Killing of the sons

I was rather disappointed when all but one of the sons of CAB were killed.  Although they were in part responsible for the many new and not so nice additions to Macondo, I found them to be characters with a lot of potential for the rest of the story.  I am now particularly looking forward to what his eldest son will accomplish, being the only one left alive.  The new additions to Macondo were rather shocking to me, I did not in the least expect Macondo to develop into a rough town.  The size increase was not all that shocking, but the way in which the incomers behaved and separated themselves was.  Remedios the Beauty was also a character that caught my attention.  Firstly, the way that she over simplified everything was rather clever.  She ended up getting to do whatever she wanted whenever she wanted.  The way that all of the "gringos" were attracted to her was another piece of the story that I thought could have a lot of potential, possibly setting Remedios up to be a very powerful figure.  This opportunity was taken away when she literally ascended.  One day when in the backyard, strong winds came and carried her into the sky.  Although not the ending of Remedios the Beauty I was looking for, this type of even has come to be expected by this point in the novel.

Memory

Memory comes up throughout One Hundred Years of Solitude.  The village nearly falls to insomnia, when people die they become memories, when Colonel Aureliano Buendia goes to sign the peace treaty he destroys all physical memory of himself.  An interesting note about the memory of Colonel Aureliano Buendia and his present self is the difference between the two.  He has returned a man beaten by war that appears to have very little emotion left and certainly does not care about his old hobbies such as crafting the gold fish.  When the village looses all memory, it falls into the hands of a deck of cards.  Memory is the way that we recall the past.  It is not necessarily accurate and therefore not always true.  I do not believe that heredity memory exits in reality although I am sure there are plenty of people who would argue the point.  In these ways, memory not only what makes us intelligent, able to speak, read, and write, but also human.

Current Event

While this does not apply to what we have been reading in class I found it to be an interesting article that applies present day Latin America.

Venezuela's Chavez Calls for Obama to End U.S. Embargo on Cuba
By Steven Bodzin

Nov. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called for U.S. Senator Barack Obama, favored in opinion polls to win the presidential election on Nov. 4, to end his country's trade embargo of Cuba.

``A black man may become president of the U.S., and we can say that's no small thing,'' Chavez said in a speech on state television. ``Hopefully, the next government of the U.S. will listen to the mandate, not just of morals, ethics and the times, but also the mandate of the UN that days ago voted, once more, asking the U.S. to eliminate its savage blockade of Cuba.''

The U.S. declared a trade embargo on Cuba almost 50 years ago and has maintained it in the face of criticism from around the world. In a United Nations vote Oct. 29, 185 nations pressed the U.S. to drop the embargo, with only the U.S., Israel and Palau voting against the resolution.

Venezuela is one of Cuba's closest allies. Chavez referred to Cuba's government during the broadcast as having a common government with Venezuela, and he offered his customary greeting to Fidel Castro, the former Cuban president, by saying ``How are you, Fidel?'' in English.

Chavez also called on the U.S. to end ``threats'' against Venezuela and Iran, without elaborating.

To contact the reporter on this story: Steven Bodzin in Caracas at sbodzin@bloomberg.net

This article is from: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=akxvk6N5NAOE&refer=latin_america

I did not know that our Embargo on Cuba was so widely criticized.  It shocked me that only three countries in the entire world voted for it.  I also thought that this article demonstrated how strong of an ally Israel is, and that Palau is clearly trying to get on our good side.  I also don't see how the embargo can be all that effective since no one else is participating in it.  It also seems that if this Embargo is effecting Cuba in such a strong way, it is probably effecting the United States as Well.  My last thought on it was that John McCain is not addressed in the article at all.  I wonder if this is because they do not think he will be elected or if they think that he will be to stubborn if he is.

Pentachrome - Julia de Burgos

Pentachrome follows a similar theme to other poems that we have already read.  It talks about how a poet can be what they want to be when they are writing.  This goes along with Ars Poetica in that a poet can create what they want to create.  When I wrote about Ars Poetica it was commented that similar situations would come as the course developed.  This is definitely the case here and I again like the poem as it is not all the hard to understand.  The first five stanzas are all relatively on the same track of a poet feeling free when they are writing and being whatever they want.  The odd part of this poem is that Julia de Burgos is talking about being a man in every one of these stanzas.  Here I get the feeling that she feels limited being a woman and would enjoy having the experiences of being a General, Hero, Bandit, or Laborer.  The last stanza is the toughest but I believe that is simply exemplifying the fact that she wishes she could have some of these experiences.  She states more exciting things that she could do if she were a man and then says that she would "rape Julia de Burgos" her current self.  This is a pretty clear statement that she thinks a lot more can be accomplished by the masculine gender and that he being female may be holding her back.

Lost love

After reading Alfonsina Storni's poems I found the repetitive theme to be a lost love.  Going back and reading the background on her it is said that at twenty years of age she moved to Bueno Aires.  She had a son but no husband at this time.  This could very well have been the source of her lost love.  Her other early poems were also written much on the female conscience and sexual injustice.  She was able to achieve recognition and was able to make plenty of money but these attributes did little to "assuage her aggrieved sense of gender injustice or her dismay over her sexual dependancy on men."  In her mid 40's Storni became depressed and was plagued by  bad health.  She "walked into the sea in October 1938."

Project

After taking forever to decide on a book for my final project, I decided to use The President by Miguel Angel Asturias.  I came to this decision after a short discussion with Mr. Cummings and reading the first bit of two different books.  The way that the book started out really caught my attention with the portrayal of the beggars and how they would rather help a stray dog than each other.  I found this to be quite interesting that even people who are stuck in the same miserable situation will not help each other out.  I am looking forward to getting farther into the book and finding what is to come.

Ars Poetica

Ars Poetica is a poem that at least seems easy to read and understand.  I could be wrong and there is really a hidden meaning but it seems to me that we are entering into a new age of poetry here. Huidobro simply states that he wants to use poetry to be his key to opportunity.  He believes that poetry can be used to "let all the eye sees be created."  He also says that word choice is of the utmost importance when he states that "the adjective, when it doesn't give life, kills it."  I found this to be a fascinating and extremely true line.  The more we read poetry the clearer it is that word choice is what makes poems and that my changing one words, such as in spain take this cup from me when a line is translated as "it is just a thought" instead of "it is just a saying."  As we saw in class changing the word thought into saying gives the poem an entirely different feel.  I also like the last line of this poem: "The poet is a little God."  While this line is left open to interpretation, I do not think that it is that hard to see what Huidobro was getting at.  He simply believes that since poets write about and create what they want, they are similar to God, only on a much smaller scale.

Stone in the middle of the road

When I first read this poem I thought of a pebble in the middle of the road. I thought that Drummond could have maybe been referring to the simple things in life, but that more I thought about it the less I liked that idea. The stone was clearly an important event as it takes up nearly the whole poem and he even states "I shall never forget that event / in the life of my so tired eyes." The stone being such a large event is more likely an obstacle that he had to overcome at some point and is now weary from it. He grew up in a mining village but got to go to pharmaceutical school which he never used. He instead ended up working for the government. This could maybe be the stone in his road, having to adapt to a completely new environment outside of his home and learning new things only not to use them. If your going to put the effort into learning something it seems that you would want to use your new skill, this would be a reason to have the "tired eyes" since he is watching his efforts go unused.

Fatality

Fatality says that "there is no pain as great as being alive, no burden heavier than that of a conscious life."  I do not see this as being true.  While if one never lived, one might not ever feel pain, but then there would also be no feeling of happiness.  If there was a feeling at all, I would presume that it would be one of emptiness.  To see what it is like to live, and see others enjoying all of the pleasures of living and not want to partake in them would be crazy.  While life does provide one with many choice, if the right ones are usually made, one can live through life without a heavy conscience and once one has lived long enough, there will be no more fear of death which Dario portrays in this poem.

This poem also reminded me of a riddle:  Those who make it don't want it, those who buy it don't use it, and those who use it don't know it.  What is it?

Conflicting pieces

When I was writing my paper I realized that Enrique has conflicting views on Sab. When he is in the storm with Sab there is a point where he stares at Sab and believes that he sees his true nature and mutters the word "scoundrel" referring to Sab. This would indicate that Enrique sees that Sab does not like him. Later in the Caves Enrique calls Sab his guardian angel and mentions that he has now saved his life twice. I am not sure what causes Enrique not to remember his realization of Sab, maybe memory loss of the night? Because if he remembered this little piece, Enrique may think twice about why Sab has twice saved his life.

-I'm not sure but I think the first scene is on page 50 and the second on page 77

Night of the Storm 2

The night of the storm is a topic that I am definitely interested in and it sounds like there are a lot of opinions on the topic to consider. I would enjoy analyzing this scene and either looking at what did happen afterwards or considering what could have happened had Sab acted differently. I also think it is an interesting argument, as posted above, about whether or not he should have acted differently.

Sab

I thought that the opportunity to chat with Professor Scott was great. To be able to talk to someone who can provide so much insight into the book was fascinating. Personally I never would have thought that the most difficult part of translating a novel would be the descriptions of plants and animals. I was guessing, as I think a lot of people were, that Professor Scott would have had to work far harder on not loosing the overall meaning of the novel and trying to keep the same feel as the original addition. It also sounded like even though this was her first translation it was also her most popular.

Night of the storm

On the night of the Storm, Sab decides to save Enrique. I do not believe that he should have. He does so because Carlota sent him as his protector and he believes that Carlota would fault him if Enrique died. Carlota may have originally blamed Sab for Enrique's death but if Sab had insisted that the fallen tree killed him she would eventually forgive him and just hold Enrique in loving memory. Instead Sab decides to save Enrique and for the rest of the book despises him. Sab can not make up his mind throughout the book whether he dislikes Enrique or loves Carlota more. At one point he switches the lottery tickets out of love for Carlota to let the two marry and live happily. At others he is plotting against Sab which would also hurt Carlota. In the end Sab reveals Enrique and writes the letter to Carlota. In doing so, he brings a realization down on her and destroys her picture of Enrique. Had he killed Sab in the beginning of the book, Carlota would have eventually gotten over his death and Enrique would have died in loving memory. Instead Carlota is heartbroken and Enrique is revealed for what he really is