For this weeks book, I chose Mario Vargas Llosa’s, Captain Pantoja and the Dictatorial Service of Machismo… wait that’s not it. Let me try again… I chose Mario Vargas Llosa’s,Captain Pantoja and the Special Service. Yeah, that’s the one.
Wow, what a way to be introduced to Mario Vargas Llosa. A very courageous narrative to embark on as an author. There was a huge sense of a greater message being delivered but sometimes the narrative was so ridiculous and absurd that it made me wonder about that phrase about truth being stranger than fiction. Maybe this time it is the other way around. I sure hope it is but at the same time, seems like men in power were capable of justifying anything while also being innovative with logic.
If there is one thing I would like to say about the character of Captain Pantoja, it would have to be that I was glad that he defended Olga Arellano Rosaura (the Brazilian) to his commanding officer, General Scavino and that they gave her military honours at her funeral even though it may have been part of the joke of the farce but it may have been the closest thing to an honourable act in this book, though of course the whole situation was demeaning and unethical. But at the same time, I think some of the intent of this book was for to be read by the men of the current time of when it was written and of course, now. In that case, this book was meant to be a reflective narrative for men being that it was so deliberately sexist and unempathetic to the female reader.
In the lecture it was interesting that the issues of the 1970’s was immersed into the possible underbelly of the narrative and I would probably summarize and relate to the opening dream of chapter ten: A cockroach is eaten by a rat who is eaten by a lizard who is eaten by a jaguar who is crucified and whose remains are devoured by cockroaches… (218).
That imagine or idea seems to be the repetitive dialogue that surfaces and submerges itself with the intent to stabilize and destabilize the old and new structures that arise from the military interventions and the democratic conscious that continue to plague the political history of Latin America and in some cases, the rest of the world. But that horrifying image of the cycle of life or better yet, the cycle of the devoured, seems to have a greater meaning.
What do you think it means?
In “Captain Pantoja…” machismo is evident and can be found from the title itself. What is more complicated is to see to what extent Vargas Llosa, as an author, uses irony and satire to refer to machismo and when he himself falls prey to it. To what extent does this narrative destabilize –or not– patriarchal forms?.
(Gracias por tu post)
Hey there! What a quick intro diving right into your thoughts! I liked the point you made about the consideration of audience for this book, and your tags were quite fitting as well haha. For your question, I sort of hold the same opinion as you; these quote very strongly reinforces the feeling of these cycles of life. But I think the place this has within the story itself sort of creates a frenzied feeling for chain of events that occur. I think it almost replicates how each section jumps to a new point in time in the novel once one event influenced the other to occur, and things just begin to tumble worse and worse and worse.