as well as the interesting perspective of very the first-hand experiences of the Revolution through the eyes of a child has stuck with me throughout the course and got me very excited for the weeks to come.

And so to end this post, I would like to reflect on the beginning prompt of “What is Latin American literature”. At the beginning of the class, I had no knowledge whatsoever about what these stories would bring or what was meant by “Latin American literature”. However, now I believe that Latin American literature challenges the ‘traditional’ ways of writing literature, viewing stories from the perspective of those whose stories don’t get told or embarking on an adventure where the ending may not be as satisfying as you were hoping/expecting. They play with ideas and concepts that have not been touched by others, creating a new game for their readers to engage in.

I have really enjoyed this course and getting to hear all of your fantastic opinions and observations on the texts provided and would love to continue reading stories to deepen my understanding of Latin American literature even further. So for my final discussion question, I would love to hear about what are some other Latin American literature that we didn’t read in this course that you would recommend (if you know of any good ones). Thank you so much for the awesome course!

Week thirteen- The Taiga Syndrome

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For the final book of the term, I read “The Taiga Syndrome” by Cristina Rivera Garza. While it was the last book, it did not disappoint and is definitely up there on my list of favourite stories we read this term. I was originally intrigued by this book for its description as a detective story and a “fairy tale run amok”, but was immediately drawn in by the unique plot and approach the story took that I was not at all expecting. To elaborate, one of my favourite genres of books is mystery, so when the plot began with a simple missing person case I was excited to see where the story would take the narrator and what journey she would embark on, ultimately thinking she would solve the case and bring back good news (like most mystery stories). However, the complexity of her adventure of finding the missing second wife of the man who hired the ex-detective made me rethink how mystery stories are traditionally told and made me fall in love with the feverish imagination it illuminated.

One thing that I did note in this story that has been discussed in many of the other stories we read this term is that we don’t ever get to know the narrator’s name. In fact, we never get the names of any of the characters discussed in this story, despite them being quite central to the story. This made me reflect on some of the reasons we mentioned in previous weeks as to why this might be the case, such as to hide or distance their personal identity from the reader. Furthermore, I remembered our previous discussions about the reliability of the narrator in certain stories, such as “Distant Star” or “I, Rigoberta Menchu”, and began to think about how reliable the narrator of “The Taiga Syndrome” may be. After much reflection, there are a couple of reasons why I don’t believe the narrator to be the most reliable (though this is sometimes hard to account for given that it is a fictional book). As mentioned early in the story, the ex-detective has had many failures in her past cases, while also living a life now as a discrete writer of noir novellas in which “all the cases I was unable to solve, had helped me to tell stories.” In this same chapter, she also openly admits that her stories reflect cases that she has worked on “but [she] wrote them differently” to show “how they still vibrate, right now, in the imagination”. With this in mind, how do we know what details are true to the case and what are elements that “vibrate in the imagination”?

I would love to hear more ideas and thoughts about this from others, so for this week’s discussion question, I want to ask you all: how reliable do you think the narrator in this story is?

Week twelve- Papi

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This week we read “Papi” by Indiana. I really enjoyed this story and found the full storyline and approach to the book really interesting. More specifically, one aspect of the story that I found was really well depicted in this story was the approach of using a child narrator. I interact with a lot of young children at my work on a daily basis, so I have picked up on a few things on the way that they express themselves and the nature of their speech. Given that the story is told through a child’s eyes, there were a lot of little things I appreciated that illuminated the age of the narrator to the readers. For example, there are multiple times in which the narrator states an extensive list of things, repeating certain ideas to place a higher emphasis, such as the following quote on page 22:

“Now he’s got boneless skinless chicken breasts, whole boneless beef, mi nenes, Nintendos, try-on socks, taekwondo classes, cashew nuts, semaphores, hotel-style turkey breast, boneless-beef shoulder roast, center-cut bone-in smoked ham steak, domesticated tarantulas in terrariums, Ledbetter boneless-beef bacon-wrapped tenderloin filets, Japanese lanterns made from Tibetan parchment paper,  all-purpose white potatoes, women, all-purpose yellow onions, women, campbell’s tomato soup, chicken noodle, women, great bean-onion alphabet soup.”

From the point of view of an adult, they probably would of stopped after listing 2-3 items, however, if you ever had a conversation with an 8-year-old before, they don’t generally know where to stop and will give details that may not be necessary. However, I felt that in this story these minor details makes the story that much more impactful as we can clearly go into the mind of the narrator’s rather than viewing her story from an outside perspective.

Additionally, I think the author perfectly displayed the conflict that many children have (although to a much lesser extreme than what the narrator of this story experienced) of having such distaste toward someone while also admiring them and having the tendency to always go back to that thing or person. Looking at this dynamic from a child development perspective and reflecting on the question from the lecture, the narrator’s admiration for her father despite his not-so-amazing presence in her life reminds me of something one of my professors said when we were discussing attachment. In our discussion, my professor noted that a child needs an adult figure (which is generally the parents) to survive, so kids will attach quite closely to their parental figures and think super highly of them even if they are not a great role model. I believe the way my prof put it was (from the child’s perspective) “I want to think these really good things about you because I NEED you to be this consistent figure in my life”. To bring this point back to the book, I think that part of the narrator’s fixation and admiration for her father comes from her desire to have a consistent father figure within her life and the fact that she has created this strong attachment to him even though this feeling may not be reciprocal from the part of the father.

I think it was cool to apply my knowledge from my other classes to this book and would love to hear more from you all about this topic. My question to the class this week is: How do you think attachment played a part in the narrator’s and papi’s dynamic? Where do you think Mami played within the narrator’s attachment style as well?

Week eleven- Distant Star

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In this week’s reading, I decided to read “Distant Star” by Roberto Bolano. If I am going to be completely honest, this story did not connect with me as much as the other stories we have read this term. It wasn’t that the story was unenjoyable or not interesting, but I found myself struggling to finish the story as it was a little confusing to me and didn’t have the same impact as the recent books we’ve such as The Hour of the Star or 100 Years of Solitude. It’s possible that part of this is due to the fact that we are nearing the end of the term and I now have a large inventory of Latin American stories to compare the book to, however, I thought I would share my honest opinions of the book to start. 

One thing that I did find interesting is that this story follows a theme I have seen in multiple stories we have read throughout the term in which the narrator or author plays with the timeline in a way that is different from what we may see in so-called “traditional writing”. To elaborate, “Distant Star” takes a unique approach to its time sequence as we are aware that the events in this story, including the very end, have already occurred when the narrator starts the story, as we see little remarks and comments from the author’s present point of view throughout the story. 

Additionally, another theme that I have also noticed in different stories we have read this term (more specifically, “The Hour of the Star”) and is significantly highlighted in this story is the way in which the author plays with the perspective of the story. As I mentioned before, the narrator seems to be looking back on the event and the story of Carlos Wieder through his own memory of him (with the addition of information from his friends incorporate throughout). In this sense using an anonymous writer to tell the story from “many years later”, allows the author to create some distance from the events and provide a clear and full picture of the events that occurred while also illuminating the emotions that were present by someone who was here.

Growing on this idea, I would love to hear more of your thoughts about the perspective and time approach this story took. How else might this story have changed if we had looked at the narrator’s account while it was occurring? Or how do you think we would of view the themes throughout the story if it was written from the perspective of Carlos Wieder/Albert Ruiz-Tagle instead?

Week Ten- I, Rigoberta Menchu

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This week we read “I, Rigoberta Menchu” by Rigoberta Menchu. I found this story to be very impactful and will definitely be one I remember for a long time. I think this book was a very important read for me to deepen my knowledge of the experience of Indigenous peoples (especially the Indigenous groups in Guatemala, which I had never learned about before reading this book) because I recognize that most of what I have learned about Indigenous rights and history have been through western literature and textbooks, where my teachers would provide a brief overview of the topic. However, reading the individual account of Rigoberta Menchu, someone who has first-hand experienced the discrimination and horrors of what many Indigenous peoples in Guatemala have to endure was really impactful for me as she did not seem to shy away from the most horrific details. While this story was really eye-opening for me to learn about the terrible treatment of Rigoberta Menchu and her group by the Guatemalan government, there were also a lot of interesting details for me as she shared about certain customs and traditions of the Quiche people, such as the Nahual protective spirit that each person has with them throughout life or their birth ceremonies indicating that the birth of a new child belongs not only to the parents but the community. With my interest and little background in developmental psychology, this was really interesting to me as I have only viewed such early life events through a Western lens and I loved to learn more about the traditions within different cultures and groups. With this all being said, it was heartbreaking to me to learn how many of the Quiche children are lost to malnutrition, as Rigoberta said after her younger brother’s death, “I was both angry with life and afraid of it, because I told myself: ‘This is the life I will lead too; having many children, and having them die.’ It’s not easy for a mother to watch her child die, and have nothing to cure him with or help his life” (page 41).

As mentioned earlier, the individual account of Indigenous history or experiences I have found is generally not accounted for when it is taught in school settings, especially in the later years of high school. However, this has been my experience and personally would have found it beneficial to read more books or resources like “I, Rigoberta Menchu” to grow my perspective and learn about the important and somewhat hidden topics of history. For my discussion question this week, I would love to hear if others have had a similar experience to me when it comes to learning about Indigenous rights and history. What do you think the importance is of having read ‘testimonios’ or first-hand accounts of indigenous peoples’ experiences? Do you think more books like this one should be implemented into the school curriculum? Why or why not? I would love to hear some of your thoughts on this topic!

Week nine- The Hour of the Star

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This week I read “the Hour of the Star” by Clarice Lispector. This was an interesting read to say the least however I actually quite enjoyed the story and its unique writing style. I was excited to read this story because I saw it recommended in a video once, however, I was not prepared for the double story about “the girl from the North-East” and the narrator as it was only really explained to be a story about poverty. I will admit there were times (especially at the beginning) at which I was pretty confused and frustrated with the writing, wanting the narrator to get on with telling the story about Macabea, however, I kept reading as I found the approach interesting and started to become invested in both the girl and the narrator’s story. I felt as though the narrator’s input made the story seem as though we were reading the thoughts of the reader in a way, as we tend to put a reflection of our own lives or opinions of others into every story we read. This can be even further reflected in our daily lives, looking at how we may judge a person much by how they present themselves on the outside, much like how the narrator started the story only by describing the outer appearance and traits of the girl (e.g. “No one paid any attention to her on the street, for she was as appetizing as cold coffee”).

One theme that I found very interesting in this story was the theme of poverty. More specifically, I found it really important how they made the distinction between the narrator (Rodrigo) and Macabea. While Rodrigo is shown coming from a place of higher privilege, it is very clear that Macabea does not have much nor does she know about many things as “not knowing became an important factor of her life”. Despite this, Macabea seems to be content and happy with the little things, or the things that many others would take for granted. For example, commercials on the radio or television may be something that we don’t look forward to seeing (unless it’s the Super Bowl) and probably wouldn’t think twice about skipping. However Macabea “adored commercials” as it was a way to learn new things. There are multiple examples of this within the story, as it shows how Macabea is not needing or want anything to “endow her in a state of grace.” 

This idea of poverty and social classes in the story leads me to my discussion question for this week: How do we see the different social classes represented in this story? What details seem to be associated with one’s socioeconomic status? What scenes in the story do you think best illuminate the theme of poverty/the differentiation between Macabea’s social class and Rodrigo’s?

Week eight- One Hundred Years of Solitude (part two)

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This week was our second and final week reading 100 years of solitude and the second half did not disappoint! This book is filled with so many twists and turns that kept me on my feet throughout the entire book. I absolutely loved reading this book, however, I found the most difficult part while reading was not necessarily the number of characters with the same names (although that was quite confusing) but rather remembering the details of all the events that occurred within the book as there was so much going on at times! Nonetheless, while it wasn’t always the easiest book to follow, the chaos that endured throughout had a profound impact on me, as it made me think and reflect on themes such as fate, lust, repetition, and time. 

After watching the lecture video for this week, I was interested in looking further into how One Hundred Years of Solitude reflects real-life events, so for this week’s discussion I looked into its parallels between Latin American history and the fictional story of Macondo. While there are multiple points in the story that parallels with real-life events, the one that stuck out to me the most was the mirroring of the Banana Massacre of 1928. Similar o the event in the book, in 1928 the Columbian military had opened fire and killed a large number of plantation workers who were on strike and protesting for better working conditions. It was really interesting to me that Garcia Marquez decided to use the exact details of the historical event in the book, making it very obvious that this story is not completely fictional, but rather it lies in some truth or reality despite its magical elements. After further research, I found that the Banana Massacre had occurred a year after Garcia Marquez was born, suggesting that he has no recollection of this event as he was a baby. This fact made me wonder about the significance of the events he chose to represent in One Hundred Years of Solitude and how each one may enhance the themes of the story. If you have any thoughts on this, please comment them below!

Overall, I found the way in which this book was written to be very powerful, as it creates a perfect mix of magical elements with real-life themes that can be related to historical events. In my little research and knowledge of the impact of this story globally, however, I wondered whether we may see such themes/events in the book present in more current events or even maybe in our own lives. Because of this, my question for this week is how do you think the themes of “100 Years of Solitude” relate to our world today? What might this say about the society we built?

Week seven- One Hundred Years of Solitude (part one)

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This week we focused on the first part of “One Hundred Years of Solitude” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I have to be honest, out of all the stories we are reading this term, I was most excited for this one due many positive reviews from my friends and so far it has not disappointed me. In regards to the question posed in the lecture video, I would agree that reading the story can be frustrating and confusing at times, as there were many times in which I had to pause while reading to fully comprehend what was going on and with which characters (due to their similar names) however I found that I was still enjoying the story as new twist and turns arose throughout the first half. Personally, I feel that the ‘game of confusion’ that plays out in the book adds a powerful effect on the end of the reader, making themes such as the circularity of time more noticeable. An example of this can be exhibited on page 45/46 during which the repetition of the phrase “the narrator asked if they wanted him to tell them the story of the capon, and when they answered, the narrator would say that he had not asked them to say yes, but whether they wanted him to tell them the story…” allows the reader to really comprehend how severely the illness has impacted the people of Macondo who were affected. While many writers may of choose to describe this feeling more concisely as to not confuse the readers, the decision to repeat the phrase for a whole paragraph added a profound impact which signified the repetitive function of the plague of insomnia. In a way, this decision seems to mirror the stream of consciousness of ‘the narrator’, allowing the reader to gain a deeper sense and connect with the members suffering from the illness. While at first this section confused me a bit, I realized as a reader that part of the reason why the story was so intriguing was that you weren’t always clear as to what was happening and are in a way connected to the members of the Buendia family.

  In the novel, we also see the theme of love throughout the book, and its confusing role both within and outside of the Buendia family. The story continually demonstrates an entanglement of love and lust, with many relationships demonstrating complicated dynamics and tension between characters (e.g. Jose Arcadio’s love affair with Pilar Ternera resulting in a pregnancy and the subsequent departure of Jose Arcardio with another woman). While this has been an interesting theme I have identified to be a cause of tension within many of the characters, I would love to hear the thoughts from others about how the ideas of love complicate and intertwine with the troubles of the Buendia family. Because of this, my discussion question for this week is: What do you believe the role of love plays within the novel so far? How do these complicated feelings affect the decisions and consequences of the characters?

Week six- The Kingdom of This World

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In this week’s reading, I read “The Kingdom of This World” by Alejo Carpentier. I quite enjoyed reading this story as I found the imagery to be quite powerful throughout the book, evoking strong emotions in me as the reader. This imagery was shown to be strong from the very beginning, with Ti Noel detailing about the wax heads, “the curls of the wigs, opening into a pool of ringlets on the red baize, framed expressionless faces. Those heads seemed as real—although their fixed stare was so dead—as the talking head” (page 8).

As mentioned last week, this story delves into the world of magic realism. Coming into this course I had not read or known much about this topic and I found that this book was a great introduction to magic realism within Latin American literature for me. One thing that I found I found interesting in relation to this theme was how one’s perspective and belief played a role in how the ‘magic’ was presented. To elaborate, we see that Ti Noel is a character who believes in the practices of Voodoo, which allows him to experience the magic that plays out within the story, as well as view certain events from a different perspective, such as when Macandal is captured and burned the slaves “returned to their plantations laughing all the way” as they believed that he was saved by the African Gods. On the other hand, when Henri-Christophe begins his reign and adopts Christianity rather than voodoo, we see that the ‘magic’ and the others turn against him, as he loses his power and finds himself alone with no support. All in all, I found this to be a really intriguing part of the story.

The Kingdom of This World ends with a powerful scene where Ti Noel gains the power to transform into any animal he desires, as shown through his transformation into a bird, stallion, wasp, and an ant. However, his experience with transforming into a goose (in which he is stunned by the group of other geese) allows him to a revelation about the weight of his responsibility in “this kingdom of this world”. While this ending was very impactful to me, it made me wonder why Alejo Carpentier decided to use those specific animals in describing Ti Noel’s metamorphosis as I would have never thought of a pact of geese to be an animal that would be so significant to the ending scene. Because of that, my discussion question for this week is: Why do you think the author chose to illuminate Ti noel’s ending transformation using the pact of geese? Do you think there is a deeper significance to the geese that helps guide Ti Noel to his revelation or do you believe there would be another animal that could have had the same effect on Ti Noel? I would love to hear all of your thoughts!

Week five- Labyrinths

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This week we read “Labyrinths”, a collection of stories written by Jorge Luis Borge. Personally, I quite enjoyed these stories as they had a profound impact on me and really made me reflect and think about the realities we create within our world.  One story that stood out to me was The Library of Babel. I had heard of this story before starting this class however I had never read it before, so I was very intrigued to read it. When reading the story, I found it fascinating to see how the Borges tells the story in a way which amplifies the librarians’ need to desperately find meaning in the apparently “meaningless” pieces of writing. The story really made me reflect on how the society we have created values the need to understand how and why everything in the world is the way it is, despite this being an impossible milestone to accomplish due to the almost infinite amount of things to comprehend.

Another story I found especially interesting was Borge and I which I found to be a short but powerful concept. The story brings up the theme of detachment from one’s true self as a result of a powerful persona that is seen by most of the world. While this may be a silly connection, after reading this story I sat and thought about the disconnect from ones self in the eyes of the public and couldn’t help but relate it to one of my favourite shows growing up, Hannah Montana. To provide a short summary, the series follows Miley, a regular teenage girl who lives a double life with her secret superstar persona, Hannah Montana. As this was something I watched as a kid, I never really thought much about the conflict between her true self and the persona she showed to the world, however after reading “Borge and I”, I was able to think deeper into this presentation of oneself to others and whether it is true to who you really are. While this is a fun distinction, I believe it shows the powerful impact of Borge’s writing as it allowed me to reflect on the complicated feelings of self within the world around me, showing that his thoughts and concepts are still relevant (and will be relevant for a long time) even many years later. 

For my discussion question this week, I would love to hear more about all of your thoughts on how Borge’s writing connects to the world we live in today and the important themes that he proposes within his stories. Were there any stories that made you stop and reflect on how it may be relevant within your own life or feelings about the world we create? Can you make any personal connections to his writings that made you look at the memory or information in a different light?