tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7017082.post76102154266744753..comments2023-03-25T12:30:12.310-04:00Comments on Wordwright: First impressionsGavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09902304588711972110noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7017082.post-79668800377224836622009-08-05T16:16:20.203-04:002009-08-05T16:16:20.203-04:00I've been thinking about the "pointing,&q...I've been thinking about the "pointing," and I think it is a useful way to think of what Marquez is doing here. He isn't NAMING. He isn't TELLING. He is pointing. "This is Jose, this is his son, this is the gypsy, this is the magnet." The narrative is about pointing, not about naming. Also explains, I think, GMMs resistance to the phrase "magical realism." He isn't pointing to the strange events of this world (such as its inherent lack of linear time) to say, "Wow, that's odd. Must be magic." He's pointing to them because that's what any good journalist would do, and that's what he is, first and foremost.angelahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00111771809497487444noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7017082.post-28796002349390012582009-08-05T11:38:23.466-04:002009-08-05T11:38:23.466-04:00I wasn't quoting anything. Just buying time to...I wasn't quoting anything. Just buying time to go get my spear.<br /><br />A spear! Again, this is CADS's weird sense not just of narrative, but historical time. On the one hand, it's been about a century or so, maybe, since Sir Francis Drake attacked JAB and UB's home village. On the other hand, the world is so new, most things don't have names, so it's necessary to point. The man who kills another man, like Achilles, with a spear, can also calculate the circumference of the globe.Timhttp://snarkmarket.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7017082.post-10821977013993456502009-08-05T10:13:43.957-04:002009-08-05T10:13:43.957-04:00I'm going to vote for that line as "most ...I'm going to vote for that line as "most in need of quotation marks when posted."<br /><br />Once I realized that you weren't threatening me, I was able to return to my love for that scene. It gives us so much about José Arcadio Buendía, both in terms of a certain sense of honor—he warns the man, after all—and the way he remains literally haunted with guilt for the man's death.Gavinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09902304588711972110noreply@blogger.com