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I really liked this novel, it was a very intriguing and even suspenseful read. The fact that this novel is set in Mexico at a time of great political unrest is what makes it both unnerving and interesting at the same time. The opening lines of the story immediately catches the reader’s interest and successfully […] read full post >>

I was initially very intrigued by this story. I was excited that it was under the category or ‘horror’ as this is not really a genre we've read yet in this class. The scene in the first section of the book where the soldiers are taking over the university reminded me a lot of memories from lockdown drills in school and more specifically what to do if you happen to be stuck in a stall at the time of entry of whoever (danger). I think the author did an excellent job of illustrating that scene and the position she held to avoid being seen. 

After that, the story began to head in the direction of explaining short stories and memories she had accumulated over her life. There were many! Some of the time I would get a little lost in the details of these stories, but for the most part they were very entertaining. It is safe to say that her life was interesting and deviated a fair bit from any sort of norm. She came off as a free spirit. Auxillio did not seem to have any sort of obligations, rather she just did what felt right in that moment. Whether that was surrounding herself around individuals much younger than her, or devoting her time and effort towards the University’s philosophy department solely out of love for the subject. It stood out to me that she would not accept any sort of financial reimbursement when that could've been extremely beneficial for her, as she did not have a place of her own. I think that speaks volumes to the type of character she has. Additionally, it spoke volumes to how much she valued spending time with the right type of feel good people - and an added benefit if they were interested in poetry. I must admit her nights out with friends seemed very cool. 

As for pretty much any text, you can never know for sure what biases the narrator has in their storytelling and whether what they're saying holds validity or not. For instance when she says “the story wasn't altogether credible, simply because of its source; that is me. (p.80) Of course, this reminded me of the fact that she is telling these stories of her memories all while trapped inside of the washroom in the university. Obviously she must be losing it a bit…. One thing that was brought up quite a few times throughout the novel was that she referred to herself as “the mother of poets”,? I never really understood what she meant by this, and the more serious significance? 

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I was initially very intrigued by this story. I was excited that it was under the category or ‘horror’ as this is not really a genre we've read yet in this class. The scene in the first section of the book where the soldiers are taking over the university reminded me a lot of memories from lockdown drills in school and more specifically what to do if you happen to be stuck in a stall at the time of entry of whoever (danger). I think the author did an excellent job of illustrating that scene and the position she held to avoid being seen. 

After that, the story began to head in the direction of explaining short stories and memories she had accumulated over her life. There were many! Some of the time I would get a little lost in the details of these stories, but for the most part they were very entertaining. It is safe to say that her life was interesting and deviated a fair bit from any sort of norm. She came off as a free spirit. Auxillio did not seem to have any sort of obligations, rather she just did what felt right in that moment. Whether that was surrounding herself around individuals much younger than her, or devoting her time and effort towards the University’s philosophy department solely out of love for the subject. It stood out to me that she would not accept any sort of financial reimbursement when that could've been extremely beneficial for her, as she did not have a place of her own. I think that speaks volumes to the type of character she has. Additionally, it spoke volumes to how much she valued spending time with the right type of feel good people - and an added benefit if they were interested in poetry. I must admit her nights out with friends seemed very cool. 

As for pretty much any text, you can never know for sure what biases the narrator has in their storytelling and whether what they're saying holds validity or not. For instance when she says “the story wasn't altogether credible, simply because of its source; that is me. (p.80) Of course, this reminded me of the fact that she is telling these stories of her memories all while trapped inside of the washroom in the university. Obviously she must be losing it a bit…. One thing that was brought up quite a few times throughout the novel was that she referred to herself as “the mother of poets”,? I never really understood what she meant by this, and the more serious significance? 

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Amulet by Robert Bolano gave such a unique delivery on Latin American history through an unusual narrative. The book’s narrator,... read full post >>

I found this week's reading Amulet by Roberto Bolaño a captivating read. I personally don't read a lot of books about war or know much history about this context in the book, but Bolaño made it enjoyable with the narrator Auxilio. I was quickly grasped by the book because of her captivating narration. Throughout this class, I was surprised by how much these books made me more aware of the history and the brutality of war and revolutions. The writing in this book and its details made it easy for me to visualize her thoughts and these different scenarios in my head.

The narrator Auxilio hides in the lavatories of her university, fearing that soldiers will come and discover her there. She begins to recall memories of her friends, literature, and life. She is seen as unsure about her purpose and roots, trying to re-imagine herself as she says, "one day I arrived in Mexico without really knowing why or how or when.” These memories and reflections of her friends seem like she is a sideline character in her own life. Auxilio does not fit into any of the Mexican cultural roles, so she finds herself taking on a nurturing role to the young poets. She seems to find her purpose in life and lives through her friends and their experiences and this is what she holds onto while stuck in the lavatories, along with the visions of the future. I found it surprising that Auxilio remained calm despite her fear in the lavatories. As a reader, I was distracted and somewhat stressed out by this scenario as I was worried about what was going to happen to her. 

As we have talked about in our class lectures a concept that is a reoccurring theme in every book we have read is memories. These memories that we follow from these characters show a pattern that we can start to connect and compare each of them with each other. The shrouded woman was one that stuck out to me as they both revolve around a woman who is reaching and guessing about what possibilities could have come from their lives. Also comparing Amulet to W, both main characters are experiencing displacement due to the impacts of their respective traumatic events.

My question for the class is: How do you think her memory and the event of the occupation impact her visions about the future.

read full post >>

I found this week's reading Amulet by Roberto Bolaño a captivating read. I personally don't read a lot of books about war or know much history about this context in the book, but Bolaño made it enjoyable with the narrator Auxilio. I was quickly grasped by the book because of her captivating narration. Throughout this class, I was surprised by how much these books made me more aware of the history and the brutality of war and revolutions. The writing in this book and its details made it easy for me to visualize her thoughts and these different scenarios in my head.

The narrator Auxilio hides in the lavatories of her university, fearing that soldiers will come and discover her there. She begins to recall memories of her friends, literature, and life. She is seen as unsure about her purpose and roots, trying to re-imagine herself as she says, "one day I arrived in Mexico without really knowing why or how or when.” These memories and reflections of her friends seem like she is a sideline character in her own life. Auxilio does not fit into any of the Mexican cultural roles, so she finds herself taking on a nurturing role to the young poets. She seems to find her purpose in life and lives through her friends and their experiences and this is what she holds onto while stuck in the lavatories, along with the visions of the future. I found it surprising that Auxilio remained calm despite her fear in the lavatories. As a reader, I was distracted and somewhat stressed out by this scenario as I was worried about what was going to happen to her. 

As we have talked about in our class lectures a concept that is a reoccurring theme in every book we have read is memories. These memories that we follow from these characters show a pattern that we can start to connect and compare each of them with each other. The shrouded woman was one that stuck out to me as they both revolve around a woman who is reaching and guessing about what possibilities could have come from their lives. Also comparing Amulet to W, both main characters are experiencing displacement due to the impacts of their respective traumatic events.

My question for the class is: How do you think her memory and the event of the occupation impact her visions about the future.

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The theme of memory has been consistent throughout all of our course readings. While reading Amulet, I started to find some similarities to the other readings. Specifically, W, or the Memory of Childhood because with regard to memory, the two are centred around a traumatic event and cause the narrators to struggle to remember an entire situation with certainty.  Also, the shrouded women and the Old Gringo because they each have a woman as the narrator looking back on their life events. 

For Amulet, the story is taken from Auxilio Lacouture, an Uruguayan woman who moved to Mexico and became the “mother of poetry.” I found the timeline of this novel a little confusing at first, but after reading more and watching the lecture video, I realized that Auxilio was recalling memories from the past and also the future while she was trapped in the fourth-floor bathroom of the National Autonomous University of Mexico for almost two weeks.  I found Auxilio very likable and easy to sympathize with. While trapped in the bathroom during the violent army occupation, she begins to immerse herself within these memories or dreams to cope with her situation. Her memories are based on her life in Mexico City and her interactions with the poets she befriends.

I thought it was interesting how Amulet, like the Old Gringo, provided a new perspective on historical events. Until I watched this week’s lecture I was unaware of the Tlatelolco Massacre and the Mexican student movement of 1968. Both Bolano and Fuentes gave us new perspectives on these historical events. However, where Amulet and the Old Gringo differ Amulet starts to compare to the Time of the Doves because while we are made aware of the political situation going on, it centers around one woman's experience. In both Amulet and the Time of the Doves, we see the impacts these movements have on a person, but the story does not revolve around the violence or the actual fight. Instead, we see Auxilio and Natalia’s life and what these events mean for their lives and how it changes them. I am interested in seeing how the next two readings will relate and compare to what we have already read.

My question for the class is: Since we are on week ten of our readings, how do you compare this text to the others? What similarities have you been noticing throughout the term? 

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The theme of memory has been consistent throughout all of our course readings. While reading Amulet, I started to find some similarities to the other readings. Specifically, W, or the Memory of Childhood because with regard to memory, the two are centred around a traumatic event and cause the narrators to struggle to remember an entire situation with certainty.  Also, the shrouded women and the Old Gringo because they each have a woman as the narrator looking back on their life events. 

For Amulet, the story is taken from Auxilio Lacouture, an Uruguayan woman who moved to Mexico and became the “mother of poetry.” I found the timeline of this novel a little confusing at first, but after reading more and watching the lecture video, I realized that Auxilio was recalling memories from the past and also the future while she was trapped in the fourth-floor bathroom of the National Autonomous University of Mexico for almost two weeks.  I found Auxilio very likable and easy to sympathize with. While trapped in the bathroom during the violent army occupation, she begins to immerse herself within these memories or dreams to cope with her situation. Her memories are based on her life in Mexico City and her interactions with the poets she befriends.

I thought it was interesting how Amulet, like the Old Gringo, provided a new perspective on historical events. Until I watched this week’s lecture I was unaware of the Tlatelolco Massacre and the Mexican student movement of 1968. Both Bolano and Fuentes gave us new perspectives on these historical events. However, where Amulet and the Old Gringo differ Amulet starts to compare to the Time of the Doves because while we are made aware of the political situation going on, it centers around one woman's experience. In both Amulet and the Time of the Doves, we see the impacts these movements have on a person, but the story does not revolve around the violence or the actual fight. Instead, we see Auxilio and Natalia’s life and what these events mean for their lives and how it changes them. I am interested in seeing how the next two readings will relate and compare to what we have already read.

My question for the class is: Since we are on week ten of our readings, how do you compare this text to the others? What similarities have you been noticing throughout the term? 

read full post >>

Roberto Bolaño's Amulet was much more violent than I expected the story to be. It focuses on the War in Mexico as told through the perspective of Auxilio Lacouture. Lacouture is a Uruguayan woman who moved to Mexico in the 1960's. I think this has been my favourite book so far as I have found a better way to read the later books compared to some of the initial ones read. Bolaño writes such a tragic and horrifying story with so much tranquility and peacefulness. For such a sad story, it is described very beautifully. 

This novel taught me about the war and massacre of Tlatelolco in 1968. I had never even heard of the Tlatelolco massacre until this reading. Similar to Manea's novel, the story draws from real life instances to educate the readers about history. I think it is important to read novel's of this kind. We consume so much news and media content that we have become desensitized to violence in the world. 

Lacouture is forced to take shelter in a woman's bathroom during the War in Mexico in the 1960's. She hides from the military in the bathroom for many days on the University campus. While her peers are arrested and killed, she hides from the police for fourteen-days. She is then the only person who holdouts being on campus during that time. She spends her time thinking about both her past and her future as the story jumps between the two. I find the way that the story was written to be very interesting. It seemed as though there were tangents that held little information, followed by paragraphs full of information. 

Similarly to other stories, I think that the aim of this novel is to appreciate the story in it's entirety, rather than rip it apart looking for specifics. This course has taught me to read older literature with a different approach. Rather than hyper-fixate on details, it is important to read between the lines and learn from the entirety of the story. I appreciate getting to learn this new way of reading older literature as it makes it much more interesting. 

The ending of the story was the most impactful in my opinion. The "ghost-children" singing and walking together, it has a more ominous and apocalyptic tone than the rest of the story. My question to my classmates is: Was this also the most impactful part of the story for you? If not, what was? 

read full post >>

Roberto Bolaño's Amulet was much more violent than I expected the story to be. It focuses on the War in Mexico as told through the perspective of Auxilio Lacouture. Lacouture is a Uruguayan woman who moved to Mexico in the 1960's. I think this has been my favourite book so far as I have found a better way to read the later books compared to some of the initial ones read. Bolaño writes such a tragic and horrifying story with so much tranquility and peacefulness. For such a sad story, it is described very beautifully. 

This novel taught me about the war and massacre of Tlatelolco in 1968. I had never even heard of the Tlatelolco massacre until this reading. Similar to Manea's novel, the story draws from real life instances to educate the readers about history. I think it is important to read novel's of this kind. We consume so much news and media content that we have become desensitized to violence in the world. 

Lacouture is forced to take shelter in a woman's bathroom during the War in Mexico in the 1960's. She hides from the military in the bathroom for many days on the University campus. While her peers are arrested and killed, she hides from the police for fourteen-days. She is then the only person who holdouts being on campus during that time. She spends her time thinking about both her past and her future as the story jumps between the two. I find the way that the story was written to be very interesting. It seemed as though there were tangents that held little information, followed by paragraphs full of information. 

Similarly to other stories, I think that the aim of this novel is to appreciate the story in it's entirety, rather than rip it apart looking for specifics. This course has taught me to read older literature with a different approach. Rather than hyper-fixate on details, it is important to read between the lines and learn from the entirety of the story. I appreciate getting to learn this new way of reading older literature as it makes it much more interesting. 

The ending of the story was the most impactful in my opinion. The "ghost-children" singing and walking together, it has a more ominous and apocalyptic tone than the rest of the story. My question to my classmates is: Was this also the most impactful part of the story for you? If not, what was? 

read full post >>