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.