Well, it's nearly December (how did that happen) and we are moving into another complex, yet otherworldly text - Marquez's 100 Years of Solitude. I love this book. I love carrying it around in my hand. I love opening my bag and finding it there among the 100s of other things that I have to read. I love the photo of the craggy Marquez on the back cover. And I love the old school edition of the text that I still have on my shelf - the one that I saw on a student's desk yesterday (I notice these things).
I don't remember enough high school Spanish to know, first hand, whether the translations we are reading is a good translation or not, but I have read enough (and have heard Rachel say as much) that the translation we are reading is not a good one. On Monday, Christy (per 8), who is read the novel in Spanish said that we are missing a number of word plays that just cannot be translated. But we're working with a budget here and we've got what we've got and we need to move on from here.
One of the most obvious ways to approach this text is to treat it as a myth, which is to say to approach it through the lens of Mythological Criticism. But before we go there we need to consider the question, "What is a myth?"
Yesterday, I asked period 7 the same question. For the most part, they responded in ways that I thought that they would - that myths "simplif[y] complex ideas,"[are] passed on [among] people," but I was intrigued by responses like, that myths have "cultural significance - they explain certain truths," and that they "represent cultural ideals." finally, Connie (per 7) noted that myths are "stories about power".
Yes, true, but also I think that Myths aren't just a "false story" (as some people said) they are important stories that develop a culture - they help define that culture - they help that culture define itself and its relationship to the world... this is both a good and a bad thing. Myths are collective and communal - and they bind us together.
myth transcends time
mythology is expressed in folklore and legend
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