Apr
5
McOndo: Post 13
Posted by: | April 5, 2010 | Comments Off on McOndo: Post 13
I like the motive behind this McOndo. As I said in my other blogs, the issue with the other authors is that they write to revitalize Latin America but in doing so exoticize Latin America, therefore writing it for a European audience. I like that in this book, the authors tell story of people that could be living in any country to show that the people of Latin America are no different. For this reason, the stories in this book are very relatable. They deal with emotions and real life. In this book, like CAS, there is an emphasis on sex ,but it real-life sex, not a twisted, incestual sex. Unlike magic realism, McOndo is not about the fantastical.
Because the book is concentrated on the ordinary, it sort of reminded me of “lo real maravilloso” from el Reino de Este Mundo, because it emphasizes that what is real is fantastic but does need to incorporate fantastical, unreal elements. It is like how they say in the introduction, “En nuestro McOndo, tal como en Macondo, todo puede pasar, claro que en el nuestro cuando la gente vuela es porque anda en avíon o están muy drogados.” The unthinkable is possible here but only throughreal portals. I wonder what their opinions of Carpentiers writing would be, they make it clear that Marquez and such authors commercialize Latin America, but what about Carpentier?
“Gritos and Susirros’ is a good example of the other stories in the book. The story tries to depict a very real, in the moment sense by using a very relax tone, and slang language, like ‘joder.’ Most of the action is through dialogue, which makes the story progress slower and focuses on more simpler details. And the problems revolve around things that face the modern world in general, not Latin America exclusively, like sexuality, sex, conflict between men and women, and gays and lesbians.
I guess compared to all the action in CAS, the action in McOndo seems a little dull, but I like the rawness of the writing. Its hard I think for Latin American writers now, because in order to rebel against magic realism you have to completely steer away from that but then you run the risk of making your text to ‘normal.’
