“very early in my life it was too late”. I feel like that quote in itself really encapsulates the tone of the book very well- the moodiness of the book, to the writing style being a sort of recollections of instances in her life past but sort of looking at it sometimes as if from […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with Colonialism, family, history, love, narration, pedophile
“The Lover” left me in a state of perplexity long after I had finished reading the novel not because of its plot, but because of its power dynamics between Duras and her lover, the Chinese man. I find the title “The Lover” intriguing because it seems to me that Duras refuses to be identified as […]
Posted in Blogs, Duras | Tagged with class, gender, memories, narration, race
Hey everyone! I just finished reading “The Hour of the Star” by Clarice Lispector which was a great read that explored many different themes we have discussed previously in class. The story revolves around Macabea, a young woman from northeastern Brazil, whose life is explained through the eyes of the narrator, Rodrigo S.M. This format […]
Posted in Blogs, Lispector | Tagged with class, desire, Dreams, framing, gender, history, life, narration, sexism
The novel ‘The Hour of the Star is a bit different from all the other novels that I have read in this course so far or even the ones that I have read apart from this course. This novel brought out a mix of emotions for me as neither did I like nor dislike this […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with death, life, narration, poverty
From only the first few pages in, I already felt the effect of Rodoreda’s writing style- many instances seem like a whirlwind or a snapshot of events, with the narration of someone who sort of seems like they’re always rushing to a get to their point yet they also seem to be constantly rambling about […]
Posted in Blogs, Rodoreda | Tagged with family, gender, narration, war
Initially, I didn’t like The Time of the Doves. For a while I couldn’t figure out why. I found that some kind of energy was missing from the book. When I made it to page 79, however, I realized why I had found the book unappealing up to that point, and from that moment onwardContinue reading “Inner Life and Agency in Rodoreda’s Time of the Doves“
Posted in Blogs, Rodoreda | Tagged with agency, narration, thetimeofthedoves
Unlike the past weeks where I had doubts about which books to choose, I knew for a fact that I wanted to read Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend. In the beginning of the year, I had just finished the HBO original, Scenes from a Marriage, and the HBO adaptation of My Brilliant Friend was recommended under […]
Posted in Blogs, Ferrante | Tagged with friendship, narration
The Society of Reluctant Dreamers was a unique read – but not for the reason that I expected. What fascinated me about this book is the setting, the Portuguese-speaking regions of Africa. This is an area that I am not very familiar with, so I do admit that it was difficult for me to follow the plot in certain parts.
Another aspect of the book that stood out to me was how modern it was compared to the other texts that we have read this semester. The period that the book was set in is fairly recent, with the epilogue taking place in 2017. Daniel’s character was interesting, especially because of his dreams and how they were influenced by his reality. It made me ponder how our subconscious thoughts are often influenced by our life and the people in them. This is similar to the associations made in the lecture to Freud and his beliefs of dreams being a manifestation of one’s unconscious thoughts.
Furthermore, I found it fascinating that the author decided to combine the political storyline of the book with magical realism. Politics are notoriously controversial and rooted in the ‘harsh reality of life’ – so it’s quite interesting to see how the narrator’s thoughts are largely communicated through his dreams. I found the politics a little hard to keep track of throughout the book, especially because I was completely unaware of the entire situation.
Also, I found the initial dialogue between Daniel and the hotel owner to be kind of odd, especially when they discussed Hitler’s kindness to animals. I suppose it did achieve the purpose that the author intended, which was to make us uncomfortable at the idea of a truly terrible person having any goodness in him.
Overall, I found Agualusa’s The Society of Dreamers to be a unique concept with an intriguing execution. By combining dreams with politics, Agualusa pushes readers to mull over how our reality can merge with something as stressful as politics. My question to the class would be: what do you think of the act of dreaming and what does it say about our subconscious?
The Society of Reluctant Dreamers was a unique read – but not for the reason that I expected. What fascinated me about this book is the setting, the Portuguese-speaking regions of Africa. This is an area that I am not very familiar with, so I do admit that it was difficult for me to follow the plot in certain parts.
Another aspect of the book that stood out to me was how modern it was compared to the other texts that we have read this semester. The period that the book was set in is fairly recent, with the epilogue taking place in 2017. Daniel’s character was interesting, especially because of his dreams and how they were influenced by his reality. It made me ponder how our subconscious thoughts are often influenced by our life and the people in them. This is similar to the associations made in the lecture to Freud and his beliefs of dreams being a manifestation of one’s unconscious thoughts.
Furthermore, I found it fascinating that the author decided to combine the political storyline of the book with magical realism. Politics are notoriously controversial and rooted in the ‘harsh reality of life’ – so it’s quite interesting to see how the narrator’s thoughts are largely communicated through his dreams. I found the politics a little hard to keep track of throughout the book, especially because I was completely unaware of the entire situation.
Also, I found the initial dialogue between Daniel and the hotel owner to be kind of odd, especially when they discussed Hitler’s kindness to animals. I suppose it did achieve the purpose that the author intended, which was to make us uncomfortable at the idea of a truly terrible person having any goodness in him.
Overall, I found Agualusa’s The Society of Dreamers to be a unique concept with an intriguing execution. By combining dreams with politics, Agualusa pushes readers to mull over how our reality can merge with something as stressful as politics. My question to the class would be: what do you think of the act of dreaming and what does it say about our subconscious?
It definitely would’ve been to my advantage to know more about history and especially Spanish history to follow this book better. When I’m reading about historical events and names my eyes tend to glaze over and I find myself finishing a page of the book without retaining anything that was written on it. That being […]
Posted in Blogs, Cercas | Tagged with fiction, history, memory, narration, Spain, truth, war
