McOndo

I thought these stories were really great because it is a perspective that in theory is said to reject the genre we have spent the whole term learning about "magical realism". Having a glance at the other side creates a broader understanding and I find to be very insightful and helpful in having an open mind to what are the intents of the stories.

McOndo and its collection of stories is one that I think the modern world and my generation can relate to it much easier than the stories of Asturias, Carpentier and Garcia Marquez. Being born and raised in North America, the relationship between the United State and the Latin world in McOndo is not just something I try to understand,like in "el reino de este mundo" where I tried to put myself in that time and place. For the global relations in McOndo, I'm part of the modernized world and can view myself as a primary source. I think this aspect is perhaps the most important for me in understanding McOndo. I'm not so much an outsider. Cities play an important role. They are the central metropolises of the mass culture, the nucleus of the global interaction. Unlike the other stories with rural settings. McOndo imposes the urban setting at the the heart of culture and the technologies that identify the culture. Another element in the stories are of graphic sexual encounters. This for some reason reminded me of "Cien anos de soledad", maybe because of all the sexual relations in the novel. Non the less I began looking at the similarities verses the differences between the two works. This might have been the opposite of what we were supposed to do but non the less. The violence and sex are themes not dismissed in McOndo nor however in Macondo. I began to view McOndo not quite as a rejection of Macondo...but perhaps a continuation. Which rejects the idea of Marquez, Latin America's lack in progression. McOndo is part of the evolucion of Latin America. It is a switch from a culture highlighting magical realism to a culture where the magic is something understandable and tangible, not fanatical but something very real and very normal.

the trilogy :O)

hey! whoever it is that reads my blogs... i hope you had a really great weekend.
I really thought that this was a great blog prompt. I had a range of ideas that were floating around about making connections between the three books and their authors, and perhaps they won't be documented in this blog in a completely cohesive manner. Non the less...

My favourite of the three was the leyedas de guatemala, because though the leyendas through 21st century canadian spectacles appear to be stories of magic and fantatical creatures and events, they are not just stories to the people of guatemala, at the time of the legends birth. They explain an existence of a culture, the significance and reasoning behind questions about their existence, that every human being shares. The reality is derived from the historical essence of the leyendas. How, to Gutemalan they acted as a documentation of history, religion and culture.I feel that the leyendas are unique because there is a rawness about them. I know that word is a little graphic, but what I mean when I use the word raw is that unlike in "Cien anos de solidad", the abstract images and impossible events do not serve the purpose of representing greater meaning to do with "real" life, or serve some political message. The magical images and events in "las leyendas de guatemala" are not metaphors but rather true beliefs of actual events. Comparing these two works provide a timeline of the evolution leading up to the "boom" and the genre of "magical realism" defined by "cien anos de solidad". However, between the two lies Asturias, which in my opinion represents the struggle between the two worlds. Where one world ( non latinamerican) sees the beliefs of the other world (latinamerica)as something NOT real and therefore something that they can destroy, conquer breakdown and change to make it real, or more like them.Iguess it's just a easier on the conscious if what you destroy truly doesn't exist in your mind, and therefore one can justify their conquering. However, what the non latinamerican world fails to understand is the unfortunate reality the destruction truly brought. To sum up the trilogy I think that's what Marquez tried to do in his novel. A culture such as latinamerica is being self destructive in their inability to break free from their past where they first lost their own identity, that magical world to which them at the time was truth and belief.

Me gusta mucho como el autor, Marquez se introduce como un personaje en su historia. El es un personaje menor, el sabe sobre la historia de Macondo. Pienso que sea uno de los puntos de Marquez, sobre la valor en sabiendo su historia, su trunca de existencia para su progresivo en su vida. Hay simboloismo de su personaje en Paris, donde vende los periodicos. Los peridodicos viejos debujan un paralelismo con el libro. Los dos son historias del pasadao, da al mundo de Marquez.La autoreflexiva de la obra da la obra un sentido mas de realidad contra todos los elementos fantasticos y completly wackoooooo. Con este personaje, yo empeczco pensar de la historia no como una historia con un mensaje politico o social o de la historia latinoamericano, pero solamente como una historia de entener. No estoy deciendo el libro no tiene un mensaje mejor, pero es una perspectiva diferente. Si no se el libro en el contexto de mas significado, es probablemente que diga es una mezcla de muchas figuras, objectos, conceptos y escena extrana y rara, nada aparace logico o sigue una linea clara. Es un medio perfecto para olividar y siguiendo el perdido en la memoria. Solamente, la memoria del pasado llega en el futuro y nadie puede reconcer. El libro a lado de, proporciona un medio perfecto para recordar! La literatura del libro y de los peridocios son los ojos el pasado :)

Hola todos!

Quiero escribir un segundo tiempo en español!!! Gracias para tu paciencia!

Estoy al parte del libro donde hay una tormenta de larga extrema, "cuatro anos, once meses y dos días." La destrucción de las cosechas de plátanos y las casas de los macondos sigue de cerca al mundo naturaleza. Las descripciones de Marquez hablan de la conquista del mundo naturaleza sobre los objetos futuros "las maquinas tendría los flores reventando entre sus engranajes". Todavía, José Arcadio Buendía empieza una metamorfosis animal en su evolución natural de llega a ser un viejo, "la cara de tortuga beatífico". Cuando Aureliano Segundo muestra los niños la enciclopedia ingles y crea las leyendas de sus origines porque el no se las respuestas para las preguntas de curiosidades, me recuerda de las leyendas de Guatemala y la importancia de leyendas para cada cultura. Son las explicaciones de las cosas no se puede explicar. Sin embargo, en este caso, la escena de Aureliano y los niños facilita la idea de perderse en la falta de no comprendiendo el mundo afuera de Macondo. Es como Macondo deja el resto del mundo. Macondo no puede sobrevivir la tormenta “solo las ruinas son que quedan”, sin embargo existe el sentido de libertad “pero, los corazones son felices porque tienen el pueblo de donde ellos han nacido. La lluvia es un símbolo de renacimiento, un bautismo de la vida nueva  Además es un símbolo del cíclico de la narrativa y entonces, la historia de los habitantes de Macondo, porque agua tiene su propio cíclico que es parte de los sistemas naturales del mundo. Macondo se pone en perspectiva como un parte de este cíclico, un cíclico entre un cíclico y una serias de cíclicos que nadie y nada, nunca jamás, se pueden escapar. Todo es solamente una renovación del pasado.
hasta miercoles :)

365 One Hundred Years of Solitude

Good Morning :) I almost forgot to this blog Oops.
So far in the story, the concept of time become more and more confusing. Like what we discussed in class there is an extreme mixing bowl of time: days of the week, months of a year, time of day and life times. That concept had also crossed my mind on the idea of a hundred years. A hundred years is also how we measure a life time..for example we hear it sometimes as a life time being about a hundred years. Every time Jose talks about in his life time, it refers to the concept of within a hundred years and every other life has the same story. As unknown time passes in Macondo, the village is visited by the outside world and the inventions of the outside world. Everything is at the hands of Macondo. Yet, the village decides which of the inventions and gadgets of the outside world are worthy of acceptance.I was fascinated by the part when Bruni Crespi, the merchant brings the cinema to Macondo. A world of "illusions that did not merit the emotional outbursts of the audience." The people of Macondo regect the unreal world of cinema and refuse an attempt at understanding what is not real. Futhermore, the mention of the captive-balloon business as an unsuccess because people considered it an invention backward after having seen and tried out the gypie's flying carpet.OK! so the people of Macondo don't accept movies( even though historical they revolutionized the rest of the world) because they don't like the idea of illusion yet they had been accepting of "magic carpets" and even more so, they truly believe themselves to be an "advancing" society because they reject the "backward invention" of the hot-air balloon. For me this rejection only limits there advancement and is just another sign of the cyclic vacuum representing the power repetition has over Macondo. The irony is that the people of Macondo are completely unaware. It is as if they feel the opposite effects. The book continues to be full of strange images, a collection of things, and time that has no actual reference. If only Macondo had the ability to escape its entrapment then perhaps they might truly have a chance a real advancement.

reading it over one hundred times before it makes sense

This is my second attempt reading One Hundred Years of Solitude. I unfortunately fall into the category of people who started to read the story and only got three quarters of the way through it. I stopped reading it not because I didn’t enjoy it, but because everything I thought I understood about the storyline and the characters was starting to contradict itself. Better to try it another time. Little did I know I would get my chance half a year later. Luckily my wikipedia project is on this realism novel, so I have had no choice but to do some pre-reading research. With a not yet extensive collection of research and background information the revolutionary work is no longer all Greek to me. There is still so much I do find confusing. I think Marquez makes a point in the confusion and the duality in the story because if reflects the characters attempt to establish a home in Macondo. Everything is unknown to the charactes and the author creates a similar atmosphere and feeling for the reader. This connection is important because it draws a closer relationship between the characters and the readers who have become adventures along side the characters of the story. The purpose of this base, the development of a relationship between the characters and the reader, draws to the realism in the novel that is juxtaposed by all the magical elements. Jose Buendia begins to immerse himself in the archives of invention and modernization. It almost seems as if he rbegins to lose his sense of self and purpose, the reason why he first established himself in Macondo. I small part of me sees this to have great ambiguity because while surrounded by discovery, invention, and redefinition, Jose slows down the time and the development of Macondo. The necessary work that needs to be done around the house and the cultivation of the land is ignored. The fundamental and practical necessities in establishing a new settlement are put on pause and therefore there is a back track in advancement contrary to forward motion. The second generation, Buendia’s children are able to represent a greater sense of self and identity, but the static and security of home and family is again faltered by the arrival of the nomadic gypsy women. These women display characteristics of freedom but freedom at the price of a loss in duty and the entrapment of obsession. The relationships and affairs between the characters begin to get kinda twisted and weird. At first all I could think about is how messed up it all is. However, there is a greater meaning, or at least I’m sure that has to be. The more I read the more I hope to make sense of it all. I really am enjoying the book a second time…. Perhaps this time because I have a better understanding or at least I think I do  I’ll be in class tomorrow just waiting to hear what the actual reasoning is!

SAINTS WIN !!!

oh how I wish I could fill up my blog describing the magnificence of this Sunday's super bowl :)
not to worry instead I will summarize my general overview of Asturias and Carpentier. The magical realism novels we have read as part of ESPN 365. I really am awed at the works. I find the idea of mixing together magical elements in a historical context a very ingenious way of teaching the important part, which I figure to be the historical information. Asturias' Legends of Guatemala takes the reader to an absolutely foreign experience. As a reader I felt alien, but at the same there was an appealing factor that circulated through the stories and therefore completely comfortable. My experience in reading Asturias was one in which he allowed to be almost as a spiritual journey, because there was such power in his descriptions. Power that came from the natural world. I could not stop thinking of AVATAR the movie. It reminded me of the energy connection the AVATAR'S have with PANDORA, similarly to the connection the Guatemalan inhabitants have with their world. A connection that is deeper than those of colonial Europe. The connection is not with the economic wealth and resources of the new world, as it is for colonial Europe. Rather it is with the divine, power and spiritual beauty of their ancient world. On this note, it is easy to tie into El reino de este mundo, and the fight for a homeland the people identify with and are able to build their identity from. The Revolution in Haiti is revealed as a struggle on both sides. Carpentier subjects the Europeans and through his use of magical elements is able to explain a sense of out of placement and inability to understand the people nor the world in which they have chosen to still. In choosing to colonize in Haiti is as if they consciously rob a people of their identity. A sense of patriotism comes from the myths and ancient stories of the world. It's very cool to make connections between the two works. I believe there is a parallel with what the genre of these two works say and what they represent. Magical realism is an intertwining of the historical and the fantastical, fact with fiction. But for the indigenious people of the new worlds, the magical WAS their history. Here I find a better understanding for the lo real marvilloso, because again what is REAL is the marvelous happening that are also impossible to describe in a European historical sense. Finally, the magical realism, signifies the European (realist) world trying to assimilate themselves into the indigenious (magical world), and what I mean by that, is trying to change the way of life as it is for the indigenious people. Much can be lost in translation but there is greater loss in the attempts to force the opposition to understand a language they don't speak.