Jorge Borges

               My personal definition for magical realism is the lines between fantasy and reality are blended. In magical realism time is cyclical not linear. During at least one point of the story is in the real world. The uncommon becomes normal in magical realism.

Borges is a brain buster to me. His stories seem very straight forward and then all of a sudden magical realism makes the story into something completely different. The texts connect with today’s society because of its involvement with the Christian faith. I personally am not as religious as many, but even to me the stories connect with my life. An overlying theme of Borges’ texts is ignorance can destroy greatness and I firmly believe this. I believe people often make decisions or choices based off of how they feel, not thinking of the consequences of their actions. Another overlying theme to his stories is that time does not exist. Many stories involving magical realism believe that the past is happening now.  This is a concept I have been struggling to grasp. Thinking that time is cyclical not linear, that the past is occurring while were experiencing the future, is mind boggling to me. On the other hand though, when it comes to magical realism it makes complete sense, you almost wouldn’t expect less. Borges’ writing is very entertaining. I think his storylines in the three stories we read were out of the box, but extremely fascinating.

Marquez

The text “a Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” personally affected me greatly. I believe there are great themes that go along with this short story. The one that personally touched me was that life itself is a miracle. I feel that is something we often forget in the everyday hustle and bustle of life. We think of all the things we don’t have or what we have lost and never remember what we do have. For example people often think about all of the times they were hurt by friends and never remember the true friends that were by their side during an important moment. I think as a society we often think about what we don’t have, not what we do. We often forget that life itself is a true miracle. The connection between the two stories is perception. People often lock themselves into beliefs and will not astray from their own views. Marquez as a writer wants you to step out of your convert zone as a reader and see what is in front of you as it truly is. I think this often happens when people first meet one another or see someone for the first time. It follows the old saying “don’t judge a book by its cover.” I think this is important because you never know what someone is truly going through or what kind of day they are having. You must open up and see what is truly in front of you. Neither story, “a Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” nor “the Handsomest Drowned Man in the World”, clashed with my view of the world. I think the stories are a portrayal of life today. Although they were written at different times they still portray people and how they act in today’s society. For example, in “the Handsomest Drowned Man in the World”, the drowned man is a burden to the men but the desire of the women. To the women he is the ideal lover, husband, and son. We learned this story was published in Play Boy magazine and basically criticizing what the magazine is all about. The women felt the man was better than what they had, without really knowing. In today’s world I feel that people often think something is always greener on the other side or that there is always some better out there for them. I very much enjoyed the two texts written by Gabriel Marquez. I thought they were very interesting and different from the previous stories written by Cortazar. The magical realism in this story is different and more suttel in these stories. It tricks you and changes your state of mind. I very much enjoyed it!

Julio Cortazar

I feel that I connected a lot with Julio Cortazar’s Our Demeanor at Wakes. In Our Demeanor at Wakes involves hypocrisy, social competition and social control. At 20 years old I feel all three of these social issues are actively involved in my life. I feel that with friends and even family social competition and social control take over and change relationships. There is also a lot of hypocrisy in friendships. You give your friends advice, but when that situation occurs with you, you might not follow your own advice.  Julio Cortazar’s short stories did not change my view of the world. In some of his short stories bad things occur which is unfortunate, but bad things occur in real life often. I loved Julio Cortazar’s use of magical realism. I truly could see the lines from fantasy and reality blending together. I loved how the stories made my head twirl. I have never read anything like these short stories and I loved them. When I first read the Continuity of Parks I did not understand the complexity of the story. I did not expand my imagination and see what was really behind the story. I very much enjoyed Julio Cortazar’s short stories. They take me out of my normal element and make me think outside the box, while teaching about others cultures. I love it!

Popol Vuh: The Dawn of Life

The chapters I read from Popol Vuh: The Dawn of Life, talked about the creation of life from the animals and the land, to a few attempts at the creation of humans. The text has a lot to do with me personally. Mythological stories help humans to understand what a “good” human is or should be. Seven- Macaw was and vein and lied that he was the sun and the moon. He was proud of his lie. He was proud of his looks and his gold. There are people like that in today’s society. There are many people, even friends of mine that are only concerned with their own looks and money. They are not lying saying they are the moon and the sun, but are lying about other unrealistic things. This text made me think a lot about my opinion of the world. I personally do not have strong religious views and am often challenged by the question of how the world was created. I think the Mayan people are very intelligent and I believe that their explanation of how people and the world are created is very interesting. I thought how many times it took the Gods to make humans. They first made animals and could not use them as people because they spoke different languages. With the language barrier the animals could not idolize and praise the Gods like they wanted. Then they tried to make people out of mud and they just melt away. Lastly, they created humans out of wood. The creation of humans was the most interesting part of the story to me. I have never read Mayan Mythology or anything like it. I enjoyed this story very much and enjoyed the questions it made me ask of myself and of the world around us. The Mayan people are intelligent and what was asked of in this story easily apply to my life today. Language is key in communicating. What makes a good human is important. I thought the chapters I read from Popol Vuh: The Dawn of Life, were entertaining and a great way to learn history.