This week’s reading was on Amulet by Roberto Bolaño. I was intrigued by the very first words in this book, “[i]n our misery we wanted to scream for help, but there was no one there to come to our aid” (Pertonius). This seemed like a very dark start compared to the previous book’s we’ve analyzed. …
Posted in Blogs, Bolaño | Tagged with female, memory, trauma, true events
Roberto Bolaño’s Amulet is indeed a story of a terrible crime, as the introductory paragraph of the novel indicates. The story is associated with painful memories that are difficult to talk about. In the narrative point of view of an Uruguayan woman named Auxilio Lacouture, a tale of poetry, trauma, and political resistance is told. […]
Posted in Blogs, Bolaño | Tagged with idealism, politics, trauma, violence
This was the first book I read entirely in one sitting. I was surprised, but how could you not keep on reading when the first line is “This is going to be a horror story”(pg.1) … The theme of memory is quite present throughout Auxilio’s broken narrative. Her recollections seem very “…fragmentary, as if mauled … Continue reading “Thoughts on Bolaño’s Amulet”
Posted in Blogs, Bolaño | Tagged with Hallucination, memory, Mexico, Poetry, trauma
This novel had me spiralling fro numerous reasons; however, for the purpose of this blog post, I shall focus on the contrasting chapters alone. It is rare that I come across a reading that I relate to so closely and envy the author for their ability to encapsulate a rare feeling so vividly. The feeling […]
Posted in Blogs, Perec | Tagged with authorial intent, dystopian, georges, hyperrealism, Imagination, pain, Surrealism, the real, trauma, war
Finally! An author I know! I have been SLOWLY reading Perec’s A Void for ages now, I really cant get into it because I keep just rereading sections to make sure there is really no ‘e’ there. I have to admit the difficulty I had reading A Void did not give me much hope for this book. I could talk extensively about my appreciation of A Void in an artistic, boundary pushing, breaking away from norms wowee kinda way but as a book goes, it is kinda rough to read honestly. Anyway! Onto the book I am actually meant to be writing about. W, or the Memory of Childhood was pleasantly read-able for me. It became very quickly obvious that there was two seperate sets of memories that were intertwined into eachother. A note at the beginning of the book brough to my attention that ‘W’ should not be thought of as ‘double-u’ as in French it is called ‘double vé.’ I do not know what the word in French but in Spanish I first thought of vida which I guess I should note means life incase you don’t know. The title fits perfectly for the two intertwining stories being told.
The more fantastical storyline occuring in this novel struck me as a childs coping mechanism at first. I know atleast the part about the island W is based off of a story Perec wrote at 13. When this storyline switched over to focusing on the island I was immediately struck by how cultish it felt. I was intrigued and really found myself looking forward to the next part. The extreme conditions the athletes lived in were representative of what Perec’s mother went through in the concentration camps in real life. This comparison lead me to further realize thar this fantastical story was like a parallel world to real life. A still pretty depressing reimagination of the horrific things that a 13 year old may not have been able to fully comprehend.
I pretty quickly became a lot more interested in the story about the island than the chapters about Perec’s fragmented and warped childhood memories but overall I really enjoyed both. It was depressing honestly, it wasn’t because of what I was reading but the context around it and this sorta childlike but also disturbing tale being told at the same time made me sad. I am done rambling now I think, I have no other thoughts about this that I can word well. To wrap this up I have a very simple question, which part of this story interested you more?
Finally! An author I know! I have been SLOWLY reading Perec’s A Void for ages now, I really cant get into it because I keep just rereading sections to make sure there is really no ‘e’ there. I have to admit the difficulty I had reading A Void did not give me much hope for this book. I could talk extensively about my appreciation of A Void in an artistic, boundary pushing, breaking away from norms wowee kinda way but as a book goes, it is kinda rough to read honestly. Anyway! Onto the book I am actually meant to be writing about. W, or the Memory of Childhood was pleasantly read-able for me. It became very quickly obvious that there was two seperate sets of memories that were intertwined into eachother. A note at the beginning of the book brough to my attention that ‘W’ should not be thought of as ‘double-u’ as in French it is called ‘double vé.’ I do not know what the word in French but in Spanish I first thought of vida which I guess I should note means life incase you don’t know. The title fits perfectly for the two intertwining stories being told.
The more fantastical storyline occuring in this novel struck me as a childs coping mechanism at first. I know atleast the part about the island W is based off of a story Perec wrote at 13. When this storyline switched over to focusing on the island I was immediately struck by how cultish it felt. I was intrigued and really found myself looking forward to the next part. The extreme conditions the athletes lived in were representative of what Perec’s mother went through in the concentration camps in real life. This comparison lead me to further realize thar this fantastical story was like a parallel world to real life. A still pretty depressing reimagination of the horrific things that a 13 year old may not have been able to fully comprehend.
I pretty quickly became a lot more interested in the story about the island than the chapters about Perec’s fragmented and warped childhood memories but overall I really enjoyed both. It was depressing honestly, it wasn’t because of what I was reading but the context around it and this sorta childlike but also disturbing tale being told at the same time made me sad. I am done rambling now I think, I have no other thoughts about this that I can word well. To wrap this up I have a very simple question, which part of this story interested you more?
This week’s read of Perec’s “W, or the Memory of Childhood” I found the most challenging so far to follow the story. Initially after reading the introduction, announcing there are two alternate texts I was intrigued. Despite my confusion with separating the two texts the change between italics helped me figure it out. Oddly enough, …
Continue reading “W, or the Memory of Childhood by Georges Perec”
Posted in Blogs, Perec | Tagged with autobiography, memory, trauma
This novel confronts the theme of memory quite differently than the others we’ve previously read. Most of the texts I’d read before this speak from a point of memory, past-tense, and experience, whereas Perec approached memories that weren’t there. It brought an alternate perspective of how some have the privilege of accessing and reflecting on […]
Posted in Blogs, Perec | Tagged with childhood, France, hesitation, holocaust, loss, memory, Romance text, trauma, uncertainty, war
Although I thought that this ended up being a great book, I didn’t particularly like the writing style that this book was done in. The double narration sometimes made story details and characters feel blurred together between the two stories that were being told. This made it very hard for me to become interested and […]
Posted in Blogs, Perec | Tagged with childhood, memory, nostalgia, trauma, war
