I posted a photo of the scrumptious full moon we had on, Wednesday 19th, Edgar Allen Poe's birthday
Enjoy!
Friday, January 21, 2011
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Then again...
I hadn't noticed the theme of three...curious! I DID notice the big fat moon last night. In fact it, along with a series of high volume thrash songs on my Shuffle, and a fast, fast walk with the dog assuaged my work-related brain rage. Thank you moon.
Anyway, gender. The passage about the meetup between Esteban and Transito caught my attention too, both for the reasons mentioned by Kevin, and because this is an instant where the class imbalance is temporarily neutralized through sheer force of Transito's personality/philosophy. Esteban, offers to front her some money to start her own house and she refuses his offer. (118) Interestingly, the venture she describes...a whore's cooperative...is anathema to his top-down frame of mind. Her commie ways don't seem to dampen his appetite. Certainly, gender plays differently for women of the lower class than for women of his class.
Another spot that caught me had to do with Clara...and I like her better for it. Even as she goes about conducting the charitable work expected of women of her class...bringing food to the poor and care to the masses stricken by exanthemic typhus (!) she is fully aware that "this is to assuage our conscience ...but it doesn't help the poor. They don't need charity, they need justice." (136) This issue is the cause of some of her worst arguments with Esteban, says Allende, but although he rages at her, he still tolerates the ideas coming from her better than he does, say, coming from Pedro Tercero (three) Garcia. Perhaps, like his tolerance of female spiritualists but disdain for male spiritualists, its because she's a girl. Ideas in women are, for him, less real and so less threatening.
Although...the fine line between female "privilege" and male threat/gravity shatters when he totally loses it with Ferula for sleeping in Clara's bed. Of course, because Esteban categorizes Ferula as lesbian, whore, spinster etc. she is no longer a "woman" according to the the gendered norms for real women (i.e., sexually available to a man and within the proper etiquette of polite society). (132)
Dang. And I had actually started to have sympathy for Esteban based on the first person narrative sections in "The Time of the Spirits," especially his moment of genuine insight into Clara that her silences are her "last refuge, not a mental illness." (113) Through his eyes we get to see a fuller character in Clara. And isn't fullness of character, agency, the mark of being human and not just a sketch to fulfill the back drop of someone else's story?
Aryana
Anyway, gender. The passage about the meetup between Esteban and Transito caught my attention too, both for the reasons mentioned by Kevin, and because this is an instant where the class imbalance is temporarily neutralized through sheer force of Transito's personality/philosophy. Esteban, offers to front her some money to start her own house and she refuses his offer. (118) Interestingly, the venture she describes...a whore's cooperative...is anathema to his top-down frame of mind. Her commie ways don't seem to dampen his appetite. Certainly, gender plays differently for women of the lower class than for women of his class.
Another spot that caught me had to do with Clara...and I like her better for it. Even as she goes about conducting the charitable work expected of women of her class...bringing food to the poor and care to the masses stricken by exanthemic typhus (!) she is fully aware that "this is to assuage our conscience ...but it doesn't help the poor. They don't need charity, they need justice." (136) This issue is the cause of some of her worst arguments with Esteban, says Allende, but although he rages at her, he still tolerates the ideas coming from her better than he does, say, coming from Pedro Tercero (three) Garcia. Perhaps, like his tolerance of female spiritualists but disdain for male spiritualists, its because she's a girl. Ideas in women are, for him, less real and so less threatening.
Although...the fine line between female "privilege" and male threat/gravity shatters when he totally loses it with Ferula for sleeping in Clara's bed. Of course, because Esteban categorizes Ferula as lesbian, whore, spinster etc. she is no longer a "woman" according to the the gendered norms for real women (i.e., sexually available to a man and within the proper etiquette of polite society). (132)
Dang. And I had actually started to have sympathy for Esteban based on the first person narrative sections in "The Time of the Spirits," especially his moment of genuine insight into Clara that her silences are her "last refuge, not a mental illness." (113) Through his eyes we get to see a fuller character in Clara. And isn't fullness of character, agency, the mark of being human and not just a sketch to fulfill the back drop of someone else's story?
Aryana
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Three's
This may be way off subject, since we're discussing gender right now, but I realized something today that everyone else probably already noticed.
Anyone else see the obsession with three's in House? I realized it when Pedro had 3 fingers cut off. There are Clara's three spiritual friends, the home is Tres Maria's, the upcoming antagonist is the only Third generation Trueba (at least, from our perspective, since Estaban's mother wasn't really a character, the same way that Clara's parents are nearly simple plot devices)... There were others I had thought of, but can't remember. I just know that it's not simply a coincidence. Anyone with any thoughts?
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Hey Guys,
Sorry I haven't posted yet. I've just been, well... busy. I'm Chris (and since there's another one, I guess I'll be Christopher).
I don't really have much to add to what's been said, regarding either subjects that have been broached. I'm a fan of the magical realism, mostly because it's used less as a plot device and more of a convenient new way of gathering information, in this book.
I can't really go any further, regarding gender roles, than either Victoria or Kevin went, so I won't even try.
My next post will be better... sorry again
Chris(topher) McBride
Sorry I haven't posted yet. I've just been, well... busy. I'm Chris (and since there's another one, I guess I'll be Christopher).
I don't really have much to add to what's been said, regarding either subjects that have been broached. I'm a fan of the magical realism, mostly because it's used less as a plot device and more of a convenient new way of gathering information, in this book.
I can't really go any further, regarding gender roles, than either Victoria or Kevin went, so I won't even try.
My next post will be better... sorry again
Chris(topher) McBride
Temporary Equality
Hey everybody,
I'm behind on the reading, but I wanted to add something.
I think Victoria did a good job of addressing Esteban's treatment of women, and of the lower classes, and especially of women of the lower classes. I agree with her that Esteban is a product of his time and place.
But here is something I found interesting: Esteban meets young Transito Soto again. She is a person who, because of her class and profession, could never be viewed by Esteban as an equal. Yet he finds in her a woman who "didn't make your hands feel heavy, your voice hard . . . but someone like yourself, who could take a string of bad words in her ear and didn't need to be rocked with tender arguments, or coaxed with flattery" (118). What I get from this, is that her lack of station affords her a freedom of behavior and personality such that, for a very brief time, Esteban is able to accept her as his personal equal. He is relieved by this temporary equality, in contrast with his perceived need to be firm and distant with the peasants, and his attempts to be gentle with his wife.
Then, of course, he discards Transito, because he is "not a man for whores" (119).
On a slightly related note, I agree with Aryana, that Clara is such a princess that it becomes a bit annoying. But then, she's also a product of her time and place and class.
On a totally unrelated note, we have a beautiful moon out there tonight! I suggest you all go take a look, before the clouds move in again. I don't remember having seen such a bright full moon (well, almost full) in the city before.
I hope to be caught up again by the next blog-date.
-Kevin
I'm behind on the reading, but I wanted to add something.
I think Victoria did a good job of addressing Esteban's treatment of women, and of the lower classes, and especially of women of the lower classes. I agree with her that Esteban is a product of his time and place.
But here is something I found interesting: Esteban meets young Transito Soto again. She is a person who, because of her class and profession, could never be viewed by Esteban as an equal. Yet he finds in her a woman who "didn't make your hands feel heavy, your voice hard . . . but someone like yourself, who could take a string of bad words in her ear and didn't need to be rocked with tender arguments, or coaxed with flattery" (118). What I get from this, is that her lack of station affords her a freedom of behavior and personality such that, for a very brief time, Esteban is able to accept her as his personal equal. He is relieved by this temporary equality, in contrast with his perceived need to be firm and distant with the peasants, and his attempts to be gentle with his wife.
Then, of course, he discards Transito, because he is "not a man for whores" (119).
On a slightly related note, I agree with Aryana, that Clara is such a princess that it becomes a bit annoying. But then, she's also a product of her time and place and class.
On a totally unrelated note, we have a beautiful moon out there tonight! I suggest you all go take a look, before the clouds move in again. I don't remember having seen such a bright full moon (well, almost full) in the city before.
I hope to be caught up again by the next blog-date.
-Kevin
Esteban--
I started chapter 4, The Time of the Spirits, with a new stack of bright green tabs so I could mark all the spots I wanted to quote or use in my thoughts about gender. Before I was finished with the chapter I had almost run out of tabs and could barely keep the book shut because I had marked so many spots! That Esteban! From the treatment of Ferula and his jealousy of her relationship with Clara to his treatment of the peasants in Tres Marias he has an uncontrollable temper that seems almost out of place for the life he grew up in. What makes him so angry towards the peasants and his family? We start to know him better from the side of the narrator (his granddaughter maybe?) then the side of his own memories when he is the narrator it seems as if he doesn't realize his temper was as bad as it was or that he felt justifies for it which is cruel and unusual either way you look at it.
I will mention a few things about gender and then I want to just lay out some thoughts I have going into the next chunk of the book. Throughout the book it is clear that it is taking place in a time when women had not yet won the the same rights as men. To condemn a persons character for not agreeing with, what then were outrageous ideals, would be presumptuous of me. I consider myself a feminist and I want with all my heart for the women in this book to be strong and resilient and independent, as they are-but I cannot change the past. The past is where this book takes place and it is a changing time where women were doing more than just staying in the house with the babies and the cooking but were not, for intensive purposes, able to vote and live by the same laws of men. But, I think more than just the gender issue here is an issue of humanity. Being kind, generous, and fair with all humankind and not just the men, women and children of the upper class is the pinnacle now. There is a class system here that is deplorable considering the living situation Esteban grew up in you would think he would have more respect for them. There is a fire burning in Tres Marias and it is Pedro Terecero Garcia and little Esteban Garcia. Who knows what that little brat is up too. Selling out his own blood to the patron only to be burned by his bastard father for it. I am almost afraid to start chapter 7.
We have seen the inkling of little Alba. She will be the granddaughter and is mentioned by Esteban as having been born with the same emerald hair as Rosa. I love the description he gives of her as he laments about the loneliness he has created for himself, but for the love of his granddaughter. "I felt so alone after that! I didn't know then that loneliness would never leave me, and that the only person I would ever have close to me the rest of my life would be an eccentric bohemian granddaughter with green hair like Rosa's" (202). It gives me a vivid image in my head of what this girl will not only look like but her persona as well.
Shocking as the end of Revenge was with Esteban cutting of Pedro's finger and little dirty Esteban, "He had picked up the sliced-off fingers and was holding them like a bouquet of bloody asparagus" (207), foreshadowing something is about to explode with him as the tinder. I am glad that Esteban did not get to kill Pedro. I want to see what kind of upheaval he will lead throughout the rest of this book. I wonder if maybe his death will be at the hands of little Esteban...
BE SURE TO RSVP ON THE BOTTOM OF THIS BLOG FOR THE MEETING PLEASE.
Victoria
I will mention a few things about gender and then I want to just lay out some thoughts I have going into the next chunk of the book. Throughout the book it is clear that it is taking place in a time when women had not yet won the the same rights as men. To condemn a persons character for not agreeing with, what then were outrageous ideals, would be presumptuous of me. I consider myself a feminist and I want with all my heart for the women in this book to be strong and resilient and independent, as they are-but I cannot change the past. The past is where this book takes place and it is a changing time where women were doing more than just staying in the house with the babies and the cooking but were not, for intensive purposes, able to vote and live by the same laws of men. But, I think more than just the gender issue here is an issue of humanity. Being kind, generous, and fair with all humankind and not just the men, women and children of the upper class is the pinnacle now. There is a class system here that is deplorable considering the living situation Esteban grew up in you would think he would have more respect for them. There is a fire burning in Tres Marias and it is Pedro Terecero Garcia and little Esteban Garcia. Who knows what that little brat is up too. Selling out his own blood to the patron only to be burned by his bastard father for it. I am almost afraid to start chapter 7.
We have seen the inkling of little Alba. She will be the granddaughter and is mentioned by Esteban as having been born with the same emerald hair as Rosa. I love the description he gives of her as he laments about the loneliness he has created for himself, but for the love of his granddaughter. "I felt so alone after that! I didn't know then that loneliness would never leave me, and that the only person I would ever have close to me the rest of my life would be an eccentric bohemian granddaughter with green hair like Rosa's" (202). It gives me a vivid image in my head of what this girl will not only look like but her persona as well.
Shocking as the end of Revenge was with Esteban cutting of Pedro's finger and little dirty Esteban, "He had picked up the sliced-off fingers and was holding them like a bouquet of bloody asparagus" (207), foreshadowing something is about to explode with him as the tinder. I am glad that Esteban did not get to kill Pedro. I want to see what kind of upheaval he will lead throughout the rest of this book. I wonder if maybe his death will be at the hands of little Esteban...
BE SURE TO RSVP ON THE BOTTOM OF THIS BLOG FOR THE MEETING PLEASE.
Victoria
Monday, January 17, 2011
Happy MLK Day!
Here are two links to two of Dr. King's greatest oratory and literary prose. The first is" Letter from Birmingham Jail" and the second is his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. Let us honor the work of this great scholar and leader of the civil rights movement.
See you tomorrow with my post from chapters 4-6.
Those of you haven't posted should feel free to post on as much as you have read. We are all in this experiment together so the more input the better! Happy Holiday Weekend!!
See you tomorrow with my post from chapters 4-6.
Those of you haven't posted should feel free to post on as much as you have read. We are all in this experiment together so the more input the better! Happy Holiday Weekend!!
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