I read this novel when I was young, a teenager, and lots of it went over my head. I remember the intensity of it, the texture and fertility of it, and I remember how stunning the final sentences of it were as the book concluded
my first lenguage is spanish and I am always skeptical of people who read it in english, because in spanish this book its a revolution, this book is our history, our prose, our heritage and I dont think that can be translated at its fullest, so I was amazed to see that you got it, that gives me hope that maybe more people from other countries can to enjoy it
What you say about magical realism being a way of encapsulating the reality of Latin America is very accurate to me as a Colombian, my grandmother used to say she spoke to ghosts, she believed in curses and would scream whenever she saw a black butterfly, one of her friends lost her husband to suicide after he bet his own life in a rooster fight, etc. and those things might sound magical to some people but they were really real to people 50 years or more ago.
You have a good natural delivery of your ideas and that is very refreshing, so many lectures ( whether college based or not ) are spoiled by the dynamic or presence and delivery of the speaker, great stuff, thank you..
I like how you address the roots of magical realism. I feel that now some writers who want to write about random events, use magical realism as a plot device, as a way of not truly explaining why certain events occurred in their books. Certainly, Garcia Marquez used it to expose and explain the absurdity of events that occurred in Colombian history. I'm glad that you made this video, so people can have a better understanding of what magical realism really is.
I feel exactly the same that some authors use 'magical realism' as a way to get away with lazy writing. Of course, there are lots of authors that I love that use these fantasy or magical elements and do so with amazing skill, but I'm not sure they can be exactly classed as magical realist. Maybe I'm just a pedant! Thank you for watching, I'm glad you enjoyed it. :)
I read Cien años de soledad the summer that I turned 17, and re-read it the following summer. A neighbour of mine who was born in Venezuela, the daughter of Spanish exiles who had fled during the Spanish Civil War, had introduced me to GGM by lending me a collection of stories titled Los funerales de la mamá grande and a short novel, La hojarasca. There were two editions of Cien años de soledad at home (in Navarre, northern Spain, where we lived at the time), so I didn't need to borrow that one. Gabriel García Márquez heard many stories from his maternal grandparents--that is where the inspriration for his magical realism came. But we must also consider The Courthouse, the introductory section of William Faulkner's Requien for a Nun. There he tells of the foundation of Jefferson, and towards the end he reflects on the things that will remain in the town and those that will have been destroyed "after a hundred years". Many Latin American authors have spoken about their debt towards Faulkner, including GGM. I cannot read that intro without thinking of the foundation of Macondo.
I also highly recommend from Gabriel Garcia Marquez.... trust me, these are really really good novels by him 1. THE INCREDIBLE AND SAD TALE OF INNOCENT ERENDIRA AND HER HEARTLESS GRANDMOTHER 2. LOVE IN TIMES OF CHOLERA 3. FROM LOVE AND OTHER DEMONS
I found your analysis of the book really interesting, thanks for sharing! I just wanted to point out that I find it curious when the term 'Western' is used to refer to what we're used to reading or the authors we know. Colombia is part of the same Western hemisphere, and being located in the Americas makes García Márquez as Western as Stephen King, Charles Dickens, or Victor Hugo. I think it might be more accurate to say that the novel can be challenging for someone with a more Eurocentric perspective, as you rightly mentioned, but more specifically Anglo-Saxon. Also, what we consider common or everyday in 2024, like magnets or trains, wasn’t the same for someone born in the early 19th century, especially in a rural area, whether in Colombia, Argentina, the United States, England, Italy, or France. Again, thank you so much for the video, I really enjoyed your perspective. Keep up the great work!
That was a great analysis of Marquez book. It's a book I've been meaning to get to but haven't gotten around to it yet. I just read a newly published Bolaño book and a blurb on the back compared him to Marquez. So I decided to read another one by Marquez. I like to read an author's oeuvre chronologically so I'm reading In Evil Hour. This book is just before One Hundred Years of Solitude and I understand it lays the groundwork for it. Roberto Bolaño is one of my favorite authors. But if you were expecting more magical realism since that seems to be a significant trait of Latin American literature I can understand being disappointed in terms of expectations especially after reading One Hundred Years of Solitude. By the way there are other writers from other parts of the world who utilize magical realism such as Haruki Murakami from Japan and Salman Rushdie from India. Great review and I plan to watch more videos as I just discovered your channel and I enjoyed this one.
That book is a masterpiece it has liberated so many writers in the third world and even authors like Toni Morrison showing them that there are so many more possibilities that literature/the novel can offer
Yes magical realism is one of the most effective ingredients in this novel, however, I think it not only talks so deeply on the Colombian or south American history but about the very basic questions of Human history such as the struggle between simplistic primitive living and civilization, colonialism, human's individual pride and greed shaping politics and economy, the question of morality , the suffocating lives of women and much more.
I finished it last night. Objectively difficult to read. But that was expected of a first read when it comes to such a complex novel. I read it for pleasure and took what I could but I'm definitely going to go back to it after learning all the subtext and history behind it that has come down from Latin American history because this book made me feel so much to the point that I can't articulate anything right now.
One of my absolute favs, too. That you read it in once sitting? What an amazing experience for you! Do you know Tom Robbins, Jitterbug Perfume and Another Roadside Attraction?
I think ever since Don Quixote, Spanish-language writers haven't made the clear distinction between reality and fantasy. Fiction is a form of reality and reality is subjective and sort of fictitious in a way. Anyways, I studied Spanish literature for a year in Madrid and my professor of Cervantes told us that actually pirated books were shipped to the Americas, especially Don Quixote. So, it may have also had an important influence on Magical Realism as well.
I can't believe you didn't like 2666!! It's his magnum opus!! The Savage Detectives is my personal favorite but I also loved 2666. I loved 100 Years of Solitude, of course, but I also really enjoyed as much or maybe even more Chronicle of a Death Foretold. There is some magical realism in that one.
excellent review, the tag of magical realism always bothered me, as if OHYOS was a great book in the mag-real genre...thus diminishing this achievement...the richest most intuitive journey one can take while sitting in a chair
Latin America, being of course in the western hemisphere and predominantly having it's roots in western culture and religions, would most certainly be defined as part of the west in the most common usage of the term.8 oct. 2017
This is a great video! I'm Colombian and just finished reading 100YOS for the second time, and throughout it I asked myself a lot what was the purpose of magical realism in it. As you say, magical realism is a tool, a mean, but a lot of contemporary authors treat it as an end, which is a mistake, in my opinion. I like to think GGM asked himself how could he write a story as absurd and incredible as the Colombian one and make it believable, and instead of deciding to tone it down, what he does is he elevates regular events to absurdity. So the reader only sees unbelievable events, and it is not clear to her what is real and what is not. And then the inevitable question comes of what is really magical or absurd? Is it more unbelievable a storm that lasts for four years or the mass killing that precedes it where the death of 3000 workers is denied and forgotten (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_Massacre)? Is it more magical a girls that flies to the heavens or a town that is isolated from the State and the world that ice is something to be discovered and foreign investment is seen as an alien invasion? Is the repetition of history actually magical?... A lot of things in the book are still happening in Colombia and I felt as if we were just another generation of the Buendía family. It's frustrating, even. In the end I feel that the message the story wants to transmit wouldn't be possible if it wasn't because the reader gets in thinking it's a magical tale and then is led to doubt it.
Colombian elites are (literally and figuratively) incestous, self-obsessed, disconnected from the rest of the country, hard-headed and self-destructive. Among other things like that.
I have been watching reviews of this book on TH-cam and a lot of people keep describing it as "magical realism". I don't know exactly what people mean by that, but I don't like that expression. There are NO elements of magic in this story. The book starts in a very small village isolated from the rest of civilization, populated by very simple peasants, with no access to science, technology or medicine. Most of these peasants and farmers can read and write Spanish, some can even speak the native Indian language. But for the most part they are very simple people who only cares about farming. So the book IS TOLD FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF THE VILLAGERS, who have no knowledge of science, technology or medicine. So the world is described in a way that to us sounds like magic. But that is not magic, that is simply how the villagers see and describe the world. The villagers are unable to describe the world in a scientific, objective way, because they don't have scientific knowledge! It has nothing to do with magic! I highly suspect that the author based this book on real accounts from peasants and villagers. But instead of trying to interpret or explain the events in a scientific and plausible way, he simply wrote down the accounts exactly as they were told, and maybe only correcting the grammar. That is why the narrative sounds so matter-of-fact. For example, babies born with tails has nothing to do with magic. That is a real medical condition, quite common actually, that happens all over the world. We all develop tails during the embrionary phase, but it disappears before we are born. But for some children the tail may not disappear completely, so they are born with tails. I believe the tail can easily be removed surgically, so nobody talks about it. But for poor superstitious villagers, a baby with a tail would be interpreted as an act of God or Devil or some other magic way. But of course it has nothing to do with magic, it is simply ignorance of science.
Much over-rated. I found it impossible, infantile, horrible, pretentious, arrogant & stupid. I forced myself to finish it. I won't day it's a piece of shit but it's pretty close.
I'm from Colombia and we take this book for granted because is the tipical book that you are force to read in high school, but its actually great.
I was wondering if this would become a required reading book in school
I read this novel when I was young, a teenager, and lots of it went over my head. I remember the intensity of it, the texture and fertility of it, and I remember how stunning the final sentences of it were as the book concluded
my first lenguage is spanish and I am always skeptical of people who read it in english, because in spanish this book its a revolution, this book is our history, our prose, our heritage and I dont think that can be translated at its fullest, so I was amazed to see that you got it, that gives me hope that maybe more people from other countries can to enjoy it
What you say about magical realism being a way of encapsulating the reality of Latin America is very accurate to me as a Colombian, my grandmother used to say she spoke to ghosts, she believed in curses and would scream whenever she saw a black butterfly, one of her friends lost her husband to suicide after he bet his own life in a rooster fight, etc. and those things might sound magical to some people but they were really real to people 50 years or more ago.
You have a good natural delivery of your ideas and that is very refreshing, so many lectures ( whether college based or not ) are spoiled by the dynamic or presence and delivery of the speaker, great stuff, thank you..
Seems like Remedios is reviewing the tale of mocando herself.
Lmao
I like how you address the roots of magical realism. I feel that now some writers who want to write about random events, use magical realism as a plot device, as a way of not truly explaining why certain events occurred in their books. Certainly, Garcia Marquez used it to expose and explain the absurdity of events that occurred in Colombian history.
I'm glad that you made this video, so people can have a better understanding of what magical realism really is.
I feel exactly the same that some authors use 'magical realism' as a way to get away with lazy writing. Of course, there are lots of authors that I love that use these fantasy or magical elements and do so with amazing skill, but I'm not sure they can be exactly classed as magical realist. Maybe I'm just a pedant! Thank you for watching, I'm glad you enjoyed it. :)
this was a wonderful analysis! keep up the good work!! i really needed this to understand the novel better, thank you
Thank you very much, I'm glad it helped :)
Your expression and presentation is superb.
Happy to hear you from Bangladesh..
So much appreciated.
I read Cien años de soledad the summer that I turned 17, and re-read it the following summer. A neighbour of mine who was born in Venezuela, the daughter of Spanish exiles who had fled during the Spanish Civil War, had introduced me to GGM by lending me a collection of stories titled Los funerales de la mamá grande and a short novel, La hojarasca. There were two editions of Cien años de soledad at home (in Navarre, northern Spain, where we lived at the time), so I didn't need to borrow that one.
Gabriel García Márquez heard many stories from his maternal grandparents--that is where the inspriration for his magical realism came. But we must also consider The Courthouse, the introductory section of William Faulkner's Requien for a Nun. There he tells of the foundation of Jefferson, and towards the end he reflects on the things that will remain in the town and those that will have been destroyed "after a hundred years". Many Latin American authors have spoken about their debt towards Faulkner, including GGM. I cannot read that intro without thinking of the foundation of Macondo.
I also highly recommend from Gabriel Garcia Marquez.... trust me, these are really really good novels by him
1. THE INCREDIBLE AND SAD TALE OF INNOCENT ERENDIRA AND HER HEARTLESS GRANDMOTHER
2. LOVE IN TIMES OF CHOLERA
3. FROM LOVE AND OTHER DEMONS
I found your analysis of the book really interesting, thanks for sharing!
I just wanted to point out that I find it curious when the term 'Western' is used to refer to what we're used to reading or the authors we know. Colombia is part of the same Western hemisphere, and being located in the Americas makes García Márquez as Western as Stephen King, Charles Dickens, or Victor Hugo. I think it might be more accurate to say that the novel can be challenging for someone with a more Eurocentric perspective, as you rightly mentioned, but more specifically Anglo-Saxon.
Also, what we consider common or everyday in 2024, like magnets or trains, wasn’t the same for someone born in the early 19th century, especially in a rural area, whether in Colombia, Argentina, the United States, England, Italy, or France.
Again, thank you so much for the video, I really enjoyed your perspective. Keep up the great work!
That was a great analysis of Marquez book. It's a book I've been meaning to get to but haven't gotten around to it yet. I just read a newly published Bolaño book and a blurb on the back compared him to Marquez. So I decided to read another one by Marquez. I like to read an author's oeuvre chronologically so I'm reading In Evil Hour. This book is just before One Hundred Years of Solitude and I understand it lays the groundwork for it. Roberto Bolaño is one of my favorite authors. But if you were expecting more magical realism since that seems to be a significant trait of Latin American literature I can understand being disappointed in terms of expectations especially after reading One Hundred Years of Solitude.
By the way there are other writers from other parts of the world who utilize magical realism such as Haruki Murakami from Japan and Salman Rushdie from India.
Great review and I plan to watch more videos as I just discovered your channel and I enjoyed this one.
That book is a masterpiece it has liberated so many writers in the third world and even authors like Toni Morrison showing them that there are so many more possibilities that literature/the novel can offer
Wow, now I'm gonna grab a copy of this one, just because of your wonderful analysis.
Yes magical realism is one of the most effective ingredients in this novel, however, I think it not only talks so deeply on the Colombian or south American history but about the very basic questions of Human history such as the struggle between simplistic primitive living and civilization, colonialism, human's individual pride and greed shaping politics and economy, the question of morality , the suffocating lives of women and much more.
Wow. That was very informative. I would love to read more about that part of the world. Thank you!
Beautiful!! The book, the speaker, the ideas, the delivery ♥️
Brilliantly stated,I am now encouraged to read this novel
I finished it last night. Objectively difficult to read. But that was expected of a first read when it comes to such a complex novel. I read it for pleasure and took what I could but I'm definitely going to go back to it after learning all the subtext and history behind it that has come down from Latin American history because this book made me feel so much to the point that I can't articulate anything right now.
I do hope you do more book videos. I much enjoy your reviews
Plz make a vedio which tells about the summary of one hundred years of solitude
One of my absolute favs, too. That you read it in once sitting? What an amazing experience for you! Do you know Tom Robbins, Jitterbug Perfume and Another Roadside Attraction?
Excellent Review!!
Great video Mi favorite book is a amazing trip this novel salute you from chile
Thankyou for your views I just bought the book, 💁
have you read this book?
the excellent.... explanation, I'm going to read the first time any novel and I hope it complete in a relevant time .......,
I think ever since Don Quixote, Spanish-language writers haven't made the clear distinction between reality and fantasy. Fiction is a form of reality and reality is subjective and sort of fictitious in a way. Anyways, I studied Spanish literature for a year in Madrid and my professor of Cervantes told us that actually pirated books were shipped to the Americas, especially Don Quixote. So, it may have also had an important influence on Magical Realism as well.
I really enjoyed your insightful thoughts on a favourite book of mine, thank you
Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it. It's definitely one of my favourite books as well, it amazes me every time I read it. :)
I can't believe you didn't like 2666!! It's his magnum opus!! The Savage Detectives is my personal favorite but I also loved 2666. I loved 100 Years of Solitude, of course, but I also really enjoyed as much or maybe even more Chronicle of a Death Foretold. There is some magical realism in that one.
Wow you really are beautiful..
Also my favorite novel of all time
I bought a book of 100 years of isolation, but I never read it.
🦋💛
Isn't Colombia 'in the west'? Great novel. I would recommend reading it twice.
Yes, but she contrasted it with Eurocentric lit. Just a bad choice of words.
excellent review, the tag of magical realism always bothered me, as if OHYOS was a great book in the mag-real genre...thus diminishing this achievement...the richest most intuitive journey one can take while sitting in a chair
Easily the best review in yt of the novel. Greetings.
Latin America, being of course in the western hemisphere and predominantly having it's roots in western culture and religions, would most certainly be defined as part of the west in the most common usage of the term.8 oct. 2017
Added...Thanks.
Amazing Novel 🌐
Plz es k notes share kr do
Great work. Subbed. Keep it up...
This is a great video! I'm Colombian and just finished reading 100YOS for the second time, and throughout it I asked myself a lot what was the purpose of magical realism in it. As you say, magical realism is a tool, a mean, but a lot of contemporary authors treat it as an end, which is a mistake, in my opinion. I like to think GGM asked himself how could he write a story as absurd and incredible as the Colombian one and make it believable, and instead of deciding to tone it down, what he does is he elevates regular events to absurdity. So the reader only sees unbelievable events, and it is not clear to her what is real and what is not. And then the inevitable question comes of what is really magical or absurd? Is it more unbelievable a storm that lasts for four years or the mass killing that precedes it where the death of 3000 workers is denied and forgotten (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_Massacre)? Is it more magical a girls that flies to the heavens or a town that is isolated from the State and the world that ice is something to be discovered and foreign investment is seen as an alien invasion? Is the repetition of history actually magical?... A lot of things in the book are still happening in Colombia and I felt as if we were just another generation of the Buendía family. It's frustrating, even. In the end I feel that the message the story wants to transmit wouldn't be possible if it wasn't because the reader gets in thinking it's a magical tale and then is led to doubt it.
hello i want to ask if the story about gypises are turn or they just a symbol of technology
I m from INDIA(KERALA).... anyone else ..
what is the moral in the novel?
Colombian elites are (literally and figuratively) incestous, self-obsessed, disconnected from the rest of the country, hard-headed and self-destructive. Among other things like that.
This is a very difficult book to read
Mam this book is amazing like your face!
Holy shit you are beautiful and great review.
You are beautiful!
I have been watching reviews of this book on TH-cam and a lot of people keep describing it as "magical realism". I don't know exactly what people mean by that, but I don't like that expression.
There are NO elements of magic in this story.
The book starts in a very small village isolated from the rest of civilization, populated by very simple peasants, with no access to science, technology or medicine. Most of these peasants and farmers can read and write Spanish, some can even speak the native Indian language. But for the most part they are very simple people who only cares about farming.
So the book IS TOLD FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF THE VILLAGERS, who have no knowledge of science, technology or medicine. So the world is described in a way that to us sounds like magic.
But that is not magic, that is simply how the villagers see and describe the world. The villagers are unable to describe the world in a scientific, objective way, because they don't have scientific knowledge! It has nothing to do with magic!
I highly suspect that the author based this book on real accounts from peasants and villagers.
But instead of trying to interpret or explain the events in a scientific and plausible way, he simply wrote down the accounts exactly as they were told, and maybe only correcting the grammar.
That is why the narrative sounds so matter-of-fact.
For example, babies born with tails has nothing to do with magic. That is a real medical condition, quite common actually, that happens all over the world.
We all develop tails during the embrionary phase, but it disappears before we are born.
But for some children the tail may not disappear completely, so they are born with tails.
I believe the tail can easily be removed surgically, so nobody talks about it.
But for poor superstitious villagers, a baby with a tail would be interpreted as an act of God or Devil or some other magic way. But of course it has nothing to do with magic, it is simply ignorance of science.
🙄☝️🌱🐣
Much over-rated. I found it impossible, infantile, horrible, pretentious, arrogant & stupid. I forced myself to finish it. I won't day it's a piece of shit but it's pretty close.