So I was surfing BBC when I came upon this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5116004.stm
Sooooooo... let me get this straight.
The town wants to rename itself after the town in the novel which Garcia-Marquez (got it right this time, Ardilla, :P ) was using as basically the model for what NOT to do with your country. A town founded on incest and exile, cursed from the beginning, isolated, backwards (in many senses), ravaged by war, foreigners, bananas, and young girls who eat dirt; a town whose one redeeming characteristic (supposedly) was taken into the sky because she was just "too beautiful" to live there, is abandoned by its residents, and whose fate is to be wiped off the map for the accumulated sins against humanity, nature, and life in general.
... and they want to name their town after that?
Maybe I misread the whole thing, but I was under the impression that Macondo was a more negative reference than a positive one, so why in the world would you want to name your town after what is probably the worst place to live in the literary imagination (next to that house in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre... not the sorta-kinda-scary 90's version, but the really creepy 70's one. You know where the grandpa is really decrepit and he's sucking blood from that girl's finger in that weird black out scene, and you're left wondering "WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON", but the movie never explains it except their canibal redneck Texans... Okay, maybe not THAT bad)?
Tourism is one thing. But this... wow... I just don't get this.
I guess it goes to show that if there's anything worse than one hundred years of solitude, it would be hundred years without tourism.
"For those nations condemned to one hundred years without Japanese and US tourists, will perish from the earth." Something to that effect.
I've got an idea. Maybe we should rename the city Dallas after that really silly soap opera back in the 80's that took place here. That one where they shoot JR...
oh.. wait... that was actually called "Dallas." Yeah... I did not think that one through.
6 comments:
Well... at least it's a Colombian town... lol... AND the place where he was born (you did get it right this time!)
Hmm... it seems Colombians are like Mexicans. They don't vote. It's outrageous that although 90% of those who voted voted FOR the name change, not enough people voted so it could actually be done!
Hmm again... Well, Macondo is not necessarily a place of evil and damnation. It's only a place of solitude. I think the book also shows the town as being a magical place of supernatural happenings and noble (also suppernatural) love. Remedios was too beautiful for the entire world, as opposed to just Macondo...
BUT ...You are SO right that they shouldn't want the fate of Macondo upon them.. besides, Macondo is such a horribly sounding name... lol..
Tambien debemos recordar el nuevo termino de la corpratizacion y globalizacion del mundo hispano por la cultura EU, de los escritores "post-boom" (despues de la generacion del Garcia-Marquez) como Edmundo Paz Soldan: "McOndo".
McDonald's + Macondo ;)
LOL !! Ese te lo inventaste tú! Jiji... McOndo...
Claro que no. No soy tan listo ;) No se si es una palabra inventada por Edmundo Paz Soldan, pero se usa en su lectura a los "estudiantes" del departamento de espanol de KU (en realidad: los profes, yo, y pobre Hombre Guapo). Esta funciona en los periodicos literarias de la literatura espanol. De verdad. :)
Vale, mira:
http://www.barcelonareview.com/42/s_eps.htm
Yo lei su libro "Suen~os digitales" en mi clase: "Fantasmas, misterios, y la historia latinoamerica". Venio (Vinio?) a KU para dar dos lecturas, uno a nuestro clase, y otro abierto al publico (publico = profes, yo, y Hombre).
Eso es lo que pasa siempre con los seminarios... jeje... tres personas van :-P !! Sobretodo cuando no es asistencia compulsoria...
Aww... sonaba a algo que te inventarías tú :-P hubiera sido perfecto, mi cielo :) !
Sueños digitales me suena conocido... hemos hablado sobre este libro? es una novela acaso? Tengo que averiguar sobre Paz Ordán.. parece ser bastante bueno!
"Venio (Vinio?)"
Se dice "vino," chico. Como el fruto de la vid...
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