Ashley Duvelius' Take on the Intriguing Borges

          Good evening my fellow bloggers and literary critics!  I have just finished reading a few short stories from the often misunderstood Borges.  I can honestly say I don't favor Borges over Cortazar or Marquez, but his stories still fascinated me.  My mind has been broadened by Borges' three short stories:  "The Garden of Forking Paths," "The Gospel According to Mark," and "Emma Zunz."  Out of these three, I developed an understanding and a connection with "The Gospel According to Mark" and "Emma Zunz" the most.  Before I could comprehend his literature, I had to learn his style.  Opposed to Cortazar and Marquez's plot twists, Borges goes a step further by assuming his audience knows certain levels of information.  From this base level of knowledge, Borges plays with his reader's imagination by manipulating the nature of time.  Borges enjoys writing plots involving a struggle between intellect and ignorance, as well as plots which create new realities for the main character.
          The first Borges story I read absolutely puzzled me.  After learning the reason behind my puzzlement, I felt a little embarrassed that I wasn't using my pre-existing knowledge.  It was so simple and in-my-face!  To reassert myself, Borges is a writer who assumes that his audience knows certain pieces of information.  I remembered this upon reading "The Gospel According to Mark" so that I was able to understand Borges' underlying critique.  The main character Espinosa is 33 years old in the story, which was the same age of Jesus when he was crucified (hence the story of the Gospel According to Saint Mark).  Espinosa's first name is Baltasar, who was also one of the wise men.  Also, Espinosa was the name of a scientist who had scientifically proved Jesus to be real.  Borges' assumptions gave clarity throughout reading the story.  The Gutres represented ignorance, for they found Espinosa fascinating with his stories from the Bible.  I found it disturbing that they decided to crucify Espinosa because they thought his sacrifice would bring an end to the rain that burdened their life.  Borges tried to show the ongoing question of which to live by: the dichotomy of science versus faith.  Personally, I would never do what the Gutres did to Espinosa.  Faith or no faith, to kill another human being is morally wrong and they should have at least gotten that from Espinosa's readings from the Bible.  However, in terms of magical realism, the Gutres' ignorance created their reality.  Espinosa's life had led him to them for reasons unknown.  Perhaps it was fate.  Whatever the reason, his fate was unfortunate and could have been prevented if the Gutres had any intellect like he had. That is also how I connected with this story, the strength of intellect.  I find myself to be more fact-based, for I will believe things that have proof and evidence to support them.  It was challenging for me to understand how the Gutres could commit such an act, but they were acting solely on faith rather than proof or facts.  In the end, ignorance beat intellect.  Though, one could say Espinosa was ignorant in the way he went on blindly living with the Gutres and fueling their faith.  Espinosa would have been more intelligent if he would have realized the path he was spiraling downward on and left the Gutres before it was too late for himself.      
        As appalling as the actions of the Gutres were, I gave Borges' last short story a chance.  "Emma Zunz" was a surprisingly forward tale with events that could actually happen in our reality.  I felt a real connection with Emma Zunz, who was a young woman like myself.  I have a very strong relationship with my father, and I assumed she had one with her father as well because of her later actions in the story.  My heart ached for the poor girl when she came home to find a letter telling her that her father had committed suicide.  However, she reacted differently than I would.  I would probably be in crying hysterics, while Emma just slid the letter into a drawer and immediately began plotting revenge.  This would have been my next step though.  If I knew someone was the direct cause to my father's untimely suicide, I would want to avenge him immediately.  I don't think I would go to such lengths, such as having myself declared a virgin by a doctor and then staging a rape.  My revenge would be more intelligence-based, like altering documents and planting evidence in places not involving my physical person.  Unlike "The Gospel According to Mark," I found Emma's revenge to be somewhat justified.  I still feel that killing a person is morally wrong, but a murder in self defense could be reasonable.  Loewenthal had destroyed her life by framing her father, putting him in prison, and now by causing his suicide.  My hate for Loewenthal would be overwhelming and I would probably be pushed to my edge with the death of my father.  I actually felt satisfaction for Emma Zunz as Borges ended his story with the lines "True was Emma Zunz' tone, true was her shame, true was her hate.  True also was the outrage she had suffered:  only the circumstances were false, the time, and one or two proper names."  My connection to Emma was through her actions and reactions.  If my father had died in that way and from those circumstances, I would have sought vengeance in intelligent plots similar to that of Emma's.

Ashley Duvelius' Opinion of Gabriel Garcia Marquez

          Good evening, my fellow bloggers!  This week my literature class has been reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez's short stories.  Marquez's two stories, "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" and "The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World," are very different yet uniquely similar in their metaphorical meaning.  Both are of the genre of Magical Realism fiction.  Marquez's idea of Magical Realism was to create tiny myths to confuse the reader, to communicate the intensity of simply being alive, that art helps one feel less alone in the world, and also, that art is all about catharsis.  All of which he interestingly conveys in his short stories.
          Marquez's first story, "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings," was about a fallen angel.  This fallen angel was not what one would normally preconceive an angel to look like because he was old and filthy.  The Church didn't believe he was an angel and even said that he could not possibly be an angel because he did not speak in the sacred tongue of Latin. That is exactly the criticism that Marquez was trying to make here:  the Church is blinded by preconceived notions and this made the divine uncomprehendable, unimaginable.  Marquez's story criticized the Church as an institution, not as a religion.  He was poking fun at the Church's hierarchy and their judgment when he wrote of their delayed and lofty response to the parish priest. The bigger picture for Marquez is that the human faith is limited by our blinding ideals.  The Church had such a strong affect on the villagers in the story that they, too, did not believe the old man was an angel.  I felt very sorry for the old man as the people paid to see him like at a carnival, and they threw garbage at him.  I believed that it was definitely possible for him to be divine.  I even thought that those villagers were making bad karma for themselves by treating him so poorly.  Then the last line of this story meant that the divine is so unimaginable and uncomprehendable that it is best to keep it out of ones lives.  I suppose it would be best to keep the divine out of ones lives if it truly is that spectacular.  The idea of the divine is also the focus in Marquez's other short story, "The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World."         

Ashley Duvelius on Cortazar's Work

 Julio Cortazar's literature gives new meaning to the term Magical Realism.  I would always try not to be tricked by his short stories, but Cortazar's imagination would always win in the end.  The first short story we read of Cortazar's was "The Continuity of Parks."  I was entranced by this story.  In the story's beginning, I wondered what importance the business man had.  Then I realized, this could be me any day of any week.  I love to get lost in the world of literature.  I like to have a break from reality, and let my mind wonder into another world, it doesn't matter if it's fiction or non-fiction.  Although, I have always preferred fiction.  "The Continuity of Parks" confused me at first, especially when the lines between the novel and reality began to blur.  The twilight zone affect that the story had was pretty fascinating.  I have never read Magical Realism as a genre of literature.  I've seen it in movies though!  I believe that the story channeled perfectly how I become lost in reading a book.  I enjoyed the reading and was fearful for the man reading innocently in the chair as the stalker approached him with a knife.  I wondered if the story was trying to convey how life can change in seconds and harm can come at any time.  I wonder what became of the man reading in the chair.  Did he escape the clutches of the stalker?  Or was the stalker also merely a figment of his roaming imagination?  These are questions I'd love to ask Cortazar.  As for Cortazar's short story "Our Demeanor at Wakes," I was more confused as to what was going on.  I finally understood when I got to class!  I found it interesting to read about a family that finds joy in crashing mourning family's funerals.  I enjoyed reading the story and found it funny at times because of the exaggerated actions the crashers made.  I actually felt guilty for laughing at their funeral crashing because I find funerals to be extremely serious and personal affairs.  I actually find their crashing to be a violation of the family's privacy and emotions.  I am appalled that people would actually find amusement in doing such a thing.  I found it even more appalling that the crashers took the funeral into their own hands and even spoke at the eulogy.  I considered this to be very disrespectful.  A funeral should definitely be limited to the loved ones of the deceased, anyone who intrudes on this matter is kind of wrong in the head.  The moral of the story though was that a reality can be created anytime and anywhere.  The funeral crashers made their assumed identities a reality as they overthrew the mourning family and took the funeral into their own hands.  Like I said, although I found their ridiculous wailing and smug speeches funny, it doesn't make it morally right.  I was partially offended by this story and my only hope was that this would never happen at my funeral or at any of my loved one's funerals.  On a lighter note, I really enjoyed Cortazar's "Axolotl."  The story begins by saying the narrator is "an axolotl" (Cortazar 1801).  Then it almost takes a step back in time and tells us how the narrator came to have a fascination with axolotls.  I believe this story was all about a human's ability to escape reality through art and imagination.  If one is suffering, one can imagine something better and make themselves happier.  The narrator's fascination with axolotl's was similar to my fascination of canines.  What I wouldn't give to have the simple life of a dog!  I believe Cortazar was trying to highlight the relief of suffering through art, through literature.  It was almost as if the narrator's consciousness was transferred into the axolotl.  He could understand their suffering in their cramped living conditions and identified it with the loneliness he felt in his life.  I would love to write about canines or something I found beautiful, something that can't speak for itself where I'd be needed to express their unspoken emotions.  I could definitely relate to this story because I understand that there are many beings in this world that are helpless and speechless.  Those souls need to be expressed somehow.  I'm glad that Cortazar, or whoever the narrator was, wrote a story about the under appreciated axolotls, giving them a voice in the world.  I admire the fact that Cortazar wanted to give light to those that are easily forgotten.  Once again, I really enjoyed "Axolotl" because it made me realize that words don't always have to be composed of human thought.  It was a beautiful tale and I would love to continue reading Julio Cortazar's Magical Realism literature!

Ashley Duvelius: Popol Vuh Reader Response

Popol Vuh:  Dawn of Life


Hi everybody!  Sorry this is coming to you so late, I had a busy day with school and going straight to work! :( Popol Vuh was a very interesting Latin American read.  It was an account of how the world started, all in one night.  The Maya legends say that the gods (the Creator, the Maker, Tepeu, Gucumatz, the Forefathers) first filled the Earth with water and woodland, then the small wild animals came to be.  The gods were not satisfied that the animals could not speak and could not adore them or invoke them.  So that is when the gods created the first men, made of earth and flesh of mud.  The mud people were soft, did not move, melted away, and their sight was blurred.  This, too, was unacceptable for the gods.  They destroyed the mud creatures and set forth creating once again.  The gods next tried to make men out of wood.  These woodmen were a next-step-up, since they indeed "existed and multiplied".  However, they had no souls and soon forgot their creators.  Not to mention, they awkwardly walked on all fours.  Even I couldn't imagine men made of wood, splinters would be terrible.  The gods decided it was best to destroy the woodmen with a flood.  Those who survived were later viciously annihilated by the pots, pans, and animals they had treated so badly.  The last tale of the Maya was that of Vucub- Caquix.  Vucub-Caquix was a god who became so vain and greedy that he thought of himself as the Sun and the Moon.  To be vain and greedy was a major sin for the Maya, and so the gods put him back in his place.  Or rather, put in his grave, along with his vain sons.  I really enjoyed this story.  It is was rich in belief and I loved how these people believed in their gods with their entire being.  I believe that was the moral of the story, in fact, to love your creator with your entire being.  I would like to read more enchanting tales of myth and legend!  Keep them coming Latin America! 

Thank you for listening,
Ashley Duvelius