On Solitude

First, I'd like to say that I did read the book and just didn't come to school at all today.
Second, I'd like to briefly present several ideas and themes that hit me as I read the book, since I couldn't participate in today's discussion. This could probably help a lot coming up with essay ideas. I loved the book, btw.

I'll just go down my list -- no particular order, just observations.

-It may just be the translation, but it seems that marquez's syntax is very interesting and unique. The most important part (content-wise) of all of his sentences is not the most important part grammatically. All the important stuff is added as a dependent clause.

-There is an insane amount of foreshadowing that drives me nuts. It probably can't even be called foreshadowing - it's more like he just states the future. I guess it happens from the first line with the firing squad.

-A very intriguing part of the book is the relationship between life and death, changing times and different generations. Marquez goes to great lengths to make the repetitive/cyclical nature of the book very obvious as well as the relationship between generations and the progression and regression to and from modernization. I was more fascinated, however, with certain character's interactions with the dead, and moreso even the nature of death. For instance, even after Melquíades is dead, he has not reached "ultimate death" until Aureliano figures out the translation. Further, Melquíades' death is viewed differently by different people (some people see him, some don't, some see his room all neat, some don't). And even further, Melquíades sees stuff from the dead and was able to make predictions about when he was dead back when he was alive. That probably doesn't make too much sense; I was talking about his predictions about the family story that he made all the way through the end of the family line.

-There also appears to be a common juxtaposition of traditionalism and progressiveism (i.e. Fernanda and Meme, older generation and younger generation, the incoming of the railroad, etc.). This compliments the conflict between liberalism and conservatism.

-The book is obviously about solitude (and 100 years of it), but it is actually just as much about love. More correctly, it is about the relationship between love and solitude. In my humble opinion, Marquez presents the theme that love leads to solitude. Kinda depressing, really.

-We have been looking at this book as an example of mythology, but it is also an example of meta-mythology (?), I believe. We see the creation of new myths within the book - especially, Pilar Ternera's stories, Colonel Buendia becomes a myth, the killing of the people from the factory becomes a myth. Beyond that, there are many direct and indirect references to the Judeo-Christian myths within 100YOS, a myth itself. For example, there's the Noah's Ark flood, the baby in a basket, Jonah and the Whale, perhaps the story of Lot and Macondo being turned to dust or sand or something like that. Then there's Ursula perhaps as a Christ figure rather than an Eve figure or a mother-figure. I really hadn't considered this at all until she died on Good Friday. The mention of Good Friday and Marquez's experiments with time are actually mildly reminiscent of Sound and Fury. But I like this book better.

-There seems to be a question as to whether solitude is good or bad. Actually, the question is probably more as to *when* solitude is good and when it's bad. Often it leads to insanity, but just as often it leads to inner peace.

-It's kind of ironic that for a while, it seemed like Marquez was most sympathetic to the concubine.

-I wish Marquez had made the pig's tale at the end more of a surprise, but I guess the fact that you knew it was gonna happen made it a little more exciting?

-If there's one thing I learned from this myth, it's DON'T COMMIT INCEST! (or, as the big mentioned, do stuff with animals, either)

-Actually, I forgot to mention the significance of the animals and their reproduction. There. Now I mentioned it.

See you tomorrow. Or actually Friday since tomorrow is the Senior Health thing.