Friday, October 10, 2008

The Magical Realism Of Gabriel García Márquez: One Hundred Years Of Solitude

“A trickle of blood came out under the door, crossed the living room, went out into the street, continued on in a straight line across the uneven terraces, went down steps and climbed over curbs, passed along the Street of the Turks, turned a corner to the right and another to the left, made a right angle at the Buendía house, went in under the closed door, crossed through the parlor, hugging the walls so as not to stain the rugs, went on to the other living room, made a wide curve to avoid the dining-room table, went along the porch with the begonias, and passed without being seen under Amaranta's chair as she gave an arithmetic lesson to Aureliano José, and went through the pantry and came out in the kitchen, where Úrsula was getting ready to crack thirty-six eggs to make bread.

"Holy Mother of God!" Úrsula shouted.”


RENEGADE EYE

18 comments:

WeezieLou said...

what an incredible book that was - that and the "cholera" one. thnx for reminding me - louise

Frank Partisan said...

Weezielou: Thank you for visiting.

I saw the Cholera movie. It didn't work. I'm sure the book is better.

Kristiina Koivunen said...

Hi, thanks for Your message to my blog. I read it only today.

Mariamariacuchita said...

I love his use of magical realism. What a creative genius. His contribution to the world of literature is enormous. I may have to go back and re-read his books. Thank you.

jams o donnell said...

I know lists are highly subjective but One Hundred Years of olitude would be up at the top of my all time favourite list along with the Third Polcieman by Flann O Brien, The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole and recently The Blind Owl by Sadegh Hedayat.

troutsky said...

I dread the thought of someone trying to make it into a film. Let books be.The minds eye needs to be exercised.

Una said...

Always remember this snippet from the book that I read for more than thirty years.
I love his novels

Noni said...

Agree to troutsky....."mind eye" need to be unpolluted also. "One Hundred Years of solitude" born as a book...
(someone may try for film adaptation. Sure it will doom as a film, “Love in the Time of Cholera” already in to film…I have not seen the film…what I saw in trailer….doubting it just a glossy disaster)

Frank Partisan said...

Kristiina Koivunen: Thank you for visiting. Your blog is very interesting. Hopefully some from this blog will check it out.

Maria: Good idea.

Jams: I never read anything before like Solitude. It's missing everything that most want in a book, plot, chronological story and even main characters. It still works.

Troutsky: Cholera didn't work as a movie. This one would be tons harder to bring to the screen.

Tere: Everyone read the book before me.

Noni: Cholera just didn't work. The main characters spoke English, and servants spoke Spanish.

There was forced Spanish accents.

Kristiina Koivunen said...

Your blog is also very interesting, looking at it was like a short holidays from the Iraqi reality. Here one forgets that it exists such things like art and litarature. Also the links in your blog are good.

Frank Partisan said...

Kristiina Koivunen: Where are you based?

Kristiina Koivunen said...

I am Finnish, but I spend this autumn in Hewlêr (Arabic: Erbil) which is the capital of Kurdish Autonomous Region in North Iraq. I came here in mid August. (My picture in Sahmaran blog is from the graveyard of Halabja, the town where Saddam gassed five thousand people 1988.)

ortho said...

Awesome quote! Thanks for sharing, man!

Frank Partisan said...

Kristiina: Quite interesting.

Ortho: You are the quote guy.

SecondComingOfBast said...

Trotsky-

"I dread the thought of someone trying to make it into a film. Let books be.The minds eye needs to be exercised."

What are you saying? Writers do get paid when their works are made into films, you know. Sometimes they make more than they could hope to make just on the book, and can get set up to where they can devote more time to writing something even better. Wow. Do you guys hate making money that much?

Frank Partisan said...

Pagan: Normally what you are saying is right.

If you read my blurp from my book, you'd know it's hard to bring to the screen. Almost every paragraph is absurd like that.

Solitude has no plot, main characters and is not told in chronological order. If that could be overcome, than it could be made into a movie.

SecondComingOfBast said...

I would have to read the book in its entirety to be sure, but it would make a good film depending on the director and cinematographer. It might work better as a short film, a la Kenneth Anger, but maybe longer than his average films. Films like that are also heavily dependent to a degree on the soundtrack.

I do concede, though, that it is not likely to make a great deal of money. On the other hand, if it is made right it could gain recognition for the author.

Frank Partisan said...

Pagan: Solitude is very famous in Latin America.

The book has every hurdle for a screenwriter. No real plot or even main characters, several characters with the same name, and most of the book defies logic.

Too bad they don't use the miniseries form anymore.