conclusion!!!!!!!!!!!

It's so hard to believe that the term is almost over!! I feel like I'm not ready for it to end yet</3 There are still so many books I wanna read and post about lol!! Lots more I wanna complain about!!! At some point during the class I was waiting for a book that would make me feel happy instead of despair and frustration, but none of them made me feel that way. I still want to go to weekly discussions and hear other people’s interpretation of the reading and how it made them feel. Hearing other people’s perspectives was extremely interesting, all of their input was super valuable.

I’d sort of fallen behind on reading all my books, and this class got me back into the habit of reading again!! I can get through like multiple books in a day and it’s so fun. I’d been lying to myself, telling myself I had no time to read outside of class but that was not true. I had just been lying to myself!! 

My favourite works so far have been “The Trenchcoat”, “Money to Burn”. And “The Shrouded Woman”. All of these books were fascinating, these 3 in particular spoke to me. Money to Burn had the most fun and interesting characters and plotline. The Shrouded Woman was so fun to read, a lot of it was super dramatic if it felt like a soap opera! Even if I didn’t understand some things it was still fun to read. It was full of infuriating characters that the main character knew in her life, so it was bad.

With Money to Burn, the characters were so unapologetically themselves with no regard for what the general public seems to think. The action in the book is simply wonderful, I had never read about an action sequence that was so entertaining.

I’ve been extremely satisfied with this course's reading list and I’m glad to have discovered new writers and old ones. All the books in this course were brand new and unfamiliar to me, I’m glad to have broadened my horizons. A lot of works that are considered literature a lot of the time are very eurocentric! I’m glad to have read masterpieces from places other than Europe!  I even feel like giving Proust another try at some point, maybe I won’t hate it. 

I had such an awesome time in this course and I’m gonna miss it lots! Thank you so much Professor Jon, Julián and Daniel! You guys were so awesome!!!!!

Love Me Tender

Reading “Love Me Tender” was a very interesting experience. The writing felt a bit similar to “The Book of Chameleons” in that some of the chapters are extremely short and the narration is simple to understand.

I like that Constance decided to live her life as authentically as she possibly could, not bending over for someone else’s needs. She’s so very courageous for doing so but it sort of felt like something was lacking, and I feel maybe I am just saying that because society has made me believe that there is something else to be desired. Books and life don’t really need to be dramatic, sometimes it just felt as if Constance was just gliding through life rather than really enjoying it!! Everything just felt a bit dull.

A thing I found interesting is that she constantly compares herself to men and sort of does things that men stereotypically do. When it came to parenting and her relationship with Paul, she would compare herself to an absent father. Then her relationships with other women are sort of like how SOME men treat women. She’s completely emotionally absent but that’s technically fair because she seems to be that way with everything else. Then there’s the way she’ll talk about the women, she won’t bother remembering their names or the details of their life that they share with her. She treats them like a quick fuck and a place to stay because that’s really all they are to her. The way she treats these women is unfortunate. I won’t say that she doesn’t make an effort in all her relationships because she does to some extent for her son. She tries to perform so they would let her see her son, she throws out the books that supposedly reflected poorly on her character although near the end she ultimately decides that maybe the effort isn’t going to change anything and that it was okay to move on with her life.

Every mention of Laurent made me upset, the first few of his appearances when she tells him she’s into women and despite knowing that fact he still tries to initiate something with her just goes to show how inconsiderate and disrespectful he is 💀‼️Then going as far as to lying when he realises that she’s into women and making it so she can’t see her son is just horrible. This guy sucks‼️Poisoning a son against his mother💔. I guess it just goes to show how marginalised people will often be in the weaker position when it comes to formal and informal institutions. I was really hoping that Constance would be able to have a somewhat good relationship with her son, but maybe a lack of a relationship isn’t so bad when compared to active resentment.

Question: Do you think that she’s happy with the decisions she’s made or even happy with her life in general?

My Brilliant Friend

I picked this book because I saw that one of the main themes was friendship and recently I’d been thinking about friendship a lot and my own relationships with some of my friends and this was very interesting to read.

I feel like ever since I was a little kid, friendship is always shown as something that’s always super simple, easy to navigate and everyone just wants to support each other. I still hold that viewpoint no matter how naive it is, but as I grow older I feel like it isn’t true. It hasn’t been true for a while I think. My little pony lied to me</3

Lenu and Lila’s friendship is extremely confusing and messy, there’s a lot of envy involved. Especially on Lenu’s side, she has a slight inferiority complex when it comes to Lila. In academics and then a little later when it comes to looks. I quite relate to her character although I know it’s not a good thing! Sometimes it just sucks that your friends might be better at something than you even though it seems to you like they aren’t putting in nearly as much effort as you. A few years back I was extremely jealous of some of my friends because it seemed like no matter how many classes they’ve skipped and no matter how much I studied they just outperformed me. It wasn’t just in academics either but also social life as well. It’s interesting that Lenu simultaneously seems to sort of put Lila on a pedestal, in my opinion. It’s also hard to believe that she still considered Lila her friend after she tried to sabotage her so she wouldn’t be able to take the test. 

I feel bad for Lila, her family doesn’t want to support her and what she wants to do. Her brother Rino seems to be the only one advocating for her education. Her intellect could have taken her far in life but she’s constantly held back because of her family and her dada especially. Like who the hell throws their own daughter out the window??? Just a horrible guy. She’s jealous that Lenu has the opportunity to go to school and Lenu’s jealous that Lila can just wander around and live in her own world, even though that’s not the case at all. Lila is a much bolder and braver character than Lenu and I understand why Lenu would look up to her.

Question: Do you think this is a realistic depiction of what friendships tend to be like in real life?

identity crisis whilst reading this book 😭

I feel so confused 😔 I’m not entirely sure what just transpired in the book!! Something about identity I guess.

It’s really interesting to think about how much Jose gets wrapped up in this lie. At times it felt like he truly became the identity that was invented for him, and how much did he feel like it was true to his identity? Although by the end he seemed to have remembered his past, but his reaction to things and how easily he seemed to soak up all this knowledge he almost seems like clay, super malleable! But then he seemed to be aware of his past and of Angela possibly being his daughter. I’d imagine that would break the immersion quite a bit. He claims that this was all mainly a plot for revenge against Edmundo, but then why’d he get so sucked up into the identity of Jose? IDKKKK MAYBE I JUST DON’T GET IT!! 😭

I

When people change their identities, do they still feel like they are still who they used to be or do they strictly identify as their new selves? I feel like when people change their identities its normally because they’ve witnessed a horrible event of some sort, or they are extremely rich and powerful therefore having the ability to do so. Since I would assume it would be extremely difficult and costly! I don’t know. How often do people typically want to change their identity?

I guess similarly sometimes I think about reincarnation in a similar sense, I’d assume you’d be born into a different body and be a completely different person. It always makes me sad when I think about it, mainly because I’d be losing the relationships I’ve had with people. My mum would no longer be my mum, and I wouldn’t know any of my friends and whatnot. Maybe it’s childish!! It’s not the same but it's still regarding identity I figure.

It’s also strange that people would want a very interesting or rich background, I mean once I remember that the people doing this are rich it makes more sense. Logically, the more common it is, it would be easier to get away with! Literally no one would bat an eye, but if its such an extravagant backstory I feel like a lot of people would be suspicious or maybe curious. One bad lie and it’s kinda over isn’t it?

Question: How can one know which aspects of yourself are really true?

should I burn my loonie?

The book started off very suddenly, in media res. Descriptions of characters and details of the heist. Introducing the characters, names and nicknames. It was all very confusing here, I found it hard to keep track of who was who and what exactly was happening which I imagine what a bank heist must feel like. Confusing and hard to keep track of, maybe it was just me because I found it difficult to understand the first chapter of the book. I thought the heist was a bit clumsy and disorganised! There were a lot of names being thrown around, even near the end of the book, they’d tell me all the names of the officers who went into the building and whatnot.

It was a very interesting read though, I like the way it was written, switching between narration to text that’s almost written like a report. Giving specific timestamps of what had happened and the policemen who had lost their lives! It was very unique. Though at times I felt myself wanting to gloss over some of the action towards  the end because I really just wanted to see the characters interact and speak to each other. 

I found the relationship between Kid and Guacho to be very touching. Their closeness being described as needing no words to understand each other, is very sweet. Something like a comfortable silence, not feeling the need to converse for long amounts of time but rather just enjoying each other’s presence. It was super heartbreaking that Kid died in Guacho’s arms!! Then after Guacho’s thought are all longing for Kid again</33333

The opening quote is a quote from The Threepenny Opera. The main message of that play was that under capitalism everything becomes a commodity. The founding of a bank does way more harm than a robbery, that thousands are going to be exploited. The crowd’s reaction to the burning of  the cash was extremely interesting. I had thought that because this all happened due to money, they’d assume “oh money is the cause of all this chaos” but no! They claim that the money was innocent. The action of them burning the money was what set in stone for these people that these criminals were never to be redeemed. Do we as a society tie our worth to how much capital we can generate? In The Threepenny Opera, Macheath’s crimes are a result of capitalism. The corrupt system lets him out time and time again, no one cares about justice or humanity under capitalism. He grows up poor and he comes to the realisation that through the exploitation of others he can generate wealth. In Piglia’s novel some of these characters are from well off families (Kid) so it really makes me question their motives. I’m under the assumption that they’d been cast out and so they turned to a life of crime.

Question: Can we imagine a life outside capitalism anymore? and what would it look like?

we are all one bad day away from becoming conspiracy theorists

This entire weekend I've had a horrible headache, so some of the writing might have escaped me. The way the characters acted in the book sort of reflected what people in my grandparents and parents days used to be like whilst under Soviet intervention. Avoiding talking about politics and such out of fear that someone would be listening, and would get them in trouble.

In the story we see that the characters only seem to have extremely surface level and shallow conversations. Ioana shows up because she feels like it's required rather than to form a genuine connection. She reflects on the lack of community in her life, the paranoia that the people you know might turn against you is prevalent during these times. Government surveillance is extremely isolating and you can only truly depend on yourself and maybe your partner. The state surveillance tears communities apart, at every turn and interaction it could be a trap. In Mongolia, it was the same, you could accuse your neighbours and get rewarded so it only increased the number of innocent people suffering at the hands of the government. My dad told me a story a while ago of when he was a kid. He was playing outside and he called a politician stupid or something, no deeper meaning behind it really because he was just a kid and didn’t really understand what was going on. My grandparents hurriedly came outside, sat him down and told him to never say things like that again. If they had been caught perhaps they would have lost their jobs and been unable to take care of their children or even worse, thrown in jail. I think about that sometimes.

The trenchcoat showing up in Dina’s home just made me think how deep the paranoia and surveillance goes, even in your own home you might not feel safe and comfortable. Even nowadays, I am always super paranoid that my devices are used for surveillance. Although I guess it's not too far off, I love giving my private information to billionaires! The trenchcoat might not even represent the secret police but maybe the presence of it being a source of anxiety and paranoia is the point. IDK!! 

It was interesting seeing how some of the characters don’t have names, just “the kid”, “the learned one” and whatnot. Why is that? These characters are stripped of any sort of characteristic that would make them seem like actual people, they are just reduced to whatever purpose they serve in this story. Or maybe to the state, they aren’t really people at all? Maybe I am making things up!!!

What do you guys think the trenchcoat represents? and what do you think about the characters not being named? :0

fool me once, shame on me, fool me 5 times, also shame on me

    

Currently writing this blog on the skytrain back after spending 70 dollars on legos💔😿

    I lowkey got clickbaited by the title, it sounded really beautiful. After finishing this reading I can say that this book by far has been my least favourite ever and I wish I could go back and pick the other option. Calvino has a very unique writing style and I fear it is just not for me. The beginning of the book already sort of ticked me off for no good reason, sit down get comfortable whatever💀. Maybe it felt like I was being told what to do, the entire thing was just super quirky in a bad way. In the first chapter it forced the reader into the perspective of the main character which was fine. I still struggled to think of it as myself though, I do not know what exactly made it so I was unable to connect with the narrator but there was a large distance between us. The narrator also constantly did things that I probably would not have done, this perspective was being forced onto me 😭😭🙏🙏. Like I think sometimes when they told me how to feel it was actually kinda cool, it felt like a warning as to what’s to come because I’m an absent-minded person.

    Although I did like that the stories that the narrator, or rather we, read had no endings! It kept me on my toes, but near the end it did get a bit frustrating. It was interesting to see, I don’t know how much this happens in publishing or like “formal literature” but sort of made me think of fanfiction and how often it goes uncompleted even though a lot of the ones I've read were quite enjoyable. Or even shows on streaming websites that get cancelled before they can reach a conclusion, but that’s a different concern. I think you can still enjoy things that are incomplete, honestly it leaves a lot of room for imagination and creativity, but I do understand the frustration. I don’t know why time after time I let myself get into the different stories only for it to end abruptly.

    I think the book overall was way too meta for me 😔, at times it was confusing and I just hated the way he wrote, I’m sorry Italo Calvino. I also think due to that I wasn’t able to understand this book like at all or at least enough to give interesting commentary💀.

    Question: Were you guys able to fully immerse yourselves into the role of “you”? And if so drop your tips and comments down below cause god knows I need it💀