Octavio Paz - La "Inteligencia" Mexicana

 … La nueva educacion se fundaria en “la sangre, la lengua y el pueblo”.

Chapters 7 and 8, La “Inteligencia” Mexicana and Nuestros Dias, were both good chapters that included a lot of history of Mexico. I liked Chapter 7 and the numerous important people that Paz introduced. Among them all, Jose Vasconcelos stuck out most for me. Paz describes Vasconcelos as the “fruto de la Revolucion”.  After doing some research on him, I learned that he was a Mexican writer, philosopher and politician. He was one of the most influential and controversial people in the development of modern Mexico. Chapter Seven uses historical figures, like that of Jose Vasconcelos, to demonstrate the “intelligence” of Mexico’s ancestors. Through the reading, and more research on Vasconcelos, it is learned that he began to build schools throughout the republic.

Foreign trade also opened the door of Mexico’s intelligence. The history reveals that the Mexican Revolution brought Mexico to a point where it would be able to accommodate its future? Still a little bit confused on this theory but it’s what I made out of the chapter. Is it that the revolution was what brought on the modern Mexico?

The chapter names of Paz’s work appear fitting and appropriate to the story he is trying to tell. It is known that his essays were written individually and put together for this work. La “Inteligencia” Mexicana proves where the intelligence of Mexico’s history comes from… that is, from people like Vasconcelos, Ramos, Cuesta, etc. Nuestros Dias, on the other hand, which translates to “our days” is somewhat a play with words. I wouldn’t say the work was meant for current, present days, but what Mexico is to come… it is because of the days that Paz experiences is what brings the country of Mexico to its future. Hmm… either way, still pondering on a lot of this.

Octavio Paz - Soledad

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1990/paz-speech.html

I like the humour of Octavio Paz’s banquet speech opening lines... “I shall be brief - but, since time is elastic, I am afraid you are going to hear me for one hundred and eighty very long seconds.” He sets a tone much different than that of other Nobel Prize winners we have encountered to date. Perhaps it is the fact that we are now nearing an era where things were a little less serious and humour is accepted in our society... even during important ceremony speeches! We would most likely never see Mistral open his banquet speech with a one liner.

Reading Paz was not the hardest assignment to date for this class. The split of the works was easy to comprehend. Language and flow was also easy to read and relate. The three essays that were read each had their own unique characteristics. Even before reading “Mascaras Mexicanas” I thought of masks. While reading, it’s learned that Paz believes Mexican people hind behind a mask in defence. Obviously not literally, but this got me thinking a bit. Does Paz believe that Mexicans need to hide behind masks? And why so? What does the defence mechanism signify? Uneducated? Lower social class? Or is that Mexican people do not like to be in the lime-light, they don’t like to bring attention upon themselves and in that instance, like to “hide” or sort of be in the background?

With the way Paz opened up his banquet acceptance speech for his Nobel Prize, I’d believe he’d done anything then hide behind a mask. He is extremely forward, includes a bit of humour and at one point, bombards his listeners with a million questions. If he classifies Mexicans as people hiding behind masks, he definitely doesn’t include himself in this cluster.

An obvious theme of soledad throughout the reading... as the work is even titled “El Laberinto de la Soledad” which I am still trying to find meaning for. The title translates in English to “The Labyrinth of Solitude”. Any ideas? Is he classifying Mexico as a whole as part of this solitude? I would relate Paz’s work to that of Asturias in a way that its topics and themes encompass that of history. Paz discusses Mexican history and his perspective and view on things during his time.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez - La hojarasca

Font = too small.

“In a South American town, Macondo, during the early years of this century, a retired doctor long known as an eccentric flatly refuses treatment to victims of a riot. Years later, the doctor hangs himself. For the vengeful town, the issue becomes whether he will receive a proper burial or be allowed to rot in the house where he had lately secluded himself.” – how could this not be an interesting read.

I continued to read that La Hojarasca is the worst of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s work. To me, it was interesting enough to continue reading and not as bad as I thought it would be. I had done a bit of research and background on La Hojarasca before reading and realized that not only one critic said this about the work.

Reading from different points of view of the main characters, the Colonel, granddaughter and other child was interesting but at times a little hard to understand who it was that was retelling the story. The different narration voices throughout the reading made it seem a little jumpy. At times there was a smooth transition but at the odd point I’d have to think back at whos interpretation of the events I was reading.

The story line didn’t really have much to it. It was a huge change from the violence we had read in Austurias work. I did feel though that it was a lighter read than other works we have read to date. It was definitely shorter, and easier to comprehend in terms of vocabulary. In comparison to other readings, like that we just finished by Asturias, is barely a comparable! Right, some of the main themes could be there but the presentation of writing was extremely opposite.

The theme of magic-realism will definitely be brought up for discussion and as has been noted down, the theme of time and memories tie into this well. Particular dates, and times are repeated throughout the work. Maybe for emphasis? Perhaps because the memory is still so vivid? Maybe not at all and the only thing that can be remembered was what day it was? The past/present/future theme was good to pick up on. Another way that the story was a little harder to comprehend.