Thursday, April 17, 2014

Una Tristeza en Macondo

Now, this is a bit of sad news, the Colombian dean of letters Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez died in Mexico City today. My personal favorite work of Márquez (everybody's favorite work of Márquez) has got to be One Hundred Years of Solitude (original title Cien Años de Soledad), one of the pillars of the magical realist body of literature... Gene Wolfe described it simply as fantasy en Español: "Magic realism is fantasy written by people who speak Spanish."

One Hundred Years of Solitude struck me with its dreamy quality- the backdrop behind the saga of the Buendía family being populated with ageless gypsies privy to arcane knowledge, tragic beauties with arresting eyes, foreigners both benign and rapacious. The story is, in many ways, a microcosm of Colombia itself.

I recently started re-reading a translation of the novel while concurrently reading an edition of the Spanish original (purchased for a quarter at a library book sale). It's pretty slow-going (I used to be smarter... I recently shamed myself when I stumbled across a term paper I'd written in college about sycretism in Central American religious traditions that yo había escrito en Español) but I'm able to bask in the beauty of the language, twice. It's tempting to find traces of other works in the novel- a duel is reminiscent of Borges' El Sur, a panther eyed woman calls to mind Asturias' Hombres de Maíz). I'm taking my sweet time- this is literature to be savored.

Rest in peace, Sr. Márquez. artist, intellectual, activist... I hope that the distant afternoon that you remembered on your last day was marked by a pleasant discovery.

4 comments:

  1. I never learned Spanish, meself.

    I've taken German, Latin, and Greek. (Not that I can speak or read any of those now.)

    I shoulda learned Español...
    ~

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  2. I've never read it, but for some reason your description immediately brought to mind McCarthy's 'All the pretty horses'.

    Don't know why or if that even makes sense, but it probably means something inconsequential about books, authors or me.

    Or something...

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  3. I don't think that the man wrote anything that isn't worth reading, but 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' is a remarkable achievement, to say the least.

    Happy trails.

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  4. I've taken German, Latin, and Greek. (Not that I can speak or read any of those now.)

    Can you at least translate Nena tunes?

    I've never read it, but for some reason your description immediately brought to mind McCarthy's 'All the pretty horses'.

    You really should read it, it's a beautiful book.

    I don't think that the man wrote anything that isn't worth reading, but 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' is a remarkable achievement, to say the least.


    Indeed. The book really is remarkably beautiful, which is why I wanted to read it in the original... well, that and I need to practice my Spanish.

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