100 Years of Solitude Part 1: Crash Course Literature 306
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ส.ค. 2016
- Our first of two episodes about Gabriel Garcia Marquez's novel, 100 Years of Solitude. This week, we're looking at the Buendia family, and their many generations of people with the same names. We'll also look at the fascinating way the author thinks about time, and how time is represented in the book. Later, we'll get into the genre that Garcia Marquez worked in, which is called magical realism. Years later, we will have talked about all of this before.
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Reaching the end of this book gives you the most odd feeling in the world.
Yes! I read this years ago and the thing I remember the most is the feeling in my stomach when I finished it. It's a kind of unique feeling
I've never had an experience like that before or since. It's definitely unique.
pezotecom It's almost like by finishing the book, you destroyed that entire world.
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It does
I read that book 30 years ago and when, exhausted, I finally finished it, I declared it the most amazing book I would never read again.
Perhaps the most interesting fact about magical realism in Latin America is the way it is actually part of our very world view. Talking to your elders in Latin America is always an exercise in time jumping narratives and a mix of fantastic and mundane. I'm not trying to undermine the work of all these great writers, but actually shed some light on how this narrative is not just an exercise of some great writers, it's the portrayal of who we are as a people and how we perceive ourselves
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This is just like conversations I have with my stepson.
That's fascinating.
and here I was looking for the comment I would like to write, and I found it :-)
here in asia same thing happen
The “discovery of ice” got lost in the translation. It wasn’t natural ice he was talking about but refrigerated ice like when a machine freezes water to into ice for the very first time. Plus in these places close to the equator some people have never ever experience extreme cold temperatures to recognize snow or frozen anything. Not hating just explaining a minor detail lost from Spanish to English. Thanks for your video.
I'm waiting for future novelist to write "Love in the time of Coronavirus"
Here in Colombia reading that book is nearly as important as reading the bible.
what is it about?
That is one of my single favourite books in the world!!!!!
It's the same here in Mexico
96213sam Well, aside from what it is said from the video there are many different interpretations of the book, one could see it as an allegory of Colombian history through the 19th and early 20th century. It is really up to the reader to give meaning to the book and I believe that is the beauty of it.
Lawrence Calablaster Same here!
Oh my god. This is my favorite book I've ever read. Very glad to see this. *floats into the sky with the laundry*
This book is mainly about what ??
And Fernanda is still waiting her sheets back.
I've always wondered how come this book is so famous, and so "universal", when in my opinion, you must know the history of Colombia in order to fully understand it. My only guess is that maybe the history of EVERYONE is alike, there is always left and right in politics, there is always war, there is always the smart and timid aureliano and the extrovert jose arcadios... everywhere in the world...
I mean, Macondo isn't real, and although you may need to know the history of Colombia to empathize with the characters, I think Marquez ensures that anyone can understand it
yes! absolutely
This book is a window at what growing up in Latin America culture feels like. The magical realism is very similar to the kind of stories your grandparents will tell you as a kid.
I read this book 2 years ago. It was the longest book I've ever had to read. Not because of it's number of pages, but rather because it was the hardest narrative I've ever had to put my mind to the task of following.
I once found this book (the original version in Spanish) in my aunt's house in Houston. Being a native Spanish-speaker (and at the time monolingual) it was the only book I could read while staying in USA. Now that I can write in English, I can assure you the book is worth learning Spanish for
Lope de Vega is the reason I learned Spanish
Amen. I still have yet to read it in English. No es lo mismo en ingles
I'm a native English speaker, but I've read Marquez in Spanish, and it was amazing. Totally worth it.
Come on guys, don't do this to me :'( I'm already learning German for Rainer Maria Rilke. If only I had infinite time, I would learn Russian for Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, Spanish for Marquez, Neruda and Borges and Sanskrit for the Mahabharata.
I'm a native English speaker but learned Russian over the course of a few years. Reading authors such as Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Gogol, etc. is very worth it.
After reading the comments I'm almost inspired enough to just move to Colombia, become fluent in Spanish and read the book in it's original language. Almost. Spanish was my worst subject in college. I don't language good.
Case and point: it's languaged Colombia. (sorry Wheezy, had to take the opportunity).
Once again the mythical country of Col "u" mbia strikes again.
You're terminated
School learning of languages is a mythical entity. Your brain knows how to do it by itself, if you apply yourself :) good luck. (Duolingo can help at the beginning :P)
+ Not languaging good can be a big problem, Craig! Maybe you can read it in English, since you language that so well. Also, you just moved!
I literally had goosebumps while reading the line in the culminating part where Aureliano reads that''First one would meet death tying with 🌲 and last one would be devoured by ants''.
Yeah, but in spanish the ice sentence is "Muchos años después, frente al pelotón de fusilamiento, el coronel Aureliano Buendía había de recordar aquella tarde remota en que su padre lo llevó a conocer el hielo...". The verb in this case is "conocer" that can be translated to "know" or "to meet" instead of "discover".
ignacio mayorga alzate i would probably translate it “see for the first time”. The subtle intricacies of language.
Thank you!! I know I'm years kate here, but he was driving me crazy with his analysis
Juan Rulfo's Pedro Paramo, another masterpiece of magic realism, served as inspiration for GGM. A must read if you liked 100 years
I don't undestand how Rulfo can be so underapreciated when every single latinamerican author loves him. And well, let's be honest, if a book created magical realism it was Pedro Páramo.
+Ricardo Sandoval Tello in fact Marquez copy his style from Rulfo.
I love Pedro Paramo! Glad to see someone else has read it.
I'm Venezuelan and the story of this book describes perfectly what I think is the essence of most "Latin" American history. Every character, event, "magic", all feels so familiar and made me rethink about how simple or not actually is every hidden village in the bast map of the continent, with lost memories that we will never know, buried in time and oblivion
He got a haircut!
That's exactly what a ROBOT would do to throw people off...
THIS ONE HAS DISCOVERED THE TRUTH.
DESTROY HIM!
Lawrence Calablaster NORMAN, COORDINATE.
JohnGren.exe has crashed
Nacho Chips Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto....
That was pretty good 🙂👏
It was wonderful for me as a Mexican who majored in literature to hear the analysis from your perspective. Many of the things you pointed out are kind of elusive for most Latin Americans, I think, because we are very emotionally attached to the way things happen in the novel. We are used to hearing about or witnessing violent events such as the ones depicted in the novel, for example, so the impact is very different. This video gave me the chance to really see how a novel can become "universal literature". It speaks differently to every reader. I definitely envy you, because I know this novel is a hundred times more magical to someone who has never actually been to a town like Macondo in real life.
Only weeks ago I realized that the three thousand deaths massacre of the banana plantation was less of a metaphor than I thought.
It is called the Banana massacre. Look it up.
Yes!
american interventionism is beautifull isn't it?
You should have mentioned Juan Rulfo. Gabriel mentions that Rulfo´s work, El llano en llamas, also called The Burning Plane in English, is one of his inspiration.
I used to think this 100 Years of Solitude was Garcia Marquez' greatest novel. Then I read The Autumn of the Patriarch.
The vivid imagery that this book offers is just mesmerizing. Talk about Amaranta's solitary monotonous life and of the aged Ursula who is used like a ragdoll by Meme's son Aureliano and her sister Amaranta Ursula!Simply brilliant !
This is my single favourite book.
I really hope the second part of the episode covers the relationship between the Buendias repeating their same mistakes over and over, and the parallels to Colombian history, and us making the same mistakes in our country over and over.
Either way, thank you so much John and everyone else at Crash Course for taking the time to cover a book that means so much to me! I really, really appreciate it :)
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I found you here! I swear I'm casually reading comments, no stalking :P
Long live the queen!
In the same way, it has a lot of parallels with peruvian history, i could relate so easily with the book seeing as how we peruvians also made the same mistakes over and over in the past T.T
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I read _Love in the Time of Cholera_ in college, but, this video just makes me want to read this one too. Will add to Google library.
I love how much Mr. Green clearly loves literature. I hope one day someone presents my works with such adoration.
A wonderful book that I'm also lucky to have read in Spanish. You really feel immersed in the magic of it all!
I'm a native English speaker, tried to read a book in Spanish when I was 21 and it was a disaster. But I took a few years to work my level up to a strong professional level, and after that long time, reading this book as "Cien años de soledad" was a reward worth waiting years for :)
As others have mentioned, you really do get another sense of things from the original (such as the "discover" word usage coming from *conocer* that others have mentioned). I worked as a translator for a while and I don't envy whoever had the intimidating task of translating this masterpiece in a way that was as close as possible to the original.
Fun that most of the video was about timelines and the first sentence :D Looking forward to part 2!
What, your here?! ¡Hola!
I'm reading it in portuguese. I'm Brazilian, and I guess most spanish words are similar to portuguese, so hopefully I'll get the same experience. I'd like to read the original though. Maybe I will.
Benny Lewis hay libros que es mejor leerlos en su idioma original independientemente de la calidad de la traducción. Cien años de soledad es uno de ellos.
Discover is descuvrer
Beyond all the points mentioned, this book still contains a hidden element and story structure that will be impossible to truly comprehend beyond the frontiers of Colombia. My grandmother always told me stories of when Marquez used to hang out with Rafael Escalona in the Cesar region. One hundred years of solitude is written in the form of a Vallenato. A Colombian originated musical genre that was born to tell the stories of those who traveled and met different fates on their paths. To truly comprehend the ways of the novel one must first understand why it was written the way it is. It’s an almost musical narrative novel, magical realism is not a device used for narrative, but rather something that flows in the blood of those Colombians who were born from the Caribbean Valley and live their lives as a forever vallenato song, and that’s what really gives this novel the richness that it contains.
"Levitation by means of chocolate."
Now there's a skill I'd love to have!
Hi CrashCourse team! great video, but just a small correction. The picture at 5:36 belongs to the current chilean senator Isabel Allende Bussi, cousin of Isabel Allende Llona, the writer. Although is a very 100 Years of Solitude mistake to make :)
I just started reading 100 years of Solitude, and I am so thankful that I came across this video. It has really helped me gain me a better appreciation of the book.
Haven't read this novel, but I find significant Mr. Green's enthusiasm for its allegorical statements about the fluidity of memory and history, since he was so unwilling just last week to grant any worth to Lord of the Flies as an allegorical statement about the intrinsic savagery of clannish humanity.
This sounds like a book I wouldn't be able to read without getting confused every other minute
it's not that confusing, they make us read it in high school. what you may miss is the subtext.
It's confusing, but that's the magic of it. Take it slow, one word at a time. You'll get around to it.
"Muchos años después, frente al pelotón de fusilamiento, el coronel Aureliano Buendía había de recordar aquella tarde remota en que su padre lo llevó a conocer el hielo."
Now for the story of a wealthy family that lost everything, and the one son that had no choice but to keep them all together, it's 100 Years of Solitude.
Both 100YoS and Arrested Development feature:
- A large family that all live in a crumbling house.
- Identical twin brothers taking on each others identities.
- Incest between cousins.
- A brother going to war and losing his hand.
- A war over bananas.
- An ending in which the work itself is created (Maebe commissions the show, Melquiades writes the book)
I loved reading this book. I wonder if there are things that get lost in translation between the original language and the English translation. I read it in Spanish and I thought it had a wealth of vocabulary that wasn't easily translatable.
I am traveling this weekend and I was undecided on which book to read. I love Gabriel Gracias Marqués. You just made my decision for me.
The emotions that I went through when reading the final page, the final paragraph, the final sentence of this book are beyond words. I was fortunate enough to read it in Spanish, but in any language it must be a powerful experience.
OMG. Yes! Thanks John. My favorite book of all time. Now I'm just hoping they make a movie about it. RIP Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
This book is so beautiful. I read it in Spanish and I am scared to read it in English. What if the magic disappears?
And John Green speaking those Spanish names gave me life! SIGUE SIGUE MI GENTE-QUE VIVEN LAS RAZAS LATINAS!
I did a critical analysis on this book and biography on Gabriel Garcia Marquez for AP Literature and Marquez actually was very pleased with the English text's translation.
I would recommend sticking to the Spanish.
Una obra así de bella es mejor leerla en su lengua original si es posible.
+Liliana Lancheros I know enough Spanish to read his comment but not enough to read the text of the novel in Spanish 😂😂😂
+Liliana Lancheros Exactamente! Eso mismo es lo que yo creo!
+sailoreric97 It took me a while as well. I was never introduced to my culture until my teen age years (I am not as young as I look). Practice makes perfect....and a english spanish dictionary, too!
I read this from your recommendation and it's literally one of my favorite novels. Simply amazing
As a Spaniard and lover of this book I am really glad you've covered it, I encourage you to keep on covering non-English language literature as there are lots masterpieces out there. First suggestion: Don Quijote de la Mancha, Best novel ever written according to experts.
Thank you so much for taking the time and analyze part of this (one of the greatest stories of all times)
One of my favorite books. I read it in high school as part of world literature course. I love all the ways of looking at the work with all its layers and facets.
So many great quotes within this video from John
One of the best books I've read in my entire life. Reading Uslar Pietri right now and I hope one of his books get covered in this series.
This "discovering ice" is because of the translation. In the original version the word is "conocer", which means to "know" or even "meet".
I was so happy to hear you were going to be discussing this book. I picked it up from my college library after seeing it on a must read book list and was totally blown away. I've since been trying to convince my friends to read it so I could discuss it but have yet to succeed. Thank you for the wonderful video!
Yes, love this. I’m interested to hear your thoughts on Murakami
Your analysis invokes me into picking and reading it.
thank you for introducing me to books like this. and for getting me into reading books i wouldn't normally on my own. these videos as well as those of your bro are excellent.
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Does anyone else click on a Mental Floss video and if it's not John Green talking instantly close it?
Me
me
same person of gender....
I don't close it, but I feel disappointed. And I still am trying to figure out what he means when he says, "and finally, I return to the salon to..." But of course, he never left the salon.
Same.
CrashCourse, thanks a lot for the class! Just finished up this marvelous reading early today and right after wandered if I'd find a video about it here! You guys are awesome!
I haven't had time to read "100 years" yet, but I read "Chronicle of a Death Foretold" about a year ago, and it was seriously one of the best books I've ever read. I'm reading Allende's "The House of the Spirits" right now, and I would love, *LOVE*, to see a CrashCourse on it, just so John might get others reading it.
Thank You Thank You Thank You! This is my all time favorite book!
My dad actually gifted it to my mother when he was trying to get her to fall in love with him back in Cuba and many years late I got to experience the magic in this book through the same copy they read.
It was awesome: "lou rial maravilosou" It´s my favorite book I´ve read it like 10 times and everytime I find something new, It was also awesome to learn how an english speaker would see the book... and its history which is also our history.
I've just finished reading this book today in Spanish. Gotta say this isn't like anything i've ever read so far. even though there is some magic in it, this is the most accurate portrait of the reality we live in. I felt so connected with each character. Each one has their own inner devil to fight off because of the trauma each had to go through.
thank you John, I loved this crash course.
I've been waiting for this for weeks!
The historical banana massacre in Colombia that Garcia Marquez mirrors in the novel actually only killed 300 people, not 3000. But 100 Hundred Years of Solitude has made such an impact on Colombian culture, that the media in Colombia has since reported 3000 deaths. That is the raw power of this novel!
LOL! the last sentenced of the description IS SUPERB.
This is my favorite book ever. Its makes me cry, laugh, to feel that I understand eternity while been amazed by life it self. And perhaps its because I am Colombian, and a scientist, a biologist...But most likely is because this is a real master piece.
Such great art throughout. Great summary overall. Awesome episode!
FAVOURITE AUTHOR AND FAVOURITE BOOK
My professor and friend gave me a copy of this book in Spanish. I had to read it and write a paper in Spanish. I loved it. It's now a great memory of one who has departed.
Wow. thanks for the summary. Encapsulated what I felt but did not know there were words for it, e.g. "magical realism.' And I do appreciate the sentence structures (translated into the English language). I will add these other authors to my list.
Fascinating book. I may have to read this.
Nice haircut, John. I notice you from the past always has the same haircut as you from the present. That's some pretty precise coordination.
I never understood this book but all the comments are making me want to try again.
The first book I completely and throughly enjoyed reading as a school assignment. Sad that this didn't happen until college, but better late than never.
This is one of my favourite books. It's a masterpiece. I think It isn't right to quote the last sentence. That sentence is pure magic. That ending and 1984's one are the best ends that I've ever read.
I've never read this book, but now I want to. Thanks, John!
Great analysis
This book is absolutely magnificent!
Aaaa I was waiting for this video, I love this book so much!
One of my favorite books
I was going to comment that this is my favorite book, but upon reading that frase I realize it is way more than that, this book, and many like it are the very reason i love being venezuelan and latin america, this book here is more than a classic, more than required reading, it is part of our culture, of our personalities, of our way of viewing the world, it almost isn't a book, it is its own category of greatness
nice video! thanks for acknowledging the importance of the book in the world, in Latin America and in literature
Sometimes madness make more sense than logic and reason.
Thank you for this review, it was pretty good
My second favorite book. The first is algo magical realism, "like water for chocolate" by Laura Esquivel.
I read that last summer for lit even though i didn't quite know what was going on, I still loved it because literally every other sentence just sounded so pretty
100 Years of Solitude is without a doubt the best book I've ever read. It is in fact, a privilege to be able to read it n its original language. A few times along the book, it wows you so much, that you realize over and over why it was worth a Nobel prize. Such a beautiful book, the English language does not make it justice
thanks John! I love this book.
this book seems awesome, adding it to the reading docket
This type of speaking (circular linking pas, present and future tenses using 'years/months/days latter") is very common in Spanish (and we have a lot more phrases for that), the fact that is surprising for English speakers tells me how much do Americans, and all English speakers for that matter, NEED to study a different language even is theirs is lingua franca.
Ah...I can listen to your voice all day.
I read "Chronicle of a Death Foretold" just recently (also Garcia). Been meaning to get to this one.
so many things i want to talk about this novel!!!!!!! but i will settle on three: its kinda sad you cant enjoy it as it was intended to be read, in spanish, in my honest opinion, it does not compare as often translations do, but language is such an important part of this story as much as plot, i feel for whoever can't read spanish; second, omg is anyone gonna address that the fact that they were "cursed" of a hundred years of solitude was because of incest?!; and lastly THAT LAST SENTENCE IS THE BEST PIECE OF LITERATURE I HAVE READ WITH MY OWN TWO EYES! I WAS SO BLOWN AWAY I FELT THE TORNADO WAS TAKING ME AWAY WITH MACONDO AND THE TERMITES EATING ME ALIVE MY SOUL TRANSCENDED SUCH A PERFECT WAY TO END!!!!!!!
SAME!
I remember feeling physically moved as my eyes scanned the last page, reading as quickly as I could so I might finish the book before the tornado blew me away.
It was an incredible experience.
I wish John would talk about translation some time. I mean more than he just did. It seems to me that books in German really suffer in English translation.
There must be some translation of a book that is better than the original, but you would have to know both languages equally well to judge this.
Really! I have to read this book... I hope it will still be amazing in English!
it is!!
I plan to read this book in Spanish, but my first time through I decided on English in order to have a better understanding of what was going on. My ability to read Spanish serves well for reading newspapers and short documents, but wanes when length and complexity are increased as is the case for novels.
Do you think having read the book in English will diminish my ability to enjoy it in it's original language?
This book was definitely a one-of-a-kind experience.
What a nice surprise to find cien años de soledad here. Thank you.
YES! THANK YOU JOHN I LOVE THIS BOOK!!!
Never heard of this book. It sounds good. Now I must find and read it!
Ahhhhhh the first time you propale make one of my favorite books thaaank you so much
The best book I’ve ever read and I’ve read a lot. it’s a true masterpiece
Cool I was hoping you guys would do this one. I read it when I was a teenager and I don't think I grasped it very well. This has me thinking of maybe tackling that big beast again!
ADDING IT TO THE LIST!
One of the best books written in the Spanish language and one that i kept reading multiple times since I read it first time with 14 years. I also love how it well captures the spirit of South America and how the language and the expresions sound actualy like the Spanish talk there when they tell their stories; which the first time I read made a huge impression of me, being a peninsular spanish speaker, who saw the book as something different, but at the same time familiar (it also reminds of how stories are told by eldres where I'm from, even if I come from the other side of the atlantic as Marquez). I guess it's just one of these books that trascends barries and can feel local and universal at the same time.
honestly the best book i’ve read. i’m scared of it ending
This is my favorite book of all time.
as a latino (Brasil), is fascinating to see a gringo talking and teaching Garcia Marquez