SPAN 312

  Hi everyone! I hope you are all having a good start to the week. We are almost done this semester, we can do it!! This week I chose to read My Tender Matador by Pedro Lemebel. Personally, although this book had an interesting story line and dealt with really important themes I found myself struggling to read it. I kept getting pulled out of the trance of the story and had to keep going back to reground myself back into the book. However, I did get some clarification and background on the political scene and attempted assassination from Jon’s lecture which helped me to understand Carlos’ character a bit better. I found his relation with Queen of the Corner to be quite toxic. He was always just using her either for her space to keep his weapons, or as a distraction from getting caught by the police checkpoint, and always just coming and going as he pleased. I think it was obvious that she was in love with him from the start yet he kept on controlling her for his own personal benefi...

  Hi guys! I hope you guys are all having a good start to your week so far. This week's reading felt very emotional and dealt with some serious topics that are also very relevant today in Canada. I think it is really important to recognize the struggles discussed in I, Rigoberta Menchú, as not everyone has the same or similar experiences to those of the family within the book. I think that this book put a lot of things in perspective for me and how important it is to recognize and appreciate stories of those from different cultures, history’s, backgrounds from us as it can make us more aware of societal injustices that we see in our everyday lives. Although the book deals with widely important topics about social injustice, land and people exploitation, and a clear class hierarchy, the book is written in a way that is easy to understand. I feel like most of the time with books that are so dense in themes and topics I typically have a really hard time understanding and grasping the ...

  Hi everyone! I hope everyone had a restful and relaxing break. I have to say I am really enjoying this book so far. When I first saw the family tree at the beginning I thought I was in for a long, hard, and confusing book (which this one was at times), but mostly I found myself being fascinated by the multitude of stories and characters in the book. From the founding of the town, the gypsy arrival, seeing ice, love triangles, incest, this book had it all. I particularly enjoyed reading about the marriages between Rebbecca and Crepsi and then Aureliano and Remedios. I loved the sibling (or adopted sibling) rivalry that grew between the adopted Rebbecca and Amaranta. The anticipation of the weddings and what was going to happen kept me hooked to the book for a bit.  Jon and his lecture were definitely correct when he said that this was a book you have to stick with more than just pick it up when you feel like reading. I get very distracted easily and have a hard time focusing,...

  Hi everyone! This week I decided to read Pablo Neruda’s Twenty Love Poems. I am normally not drawn to poetry as a whole as I find that sometimes I just get lost in trying to decipher a meaning from the words rather than just enjoying the art in front of me. However, I do still respect this art form greatly and am in awe of writers who can convey emotion and art so beautifully and effortlessly. Nonetheless, this collection of poems was definitely an interesting ride. Some of them I understood right away and others required a second or third read.       Right off the bat these poems go very in depth in describing the womens body. It did feel very much like the woman he was describing was somewhat of an object or physical thing to him rather than a human being. The many poems that were describing her body and breasts left an interesting taste in my mouth, as they felt very possessive and dominant over the woman. The lecture was describing this as well. The quote ...