Today: “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez Magical Realism Food and Memory Beginning Like Water for Chocolate

Magical Realism “Only three things have ever astonished me: a dream within a dream, voices in an empty room, and fire the colour of ice.” Silvina Ocampo

Magical Realism Blends reality and fantasy so that the distinction between the two disappears. "Magical realism expands the category of the real so as to encompass myth, magic and other extraordinary phenomena in Nature or experience which European realism excluded" (Gabriel García Márquez, eds. Bernard McGuirk and Richard Cardwell, 45).

One notable feature of Magic Realism is a very detailed description. It’s the way we know it’s real, we recognize the object as something familiar, but the writer has put it down in such a way that it becomes new to us again. In the following excerpt what surprises you? What is our narrator describing? How?

“They insisted so much that José Arcadio Buendia paid the thirty reales and led them into the center of the tent, where there was a giant with a hairy torso and a shaved head, with a copper ring in his nose and a heavy iron chain on his ankle, watching over a pirate chest. When it was opened by the giant, the chest gave off a glacial exhalation. Inside there was only an enormous, transparent block with infinite internal needles in which the light of the sunset was broken up into colored stars. Disconcerted, knowing that the children were waiting for an immediate explanation, José Arcadio Buendia ventured a murmur: “It’s the largest diamond in the world.” “No,” the gypsy countered, “It’s…” excerpt from One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Please get out a piece of scratch paper Everyone please close your eyes and think of an everyday object. An object that you see, or use everyday…

Imagine it as if you’d never seen it before in your life. As if you were new to this region, or a child, and you’re experiencing this object for the first time. Imagine it clearly, colors, textures, shape, its function, its taste or smell. Write this description, include as many details as possible without using its name or its purpose. What do you think it’s called? What do you think its function is? There’s something about this everyday object that you find amazing, some quality. It’s an amazing object! What’s amazing about it? Please write that description down using as much detail as you can, exaggerate everything about your description!

So begins the adventure of the New, made of what is Old. Magic, maybe, out of the regular. The magical, the marvelous, the real. Or, the more or less real: approximate reality. When studying Magical Realism, don’t worry, or think that you are lost. It’s too late. In these worlds, you are never lost, because to be lost you need to know where you have been, which may not be where you thought. You will not—cannot—get lost; you will, simply, always be somewhere. Perhaps this requires a new kind of patience; but, its reward, too, is a new kind of seeing. This is the equation of writers (and readers!) Our plan will be to experience what is right in front of us in a new way.

“A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” What do you notice about the writing style? Annotate what you find odd, interesting, shocking, etc. Thoughtfully answer the questions

Magical realism Examples in “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings”? What do you think Marquez’s message is, about Human Nature?

Magical Realism As you are beginning Like Water for Chocolate, note (3) examples of magical realism in the first chapters.

Like Water for Chocolate Context: Set during the Mexican Revolution Mexican author: Laura Esquivel Written in 1989 in Spanish Translation

The Mexican Revolution The Mexican Revolution was a major armed struggle that started with an uprising led by Francisco I. Madero against longtime dictator Porfirio Díaz.Francisco I. MaderoPorfirio Díaz Díaz’s time in office is remembered for the advances he brought in industry and modernization, at the expense of human rights and liberal reforms. The working classes had been exploited (farmers, factory workers, etc.). The Mexican Revolution progressed into a long and complicated civil war and culminated in the Mexican Constitution of 1917.Mexican Constitution of 1917 It is generally considered to have lasted until 1920, although the country would continue to encounter sporadic but comparatively minor outbreaks in the 1920s, such as the Cristero War. Cristero War The Revolution triggered the creation of the National Revolutionary Party in 1929 (renamed the Institutional Revolutionary Party in 1946), which would continue to lead the country until The Mexican Revolution was the first of the large revolutions of the 20th century.National Revolutionary Partyuntil 2000

Laura Esquivel Born September 30, 1950, in Mexico City, Mexico. The 3 rd of 4 children. Began writing while working as a kindergarten teacher. She wrote plays for her students and then went on to write children's television programs during the 1970s and 1980s. In her work, Esquivel often explores the relationship between men and women in Mexico.

Food and Memory Transcend to a childhood memory…

Food and Memory “…smells have the power to evoke the past, bringing back sounds and even other smells that have no match in the present” (9). “Tita liked to take a deep breath and let the characteristic smoke and smell transport her through the recesses of her memory” (9).

Food and Memory …in your life. Think back over your childhood and remember a food or dish that stands out to you. Write about this food/dish, using rich sensory details (emphasize smell and taste). Include description of the details of its preparation, the people who are present, etc. 5 minutes

Senses With a partner, make a list of sensory images related to taste, from “January.” How about other senses (smell, touch, sight, hearing, intuition)? Can you find one example of each of these, in the 1 st chapter?

Homework Read Like Water for Chocolate “January” and “February” (1 st two chapters) Note 3 examples of magical realism, from the first chapters.