This book is supposedly the one with great literary merit. But all the literary flourish, however, is lost on me. Once upon a time, the inability to grasp the descriptive and flowery language used to frustrate me but now I've made my peace with that. I hope dormant reading of descriptive language doesn't make me miss the overall understanding of the situation.
After 1984, this is another book that I may not be able to complete. I found some of the passages troubling. One passage reads like author's fantasy about sexual harassment and racism and the other paedophilia.
The past world was brutal, patriarchal and racist. I do not have a problem with characters showing those behaviours. However, what I find difficult to accept is the victims endorsing it as if that's the way of life. There I can't help but think, it's not the victims but the author who is speaking on their behalf. And he's endorsing such behaviours.
I'm not sure why Aureliano needed to marry a barely major Remedios. Frankly, I don't find anything in the plot that shows any significance to that relationship. I guess generating shock value just for the sake of it.
A bigger problem is Arcadio's relationship with the "Gypsy" girl. It reads like an exploitative passage from some pulp fiction. There are two problems with this section. First, the girl accepts his harassment as some kind of courtship. Second, since it's a Roma girl, I believe, that's some kind of stereotype about their lifestyle. When these two things are together I believe that becomes highly racist sexism.
After 1984, this is another book that I may not be able to complete. I found some of the passages troubling. One passage reads like author's fantasy about sexual harassment and racism and the other paedophilia.
The past world was brutal, patriarchal and racist. I do not have a problem with characters showing those behaviours. However, what I find difficult to accept is the victims endorsing it as if that's the way of life. There I can't help but think, it's not the victims but the author who is speaking on their behalf. And he's endorsing such behaviours.
I'm not sure why Aureliano needed to marry a barely major Remedios. Frankly, I don't find anything in the plot that shows any significance to that relationship. I guess generating shock value just for the sake of it.
A bigger problem is Arcadio's relationship with the "Gypsy" girl. It reads like an exploitative passage from some pulp fiction. There are two problems with this section. First, the girl accepts his harassment as some kind of courtship. Second, since it's a Roma girl, I believe, that's some kind of stereotype about their lifestyle. When these two things are together I believe that becomes highly racist sexism.
