Carnivalesque

Mikhail Bakhtin's idea of carnivalesque is quite interesting and can be seen many times throughout Chapter 10 of "One hundred years of Solitude". One of the main ideas presented by Bakhtin was that carnival, although usually associated with a crowd, humor, and equalness through all social classes, Bakhitin says this celebration is more like a "Feast of Fools". However, in the novel what is being celebrated is the coronation of Remedios the Beauty, so there is in fact a difference in levels of importance. This is a moment in which like Bakhtin explains, the world has turned around and the occurring events are completely unexpected. On page 200, "Aureliano Segundo had satisfied at last his dream of dressing up like a tiger and was walking along the wild throng". In other words this carnival is just like a feast of fools in the aspect of what Aureliano Segundo had dressed up as. Chapter 10 is not the only place in this novel where the idea of carnivalesque is brought up.

First thoughts about 100 years of solitude

Throughout reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s “One hundred years of solitude”, I have noticed that this book is very interesting. One of the things I love about this book is the beginning. For me, the stories that begin with a phrase/statement that makes me ask many questions intrigue me. This book starts out by stating “many years later”, and that a long time ago the village was composed if “20 adobe houses”. I immediately began to wonder. What had caused such a change on the village of Macondo? What events had Colonel Aureliano Buendia perspired in order to end “facing the firing squad”? Garcia Marquez does fabulous job in capturing the readers’ attention in the beginning of this novel.

As the story continues, the readers are introduced to the gypsies, who they themselves introduce many “magical” items to the villagers. As we discussed in class the other day, it is fascinating to imagine that there actual places in the world that are so isolated from civilization (like Macondo) that are amazed by these “magical” items. This reminds me of a weekend trip I made while I was in Mexico this summer. My friends and I had decided to visit “El volcan Parikutin” ( a volcano that had erupted and covered a whole city. The only thing that was visible after the eruption was the top of a church). The local villagers did not speak Spanish, but rather an indigenous language, and when we would take out our IPODS, cell phones, cameras…etc, they would act amazed, as if we had brought some object that was only meant to exist in dreams. I really do like how Marquez plays with this idea of reality vs. a Utopian society. I cant wait to continue reading this book!

Thoughts on "Journey back to the source"

When I began to read Alejo Carpentier's "Journey back to the source", I was very intrigued by the fact that I could not really understand what in the world was going on. Then I was informed that Carpentier had written this story in reverse, which is something I had not had experience in reading and therefore could not identify it. Even though now I knew the answer, I could not understand exactly how the scenes were being sperated and organized. Continuing on what we were discussing in class today, I found really interesting that the comphrehension of this text has to do with our culture and how we write. I remember that one day somebody was holding a book written in a diffrent language, and I remember moving my finger from left to right attempting to read what was printed on the page. Immediatly, this person said to me that in this language you had to read vertically. To say the least, I gave up after like five seconds. I have been raised to always read and write from left to write, and in a way for me and teachers, time progresses the same way. For instance, in history class, the past is represented all the way to the right on a timeline, and as time progresses the events fall further and further to the left. This story to me is something extremelly clever. I love how in this short story, the language is progressing, however, the events are moving back in time. I believe it is incredible that Carpentier was able to create this piece of work. He really did experiement with language, and in a way, is trying to make people aware that there is another way of viewing certain things other than the way we normally view it as. Going back to Carpentier's biography, I read that he fled to Europe beacuse he was about to be imprisoned by singing a song that contained opinions he should not have given. In other words, this experiment with this piece of writting makes sense with the fact that Carpentier has not always been one that follows what is "normally" done, instead, he takes his chances and experiments.

Thoughts on Julia de Burgos's Poems

When I first started to read Julia de Burgo's poems, I was a bit confused about her gender, as were many others in the class. The first poem that I read from her collection was "To Julia de Burgos", and as I was reading it I believed she was a male, because of the way she was contrasting these two different beings. In every stanza, Burgos began by describing an action by a non independent person (a woman), and would then contrast it with by describing how an independent person would act. Because I was very confused by this, I decided to research a bit about Julia de Burgos, and I was able to find out that she was a civil rights activist for women. Knowing this, I reread the poem, and was immediately able to understand it a bit more. What I found very interesting was how she pretty much contradicted her own behaviors. In the third stanza, Burgos states that "you are the cold doll of social lives,/and me, the virile starburst of human life." In other words, in her letter to herself, she is kind of telling her outer self that she is not an activist and that she dos not do much when it comes to social life. However, she states that deep in her soul she is the "virile starburst of human life", or that she is actively involved in society, just like men. The reason that I love this poem, is that you would think that as a civil rights activist, Burgos would think she shows interest both externally as internally, but through reading this poem, one could tell her true opinions on her own self.

When I finished reading that poem, I moved on and began to read "Pentachrome". I have to say that I was more surprised reading this poem than the first one. I just could not understand why an activist for women would say they wanted "to be a man". To me, it seemed as if one would advocate for women, it was because they were against that all the men get the praise and honor. In this poem, Burgos states that she wants to be one of those people "converting into heroes of life". In my opinion, maybe she was just tired of fighting, and hated how it was just so easy for men. Maybe this is the reason she wishes she were a man, in order for things to be easier like it is for men.

"My Last Name"

As I was reading Guillen's poem, "My last name", I found myself smiling and nodding, as for everything I was reading sounded like reality and questions that seem normal to ask. In his poem, Guillen states that his last name is a "password...that is handed to me...and he carries it on his shoulders always through the streets". Just like he said, a name is something that it is used to identify a person, but in reality, does it really fulfill its purpose? A name cannot tell that person's life stories, and the battles and difficulties they had to go through. Also, as Guillen states in his poem, a name is something that can not truly identify a persons ethnic background, although some people try to do so. But why do we have to carry this name with us always? Why cant we just be individual people with all different last names?

Vicente Huidobro

As I was reading Huidobro's poem "Ars Poetica", I liked how pretty much the poet was tryng to state that poetry is not just words that are combined together to make a sentence, but rather it is "like a key opening a thousand doors". I feel that poetry sometimes may not be the most interesting piece of writing to read, but it does have deep meaning to it. In the third and fourth line of this poem, the poet states "A leaf falls; something flies by;let all the eye sees be created". In other words, I feel that in these two lines, Huidobro is trying to say that even by using these simple words and combining them together, "the soul of the listener can tremble". Although poetry can contain simple sentence structures, the poet is also saying that word diction matters a lot when writing a poem. He states in the first stanza that some words can either kill or give the poem a meaning. I do not feel like Huidobro is trying to say that word diction should dominate your thoughts when writing a poem, but rather by using the correct words/adjectives, give the poem the meaning you want it to have. In my opinion, I think Huidobro is trying to convey the idea that poetry should be written in a natural manner, and not over thought.

How poetry should be written

Continuing on today’s class discussion, I thought it was really interesting to read Manuel’s Bandeira’s “Poetics” and be able to compare his ideas with Marti and Dario. What I thought was really funny was that Bandeira was emphasizing the importance that a poem not have difficult words/allusions that one would have to look up. However, as I was reading Bandeira’s poem, I really didn’t understand the meaning of the words lyricism, raquitical, and syphilitical. Because I didn’t know these words, I was a bit distracted from being able to understand what he was trying to convey. What I like about Manuel Bandeira’s poem is that I pretty much agree with it. I think poetry should serve as for poets to easily convey their ideas to readers through a short form of writing. Bandeira states that he likes “the lyricism of the drunks”. In other words, drunks just go straight to the point when they speak, which is pretty much what Bandeira is saying all poetry should be. In contrast, Dario’s “I seek a form” sord of contradicts Bandeira’s thoughts on how poetry should be written. In this poem, Dario uses allusions and uses lots of symbols in order to convey his ideas. He does not go straight o the point, but instead he goes through this whole poem not being able to exactly describe the form his style wants to discover. Similar, Marti’s poem “The opposite of Ornate and Rhetorical poetry” states that poetry should be spontaneous or “natural”. Through this poem, Marti uses many natural imagery and he states that ideas should be symbolized with imagery. In other words, it is the opposite of what Bandeira states poetry should be.

Thoughts on Ariel

Picking up from where we left our class dicussion on Friday, I thought it was really interesting when Rodo begins to talk about the education system. I totally agree with the class when we said that the information and concepts we learn in school are applied to daily life, but I do not agree that all of this information is completly necessary. I kinda feel society has put an obligation of each student in learnig the material. In other words, if you are in a group and something really common omes up in the discussion and you dont know what it is, you look somehat of a fool. However, if society hadnt forced all of this information into the others, you would have not looked like a fool. In other words, I think that you should be taught skills that are going to be absolutly necessary to the job/career that one wants to follow. If there is a student that is creative and wants to follow an art path, why spend the time in learning derivitives in Calculus class. In contrast, if the student has an interest in mathematics why not spend the time in learning it. Some may argue that if this policy is followed than most people will be ignorant of certain topics, but in reality if a subject does not interest you and you study it anyways, you will ultimitly forget it and you will have lost many years in trying to learn it. If students were allowed more freedom in choosing all of their courses, than the level of interest would be higher, as well as grades achieved, and all would be content. If you really think about it, it makes a teachers' life much harder when they have like 15 students that just fall asleep during class. The teachers will have more orrecting to do beacuse there is alot of wrong answers, and the class wont have a lively feel to it.

Ruben Dario

As we were reading some of the peoms by Ruben Dario, I was very intrigued by the difference in tone and message in the poems "Springtime" and "Fatality". If Mr. Cummings had not told us that these two poems came from the same poet, I would not have believed it. One of the things I love, is how different the first stanza in each poem contrasts to the first stanza in the other poem. In the poem "Springtime", the reader can observe that the poem is very musical, flowery, optimistic, and shows the beauty of nature. Dario begins this poem with the line "month of roses". This immedialty sets a positive mood for the rest of the poem; due in part beacuse one associates "roses" with beauty, and positiveness. However, when one reads that there is "no burden heavier than that of conscious life"(Fatality), it can be conlcuded that the mood from the poem "Springtime" to the poem "Fatality" has changed drmatically. Not only is the cntent of these two poems different, but the titles of them both contradict each other tremendously. It is beacuse of this reason that I was having a hard time trying to understand how these two poems were written by the same poet. You would think that a poet would go throough life with an opinion/idea and then just express it on paper. However, it seems that Ruben Dario wants to express contradicting emotions in these two poems.

Marti's Poems

What I find most interestign about Marti's peoms is the fact that he contradicts things throughout his poems in order to convey harsh/emotional thoughts. For example, in his poem "The opposite of ornate and rhetorical poetry" he describes poety as "there an arid stone, here a golden/ Bird that gleams...". In other words, first he goes to say that it is like a stone, or something not beautiful, but then contardicts it by saying that it is like a glorious golden bird. As I was reading this poem, I noticed a lot of imagery. He referenced animals frequently to make a point, which I liked beacuse it really gave me a clear understanding of what he was trying to say. Animals (nature) is a common thing in the world, and what better way to convey certain points than with the creatures humans share the world with.

Ideas for the paper

During our conversation with Nina Scott, she had a very interesting comment regarding the moment in the novel when Sab takes Carlota, Theresa, and Don Carlos down to visit the caves in Cubitas and that Carlota's name is carved into the cave wall. Sab was the one to carve her name onto the wall and this is one of the moments in which we see that Sab is expressing the way he feels. A possible essay topic would be to write about how each of the characters in the novel express thier emotions differently. Sab uses underground or isolated places (also like the garden) in order to express himself, while Carlota expresses her emotions about Enrique openly. Theresa seems to not share many of her emotions but little by little her character begins to unravel. In toher words, this would be like a character development essay, but instead of just writing about the traits of certain characters, it would discuss how the characters express their emotions throughout the novel.

Skyping with Nina Scott

I thought that our conversation with Nina Scott this morning was very interesting and informational. I really enjoyed how she took the time to actaualy go through our questions one by one, and how her responses were very clear in informing us what we had asked. I had imagined that Nina Scott had translated other novels/poems, but I was surprised to find out that she felt as if the poems were much harder to translate. I thought that because a novel was much longer than a poem, and had many more symbols/allusions/plot, that a novel would be harder to translate. I also liked how Nina Scott was not embarrassed to say that her original translated version of Sab was not very good. Many other translators would not share that information, but as Nina explained, through her errors she was able to revise the original translation and make it into what her translated version of Sab is today. I do believe that Nina made a good decision to translate Sab into the 19th century English. If she would have written it in contemporary English, I feel like some of Avellaneda's original work would have been changed, and therefore the novel would have lost some of its time meaning to me. When I first bought the novel Sab, I looked at the picture on the front cover for quite some time, trying to understand and predict what the novel was about based on the book. Just now did I realize that I was looking it too superficially. I loved how Nina Scott explained how and why she chose this picture to be the cover of the text. This picture has true depth to it, with symbolism, and really what Sab says throughout the novel. At the start, this was just like any ordinary picture of a slave I had seen, but now I understand that it truly characterizes the character of Sab. Like he said in the novel, Sab is just a mulatto and a slave, which is exactly what the picture is portraying. In other words, I feel that all my questions of Sab were answered, and it was pretty cool to talk with the translator of Sab.

Sab's Characteristics

When i was first introduced to the novel "Sab", I immediatlty thought that it was going to be like all the other books that are written abotu slaves; a slave that falls in love with the master's daughter and then ends up being punished by the owner. However, Avellaneda fills Sab's personality with mystery, passion, intensity, love, and desperation. One of the moments in the novel that seems to support the idea of Sab having a mysterious personality is the event that occurs the night of the storm in which Enrique gets injured. Right after Enriques fall, Avellaneda describes that Sab made a "terrible smile". (Page50) His soul was divided into two opposite thoughts; Sab smiled beacause part of him was content with what had happened to Enrique, but Sab's smile wasnt entirley positive. His terrible smile meant that he did not want to be the cause of Enrique's death or be put in a situation in which he has to decide his fate, which is why ultimitly Sab saves Enrique's life. One would think that Sab, like any other man who is despertly in love with a woman, would do anything in order to have Carlota's love just for himself, but instead there are many moments throuhgout the novel in whcih Sab sacrifices his chances of being with Carlota.