|
Welcome earthlings to the Awful Book of the Month! In this thread, we choose one work of Resources: Project Gutenberg - http://www.gutenberg.org - A database of over 17000 books available online. If you can suggest books from here, that'd be the best. SparkNotes - http://www.sparknotes.com/ - A very helpful Cliffnotes-esque site, but much better, in my opinion. If you happen to come in late and need to catch-up, you can get great character/chapter/plot summaries here.  For recommendations on future material, suggestions on how to improve the club, or just a general rant, feel free to PM me. Past Books of the Month 2011: January: John Keats, Endymion Febuary/March: Miguel Cervantes, Don Quixote April: Laurell K. Hamilton, Obsidian Butterfly May: Richard A. Knaak - Diablo #1: Legacy of Blood June: Pamela Britton - On The Move July: Raymond Chandler - The Big Sleep August: Louis L'Amour - Bendigo Shafter September: Ian Fleming - Moonraker October: Ray Bradbury - Something Wicked This Way Comes November: John Ringo - Ghost December: James Branch Cabell - Jurgen 2012: January: G.K. Chesterton - The Man Who Was Thursday Febuary: M. Somerset Maugham - Of Human Bondage March: Joseph Heller - Catch-22 April: Zack Parsons - Liminal States May: Haruki Murakami - Norwegian Wood June: James Joyce - Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man July: William S. Burroughs - Naked Lunch August: William Faulkner - The Sound & The Fury September/October: Leo Tolstoy - War & Peace November: David Mitchell - Cloud Atlas December: Kurt Vonnegut - Mother Night 2013 January: Walter M. Miller - A Canticle for Liebowitz Febuary: Alfred Bester - The Stars My Destination March: Kazuo Ishiguro - Remains Of The Day April: Don Delillo - White Noise May: Anton LeVey - The Satanic Bible June/July: Susanna Clarke - Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell August: Michael Swanwick - Stations of the Tide September: John Wyndham - Day of the Triffids October: Shirley Jackson - The Haunting of Hill House November: Iain Banks - The Wasp Factory December: Roderick Thorp - Nothing Lasts Forever 2014: January: Ursula K. LeGuin - The Left Hand of Darkness February: Mikhail Bulgalov - Master & Margarita March: Richard P. Feynman -- Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! April: James Joyce -- Dubliners Current:  100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez About the Author quote:Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez (American Spanish: [ɡaˈβɾjel ɣarˈsi.a ˈmarkes] About this sound audio (help·info); 6 March 1927 – 17 April 2014) was a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo throughout Latin America. Considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century, he was awarded the 1972 Neustadt International Prize for Literature and the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature.[1] He pursued a self-directed education that resulted in his leaving law school for a career in journalism. From early on, he showed no inhibitions in his criticism of Colombian and foreign politics. In 1958, he married Mercedes Barcha; they had two sons, Rodrigo and Gonzalo.[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Garc%C3%ADa_M%C3%A1rquez Discussion: This thread is for general discussion of anything you think of while reading this book. Whether you liked it or hated the book, whether you liked or hated the author personally, other books it reminds you of, that thing your dad did that one time, how Foucault's theory of discourse provides a useful lens to discuss gender relationships in the text, farts, whatever. The biggest problem we've had with the Book of the Month has been lack of participation, so just saying something that demonstrates you've actually read a page or two shows people that everyone else is doing it and encourages the next guy to jump into our nice warm lake as well. Questions & Themes: This is a big honkin' book full of stuff that happens. The first time I read it a lot of things in it didn't make much sense to me, and I was never sure whether things were supposed to make sense and I was missing something, or they weren't and that was the point, or what. I know there are a lot of leftist and Latin-American political references being made in this book but I didn't know enough Latin American history to catch them. Another thing I'd like to explore is the difference between "magic realism", "actual realism" of writers like Hemingway, and the Western fantasy novel tradition (which everyone here knows too much about). For example, western writers tend to say things like this about Marquez: quote:Prominent English-language fantasy writers have said that "magic realism" is only another name for fantasy fiction. Gene Wolfe said, "magic realism is fantasy written by people who speak Spanish,"[60] and Terry Pratchett said magic realism "is like a polite way of saying you write fantasy."[61] While the man himself describes his work very differently: quote:It always amuses me that the biggest praise for my work comes for the imagination, while the truth is that there's not a single line in all my work that does not have a basis in reality. The problem is that Caribbean reality resembles the wildest imagination. quote:Ultimately, literature is nothing but carpentry. With both you are working with reality, a material just as hard as wood. http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/g/gabriel_garcia_marquez.html Final Note: If you have any suggestions to change, improve or assess the book club generally, please PM or email me -- i.e., keep it out of this thread -- at least until into the last five days of the month, just so we don't derail discussion of the current book with meta-discussion. I do want to hear new ideas though, seriously, so please do actually PM or email me or whatever, or if you can't do either of those things, just hold that thought till the last five days of the month before posting it in this thread. Thanks, and I hope everyone enjoys the book! Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 17:10 on May 1, 2014 |
#
?
May 1, 2014 16:57
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 7, 2024 23:29 |
|
|
I'm only a few chapters in so I can't really comment on any of the broader themes or content, but one thing I'm wondering is whether it's Marquez's style or a facet of the Spanish language to refer to characters both by given and family names so frequently, even in dialogue. Colonel Aureliano Buendia is almost always referred to as that, Jose Arcadio Buendia etc. As for the difference between magical realism and fantasy, I always thought magical realism meant the setting was a mostly normal world where strange or supernatural things occur usually without being the entire focus/purpose of the story, and fantasy was in a full blown different world. Eau de MacGowan fucked around with this message at 17:48 on May 2, 2014 |
|
#
?
May 2, 2014 17:43
|
|
|
Hieronymous Alloy posted:
I'd actually really like to read about Latin-America and in particular how it relates to One Hundred Years of Solitude. Does anyone have any good sites/articles/reading material about that? I know pretty much nothing about the history of Latin America. Magical realism is like the fantasy genre, except that fantasy is "genre fiction". With genre fiction (aka popular fiction) I mean any plot-driven fictional work written with the intent of fitting into a specific literary genre in order to appeal to readers and fans already familiar with that genre (definition lifted from wikipedia). Magical realism is it's cousin in literary fiction. In some way I agree with Pratchett, although I do think there's a meaningful difference since making the difference is certainly useful when discussing novels.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2014 19:08
|
|
|
Magical realism, in reference to Spanish literature, is a part of the culture it stems from, not of deliberate affectations to shift the narrative into the world of fantasy. When Gabo writes of a man becoming a tree, or Isabel Allende writes of hereditary psychic powers, or Junot Diaz talks of the curse of Trujillo, they're not saying "wouldn't it be cool if there was like, wizards and poo poo but nobody even cared," they're writing from a cultural perspective where the supernatural is far closer to the surface. They, especially Gabo, accentuate the magical in the same way Western authors will accentuate the violence, sex or politics in their book - it makes sense to accentuate a constant when you're telling fiction, but it's not added out of nowhere. I'm not saying everything under the blanket umbrella of "magical realism" is this - a lot of people do just use the term because they're afraid of writing genre. But in the specific context of magical realism from Central American authors, there's cultural stuff to recognize.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2014 19:53
|
|
|
Whalley posted:Magical realism, in reference to Spanish literature, is a part of the culture it stems from, not of deliberate affectations to shift the narrative into the world of fantasy. When Gabo writes of a man becoming a tree, or Isabel Allende writes of hereditary psychic powers, or Junot Diaz talks of the curse of Trujillo, they're not saying "wouldn't it be cool if there was like, wizards and poo poo but nobody even cared," they're writing from a cultural perspective where the supernatural is far closer to the surface. They, especially Gabo, accentuate the magical in the same way Western authors will accentuate the violence, sex or politics in their book - it makes sense to accentuate a constant when you're telling fiction, but it's not added out of nowhere. That makes sense, my experience with magical realism is limited to Marquez, Bukhanov, Murakami and perhaps Crowley ("perhaps" because I do not know wether Little, Big can be classified as magical realism) so I know in comparison little about South American magical realism. Are Gabo, Allende and Diaz the other Latin/South American writers of magical realism you would recommend? What about Borges?
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2014 18:15
|
|
|
So I've mostly been reading books on my Kindle of late, and as far as I can tell the only version available on the Kindle is in the original Spanish, a language I unfortunately do not speak terribly well. I guess what I'm wondering, is do I have any options apart from ordering a good old ink-and-paper copy? I don't mind overly much if that is so, though it will delay my start date.
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2014 18:49
|
|
|
Walh Hara posted:That makes sense, my experience with magical realism is limited to Marquez, Bukhanov, Murakami and perhaps Crowley ("perhaps" because I do not know wether Little, Big can be classified as magical realism) so I know in comparison little about South American magical realism. Are Gabo, Allende and Diaz the other Latin/South American writers of magical realism you would recommend? What about Borges? Gabo is Gabriel Garcia Marquez; it's a stupid dumb fuckin' slang thing that I picked up because apparently I talk about him too much to people who are huge fans of his. Isabel Allende was a student of Marquez, and a lot of his traits you can see in her works; I just finished her most famous book House Of The Spirits recently and was honestly kind of let down compared to Eva Luna, which was fantastic. Junot Diaz isn't Columbian, but Dominican; he uses magical realism, but in a more modern/cynical sense - pick up The Brief Wonderous Life Of Oscar Wao for a book that both uses magical realism, and makes fun of/parodies certain tropes by assigning them to the titular character's obsession with comic books/science fiction. It's a fantastic read, but is ridiculously more modern contemporary than you'd find in Allende or Marquez. Borges is like this scientific rational version of magical realism; having said that, I haven't actually read any of his novels to really comment too strongly, only his short stories. In those, while he uses magical realism elements, they've come across more as dry science magic rather than Marquez's poetic romantic magic. If that makes sense.
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2014 23:11
|
|
|
Ok, I'm about halfway through. What's with all the incest? Also, is there a website anywhere with page-by-page annotations? Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 13:30 on May 5, 2014 |
|
#
?
May 5, 2014 12:10
|
|
|
I think Finnin's post from the Gabriel Garcia Marquez thread is excellent and should shed some light on Marquez's style:Finnin posted:I think one of the reasons you may have problems understanding Magical Realism and it confusing you as has been said in this thread has to due with lack of cultural awareness. To understand the concept of Magical Realism you have to understand Latin culture. Some would argue that in fact you would need to understand South American culture, and place said culture in a box that while remaining connected to Latin cultures of the Caribbean and Central America, is essentially very different. I've just started the book - just finished the first chapter - but I love how the narrative winds back and forth into the past and the present, like a rambling story that the teller can't help but interrupt, because he's got to tell you about this OTHER thing that happened... yet somehow it never feels rambling.
|
|
#
?
May 5, 2014 15:58
|
|
|
Hieronymous Alloy posted:Ok, I'm about halfway through. What's with all the incest? I'm still not entirely sure the rules here on spoilers but the following is only as far as about p. 160. For some reason I didn't find the Rebeca/José Arcadio that weird. I guess him having been gone for so long and coming back such a hulk made him feel like a totally unrelated outsider. But the Amaranta/Aureliano José did feel really off, even if it was never consummated. Too freudian, I think haha. But anyway, 160 pages in. Absolutely love it so far. I remember literary gremlin Harold Bloom talked (complained?) about the density of sentences -- he's right in a way. Each 'chapter' contains so much action is dizzying. I feel like I've absorbed a tome already and I'm not even halfway through, but it's so impressive.
|
|
#
?
May 5, 2014 17:15
|
|
|
I got about halfway through when I stopped reading this a few months back, because he introduced another batch of kids with the same names as every previous generation and I honestly couldn't take it anymore. If there was some edit to the book where everyone had extremely distinctive names, that'd rule. I love the book to death, but holy crap I'm sick of flipping back to that family tree.
|
|
#
?
May 7, 2014 04:30
|
|
|
I'm using a digital version so the page number probably doesn't synch up with a physical copy but I think I'm halfway through chapter 3 or so. I figured I should write up my comment before I forget it (irony). It feels like the amnesia plague is more of a representation of a changing lifestyle. The village before was remote and they had to do things the old way , further contact with the modern town just past the swamp brought the disease (new technology , electricity , mail , most notably longer work hours and related stresses). They are also forgetting the old ways and attempts to stem the tide may be useful in the short term but not forever. I'm sure my face will be red in a bit when its cured in a silly way.
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2014 05:25
|
|
|
Jeep posted:I'm still not entirely sure the rules here on spoilers but the following is only as far as about p. 160. I'm going to double post but after you pointed this out, a lot really does happen in one chapter. There is a noticeable lack of description for many of the nouns in the novel. It's a stark difference from the past few "serious" novels I've read.
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2014 05:31
|
|
|
I'm glad I have a paperback because constantly referring to the family tree on a Kindle would have sucked. It seemed like events in the book seemed to get more abrupt as the book went on, like time was speeding up. For example, in Chapter 12 Remedios the Beauty suddenly ascends into heaven.
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2014 06:43
|
|
|
DannyTanner posted:I'm glad I have a paperback because constantly referring to the family tree on a Kindle would have sucked. It seemed like events in the book seemed to get more abrupt as the book went on, like time was speeding up. For example, in Chapter 12 Remedios the Beauty suddenly ascends into heaven. The way he handled the passage of time in the book is fantastic. Events absolutely got more abrupt as the book went on, partially because as you age, things seem to happen faster, and partially because as the world gets more modern, people dwell on the immediate news and actions around them less to look out at the world more. I should really re-read this instead of just going from memory.
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2014 15:06
|
|
|
quote:NEW YORK—Warning that such occurrences pose a grave threat to the global economy and millions of human lives, a report presented Thursday at a United Nations summit on magical realism highlights an alarming increase in incidences in which the whole world is completely flooded by the tears of a grieving woman. http://www.theonion.com/articles/un-report-on-magical-realism-warns-of-increased-in,35985/
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2014 13:52
|
|
|
I have a bit of an issue with this book. I gave it to an old girlfriend once, and she broke up with me soon after. I'm sure the two are unrelated but who knows. I've been looking for an excuse to read this again. Hopefully calamity won't befall me this time.
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2014 18:52
|
|
|
Ddraig posted:I have a bit of an issue with this book. I gave it to an old girlfriend once, and she broke up with me soon after. I'm sure the two are unrelated but who knows. Using themes from the book , it will. I hope your new girlfriend doesn't share the same name as your old one!
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2014 20:51
|
|
|
Can we go with memory on the Awful book of the month, or do we need to read it fresh? I read this >5 years ago so what remains in my foggy memory might be a different way to evaluate the book. This book really made me wish I could read Spanish, I felt like I was looking at the imagery through a foggy window and I was loosing something in the translation. The descriptions and emotions were vivid and powerful and I felt like they would be even more impact if I could see the original version. This book wasn't so much about deep insights about the meaning of it all, but for me but more like a look at history and insights into people. The story created a vivid image and a peek at people living their lives how they touched each other and their town. He did a great job transporting me to their village and I felt like a fly on the wall. What I liked about the story progressing was the repetition and consistent reminders of things from the past, and hints about things in the future. The cycles of the family and the town growing up and old together the rise and the fall, the repetition, and parallels really worked. Also What I remember most was how he tied it up so nicely in the end with the pig tail really made a strong finish bringing it all together, such a perfect ending Anyway that is what I remember most, I will try to re-read it this month and hopefully have some more detailed and specific thoughts. Either way a good book to choose ! J4Gently fucked around with this message at 23:08 on May 12, 2014 |
|
#
?
May 12, 2014 23:05
|
|
|
Lumius posted:Using themes from the book , it will. I hope your new girlfriend doesn't share the same name as your old one! And make sure she isn't related....
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2014 23:06
|
|
|
So... what's the deal with the 17 Aurelianos? I don't think they're directly symbolic of anything in particular, but the Ash Wednesday marks that don't disappear, the fact that Marquez keeps emphasizing that there are 17 of them, and their collective death makes me think that it's more than just "here's another zany thing that happens to those Buendias!" The main think I think is that they represent the dead sons of Colombia from wars, political violence, etc. The ash on their foreheads is not really protection, but rather a bulls-eye. But that's just my thought. Anyone else have any ideas?
|
|
#
?
May 15, 2014 18:18
|
|
|
Walh Hara posted:. Are Gabo, Allende and Diaz the other Latin/South American writers of magical realism you would recommend? What about Borges? I had an entire class in high school on Latin American fiction. We read Marquez, Allende, Borges and this little known author, Juan Rulfo. I highly recommend Juan Rulfo's Pedro Paramo. . Gabo cites him as an influence on his work after 1961. And if you're enjoying hundred years, read 'Living to Tell the Take,' it's amazing to read about his life and at times feel like you are reading 100 years. The line between what seems real and what is in fact a fantastic story can be very thin.
|
|
#
?
May 16, 2014 21:23
|
|
|
Purplbear and Whalley, those books sounds great, thanks for the recommendations! Just checked and my library actually has all books (and all authors) recommended here (which was a pleasant surprise) so next time I visit the library I'll be sure to rent some of them.
|
|
#
?
May 16, 2014 22:26
|
|
|
Native spanish speaker here, this book constantly made me roll my eyes and hate the whole genre forever (even though I read a bunch more of his books that weren't that "magical", his autobiography particularly). I absolutely hated the book, and had about 50 pages left to finish but one day I put it on top of a car that was parked, and I guess someone was in the car and drove off with the book. I took it as a sign from God and said "Good riddance". Juan Rulfo is legit great, though, and while not so "magical", the spanish version of Pedro Páramo is incredibly well written. I believe it's the only novel he ever wrote. I'll admit I'm not an "artsy" kind of guy, stuff like David Lynch and "But what did the artist MEAN when he wrote all these zany situations?", Ilustrado, or people discussing Koyanisqaatsi on 3 pounds of weed make me roll my eyes so hard they come out of the other side of my head and jump into a lake and become a shining goldfish who swims for 12 years and then is fished by an icelandic viking who eats it and then writes the most beautiful book ever written in nordic language. I was going to post that Onion article too.
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2014 23:51
|
|
|
HOW COULD YOU posted:I got about halfway through when I stopped reading this a few months back, because he introduced another batch of kids with the same names as every previous generation and I honestly couldn't take it anymore. If there was some edit to the book where everyone had extremely distinctive names, that'd rule. There's a reason why they have similar names. Pay attention to their personality traits and how they deal with the world around them  Whalley posted:She was a gift granted to a people who didn't appreciate her. She was an example of old-world beauty, of naivety and innocence. She had to go, because she was a symbol of Latin America of the past, but to leave through violence or corruption would just leave a sour taste in the mouth. She ascends and goes away while doing laundry in the middle of the afternoon as a greater metaphor for how modernism has stripped away at the spirituality and tradition of Latin America, until without anybody realizing the exact turning point but the magic and beauty was just gone. You can't kill magic, you can't destroy history; it just leaves inconsequentially and everyone feels worse off for its departure. Or at least, that's how I interpreted that bit. Going from memory here, but doesn't that also mark a turning point in the transition of magic to science and technology? Not soon after that comes the advent of the railroad and the banana plantations. hope and vaseline fucked around with this message at 22:01 on May 18, 2014 |
|
#
?
May 18, 2014 21:54
|
|
|
hope and vaseline posted:There's a reason why they have similar names. Pay attention to their personality traits and how they deal with the world around them Well now your smugface has doomed you to elaboration.
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2014 22:14
|
|
|
Just off the top off my head, the recurring character names. Ursula - the matron, forever warning against incest Arcadio - wild imagination, untamed, popular with women, disregard warnings of their wives/mother Aureliano - solitary, insular, prophetic Remedios - innocence, early death (The last Remedios effectively dies inside when her lover is shot and she enters a convent) Amaranta - spinster, incestuous relationships The twins swapped themselves around so much that no one was sure who was who, and they exhibit traits of both Aurelianos and Arcadios in their lives before reaching a turning point and settling into their appropriate personalities. Amaranta Ursula's name cancels out the original Ursula's forewarnings of incest, and her relationship with the final Aureliano completes Melquiades prophecy of the town built not on ice, but mirrors, where the inhabitants are doomed to repeat their tragedies until the end of Macondo.
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2014 23:25
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 7, 2024 23:29 |
|
|
Whalley posted:Magical realism, in reference to Spanish literature, is a part of the culture it stems from, not of deliberate affectations to shift the narrative into the world of fantasy. When Gabo writes of a man becoming a tree, or Isabel Allende writes of hereditary psychic powers, or Junot Diaz talks of the curse of Trujillo, they're not saying "wouldn't it be cool if there was like, wizards and poo poo but nobody even cared," they're writing from a cultural perspective where the supernatural is far closer to the surface. They, especially Gabo, accentuate the magical in the same way Western authors will accentuate the violence, sex or politics in their book - it makes sense to accentuate a constant when you're telling fiction, but it's not added out of nowhere. I bogged down on my current re-read of this book somewhere around the 13th or 14th Aureliano but at this point I am leaning pretty strongly towards the idea that "magical realism," at least for Marquez, is something very distinct from western-style fantasy. It's surrealism, not magic, and there's a real difference there. It's like all the "magic" elements are things that could pop out of an oral tradition as the popularly-told "real history" of this particular town; maybe things didn't happen exactly like that but that's how everyone told the story so that's what the truth was as the people in the town lived it. Next month's Book of the Month is going to be People's History of the United States because it was runner up last month.
|
|
#
?
May 29, 2014 18:52
|
|