¿Qué significa 'soledad'?

Basicamente, soledad refiere a la isolación.

It may be appropriate to call it the isolation of a 'family,' since family is the ambiguous term we've been using to describe pretty much everything/everyone.

An AP Environmental aside, (maybe?) tied back into 1YOS: isolation is the primary cause of speciation. New species evolve when isolation occurs, geographic or otherwise. So. The evolution of new species is in this case the parallel of creating a new society. When Buendía and Co. are isolated from the rest of society, they set up a completely new culture in Macondo -- new values, new gov't (no gov't), new everything.

This may be taking the analogy too far and too literally, but this is just a blog post, so why not. Two species are considered different species when they no longer can interbreed. Maybe this has something to do with all the incest in this book.

Oh, and btw, returning to my 1st (2nd) paragraph about families. By families and by species are both ways to classify different animals.

But enough of the science references. To me, the Spanish 'soledad' means loneliness. Loneliness sucks. But at last at the beginning, it seems like a good thing -- a very good thing. Life goes downhill as soon as outside influence comes in. The dispute with the Moscotes is quickly settled, but the war, the real outside influence, is not easily settled at all. War usually isn't.

"100 Years of Solitude" as opposed to just "Solitude" sounds like a statement of exile, almost like a sentence. Maybe the title actually refers to something other than the isolation of Macondo that I haven't gotten to yet. And 100 Years is a very long time. If loneliness sucks, 100 years of loneliness really sucks.

This brings up another interesting point: the nature of relationships -- being single or married, or having sex with Pilar Ternera. Basically, the tension between singleness and togetherness. Individuality vs. Collectivism. Just in the first few chapters, we see a ton of relationship tension, people retreating within themselves in their labs or underneath a tree tied down. And I still can't get over the amount of incest in this book. Thinking about it, it's not *that* much...but the part where Arcadio tries to sleep with his mother Pilar...that just wasnt right. On that happy note, g'night, I'm going to sleep.