One Hundred Years: A Closure

Before starting on my blog for the week, I just want to say that the amount of material that this book can give one to think about and discuss could, quite seriously, take an entire semester. I'm not even joking. If this book is to be done in the future, I would spend longer with it, just to be sure that a class attempts to do it justice...both with making sure the plot is understood by all and by going into some of the MANY ideas that Garcia Marquez brings up.

Now, to give the text some consideration. Last time we were given a handout on the theorist Frantz Fanon. Fanon, a Marxist, discusses Nationalism as an essential tool, but potentially dangerous to the identities of downtrodden nations. "While viewing nationalism as a necessayr and important tool, he warns that it threatens to force emerging African nations into molds provided by their European predecessors...[new nations] will be ruled by a postcolonial burgeoisie trained by Europenas to approach problems in characterictically European ways". I see this text as applicable to many things we discussed in class.

Garcia Marquez works to fight against colonizing powers of Colombia. He also works to fight against the structure and corruption of the Roman Catholic church. However, he grew up in an atmosphere and environment in which both colonizing powers and the Roman Catholic church played an undeniable influence on his development. It's funny in how, in trying to fight against these powers, he actually uses their structures in his text. While he fights against Catholicism, Garcia Marquez's structure of One Hundred Years resembles the Bible. While he works against the colonizing ideas in his text, it is not the colonizers that are anhiliated but the people native to the area. Also, I have to wonder about the audience of this text. Was he looking to reach the people native to Colombia, or did he want this text to reach out to the colonizing powers? Either way, there is a difference in how the text is read by taking into consideration the audience.

This Fanon handout also called to the "intellecutals" to be sure to set up an authentic culture for oppressed nations. However, I would have to call into question the ability of these "intellecutals" to set up an authentic culture after having been bred in Western tradition. Just look at Garcia Marquez...though he is denouncing many things, he turns to Western (or authoritiative) structures to organize himself. Perhaps the Spivak handout should be brought up...no one, not even intellecutals, can set up an authentic culture once Western influences have come in.

But maybe something kind of cool can come out of a hybrid culutre...not necessarily authentic to the before Western influence, but cool nonetheless. Just look at One Hundred Years...while not without its Western influences, it still maintains a unique story (not to mention a Nobel Prize Winning Story...) with a power all of its own.