El Mundo

En una parte de la novela el autor habla acerca de cuándo el regreso a donde vivía en su niñez el podía recordar los edificios o casas que estaban antes en ese espacio antes que fueran remodeladas o remplazadas por otro edificio que era como un fantasma que marcaba la casa o el edificio original. Esa parte me sorprendió mucho porque cuando yo regreso a México todo tiene recuerdos y todavía veo las cosas como eran antes a pesar que muchas cosas son diferentes. Recuerdo como eran las casas de mis vecinos y me sorprendo como todo ha cambiado en tan poco tiempo. Las personas también son diferentes no solo físicamente por el paso del tiempo sino también en su forma de ser, y yo me pregunto si yo soy diferente si el tiempo me ha cambiado en mi forma de ser. Me siento extraña en ese lugar porque a veces me da la impresión que lo que yo recordaba no existió que fue un sueño ya que todo es diferente.

El Mundo

When we did our activity yesterday in class about "que adquiere la palabra "el mundo" en la novela," I couldn't help but relating this to my life. I am a big poker player, and the fact that this story is in Millas' world, from only his perspective, made me think of playing a Texas Hold'em Tournament. You sit there and play, knowing and only seeing your own cards, just as we only know our own mentality. Meanwhile, other players have cards of their own, just as other people have their own mentalities in life. During each individual hand, you try to read what other people are holding, just as we try to read what other people are thinking in real life, and you formulate a hypothesis on what cards they have and play accordingly, just as we judge/guess what other people are thinking about us and we act accordingly. Winning a hand signifies knowing how another person's thought process works, as in making some sort of connection with that person because you can read into their mind. Losing means you can't read that person, and in real life this signifies a misunderstanding between the two people.

You could just look at the results of every hand and not go through the mental game, just as you can just look at the actions of people without knowing their thought process. However, in poker, people can make good plays and lose or make bad plays and win, because there is luck involved, just as people in real life can have good thoughts/intentions but do bad things or have bad thoughts/intentions and do good things. In other words, you can't solely judge a person on the results of each hand, or in real life people's actions, because, although over the long haul "actions speak louder than words," in the short term good poker players can make bad decisions or get unlucky and bad poker players can make good decisions or get lucky, just as good people can do bad things and bad people can do good things. This is why the thought process of a person is important, because although in the end it matters about the action more than the thoughts, the thoughts are the bridge between you and your actions.

Millan's memories vs. Millas' memories

The discussion we had in class about the memories of the two men in each story was really interesting. It is funny to think that when it comes down to it, we don't really know what is true and what isn't because the stories consist of memories. Millan's memories perceive him to be less guilty than he actually is. Millas on the other hand has these crazy memories, stricken by drugs and more drugs. What do we actually believe in this case?

While reading the texts and comparing the two, I also had to keep in mind that Millan's memories were of another person's life. Not only that, but this person he was remembering was on the opposing political side, so we would expect Millan to alter his memory in some way. Millas' memories were of his own life and his own experiences. I think, for me at least, Millas was a little more believable as a narrator because he was remembering his own life, not someone else's.

Blog 9!!!

El Mundo es excelente! Es en definitiva un libro que te hace pensar y reflecionar sobre tu propia vida, de donde vienes, que estas haciendo y hacia donde vas. Estoy muy de acuerdo con lo que discutimos en clase cuando se dijo que Millas fue honesto y "open" sobre su vida personal. Sin embargo, pienso que es grandioso que Millas recuerde como se sentia en su infancia porque la mayoria de los adultos olvida lo que es ser un nino.

En clase se discutio que Millas mas bien piensa que recuerda como se sentia en su joventud, pero yo no estoy de acuerdo. La rason por la cual no estoy de acuerdo es porque de lo contrario entonces no seria veridico. Este libro es una biografia detras de un autoanalisis por lo tanto el si sabe como se sentia como nino, el si sabe como pensaba como nino; aun asi si tuvieramos que describir que Millas cincuenta porciento se recuerda de como se sentia cuando nino y ciencuenta porciento piensa (el adulto Millas) como era que se sentia cuando nino.

Pero aun asi, el libro es sin duda un inspiracion a la reflecion del yo y de nuestro pasado y futuro.

Childhood Realizations

I wasn't in class on Wednesday but it seems like we talked about how Millás incorporated his childhood memories into his book and how they are different now. I agree with that, after reading this and looking back upon my childhood everything is different and the world moves so much faster as I get older. I remember when I was younger the summers seemed to last forever (and most of the time I didn't mind, although sometimes I was ready for school to start again). I spent the summers swimming, playing games outside, playing board games, just doing whatever I wanted to do. I remember thinking we had the best basketball games and we were so good, or going to church and singing the hymns and thinking that it wouldn't be the same without me singing. When you go back and reflect on how things used to be and how much things have changed you realize that the thoughts as you were younger were nothing like how you remember them and you will never have the same experiences as you get older, which is actually sad, but not sad that you never thought that when you were younger.

El mundo frio

One thing that really jumped out at me was the description of El Frio. (I used capital letters because I feel like it's so important). El Frio is a metaphor if I've ever seen one. It permeates Millas' bones. He can't shake the feeling. It's like when you have to stand outside in the cold for hours and you feel like you'll never be warm again. Or when you're violently ill and it feels like getting healthy again is impossible. But as we know, those feelings go away pretty quickly and you go home and wake up in the morning feeling warmer/healthier. But imagine if that wasn't a possibility. That was Millas' situation. The cold just wouldn't go away and there was a constant struggle to feel as comfortable as possible in the given moment. There was no "I can't wait to go home to my warm house!" It's actually quite scary when you think about it. El Frio Inescapable. I thought the metaphor of El Frio cutting into the soul (literally and figuratively) was excellent. I really enjoyed Millas' writing style too.

El Mundo - Reality

El Mundo is definitely an insightful book. Not necessarily for the content, although its content is very interesting, but for the way it causes one's mind to race with thoughts after each paragraph. Usually I will read a book for pages and pages because it paints a picture/movie in my mind, which is not a bad thing at all. But I found myself delving into memories and philosophical thoughts after seemingly every paragraph or page in this book. I love thinking, going off tangents, and thinking about the world from different perspectives. I truly admire Millas way of thinking about the world. Although he himself admits that he has some mental issues, for me, that doesn't detract at all from the fact that he is able to let go of preconceived notions and associations in this world. Our minds are wired to make these associations and make them seem like absolute truths, probably for survival reasons. He is able to disconnect this wiring, to view the world like a child at all times, always questioning associations and the perceived reality.

The fact is that Millas is right in his thinking. Our perception of what we think of as reality is truly only a fraction of what actually exists. Even on the brightest of days, our senses give us only a tiny part of what exists in the world. We only see a very limited part of the spectrum of light; we only hear from 20-20,000 Hz; animals can smell much, much more than we can; the list goes on. We are constantly being bombarded by particles at all times, things we can never see or feel.

When you look at your skin, you think you are seeing something solid. Your touch even makes this claim stronger. Yet we know that on the microscopic level we are a bunch of atoms connected together by their natural bonds of attraction. And what is an atom at the most basic level? It is a tiny nucleus with electrons flying around it. If we were to make an analogy of this, an atom would be the size of the Horseshoe and the nucleus of the atom would be a single pea on the 50 yard line. The rest is empty space where even tinier electrons fly around in a sort of cloud of energy. So if we are made up entirely of atoms, and atoms are almost entirely empty space, then aren't we not mostly empty space??

So what is the implication of thinking about reality like this, similar to how Millas views the world in different ways. The point is that life and reality are not what they seem to be. It teaches us not to take things at face value, for granted, or for certain. What may seem like an absolute truth is really not at the fundamental level. We are made of constantly changing particles that eventually will run out of juice and cease to function. So, as Millas has done, make the best out of any situation in life. While some days may seem like the most terrible day to you, there are millions of others out there having a terrible day as well. Life goes on still. There isn't a right or wrong way to view an experience. Experiences are what we make them to be, just as Millas has done.

El mundo de un niño

I can remember being a kid and the world being so big. What we talked about in class on Wednesday fits into this theory I've had since high school. There is this group of activities that sound like a great idea every two or three years to me (the zoo, the museum, and the Renaissance fair), but about 15 minutes into them, you realize that over the past three years, you've built up memories and great experiences from every other time you've been there, and they suddenly aren't as exciting. What is there to do at the Renaissance fair that doesn't cost any money? Why aren't the animals MOVING!?! And those questions like "Where does electricity come from?" or "What happened to the dinosaurs?" that are answered with the push of a button or the lifting of a tab aren't so exciting when you're in college. But I fall for it every time... I'll go back in three years, with the expectations of a six year-old again.

This is exactly what Millás uses in El mundo... everything is bigger and better as a child. My grandma told me once that your life is like a pie, and every year takes up an equal part. When you're six, all of your experiences are 1/6 of what you've seen, heard, or did. When you're 50, they account for 1/50 of your life. The pieces keep getting smaller. This is why, she says, that years seem shorter and shorter the older you get. Remember how long a 10-minute time out seemed when you were five?! But, as you get older, you value your experiences just as much, if not more, than when you were young. Maybe that's why we keep going back to the Renaissance fair... it takes us back to a time (our childhood, not the Middle Ages) where an 8 dollar turkey leg was the best thing in el mundo.

El Mundo & Frank McCourt

When reading El Mundo, it struck me that I had read works with a similar style before. I realized it was the work of Frank McCourt--his three part memoir series of Angela's Ashes, 'Tis, and Teacher Man. I remember reading McCourt for the first time and the profound impact that it had on me. Literature always does this for me, but the interesting thing was that when it came to McCourt's work, it was the simplicity of the stream of consciousness style that really captured me. I had never before read anything written in that style. I feel like a stream of consciousness allows readers a unique insight into the mind of readers, an insight that is moving in works like that of McCourt and Millas. It struck me that a type of writing that appears so simple can communicate such a strong message and set a completey unique tone in a novel. Here's an example from Angela's Ashes:

"The master says it’s a glorious thing to die for the Faith and Dad says it’s a glorious thing to die for Ireland and I wonder if there’s anyone in the world who would like us to live. My brothers are dead and my sister is dead and I wonder if they died for Ireland or the Faith. Dad says they were too young to die for anything. Mam says it was disease and starvation and him never having a job. Dad says, Och, Angela, puts on his cap and goes for a long walk."

I feel like the stream of consciousness completely transforms the work in ways that couldn't be understood as well with other styles of writing, and I feel the same when reading Millas. Anyone who enjoys El Mundo would love McCourt's work and I highly recommend it.

Last Blog Meditation

The dialogue between Don Valeriano and Paco was the best part/scene of everything we’ve read this quarter. After reading that part, I just felt really excited. Paco showed a lot of courage talking to someone in a more powerful position than him and really demonstrated that he is the hero of the town. I loved when Paco said the following, “¿De qué manera va a negociar el duque? No hay más que dejar los montes, y no volver a pensar en el asunto” (33). The words express so much confidence and bravery! The scene also reminded me of Harry Potter and his will to finish off Lord Voldemort. I felt like Harry acted in the same way as Paco in the seventh book when he was battling the villain for the last time. In that scene, Harry was also in a similar situation as Paco because he was up against someone that was stronger. However, in the end Harry won the duel and Paco won the loyalty of the people in the town (even though he wasn’t alive to see it).

El mundo

In our discussion on Wednesday we talked about how different things we saw as children appear now, as Millás discusses in Mundo. This got me thinking of how differently I view things now than I did in the past. The first thing that comes to mind is Chuck E. Cheese. This used to be my favorite place on earth. I loved to go there, play the games, eat the pizza, get buried in the huge ball pit and watch the shows. Now, when I take my younger cousins there all I can think of is how germy the games are, how much the pizza tastes like it was frozen, how many germs are in the tiny ball pit and how corny the shows are with the mechanical character. The emotions the narrator is feeling are so universal, in fact there are few things that I can think of from my childhood that don’t seem different now. Everything is different. I think that is what makes this novel so easy to read and relate to because the emotions he experiences.

El Mundo

At first, I was really reluctant to even pick up the book. However, once I got started, I couldn't put the book down! I love the way the author writes… it's just so random. I mean if he remembers something, he just sticks it in! I love it! One of my favorite analogies was about the El Frio- that the cold isn't just from the cold environment in Madrid, but the coldness from relationships we create. It's the impact of the relationships we form, that stay with us forever. He also throws an analogy about the knife that makes the cut, also heals us. It's so true!! Sometimes we don't see the good in something gone terribly wrong, but there's a reason why something happened. I feel as if things happen for a reason, whether we see good in it or not, there's always something good… you will see the good one day! Millan's writing is very much like Freud's psychoanalytical, but also VERY philosophical and that's probably the reason why I love it so much!

El mundo

When we are little, we are like sponges. We soak in everything people say and ask a lot of questions about things we don’t know about. Even the littlest events, can impact what we do, act, or feel, in the future. For example, Millás talked about holding hands with his mother. Other guys remember doing the same thing, but never thought much about it. Millás, on the other hand, remembers these events in great detail and thinks about them when he is older. I don’t frequently think about holding my mom’s or dad’s hand, but I remember certain aspects of my childhood that have stayed with me. My sisters definitely influenced the person I am today, and I remember many times when we fought due to our differences or supported each other when we were upset and needed a shoulder to cry on. Each one of us is ‘broken’ at some point in our lives, and it’s great to have people or ones self motivation, to put the pieces together. Millás also talked about his mother’s breast feeding, and that definitely left an imprint on his mind for the rest of his life. Through Millás’ self motivation, he was able to achieve a lot of recognition for doing something he is good at – writing. He has broken pieces in his personality – his emotions and ideas, but he has been able to work through his problems to become a great writer.

El mundo

Out of everything we've read in class, El mundo, for me, has been the easiest to get through. Most likely this is due to Millas' simple style of writing and topics and themes that I can understand and relate to my own life. I think this is one of the most important elements necessary in order for the reader to connect with a novel - her ability to relate to the events and state-of-mind of the narrator or protagonist. As someone in class pointed out, this could be a good read for someone with mental problems similar to the narrator's. Even if it may not have been Millas' intentions when writing the novel, I believe that it is still an important aspect to the text, that it reaches out to young people who may be suffering from psychological issues. Even for a reader that may not directly connect to those themes, even the psychological and philosophical subject matter is intriguing and interesting to read. Although it may take me more than one read to comprehend everything going on in the novel, I'd like to be able to read this through and know and be able to discuss the novel as it is the one I have valued the most this quarter.

Our Broken World

In our discussion of El Mundo this week, we talked about how Millás wanted to show the reader how the mentality of a person changes throughout the cycle of life, and how, in the moment that the person is living in, things don’t seem unequivocal to that person. I love this view of the world, and it makes me think of life as a perpetual free-fall with impervious safety nets catching you along the way. As the cycle of life plays out, each safety net is successfully cut open, and the free-fall begins until you hit the next safety next. Here’s what I mean: Millás shows us that at the time of birth, the world is completely broken, which represents the first safety net (being inside the mother’s womb) being broken and the first free-fall being undertaken. The fall represents all the chaos that has broken our world and how we are adapting to these things, learning more about them (i.e. communication), and eventually mastering them, which is when we hit the second safety net. Now we are living under our parents’ or teachers’ care, and while we know more and can do more things than at the first safety net, we still are confined by the limits of childhood, schooling, etc. And this is what life continues to be like until the end. Once we escape the world of childhood and schooling, our world is broken again, and we need to learn and master new things on top of those that we have already mastered in previous stages. Then we fall into another safety net until we take another step in the life cycle, where our world is broken again, and we adapt again. And so the cycle of life forces us to make ourselves better and more understanding, and we must abide or else when we do take that next step, we do not have all the tools we were supposed to acquire from the last free-fall; we would be set up to fail because we would be in an endless free-fall that never reaches the next safety net, simply because we don’t know the world as well as we should at that stage in the life cycle. That might have been really confusing, but it works in my mind, so I apologize if it was.

¿Mosén Millán un héroe?

La mayoría de lectores piensan que Mosén Millán fue un cobarde al entregar a Paco en Réquiem por un campesino español, sin embargo yo creo que tal vez Mosén Millán fue un héroe pero nunca se dio algo de crédito. Si pensamos en el bienestar de la gente mas allá de Paco podemos ver que tal vez entregar a Paco en el momento fue la mejor idea. La razón es que mucha gente estaba siendo matada, y yo creo que Mosén Millán pensó que tal vez sacrificando a Paco las matanzas terminarían porque ya tendrían al líder del grupo contrario. En cierta forma yo creo que Mosén Millán se sacrifico porque el realmente quería a Paco; él lo vio a Paco desde bebe crecer y el dice que él es su padre espiritista de Paco, entonces el de alguna manera sacrifico a su hijo por el bien de el resto de la gente en el pueblo. El nunca dice en la historia porque motivo entrego a Paco, pero lo que es claro es que el respetaba a Paco, lo quería como un hijo, y a lo largo de la historia él lo hizo ver como si Paco fuera lo mejor que murió como un mártir lo que a mí me hace creer que fue muy difícil para el entregar a su hijo para que fuera sacrificado para salvar al resto de la gente del pueblo.

PROBLEM WITH BLOG POSTING-- FROM PROFESORA

Dear all,
there have been some problems with blog posting dates for some of you. Some of you have been getting error messages. I am going to print out everyone's postings and count them numerically next week. As long as everyone has the right number of postings total, things will be fine. No need to worry about date of posting at this point.
Gracias,
RH

el Mundo

I have to admit I was nervous to start reading el Mundo, mainly because it was my first real novel in Spanish. By "real novel" I am referring to one that you would pick up off the shelf at Barnes and Noble for pleasure at the beach. After diving in, I loved the analogy of the eletrosurge, el bautisuri electronico, because it represents the fine line of life. A fine line between cut and healed, broken and fixed, together and apart, right and wrong, life and death or dream vs reality. I have grown up in a world, mainly by my parents and my upbringing, where all of the boundaries were established. To me this book opens a world into the life and the street of Juan, who sees a world of grey. Therefore, I think that he fulfilled his obligation to me when he said "Yo estaba obligado a contar la historia del mundo, es decir, la historia de mi calle, pues compredi en ese instante que mi calle era una imitacion , un trasunto, una copia, quiza, una metafora del mundo." (92) I think this shows how there is not normal, but everyone is interconnected this world in some way, and by telling one piece of the puzzle there is a whole world out there they is apart and functions just like this one puzzle piece. He goes on later to reinforce this because he says how he sees "mi calle" in Manchester, New York, LA, Madrid, and any city he comes across he sees and examines bits and pieces of his life and the world. I find this ability to interconnect an amazing gift, which creates and even better incision into our lives.

El Mundo

When I was reading El Mundo I was a bit confused about some things and there were some parts where I completely had no idea what was going on, but our discussion in class today really helped me to get a better understanding of the book. Even though I didn't understand everything at first, I still enjoyed the book, but after the discussion, I had a much greater appreciation for it! The beauty with which Millas blurs the lines between what is real and what is created in the mind of the child is incredible. Also, I like the fact that it seems like it is an autobiography, however it is written as a novel, and Millas never states that it actually is the story of his childhood. The way in which he writes, with a lot of repetition and lots of long sentences, was part of the reason I think I got confused, but after rereading some passages, I saw the amazing effect it had, and it really added emphasis to the story. I am glad that we were required to buy this book for class, and that we read it at the end of the quarter because I am looking forward to going back and rereading it over spring break.

-Emily Brown

Memories - El Mundo

During class today, I started to think about my childhood. I realized that when I look back at my life as a kids, I can barely remember many of the details that had once been so important to me. I find it so interesting that Juan Jose Millas had remembered so much detail and could express how he felt about those moments. Many little things can effect someone's life in a big way, but people like myself do not remember them. In discussion, we talked about how when we are kids everything seems so big and shiny and when we grow up we wonder if we were looking at the same thing. I find it interesting how everything is so new when we are young, and we learn everything for the first time. Every person can grow up so differently, which is why I think there is no "normal" way to grow up because every person and family has their quirks. Millas was so honest in expressing his feelings. It was sad that Millas did not recognize his dad as his father and was scared of him. I believe like Ilse that the book was a kind of closure for him as well as a great novel to outsell his competitors. Many people hold sad memories inside themselves, and I think by him writing about his past it helps him move forward. I also think that many people who have bad or "broken" childhoods think that their life will always be "broken". Millas is living proof that one's life can get better, as he is now a successful writer. Millas does a great job exploring his childhood and life and truely makes the readers look back on their life and how they grew up. It's amazing!

Post Week 9

After our class discussion about Requiem por un campesino espanol on 3/1, I decided to do some research to find out more about this book. I came across a long article that relates and read the first part of it. This related very well to the exercise we did about the "Romance" in the book that is expressed through the alter boy. The person who wrote the article really took a liking to the prose/poetry that appears throughout the book. I thought this was very interesting because we talked about the importance of this smaller story within the entire book. The person who wrote this article notes that there are twelve of these sections of the romance and all are said by the alter boy except the eighth which Mosen Millan says. In addition to the points we touched on in class, I found this article to contain other important ideas. For instance, this article points out that the romance serves to show that the people have their own way of honoring Paco that is separate from the church. This idea is also evident at the end when there are only three people who show up for his mass, none of which are the campesinos or other people from the town. In addition to this idea, the article also suggests the reason for the people not showing up for the mass. According to the article, the reason is that the town partially blames Mosen Millan for what happened to Paco and thus does not attend his mass. I also found it interesting that the article pointed out that in the Romance, the only other name to appear other that Paco's was Mosen Millan. This also shows blame toward Mosen Millan.

Here is the link in case someone is interested in reading the entire article
http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdf?vid=2&hid=13&sid=29a2bdf7-9b38-4dbe-abce-2301f1d66206%40sessionmgr10

Blog 7: More thoughts on Requiem

I had the chance to hear Dr. Maya Angelou speak last night at the Mershon Center, and it was so inspirational that I just knew I had to find some way to connect it to class so that I could talk about it. Today in class I thought of a way to do that! Dr. Angelou made a very interesting point last night, while talking about the fact that we are all human, and thus capable of everything, in both a good and bad way. The quoted a man named Terence, a playwright of the Roman Republic who wrote "Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto", or "I am a man, I consider nothing that is human alien to me." She then paralleled this to thinking about people who do horrible things, and the fact that they did them, means that since we are each human, we also have the capability within ourselves to commit these acts as well. When applying this to Requiem, we may be able to understand Mosen's character a little more. Like we have been saying, he is only human, as we all are, and he is capable of doing some wicked things (like his traitor acts that we see in Requiem), but that means we all are capable of these things. Yet, applying this to Paco, who is the hero of the village and brave enough to stand up and do something about the injustices occurring, is also human, and thus we all have something in ourselves that is capable of being that brave as well. In this way, as Dr. Angelou also pointed out, it is liberating to know we are all human.

Blog 6 Requiem por un campesino espanol

I think that the problems in Spain during the 19th century is very interesting. The fight between the nationalists and republicans for political power created a lot of tension throughout the country. I like how the 2nd republic was fighting for better rights for the people and created the constitution which gave more rights to the people such as legal divorce, universal sufferage for everyone, land redistribution, workplace rights, and dissolving religious orders and the confiscation of property. I think it is important that the church does not have control over everything and the workers have better rights and are able to attain land. With the political change back to the rebels, I think that it confused many of the people because the ideas of each side are so different. I like Requiem por un campesino espanol because it shows the effect the changes had on a pueblo. It gives you a better idea of what the people were experiencing and how some people like Paco rose up to help the people and take advantage of the rights they were given. I found that the flashbacks made the book confusing because the point of view and time was constantly changing. The idea of memory is very interesting as we have discussed in class. When people retell memories, they can make the stories different than they actually were sometimes to feel better about themselves or to avoid admitting something bad they have done. You can see this in the story with mosen Millan and his retelling of the death of Paco. I liked how the story showed Paco as a person who organized the people to stand up against those who wanted to oppress them. I wish that the constiution had stayed as the law instead of being taken away from the people two years later. I think the left wing party had won again in 1936 because the people realized what the right wings were capable of and the negative effects they had on many lives of the people.