Using the Spanish Civil War as a narrative foundation, Javier Cercas’s Soldiers of Salamis illustrates the complexities of humanity vividly and touchingly. The novel takes a rather unusual narrative methodology through the point of view of a fictional author and journalist who also happens to be named Javier Cercas. He became interested in investigating a legendary story […]
Posted in Blogs, Cercas | Tagged with life, power, trauma, violence
For this weeks book, I read The Old Gringo, by Carlos Fuentes. To be honest with you, I found this book to be a little bit confusing, but for a few different reasons. At the beginning of my reading, I found the old gringo’s motivation to be a bit strange; he has come to Mexico […]
Posted in Blogs, Fuentes | Tagged with Conflict, death, life, Mexico, reflection, relationships, repetition, revolution, the old gringo, Weekly Book Blog
I found “The Old Gringo” by Carlos Fuentes to be about what I was expecting; a somewhat turbulent novel that is set around war. It was a bit confusing to read as the perspective seemed to change frequently, but how the chapters were broken into smaller parts helped organize the text a little more. Throughout … Continue reading Week 9: Fuentes’s “The Old Gringo” →
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with death, life, memory, Poetry, relationships, repetition, Romance Studies, war, Weekly Posts
Having studied pretty much nothing about Romania up until now, I appreciated the glimpse into history that “The Trenchcoat” provides. At the same time, the censor-conscious writing and the inability of the characters themselves to acknowledge exactly what is happening to them made this period seem even more mysterious to me. Nearly every paragraph of […]
Posted in Blogs, Manea | Tagged with history, life, politics, power
For this week, I decided to read The Old Gringo by Carlos Fuentes. It touches on themes including memory, regret, war, and family. The Old Gringo, who turns out to be the American author Ambrose Bierce, travels to Mexico at the time of the civil war to die in the revolution. I found this reading to be a little difficult to read, but still quite interesting.
I enjoyed how we were able to trace how each The Old Gringo, General Arroyo, and Ms. Winslow’s pasts played a role in how they all ended up encountering each other. For the Old Gringo, his past actions and the downfall of his family and the lifestyle that led to the death of his sons brought him across the border. It is often repeated in the text how “to be a gringo in Mexico is one way of dying,” (89). The old man comes to Mexico with the intent to die, but before he does he builds a relationship with Ms. Winslow. There are many times within the story that we see one of the character’s identities being impacted by their parents. Especially for Ms. Winslow and Arroyo who were abandoned by their fathers and try to compensate for this through their respective relationships with the old man. This is made clear when Ms. Winslow has the old gringo buried as her father, I think it’s an act of closure for her to have someone to put to rest in that grave. However, because of this father/daughter dynamic, I was confused by their suggested romantic relationship.
I found it really interesting to learn that this story was based on a real American short story writer, journalist, and soldier. Also, the concept that Carlos Fuentes used of taking a real narrative and filling in the gaps with a fictional story to answer the mystery of the circumstances of his death. This along with the poetic style Fuentes wrote in, made it a unique narrative that allows the reader to reflect on the greater themes. I think because the story was told from Ms. Winslow’s point of view, the readers were able to have a better understanding of both the old man and General Arroyo from the perspective of a woman who understands and was exposed to both their perspectives.
My question for the class is why do you think Fuentes used Ambrose Bierce’s story as a point of view for the Mexican revolution?
For this week, I decided to read The Old Gringo by Carlos Fuentes. It touches on themes including memory, regret, war, and family. The Old Gringo, who turns out to be the American author Ambrose Bierce, travels to Mexico at the time of the civil war to die in the revolution. I found this reading to be a little difficult to read, but still quite interesting.
I enjoyed how we were able to trace how each The Old Gringo, General Arroyo, and Ms. Winslow’s pasts played a role in how they all ended up encountering each other. For the Old Gringo, his past actions and the downfall of his family and the lifestyle that led to the death of his sons brought him across the border. It is often repeated in the text how “to be a gringo in Mexico is one way of dying,” (89). The old man comes to Mexico with the intent to die, but before he does he builds a relationship with Ms. Winslow. There are many times within the story that we see one of the character’s identities being impacted by their parents. Especially for Ms. Winslow and Arroyo who were abandoned by their fathers and try to compensate for this through their respective relationships with the old man. This is made clear when Ms. Winslow has the old gringo buried as her father, I think it’s an act of closure for her to have someone to put to rest in that grave. However, because of this father/daughter dynamic, I was confused by their suggested romantic relationship.
I found it really interesting to learn that this story was based on a real American short story writer, journalist, and soldier. Also, the concept that Carlos Fuentes used of taking a real narrative and filling in the gaps with a fictional story to answer the mystery of the circumstances of his death. This along with the poetic style Fuentes wrote in, made it a unique narrative that allows the reader to reflect on the greater themes. I think because the story was told from Ms. Winslow’s point of view, the readers were able to have a better understanding of both the old man and General Arroyo from the perspective of a woman who understands and was exposed to both their perspectives.
My question for the class is why do you think Fuentes used Ambrose Bierce’s story as a point of view for the Mexican revolution?
This week’s reading of W or The Memory of Childhood was reflective and insightful about the author’s experience. At the start of the book, I was confused for a while about the significance of the second story about Gaspard Winkler, but as the story of W progressed I was able to start comparing it to Perec’s experience. I loved the style the author wrote this novel in. The autobiography paired with the fictional island of W gave the text different elements that provide the reader more to think about.
The narration from Perec’s perspective showed fragments of his childhood memories. He lost both of his parents to World War II at a very young age. I think the trauma caused him to repress his memories as he was often not sure about all the specifics in his own memories. A lot of the language in this narrative was hesitant, words like vague, hazy, and many I don’t remember or I don’t recall. The author says it himself on page 68, “What marks this period especially is the absence of landmarks: these memories are scraps of life snatched from the void. No mooring. Nothing to anchor them or hold them down. Almost no way of ratifying them. No sequence in time, except as I have reconstructed it arbitrarily over the years.”
In the second narrative the army deserter, Gaspard Winckler journeys to the island W, where a brutal version of the Olympic games takes place. This story combined with Perec’s life story highlights the fight for survival so many people, Perec included had to face. The brutality and cruelty in these games, I think, are somewhat of a metaphor for the concentration camps and the treatment of the Jewish people along with the other prisoners held by the Nazis. While reading about the W it seems impossible or only fiction for a society to function as this one does. I was slow to understand why it was even in this book, but from the middle, towards the end, it became clear that W was referencing power relations and the extent of oppression groups of people can be shown by other groups. On the last page, the excerpt from David Rousset’s Univers concentrationnaire we see that the harsh reality Perec illustrates in the fictional W is taken directly from real events.
My question for the class is: How does comparing the conditions faced in WW2 to W help Perec or the reader process these events?
Posted in Blogs, Perec | Tagged with life, memory, power, war
This week’s reading of W or The Memory of Childhood was reflective and insightful about the author’s experience. At the start of the book, I was confused for a while about the significance of the second story about Gaspard Winkler, but as the story of W progressed I was able to start comparing it to Perec’s experience. I loved the style the author wrote this novel in. The autobiography paired with the fictional island of W gave the text different elements that provide the reader more to think about.
The narration from Perec’s perspective showed fragments of his childhood memories. He lost both of his parents to World War II at a very young age. I think the trauma caused him to repress his memories as he was often not sure about all the specifics in his own memories. A lot of the language in this narrative was hesitant, words like vague, hazy, and many I don’t remember or I don’t recall. The author says it himself on page 68, “What marks this period especially is the absence of landmarks: these memories are scraps of life snatched from the void. No mooring. Nothing to anchor them or hold them down. Almost no way of ratifying them. No sequence in time, except as I have reconstructed it arbitrarily over the years.”
In the second narrative the army deserter, Gaspard Winckler journeys to the island W, where a brutal version of the Olympic games takes place. This story combined with Perec’s life story highlights the fight for survival so many people, Perec included had to face. The brutality and cruelty in these games, I think, are somewhat of a metaphor for the concentration camps and the treatment of the Jewish people along with the other prisoners held by the Nazis. While reading about the W it seems impossible or only fiction for a society to function as this one does. I was slow to understand why it was even in this book, but from the middle, towards the end, it became clear that W was referencing power relations and the extent of oppression groups of people can be shown by other groups. On the last page, the excerpt from David Rousset’s Univers concentrationnaire we see that the harsh reality Perec illustrates in the fictional W is taken directly from real events.
My question for the class is: How does comparing the conditions faced in WW2 to W help Perec or the reader process these events?
Posted in Blogs, Perec | Tagged with life, memory, power, war
This week, I read Georges Perec, W, or the Memory of Childhood a story about two characters, alternating between chapters. I found this style of narrative interesting because we can better compare the two. I expected the book to be confusing with two narratives, but Perec did a great job of making it clear and easy to read. While reading the second narrative of Gaspard Winkler, I sensed that some of the conditions being told had an underlying meaning that related to the first narrative of Perec. It was clear both the characters are going through their separate journeys but share a lot in common by witnessing similar conditions.
It was sad to read about the narrator trying so hard to remember his childhood memories. I felt a strong sense of displacement that the narrator was feeling from the impacts of the war. With the narrator being born in 1936, he spent many of his developmental years in the fear that being impacted by the second World War brings. Living in those circumstances and growing up in that environment has left him shattered as he tries to pick up the pieces and form memories from vague moments and photographs. This story could be one of many children at that time losing their parents, living in fear, and being too young to even understand why.
In the book, the narrator takes us to the island W where a similar competition like the Olympics takes place. This island W reflects the Nazi’s organized death camps. In the narrator’s interpretation of this island W, the competitors who win get awarded with food, the competitors who lose get nothing and starve, making them weaker. This creates a continuous cycle of the strong getting stronger and the weak getting weaker. It is a game of luck and misconduct that reflects the treatment of those suffering at the hands of the Nazi takeover.
I was unaware and found it shocking that the summer Olympics were hosted in Berlin in 1936, known as the Nazi Olympics. I was shocked when I searched it up and found out that such a huge event like the Olympics was held during these horrific times, especially in Germany. For this to occur, it showed such a lack of humanity and no recognition of the injustices.
My question for the class is: How do the two narratives compare regarding the two men witnessing and being a part of injustice in their environment?
Posted in Blogs, Perec | Tagged with life, memory, postmodernism
This week, I read Georges Perec, W, or the Memory of Childhood a story about two characters, alternating between chapters. I found this style of narrative interesting because we can better compare the two. I expected the book to be confusing with two narratives, but Perec did a great job of making it clear and easy to read. While reading the second narrative of Gaspard Winkler, I sensed that some of the conditions being told had an underlying meaning that related to the first narrative of Perec. It was clear both the characters are going through their separate journeys but share a lot in common by witnessing similar conditions.
It was sad to read about the narrator trying so hard to remember his childhood memories. I felt a strong sense of displacement that the narrator was feeling from the impacts of the war. With the narrator being born in 1936, he spent many of his developmental years in the fear that being impacted by the second World War brings. Living in those circumstances and growing up in that environment has left him shattered as he tries to pick up the pieces and form memories from vague moments and photographs. This story could be one of many children at that time losing their parents, living in fear, and being too young to even understand why.
In the book, the narrator takes us to the island W where a similar competition like the Olympics takes place. This island W reflects the Nazi’s organized death camps. In the narrator’s interpretation of this island W, the competitors who win get awarded with food, the competitors who lose get nothing and starve, making them weaker. This creates a continuous cycle of the strong getting stronger and the weak getting weaker. It is a game of luck and misconduct that reflects the treatment of those suffering at the hands of the Nazi takeover.
I was unaware and found it shocking that the summer Olympics were hosted in Berlin in 1936, known as the Nazi Olympics. I was shocked when I searched it up and found out that such a huge event like the Olympics was held during these horrific times, especially in Germany. For this to occur, it showed such a lack of humanity and no recognition of the injustices.
My question for the class is: How do the two narratives compare regarding the two men witnessing and being a part of injustice in their environment?
Posted in Blogs, Perec | Tagged with life, memory, postmodernism
