Category: span365

Although I have noticed some of the other bloggers in this course were surprised that a reading so different from the Magical realism genre included in the class, however I think that it was very important to read a work that reflects a broader and more inclusive type of Latin American litterarure. It would not be fair to stop at a certain time period and style and say this fully represents Latin American litterature, and I think that this is what the authors of McOndo have tried to voice. Most other styles of litterature from Latin America seem to have been overshadowed by Magical Realism and Garcia Marquez, causing an expectation for the Latin American author to produce works centering around magical realism.  This is why these authors, although they definitely respect GGM,  are trying to break away from this almost stereotypical genre. This breaking away is crucial to their careers as authors not because in order to write freely they must not be limited to a certain genra and constrained by its rules, which is furthermore slightly outdated for today’s modern world. Such a contraint would limit the authors’ creativity and imagination, and also not accurately reflect the modern points of view that the authors may have. A story, as we have seen, can be viewed very differently depending on the cultural background of the story-teller, therefore it would be unfair for all modern novels to onyl reflect a single, magical viewpoint of stories.

I thought that the title was very interesting, as the writers are trying to contrast with the classical (Macondo within the novel Cien Anos de Soledad), and showing the reader that there is more to Latin America than that. Since they demonstrate that Latin America is more similar to America in the present than the older genre of Magical Realism shows , the authors show that technology and the modern brands and problems of the american world are just as present in Latin America. I wondered wheather McOndo is supposed to have a connection to the brand name McDonalds at the same time in a play on the word Macondo in order to demonstrate the modernization of Latin American litterature. This use of Macondo and McOndo reflects a vast change in culture from the time when a very magically-oriented village of Macondo to the current world-wide cultural phenomenon of Mcdonalds. This world-wide aspect of Mcdonals is very interesting in this concept because Latin america used to be distinct from the world by its very distinct litterary genra of magical realism, just as the town of Macondo was alienated by from the rest of the world. The current McOndo title represents the drift of Latin American litterature and culture towards the more unified global modern-day culture in which the same technologies and brands appear allover the world. McOndo therefore represents the new modern Latin America that resembles the rest of the world, much like the Mcdonalds brand is present (in relatively identical form) allover the world: lLatin American Litterature is evolving with modernization and can relate to the experiences of everyone else in the world, not only to the traditional experiences of Magical Realism.

I very much enjoyed the format of the course, especially the Wikipedia project. I had no idea that it was so easy to edit an article on wikipedia and I am certainly glad that I have become more aware of how a tool that we use nearly everyday to look things up is formed. I will not hesitate in the future to edit an article if  I come across one that is missing information or not well referenced if it is within the range of my studies or interests. I have enjoyed becoming a more active member of wikipedia and communicating with other members of the community, especially the person who was in charge of helping our group get acquainted with wikipedia (EyeSerene) – who I thank for his or her help. I did not know that it was possible to communicate with others through wikipedia and that each page had so many different hidden facets (such as history and discussion pages), hence I feel that my experience with this tool has definitely changed and that I can get more out of it in the future, by asking questions for example.

One other part of the course that  enjoyed was the chronological order of the works which enabled me to see how the Latin American identity was changing throughout the years, from the very magically-oriented Leyendas de Guatemala to the very realist McOndo.

Overall, I had a very pleasant experience, although taking 5 courses, 4 of which in Spanish Litterature, has definitely strained my reading-time. I enjoyed sharing many classes with the same awesome  group of people, which i find is a pleasant touch of thespanish department, since classes are small and personal. I would like to thank my group members in particular for their fantastic work and research and excellent co-operation. To the many of you who are graduating this year,  I extend a great ig congradulations!!! I wish all of you a fantastic summer, and as I will be returning to UBC for graduate school in counselling psychology next year, I can also say see you around to those who are comming back in the fall.

Take care everyone!
~ Svetlana

I very much enjoyed the format of the course, especially the Wikipedia project. I had no idea that it was so easy to edit an article on wikipedia and I am certainly glad that I have become more aware of how a tool that we use nearly everyday to look things up is formed. I will not hesitate in the future to edit an article if  I come across one that is missing information or not well referenced if it is within the range of my studies or interests. I have enjoyed becoming a more active member of wikipedia and communicating with other members of the community, especially the person who was in charge of helping our group get acquainted with wikipedia (EyeSerene) – who I thank for his or her help. I did not know that it was possible to communicate with others through wikipedia and that each page had so many different hidden facets (such as history and discussion pages), hence I feel that my experience with this tool has definitely changed and that I can get more out of it in the future, by asking questions for example.

One other part of the course that  enjoyed was the chronological order of the works which enabled me to see how the Latin American identity was changing throughout the years, from the very magically-oriented Leyendas de Guatemala to the very realist McOndo.

Overall, I had a very pleasant experience, although taking 5 courses, 4 of which in Spanish Litterature, has definitely strained my reading-time. I enjoyed sharing many classes with the same awesome  group of people, which i find is a pleasant touch of thespanish department, since classes are small and personal. I would like to thank my group members in particular for their fantastic work and research and excellent co-operation. To the many of you who are graduating this year,  I extend a great ig congradulations!!! I wish all of you a fantastic summer, and as I will be returning to UBC for graduate school in counselling psychology next year, I can also say see you around to those who are comming back in the fall.

Take care everyone!
~ Svetlana

First of all I have  found that it was very interesting to experience the theme of identity in vary different ways throughout the books.
 
In El Reino de Este Mundo, for example, we have seen how Haitians have had to form a sense of national identity. At the beggining of hte novel, their identity was a mixture of the remains of their chilhood culture and of the identity imposed upon them by "los amos". Over the course of the book, everything from the economic order of the country to national identity had to be reformed, therefore it was interesting to ‘witness’ the formation of a national identity.

In Cien Anos de Soledad, however, we have seen how a town has lost, in a sense, its common identity. At the start of the novel, the town is united and comes together for example to watch the gypseies bring in fogeign artifacts (technologies); the excitment that is felt around these ‘showings’ as well as the sense of community within the town give it "spirit" in a sense. The town is full of magical beliefs which give it a sense of unique cultural identity and separates it – in a good way – from the rest of the world. Over the course of the novel we see how this good separation turns into alienation and solitude as technologies from the outside world begin to enter the town and the sense of magic, as well as the sense of community in the town dissipates and Macondo loses its "spirit".  In this case, the book does not take us through the creation of an identity as it does in El Reino de este Mundo but rather through the destruction of an identity.

In Leyendas de Guatemala, the sense of identity also appears. The theme of identity int his novel revolves around the meeting of two identities, especially in the Leyenda del Sombreron, for example. The anecdote in which the ball enters the religious world from the outside world can serve to symbolize the fact that once two identities are living together there is no way that they will not affect eachother, (eventually becoming intertwined) therefore overall the sense of identity in this novel can be expressed as the combination of two identities into a new, common one.

The theme of death becomes quite apparent in this last section of the book as the Colonel Aureliano Buendia and Amaranta both pass away. These events seem to change the overall tone of the book as Macondo plunges into further darkness as sadness and solitude deeply affects each of its residents.

I thought it was very interesting that there may be a slight symbolic relation between Aramanta’s death and the loss of ‘innocence’ of the town of Macondo. Aramants dies with her chastity, and as her attribute of innocence dies with her, so does the town’s it seems. The people and the town lose their innocence through the increased appearance and acceptance of foreign technology that used to be strage to them. With the arrival of technology, their imagination and the concept of magical realism seems to fade. It is almost as though the arrival of technology makes the town loose a little of its spirit that it held through its ‘magical’ culture, and hence loose even more hope. the town is no longer so isolated and unique, and neither is its culture.

This loss of spirit or magical culture is also seen through the progrssion of Aureliano Buendia’s character, who in his youthwas the most imaginative character in the story who cared for feelings, whereas towards the end of the story he is detached from everyone else. I also found it interesting that although the characters become cold and distant there are relationships mentioned in this last section. I think that what differentiates these relationships from real closeness is the fact that they are mainly physical and do not serve for the most part for characters to be able to share and explore their feelings, hence no real closeness is established, and the feeling of emotional distance despite physical closeness is emphasized.

Over the course of this book, I am finding very much repetition in terms of actions but more pronouncedly in terms of the Character’s names.

The family name Buendia repeats itself so much that it is making the reading quite difficult as all the characters are not very distinctive of eachother. This seems to be a deliberate attempt by the author to create a sense of cyclical patterns within the story: the misfortunes that happen to the characters seem to follow one another and their actions seem similar and equally unable to prevent misfortunes.

The concept of the passing of time s also quite cyclical in this novel, in the sense that Macondo seems to remain stuck at a certain point in time while events outside it, such as the war, are evolving. Not only is the town difficult to get to but also it seems isolated in terms of the news it recieves. For example, its residents were unaware that there was another town nearby, and refuse much of the modernization that is going on in the outside world. The town seems to get more and more secluded over the course of the book as residents town inward into solitude in order to cope with their misfortunes.

The idea of one hundred years of time is also quite interesting. Throughout the chapters of the book, there are vary different spans of time that are covered. Some days are delved into quite deeply whereas at times it seems as though quite a few years ave been glossed over slightly or skipped overall. This makes me think that perhaps the title of the book does not refer to actual lineal time as the exact quantitative passing of years is not emphmasized, if not widely ignored in the book therefore it may relate to how slow  time may feel when one is in solitude as the characters and the town are in the book.

This book being very famous it was definitely great to finally read it.

From the start of the book, I was reading with the notion of "magical realism" in the back of my mind as it has been a central theme in the course. I was very surprised with the way this theme presented itself in the book however. What I mean by this is that real objects that are mundane to us are presented in this book as magical. Ice, for example is one of the objects that are presented. It is spoken of as if it were an artifact with many magical properties and many unknowns. This seems odd because in the priod readings that which was presented as magical usually consisted of things that were foreign to the europeans. For example, in the Kingdom of tis World, the perspective through which the slaves see Mackandall’s fall into the fire as a flight  reflects a point of view that isunknown to the europeans. This perspective introduces the europeans to the point that there are other views out there than their own, and that even though they may not see these alternate views as correct, these alternate views do influence the thoughts and behaivours of those who believe them to the same degree as ‘reality’ would for the europeans. In this book, the reader is aware of what the object is however the characters are not. Therefore there is also a play on the different points of view int his novel. There is also some variance as to whom is correct and which view of reality will be taken as "true".
 

What the hell is this? I thought this was a course devoted to magical realism, the so-called “definitive” form of the Latin American novel. Clearly I was mistaken, as McOndo forgot the magical part of the order. It’s ok though, the literary chow is still satisfying, I won’t yell at them for airballing my order.

McOndo’s flavour is distinctly realist, there’s no doubt about that. It’s not hard to picture yourself actually experiencing the events and situations presented in the novel. Really, the stories told in McOndo could happen to anyone, anywhere and there’s absolutely no sense of disconnect, or difference between Latin American and North American society. Do I like that fact? Sort of.

I understand that McOndo is a movement that was born as a somewhat “frustrated” response to the type casting of Latin American authors after the Boom. The idea of being pigeon holed into a certain genre or writing style simply based on your geographic heritage is absolutely absurd. Latin America is a fascinating place with a rich cultural heritage. The rise of magical realism helped to illustrate that fact and bolster interest in Latin America, its countries and its cultures. However, magical realism is exactly that, it’s a magical morphing of reality, a way of exoticizing the reality of life in Latin America. In that sense, magical realism created a strong sense of disconnect for readers, and created an unrealistic image of Latin America. In the end, I feel as though the works collected in McOndo close the gap that was created by the rise of magical realism and illustrates that the vast majority of societal issues shared by every person in the world. As such, in terms of societal issues, there is no significant disconnect between Latin America, and the rest of the world (North Korean might be an exception).

That being said, however, I didn’t particularly enjoy McOndo after spending an entire term being tantalized by magical realism. As I read, I constantly felt like I was being cheated, like something was missing. There just wasn’t enough magic in my relationship with McOndo for me to form the save kind of love affair I did with Cien años or El reino. I want a divorce.

Well, what a nice little twist of serendipity. I was almost certain that I should simply chalk the blog posts I failed to finish as missed opportunities. Thankfully, I now have the chance to give a piece of my mind some literature once again.

I’d be lying if I said my memory of the 3rd chunk of Cien años was perfect. The reality is, it feels like an eternity has passed since I read that section. However, now that I’ve had time to sit back and reflect on the book for a while, I get the unique opportunity to make some commentary on the third section of the book, and how I feel it ties into the overall scheme of the novel.

I could choose to focus on providing my thoughts and analysis of numerous distinct parts of the third reading, but I think it’s a more useful exercise to provide some of my personal commentary and insight on one component of reading that struck me as being particularly interesting. It is a well established fact that one of the most important components of Cien años is its cast of characters. The characters are integral to Cien años success as a novel, and their interweaving stories are the threads that weave the fabric of the novel. With that being said, I found that one character in particular was of interest in the third section of the novel — Ursula. Urusula is the matriarch of the Buendía family, and in many ways, is the glue that seems to keep the family from falling apart. She is selfless, and always puts the interests of the family members ahead of her own; she is also very solitary. When skimming through the third section of the novel again, I noticed a made a note on one of the pages that I found particularly interesting. Ursula is getting very old and going blind, and feels very lonely due to the “changes” that have taken place in the Buendia household. The note I made on on the page simply says “Ursula is 100 years of solitude.” The solitary and lonely lifetime that she has spent as a member of the Buendia family is the personification of the book’s title. Although Ursula is important in this respect, she is also symbolic of the passing of time, and it’s somewhat cyclical nature at times — one of the important pieces of commentary that I feel GGM tried to portray in his novel. I’m not going to pretend that this observation is some sort of profound realization that has never occurred to other readers of the novel.

Anyway, I’m going to stop rambling for now.

Reflexiones respecto al curso… creo que la mayor parte ya fue dicha en las últimas dos entradas de ese estilo, luego me enfocaré en McOndo.

Me gustaría haber leído un poco más de ese libro. Sin embargo, también me gustaría tener más tiempo, visto que todas las lecturas hasta ahora fueron difíciles de hacer en tiempo. Por lo menos tengo una copia del libro que puedo leer durante las vacaciones.

Comenté eso en algunos de los blogs: hay algo de McOndo que no me gusta. Empecemos con lo que me gusta: es un gesto de separación de una identidad que ya no tiene mucho que ver con la realidad de Latinoamérica. Es un gesto en contra de los falsos imitadores como Laura Esquivel e Isabel Allende, que se aprovechan del éxito del género con trabajos de baja calidad.

Ahora lo que no me gusta: sí, los cuentos son buenos, pero no son excepcionales. El realismo mágico fue interesante desde el principio, fue original, fue bueno. Sin embargo, en lo que yo leí de McOndo hasta ahora no hay nada de super original: son cuentos buenos que juegan con el metalenguaje y presentan una realidad brutal… pero ya vimos ambas cosas en otros contextos: otros países, otros escritores, otras épocas.

Todo dependerá de la propuesta del movimiento: ¿la idea es crear una nueva identidad o simplemente huir de la creada? ¿Quieren establecer un nuevo género o solo decir que existen otros géneros? Si lo que plantean Fuguet y Gómez es simplemente huir de lo existente, el movimiento se puede decir exitoso aunque poco ambicioso; sin embargo, si lo que anhelan es crear una identidad más relevante a los tiempos modernos y con ello establecer un género propio, entonces diría que todavía falta mucho.

Por supuesto, lo que leímos es el primer intento, luego uno no puedo esperar mucho. No obstante, la ambición se tiene que ver desde el primer momento. Para crear un nuevo género, los autores tendrán que hacer algo de verdaderamente original, tendrán que crear algo jamás visto. Rechazar algo es muy fácil, muy sencillo… sin embargo, rechazar algo, proponer otra cosa para sustituirlo y convencer a todos que el sucedáneo es mejor es una tarea muchísimo más compleja.