Hello Blog readers,This week I read Captain Pantoja And The Special Service by Mario Vargas Llosa, and I was not expecting what I just read. To put it blankly, this book was all about sex, yet in such a formal way to disguise the topic. The overa…
Posted in Blogs, Vargas Llosa | Tagged with captain Pantoja, humour, jokes, sexual desire, specialists, the Army
Hello Blog readers,This week I read Captain Pantoja And The Special Service by Mario Vargas Llosa, and I was not expecting what I just read. To put it blankly, this book was all about sex, yet in such a formal way to disguise the topic. The overa…
Posted in Blogs, Vargas Llosa | Tagged with
Clarice Lispector’s Hour of the Star was a fantastic read. The novella interestingly links the reader, the writer and Macabéa (the protagonist) into a complex relationship. The writer seems to have something to prove to the reader and yet is completely out of control of their own writing according to them. Macabéa, although she is their creation, is …
Posted in Blogs, Lispector | Tagged with fortune, narrator, star
Clarice Lispector’s, The Hour of the Star, is a captivating story about the ultimate fate and existential crisis of a 19-year-old young woman named Macabea. Macabea moves from the countryside to Rio de Janeiro, and lives in a tenant room in the slums of Rio. The novel takes us through her life – a life […]
Posted in Blogs, Lispector | Tagged with belonging, conformity, Latin American
This was an interesting book. When I was choosing which books to read, the synopsis of this one seemed intriguing and it ended up being exactly that. The way the book was written was quite interesting, the comedic dialogue had an underlying layer of seriousness that made the overall book, satirical. The character of Pantoja […]
Posted in Blogs, Vargas Llosa | Tagged with desire, principles, satire, service
The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector is by far one of my favorite reads of the class so far. It was chilling and deeply moving, and had a very intense effect when read in one sitting. Macabéa, the subject of Rodrigo’s narration, lives a life of great external suffering yet even greater internal freedom. […]
Posted in Blogs, Lispector | Tagged with blame, self-awareness
I am blown away by this novel. I don’t even know how to articulate just how much I loved it and exactly why it lingers with me still, but I’ll give it my best shot. There is so much I could talk about, but for the sake of word count, I’ll limit myself to two […]
Posted in Blogs, Lispector | Tagged with femininity, genderroles, grammar, poeticism, syntax
What a book! I really enjoyed this novel – I love narratives that are a bit out-of-the-box so I liked the way the story revolved more so around characters than any kind of a dialogue, and how there was a dichotomy between Macabea and the writer or ‘creator’. I haven’t watched the lecture yet, but […]
Posted in Blogs, Lispector | Tagged with hourofthestar
This book was one that initially confused me but then really drew me in, and I may go as far as saying it was the most captivating book I’ve read so far in the class! I think my captivation with this novel stems from its truly ‘weird’ manner of presentation – it’s at once a […]
Posted in Blogs, Lispector | Tagged with female, introspection, meta, philosophical
Hi all, This week we discuss Captain Pantoja and the Special Service, paying homage to the increasing demand for specialists (aka lust), the ridiculous professionalism/euphemisms of bureaucratic systems, and the racial depiction of Chino Porfirio. Question: What do you think is the role of the Brothers of the Ark in this story? Is there an …
Posted in Blogs, Vargas Llosa | Tagged with government, military, prostitution
