Asturias Post One

I’ve decided that from now on I will attempt to stick to the original intention of the blog assignment by trying to write for around 30 minutes in more of stream of conscious style...

Asturias descriptive language is most certainly detailed. I can appreciate this in places, but in others it drives me absolutely crazy. I enjoy how Asturias skillfully weaves violent imagery into placid scenes very early on, setting a dark ominous tone. “The Blood-red juice of dawn was staining the edges of the funnel of mountains encircling the town...” (18).

Though I must have set the book down in boredom a dozen times while trying to get through the first fifty pages or so, but this could be because of the my own tastes in literature. A lot of Asturias' descriptive language, although often times quite poetic, seems to go a bit overboard. As a reader I not sure why need to know for example, all the items that were on a darkened table, or exactly what the shelves looked like. I can imagine these things myself, and get quickly bored when given an overload of infinitesimal details, sometimes losing focus of the main story. There’s something about Asturias style that reminds me (as crazy as it may sound) of John Steinbeck (for whom I have a profound emotional allergy). This however is just my personal “bias” (not sure if I’m allowed to use this “banned” word in my blog).

 I will admit, as stereotypical male as it may sound, that as soon as some “action” picked up a bit with the bribing of officials, plotting and kidnapping, the book ceased to me to be as dreadfully boring. When Angel Face gets past an officer by slipping him a 100 peso note I was reminded about traveling around South America two summers ago. Carrying $40 USD on your person somewhere other than in your wallet is always a good idea. I have had personal experience bribing South American officials, and my brother has similar stories from Guatemala. Police corruption is clearly something with a long tradition in Latin America. It makes me think back to Sarmiento a bit. Wondering whether these time transcending traits originated from a just an unlucky series of events or whether there is something deeper; why exactly is Latin America predisposed to corruption and despotism? Is this even a fair statement? Sarmiento pointed to the possibility that there was something about the vastness of the landscape in Argentina helping create the animalist bad guacho, but in a different local such as Guatemala what creates similar traits? Are there universal qualities that create despotic characters throughout Latin America? We may be better equipped to answer this question as we continue through this book, and the others in the course.