SPAN312C Blog

This week we read Robert Bolaño's book,  Distant Star .  Distant Star  covers themes of art, poetry, fascist art, death and revenge. The book opens with our unnamed narrator, who is a poetry student. All is well and peaceful until an odd man, Alberto Ruiz-Tagle, shows up. He was not like the other students; he was well-dressed and clearly had some money of his own. The students noticed that... "There was something distant and cold about his writing." (11)  Little did they know that Alberto Ruiz-Tagle was also known as Weider, a post-coup pilot in Pinochet's air force. This made me feel like I was reading a mystery book, trying to figure out who this mysterious man was and his purpose.  After some time, the 1973 Chilean coup d'état happens, and the narrator is imprisoned in a concentration camp. After our narrator is freed from the camp, he is told that many poetry students have gone missing, including the beloved Garmendia sisters, who were his favourite in his ...

Rigoberta Menchú is a resilient, strong leader of her Quiche Inidan community. Her life story we read this week was very eye-opening, sad and a reflection of the discrimination her community faced in Guatemala. Menchú grew up in the highlands of Altiplano with her family and worked on the Spanish plantations. As they worked, they were constantly put into crowded places, malnourished and pesticide sprayed. Reading about this horrible experience was hard, but it is very true and reminded me of the migrant workers in Canada who come to work here. They are treated like Menchú and her community because they lack the culture and language. Yet, Menchú overcomes many sad and life-disrupting events. When Menchú's brother Nicolas dies because of malnutrition, she is filled with anger and grief. Even though she is young, this painful moment starts her path to push and advocate for her community and their rights. Menchú is inspiring and resilient; she idolizes her father and takes on leadershi...

Mario Vargus Llosa's book has many parodical elements. His themes of sex, desire, and prostitution are put into very serious terms. As Jon mentions in the lecture, these terms are usually in a freer environment and not discussed or used in formal senses. This comedic play on desire differs greatly from other texts we have read. Although this book had very complex topics, Vargus Llosa does a fantastic job at turning 'sex' into something structured, creating a parodical, funny view. It was hard to grasp this parodic view sometimes, especially when women were oppressed and exploited. But, when I was reading, I did my best to focus on the style, and 'funny' language, instead of the exploitation. With this in mind, I want to focus on two parodic themes in my blog post today. How the special service acts as a system to stop the havoc and chaos the military is causing, but funny enough, the special service creates havoc, too and causes a downfall.  Llosa's world is cha...

The last 200 pages of Garcia Marquez's book took readers on another bumpy but thrilling journey. Some themes from this last half I want to discuss in my blog today are decline, fate, horror, open vs. closed and multitudes.  Macondo is in a state of decline in the last half of Marquez's book. People are slowly migrating out of the town, the birds are flying away, and even the Buendia family's fate is in a state of decline. There are many reasons why Macondo is in this decline. Still, first, I want to focus on the Buendia family's fate and the fall of their family.  The Buendia house is a place of history in Macondo. Generations of the family have lived and been a part of the Buendia family. 100 Years of Solitude focuses on the Buendia family's character lives and incestual relations.  Internally, the Buenida family is causing their own decline, and their fate leads to the physical destruction of Macondo. The family has a curse that is caused by their incestual relati...