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The various stories read are a lot different form the other books read. They feel more real, they deal with real life and have more basic and human themes, the most prominent of which is sex and relationships between people as well as life.

These stories being of a realistic nature seem a bit boring, but the different writing style and story telling makes up for the simplicity of the stories. The over all themes discussed in each of the stories are really of no interest to me and it was hard to pick out which random stories to read so I choose the shortest ones. There mostly about the mundane life’s of the character and there intimate encounters with various women. Travel and moving around was also a prominent issue in a few of the stories. The realism is a bit refreshing compared to the other stuff we have read in this coarse as well as the brevity of each of the stories. The stories are all human stories in that they deal with human life and there sexual nature and gives us a gimps into some latin peoples life’s.

Compared to the other books that we have read this book a lot more gritty and human, telling the life stories of each of the protagonists from different encounters all over the world with different women in He conosido a mucha gente to the traveling and preforming in La gente de latex. Each of the stories that I read are all a bit different but there major themes are sex and life.

Después de leer los textos, me di cuenta que este tipo de escritura es muy diferente que el de las obras de García Márquez, Asturias y Carpentier. Como explique en la introducción, McOndo es un país que se adelanta del reino del realismo mágico y puedo distinguir una gran diferencia entre los estilos. A causa de las edades de los autores, los temas en las historias son diferentes en relación al ambiente moderno en el cual se desarrollan. Como dice en la introducción, “ahora parece que lo mas angustiante para escribir es elegir entre Windows 95 o Macintosh.”(13) En mi opinión, en esta frase se establece un poco el tono de los cuentos.

Aunque me gustan mucho los estilos de los libros anteriores, hay algo en este estilo que me permite relacionar conmigo mismo. Obviamente, el hecho que los cuentos fueron escritos recientemente me ayuda a entender los temas un poco más profundamente. Una cosa que me intereso en los cuentos es el tema de estar perdido en la vida. Percibí el sentimiento que los protagonistas no saben completamente quienes son o donde están en sus vidas. Por ejemplo, en La verdad o las consecuencias de Albero Fuguet, Pablo está viajando pero no tiene una destinación de su viaje ni para él. Creo que esta es una reflexión no solamente de su vida sino también de las vidas en general de su generación. Dice en el cuento que Pablo, “estudio cartografía en una universidad privada que nadie conoce o respeta.”(110). Creo que eso es una representación muy importante de las personas en ese tiempo. Hay algunos elementos de la personalidad que, a causa de la sociedad, no colaboran a las cualidades de uno mismo como persona. También es expresada la misma idea en las frases, “lo único que tengo es un coche. Mi novia me dejo por mi mejor amigo y el departamento en el que vivo es alquilado,”(69) que encontramos en el cuento de Martin Rejtman Mi estado físico. En mi opinión estas frases representan algunos problemas de la sociedad moderna. En un mundo materialista como el de hoy, en donde todo gira alrededor del dinero, por lo general nos preocupa lo que la gente piensa acerca de uno mismo y cuando buscamos una pareja tenemos miedo a ser rechazados por pertenecer a diferentes status social o económico. Considero que no es lo más importante en la vida pero también reconozco que siempre está presente en la mente de la mayoría. También estas frases hacen referencia a otro tema que me pareció bastante interesante y que está presente en casi todos los cuentos que leí. Es el tema de las relaciones amorosas.

Cada cuento hace referencia a un tipo de relación amorosa. Por ejemplo, hay una ex novia, como Laura en Mi estado físico, un amor perdido como en El vértigo horizontal o también Elsa en La verdad o las consecuencias quien parece como una novia a distancia la cual no afecta en la búsqueda por otra vida del protagonista. En mi opinión los autores incluyen este tema ya que cuando uno intenta encontrarse a sí mismo, es difícil encontrar la persona con la cual queres compartir tu vida cuando ni siquiera tenes claro quien sos vos. Puede ocurrir que esa persona te de las respuestas o que te genere más preguntas. No importa cuál es el caso, lo que importa es que muchas personas son influenciadas por este tema.

Estos cuentos de McOndo me parecen relevantes, y exploran cosas que puedo entender porque son evidentes en nuestro mundo tan globalizado. Exploran problemas o asuntos que yo he experimentado en mi vida. Los cuentos que he escogido son “La Noche de una vida difícil”, “Mi estado fisico”, “Extranas costumbres orales”, “El vertigo horizontal” y “La gente de latex”. Cada uno de los cuentos refleja un asunto que esta relacionado con vivir en el mundo modernizado y globalizado.

En “La noche de una vida difícil”, refleja la vida de un rockero, o mejor dicho, un hombre que esta empezando su carrera como rockero. Un rasgo que noto inmediatamente es las referencias de símbolos o personas que representa la cultura popular. Por ejemplo, hay referencias a MTV, los Rolling Stones y los Beatles. Roberto y sus amigos en el grupo rockero no quieren cantar antiguas canciones mejicanas. Solamente quieren cantar las canciones rockeras modernas. Eso refleja la influencia de lo extranjero en Mexico, porque los grupos rockeros que Roberto y sus amigos les encantan son grupos de los Estados Unidos y de Inglaterra, por ejemplo. Sin embargo, en un sentido mas amplio, refleja como el mundo es tan globalizado hoy en dia, y que en casi cualquier pais del mundo, habra influencias de afuera.

“Mi estado fisico” enfoca en las cosas diarias, y la vida cotidiana. No se trata de cuentas fantasticas o interesantes. El protagonista nos relata como conoce a una chica, Lisa. Le conoce en el bano de un McDonald’s, algo muy cotidiano y no fantastico. Sin embargo, Lisa le dice que no ha visto su novio hace meses, después ellos iban a McDonald’s y el desaparece en el bano. Ella le vio entrar en el bano, pero el nunca salio. Es interesante porque parece como algo magico, que puede aparecer en una novela del realismo magico. Un novio que desaparece en el bano de McDonald’s. Sin embargo, en este cuento, no esta descrito en una manera magica, sino en una manera practica, que es un rasgo de McOndo, que cualquier cosa puede ocurrir, pero con una explicación logica.

Me gusta “Extranas costumbres orales” porque creo que nos presenta una refleccion importante sobre nuestra sociedad moderna. Casi todo el cuento es un dialogo entre dos personajes. Puede ser un guion por la televisión. Creo que el dialogo entre los personajes refleja como la manera de pensar ha sido influida por la rapidez y el cambio constante que ahora somos acostumbrados. Los dos personajes comparten cuentos sobre una amiga mutual, y es puro chismorreo. Sin embargo, en la mitad de sus cuentos, uno de los personajes interrumpe o anade un comentario sobre algo totalmente distinto que tiene nada que ver con el cuento. Por ejemplo, cuando el hombre esta contando su cuento sobre la amiga, la mujer interrumpe, comentando en las cortinas del departamento. Creo que el dialogo entre los dos personajes es muy parecido a los dialogos en real. Cuando hablo con mis amigos, frecuentemente empezamos a hablar en algo distinto y olvidamos el proposito de nuestro conversación!

Tambien, me gusta “La gente de Latex” porque creo que este cuento muestra como hoy en dia, gracias a la tecnología, podemos recrear la realidad. Y es con eso que la realidad cesa a ser “realidad”. No se si me he explicado muy bien, pero es que hoy podemos recrear la realidad para la televisión o el cine tan convincentemente que es difícil distinguir entre la realidad y la realidad construida o virtual. Un ejemplo es que el protagonista no sabe el nombre verdadero de la mujer que quiere. Solamente les llaman por sus nombres de personaje.

Estos cuentos me parecen bien raros. Los elegí al azar: “El vértigo horizontal,” “Sólo hablamos de la lluvia,” “He conocido a mucha gente,” “La mujer químicamente compatible,” y “Gritos y susurros.” Después de leer todos, me siento un poco confusa. No entiendo el porque de la mayoría de los cuentos. Los dos de la semana pasada me gustó porque tuvieron un tipo de “twist” o idea clave, y por esto el cuento valió la pena de leer. No sé si es porque no entiendo los dialectos latinoamericanos, o solamente no doy cuento de que está pasando, pero los cinco que elegí fueron aburridos o inútiles. En “He conocido a mucha gente,” los encuentros individuales son interesantes pero no tiene un fin bastante profundo. Parece mucho a “la mujer químicamente compatible”- hay cosas interesantes pero la última párrafo me deja confusa y decepcionado. Hay símbolos, por supuesto- los países, la idea de vivir con una mujer para siempre pero cada noche alguien distinta, pero son demasiados oscuros para que entienda lo que pudieron significar.

Entiendo bien la idea de escribir cuentos fuera de la sombra de García Márquez y realismo mágico, pero al mismo vez, hay que escribir cuentos interesantes. (Quizá no soy justa aquí- es verdad que no entendí por nada el fin de “gritos y susurros” y los fines de “la mujer químicamente compatible” y “he conocido a mucha gente” me confusan.) Pero los que entendí bastante bien son banales y no dicen nada. Por ejemplo, “el vértigo horizontal” es el cuento más común del mundo- la mujer se rompe con el hombre, el hombre se siente triste, la mujer tiene cáncer, el hombre se siente triste otra vez, el hombre se vuelve loco. punto. ¿Qué cuento es esto? No vale nada. El mismo con “Sólo hablamos de la lluvia.” Un cuento poco interesante, con sexo, y al fin nada cambia. Todos quedan tristes y solos. Tal vez esto sea lo que quieren decir los autores- que la vida es banal y estúpida y triste.

A new mode of writing. One in which a story becomes internalized, vastly personal. The story, yes, can be communicated to readers; maybe they can even empathize with it. But the feeling of collective memory, of applicability to all: that’s gone. This writing is much smaller in scope.

Amor a la Distancia is a funny little story because it’s a letter, but all at once, a diary entry and an essay too. Boliviano Edmundo Paz Soldan writes to his girlfriend (or his character does, but it appears nonfictional). For much of it, it feels like he’s writing to himself, trying out ideas that he’s formulating as he has the experiences that make him arrive at such conclusions. It’s very step by step in feel, though the ending obviously wraps it all up into a little package and kind-of laughs in your face. SMACK! That’s how we arrive at conclusions – by trial and error, by taking steps – and SMACK! again, the nature of “telling” (a thing which pervades all cultures and systems) is duplicitous. There is the appearance of the idea, the reality of the idea (which only the teller knows) and the conclusion at which the receiver of the idea arrives. This system makes for some very serious doubts pertaining to verifiability versus fictionality. When can we, as human beings, ever know what is true? Especially in intimate relationships, when so much is at stake and so many details are passed back and forth between two people, there is no sure-fire way to insure oneself against scams… We’re always vulnerable, we’re always in a state of unknowing, as the ending to Distancia surely proclaims…

Hay angustia y amargura en este texto, en que el narrador intenta explicar (a sí mismo, me parece) por qué las cosas son así, por qué algunos detalles se suelen excluir, y entonces el cuento acaba así. Por qué, siempre y sin fin. Y duele al lector porque necesitamos también saber por qué. And this questioning makes us conclude that there are expectations of us as people, as partners, because that’s the way our culture is set up. We don’t cheat. We love each other without flinching. But Soldán realizes that other side of the coin. We love eachother, but we make up a love-reality, an image of the “us”, that perhaps overestimates our ability to not jeopardize that love-reality. So therefore, we do cheat, we do lie, because we’re all individuals who can and will. He says “tampoco te puedo contar muchas cosas porque sin secretos ninguna relacion subsitiría” (75): he puts citrus on the wound that is the paradox of coupling and it hurts…

Starting with McOndo. As the editors of the book indicate, Westerners for the most part are consumers of mass-created products and ideas of lo latinoamericano. And those products and ideas seemed to stop advancing by the end of the 1960s, or thereabouts. Magic realism is a dominant force, to the point of being stereotypical, clichE, avant-garde no longer; there’s nothing subtle about it anymore, the essence has been commodity and that makes it somewhat fake. The McOndo guys are contemporary contemporary contemporary. They’re post-postmodern, as the magic realists themselves were post-modern.

I was taken in by their attack on their predecessors and also on the people who endorse the predecessors (aka Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who is cited like an A-list fluff star) and make live on these pretty visions, images, of an unreal, floating, and frankly, fictionalized reality that is Latin America. While we strive to believe that magical realism poignantly points out aspects of life that we tend to miss, one could also read it as following the non-perceivable and mythical into the dark hole of unreason, of bad vision, of denial of a real-life-reality that pales in comparison. Zamora and Faris cite writer-critic Julian Barnes in the introduction to Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community to exacerbate the common approach to and emphasis on lo latinoamericano in MR>>>
:”A quota system has to be introduced on fiction set in South America. The intention is to curb the spread of package-tour baroque and heavy irony. Ah, the propinquity of cheap life and expensive principles, of religion and banditry, of surprising honor and random cruelty. Ah, the daiquiri bird which incubates its eggs on the wing; ah, the fredonna tree whose roots grow at the tips of its branches, and whose fibers assist the hunchback to impregnate by telepathy the haughty wife of the hacienda owner; ah, the opera hours now overgrown by jungle. Permit me to rap on the table and murmur “Pass!” Novels set in the Arctic and the Antarctic will receive a development grant.”

A big quote, I know, but it speaks wonders (one of which is that MR applies not only to Latin America but to the world). Critics realize the faults of magic realism: its magic can’t undo its faults, its shortcomings.. The crazy cliches (like what Barnes describes) and the vague communal ownership over all this stuff has got to go, according to McOndo. I get it, totally. One would get tired of hearing about all this stuff when, after all is said and done, you still eat, shit, sleep and die (pardon the phrase). Latinos are normal people, just like any other place, and MR is a style that can or cannot be applied to Latino writing, according to taste. It’s not automatic! There are alternatives!

But then back to roots. Leyendas de Guatemala and Reino de este Mundo are predecessor steps toward magic realism; some consider them part of the package itself. Personally, Leyendas bored me. I’m a postmodern child and I’m used to referential everything, so the floatiness and frankly magical everything that isn’t quite relateable but simply exists? It leaves me not knowing which way to step, it’s so separate. However now, I can see how just this very quality can make it such a good source for fiction, a novel like Cien Anyos, for example. It has such a high-saturation aestheticism, it would look good in splices on the page. On that note, when I think of Leyendas, I think of fantasy film, like Avatar or Fern Gully; it tells a story, but the vividness of the images takes over plot, characters, action…

Reino de este Mundo sits much closer to Cien Anyos, in that Leyendas is most explicitly a point of inspiration, whereas Reino can much more easily stand on its own (like 100 Anyos does). Connected with my point above, these latter two works are more relatable. Though there are fantastic elements involved in both, they have characters with whom we can empathize, the plots have shape, and there’s more of a critical message. Both Carpentier and Marquez are commenting intravenously through the various choices they make in the respective two works, whereas the Leyendas are what they are: legends. They’re not so much a return to something, but are that which we might return to (minor points of narration aside: these aren’t the parts that weigh heavily).

And how might the McOndo guys feel about Reino… I don’t think they’d spit quite so hard. To me, Reino is an historical account fused with life, and I love how real dances with magical here. I venture to say that the fact it is a telling of the past may moderately redeem it in contemporary critical eyes; Carpentier says that it happened, like that, then. Conversely, Marquez attests that it was, it is, and it will be: a fact that McOndo-ists fervently reject (“it” being, made simple, magical realism). But don’t get me wrong. I love the MR layers of reality; there should always be some-ones, some-wheres, who emulate that heightened spiritual realm of thought…

I don’t think it’s that these authors and their stories in McOndo have miraculously appeared after the BOOM, but that North America (et al.) just wasn’t aware of their existence. As media is able to manipulate the beliefs and perspectives that the general public has about foreign countries, they can also control what kind of pacifying literature we receive. This situation reminds me of two periods in my life. Firstly, when I went to live in Colombia for two months. Had I not been ‘head-over-heels in love’ (I now use that term loosely), I probably would not have gone to this country where the only image I had branded in my mind was of this greasy druglord with a white pants, shiny shoes, a button-down hawaiian shirt, an oversized mustachio, and large sunglasses on (so you can never tell where he’s lookin)…..straight out of the 80s…..you know the one. Well, needless to say, I didn’t see this stereotype ANYWHERE on my trip and Colombia STILL continues to be my favorite country due to its generous culture, amicable gente, and beautiful (BEAUTIFUL!) landscape. This tropical visit not only influenced my life in a profound way, but it also made me realize how dominated our society is with being told what we should believe…without any personal investigation whatsoever. This leads me to my second experience. Last year I did some research on Latin American influence in film (see http://screened.blogspot.com/ if you’ve got time during these last stressful weeks of school, haha!), and slowly came to realize that through the medium of film, television, and all of the Hollywood hits that are cherished, we are told that Latin America is either a utopia for the escapist or a treacherous wasteland full of kidnappers and drug smuggling (most often depending on the country’s relations with the United States at the time). The industry has given us various stereotypes of the hispanic culture: a goofy, sombrero-sportin, sidekick on a donkey; a zorro-esque hero; a curvacious Latin bombshell; etc, etc…

And so McOndo seeks to engender in our hearts the truth about Latin American society: it really is no different from our own. Sure there are distinct cultural differences….there has to be. However, with the advances in technology and the ease of modern world travel, Earth has become an amalgamation of the same youth: a texting, iPHONE toting, ‘looking for a good time’, internet addicted youth. And yes, you and I are part of this same youth. So it is no wonder that these ‘new’ authors of McOndo are young and unknown. They lack the knowledge and experience of the civil strife and unrest in Latin countries which is evident via the symbolic nature of magical realism. This makes me wonder: Is magical realism a tool to stealthily deliver a criticizing blow to authority without doing it openly?

McOndo and ‘Macondo’ both tell the stories of ‘everday’ events; yet Macondo speaks to the imagination (Magical Realism), while McOndo tells of things that could happen to any of us (put simply: the Magic of Life). The McOndo story from Spain, “He conocido a mucha gente”, speaks of what I like to call ‘the travelling curse’; that vagabond mentality which allows friendships with amazing people, but only for a limited time. Or “Buenas noches” where the protagonist often wakes up in strange places and is so confused/scared/agitated that he returns to his unconsciousness because “puedes dormir en cualquier parte, pero no puedes despertarte en cualquier parte.” (p.175) [ie: Think back to any time you may have passed out at una feria with no idea where you were the next morning.] From Mexico, “La mujer químicamente compatible” refers to women by the places they are from and the ‘chemical reactions’ which ensue. “La gente de látex” describes the narrator’s plight of fame: beneficial or detrimental? And “Mi estado físico” was a depressingly boring tale about a solitary man who can’t seem to escape depressingly boring events.

All of these plots either relate to us or remind us of someone we have heard of. In this way, McOndo documents the common human condition of life….something which is perhaps lost in the imagination of Magical Realism.

As mentioned in the beginning of the term magical realism was going to be introduced to us in moderation. Three different writers who all used different approaches in the use of magical realism in their works allowed for a well-rounded analysis that made the understanding difficult at times and yet intriguing and entertaining. We covered Asturias in Leyendas de Guatemala in which magical realism was introduced to explain the origins of the region with the fantastic, imaginative and creative use of nature and its surroundings which came alive. The living world was interacting with man and created a reality that one could only imagine. The author Asturias wrote in a way that brought his imagination and dreams alive to seem believable. With the use of colorful and poetic words and phrases he was able to really draw the reader into his narration of his description of nature, wildlife and forests. Carpentier’s El Rey De Este Mundo touches on a different subject, that of politics and a nation that is deeply divided. In comparison to Leyendas this book was more of a darker approach into the magical realism. One that focused on more difficult and sensitive issues such as racism, segregation, religion, and freedom. What is also different is that the merging of historical accuracies blending in with the fantastic through the narrative and description of the historical context during a time of transition and self-discovery of a new nation and its new found freedoms. Finally, in Garcia Marquez’s Cien Años de Soledad the central theme revolves around the premise of destiny and prophecy and how we follow and observe the slow demise of the Buendía family. Cien Años reflects the chronological order in which we have read this works as we went from Asturias, which covered the origins and discovery, to Carpentier which focused on the recent-present times with Haiti’s recent events and now Marquez which introduces the future and destiny which is a somewhat interesting connection among the readings.

Attached are the various pdfs for Fuguet and Gómez, McOndo.

• part one (pp 1-39)
• part two (40-79)
• part three (80-119)
• part four (120-151)
• part five (152-191)
• part six (192-231)
• part seven (232-263)

For some reason I had a feeling this day would come. Today is a joyous day, a day of celebration, for I have the distinct honor of writing a highlight reel of my literary adventures. Well, okay, I’m really not as excited as the preceding sentence might have suggested, but I’m still pretty stoked. Lets get this show on the road!

The three contenders for MVN (Most Valuable Novel) this season are El reino de este mundo by Alejo Carpentier, Cien años de soledad by Gabriel García Márquez and Leyendas de Guatemala by Miguel Ángel Asturias. Each of the three has played well this season, but there can only be one true champion. Lets recap the excitement of this season.

Leyendas was the first player to get notice this season, and for good reason. Page after page, we were left dazzled by the visceral natural imagery and sense of fantasy in the novel. Coach Asturias really did an amazing job of bringing Guatemalan legends to life. Talking animals, divine signs from nature and an unhealthy obsession with linking the old to the new in Guatemala are just some of the features that made this novel stand out from the pack. Ultimately, however, Leyendas came up a bit short in the magical realism league. It definitely had some aspects that one might consider “magical” but came up pretty short in the realism department. Can’t argue that this contender definitely made a significant impact though.

Next up we have El reino de este mundo by Alejo Carpentier. It’s hard not to like this novel, it’s really got some good moves. Set during the Haitian revolution, El reino has roots firmly planted in reality. Many of the characters were real people, and the same applies to many of the events contained within the novel. Luckily, the novel takes some liberties with its base of reality and embellishes the truth in a mystical and captivating way for the reader. Much of the mysticism in the novel helps create a contrast between the differing beliefs, attitudes and religious practices of the colonials in Haiti and the black slave populace. An interesting feature of this novel was undoubtedly the way in which Carpentier explored the gray area between what was distinctly colonial and what was distinctly black. Just as the color gray is a mixture of black and white, Carpentier explored the idea that the lines between colonials and slaves became blurred over the course of the revolution, and a third “hybrid” class was the result (This insight isn’t pure bs, it’s an observation from the literature for our wikipedia article). In the end Carpentier illustrates the brutal cyclical nature of conflict in the pursuit of progress.

Last but not least, Mr. Márquez’s masterpiece, Cien años de soledad was probably one of the most captivating pieces of literature to ever grace my eyes. Reading Cien años was probably one of the single most moving literary experiences I have ever had. From the first page to the last, Márquez tells a story that is truly captivating. While the pacing of the novel itself feels frantic and the passing of time does not always seem continuous, Márquez manages to create an unbelievably deep and complex work. The novel illustrates the rise and fall of the Buendia family, which also coincides with the ascension and demise of the town in which they lived. Oh yeah, there’s a revolution that happens too. While telling his story, Márquez tries to create a sense of “reality” through the characters and setting of the novel. However, this reality is distorted and spiked with magical elements. In this respect, Márquez creates a deeper sense of fiction, within his own fiction.

The difficult question that now must be answered is what can be said about these novels, in a comparative sense? As Jon mentioned in one of the first lectures, these novels represent the path to the birth of what we now refer to as magical realism. Leyendas was a bit raw as a novel and, in many respects, was not so much a novel about magical realism but rather a retelling of legends for future generations. As with any good story teller, Asturias presented the legends with his own personal twist that enriched the legends. Of the three novels, I feel that Leyendas has the least in common. Carpentier and Márquez’s novels undoubtedly have the most in common. Thematically, Márquez and Carpentier both use their novels as a means to provide commentary and the brutal nature of armed conflict, and the futility of revolutions. This theme is central to Carpentier’s novel, but plays a somewhat lesser role in Márquez’s work. What really separates the two novels is the fact that Carpentier’s setting and characters are based in reality, whereas Márquez creates a reality. Both novels have so called “magical” elements coursing through the pages, but the impact of these magical elements seems more pronounced in Márquez’s novel.

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