This week I chose to read “The Underdogs” which is a story of the Mexican revolution. For the reading this week, I purchased a hard copy of the book from the bookstore, and this was actually my first time reading a handheld version of something for school in a long time, and it made such […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with Azuela, morals, span312, tragedy, violence
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?
Posted in Blogs, Bolaño | Tagged with oppression, tragedy, war
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?
Posted in Blogs, Bolaño | Tagged with oppression, tragedy, war
I really liked this book. It’s definitely one of my favourites of the ones we’ve covered. We’ve read a few books that are based on memory, and we’ve discussed how fickle memory can be and what kind of story is created when it is strung together by a collection of memories. However, The Old Gringo […]
Posted in Blogs, Fuentes | Tagged with Dreamy, history, memory, Mexico, repetition, revolution, tragedy
Throughout the readings in this course, we have been repeatedly exposed to storylines set during periods of conflict and civil war. This novel is no exception as it occurs during the Mexican civil war. On the theme of war, we often see the accompanying theme of hopelessness. We learn early in the novel that the […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with death, love, tragedy, triangle, war
Well.. although this may have love within the story, I did not consider it a love story. While I initially chose this novel as the mention of love within its description, I continued reading it captivated by tragedy (and because I had to!) It still astonishes me the assumptions I had before starting this course […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with love, notlove, romance, tragedy, violence
This book was quite tragic though undoubtedly beautifully written. It’s hard not to feel sadness when reading Perec recount the memories he has of his childhood and the hardships that come with being an orphan. I felt especially moved when, describing his mother, he wrote “The arbitrary, schematic image that I have of her suits […]
Posted in Blogs, Perec | Tagged with family, history, Imagination, loss, memory, tragedy
Of all the novels thus far, this one had the most unexpected ending and plot twist. The story starts rather sweetly, and suddenly escalates until the main character, Natalia, makes a horrifying decision. Initially, Natalia gets swept off of her feet and marries a man who ends up not being a good husband or person. Quimet, the husband, is rather lazy and undependable and displays abusive and toxic behaviours consistently. He continuously brings home doves but leaves them in the care of Natalia. In a way, I think that what Natalia was doing to the doves foreshadowed the climax of the story. Her husband had left her with helpless animals when she was unable to adequately care for them.
The way in which the story was written translates to how frantic Natalia may have been during that time. The author uses run-on sentences to replicate thought processes that Natalia may be having. She exhausts herself emotionally and physically as she develops fears about the war and surrounding world. The story is very tragic and explores how desperation can cause irrational beliefs and ideas.
The description of the family living a “bare life” is very accurate. Due to her lack of resources, her family is forced to merely survive and they are unable to truly live. This causes Natalia to make the extreme decision to kill herself and her children after her husband is killed. I think part of the reason that Natalia’s decision was so shocking was because it was the complete opposite of what one would expect from a mother. Her actions do not fall in line with how we perceive mothers or parents to behave. I feel like the audience would expect Natalia to do everything possible and sacrifice herself in order to protect her children. Perhaps, the reason she made such a radical decision was due to her surroundings at the time. She saw the impact of the war through the chaos and destruction around her, and therefore she decided that she must take extreme action. If her family would have fallen on hard times during a different time period, she may not have decided to act in that way. Her surroundings are a factor when questioning why she would make such a desperate and irrational decision.
My question to the class is, do you think that Natalia’s decision to kill herself and her family was brave/strong or cowardly/inhumane? And do you agree that Natalia’s decision may not have been so reckless if it were not for the war surrounding her? Or can we see through her other actions that she may have regardless made the same choice?
Posted in Blogs, Rodoreda | Tagged with extremism, tragedy, war
Of all the novels thus far, this one had the most unexpected ending and plot twist. The story starts rather sweetly, and suddenly escalates until the main character, Natalia, makes a horrifying decision. Initially, Natalia gets swept off of her feet and marries a man who ends up not being a good husband or person. Quimet, the husband, is rather lazy and undependable and displays abusive and toxic behaviours consistently. He continuously brings home doves but leaves them in the care of Natalia. In a way, I think that what Natalia was doing to the doves foreshadowed the climax of the story. Her husband had left her with helpless animals when she was unable to adequately care for them.
The way in which the story was written translates to how frantic Natalia may have been during that time. The author uses run-on sentences to replicate thought processes that Natalia may be having. She exhausts herself emotionally and physically as she develops fears about the war and surrounding world. The story is very tragic and explores how desperation can cause irrational beliefs and ideas.
The description of the family living a “bare life” is very accurate. Due to her lack of resources, her family is forced to merely survive and they are unable to truly live. This causes Natalia to make the extreme decision to kill herself and her children after her husband is killed. I think part of the reason that Natalia’s decision was so shocking was because it was the complete opposite of what one would expect from a mother. Her actions do not fall in line with how we perceive mothers or parents to behave. I feel like the audience would expect Natalia to do everything possible and sacrifice herself in order to protect her children. Perhaps, the reason she made such a radical decision was due to her surroundings at the time. She saw the impact of the war through the chaos and destruction around her, and therefore she decided that she must take extreme action. If her family would have fallen on hard times during a different time period, she may not have decided to act in that way. Her surroundings are a factor when questioning why she would make such a desperate and irrational decision.
My question to the class is, do you think that Natalia’s decision to kill herself and her family was brave/strong or cowardly/inhumane? And do you agree that Natalia’s decision may not have been so reckless if it were not for the war surrounding her? Or can we see through her other actions that she may have regardless made the same choice?
Posted in Blogs, Rodoreda | Tagged with extremism, tragedy, war
The novel, “Bonjour Tristesse” by Françoise Sagan was quite a rollercoaster of a story. Just from a brief description of the novel, I expected drama similar to “The Shrouded Woman”, focusing on family and relationships. However, after reading the text (and thanks to a warning from last week), I found it was also quite similar … Continue reading Week 6: Sagan’s “Bonjour Tristesse” →
Posted in Blogs, Sagan | Tagged with family, life, manipulation, perspective, relationships, revenge, Romance Studies, story, thought, tragedy, translation
