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Gabriel García Márquez

Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2009 9:01 pm
by LordRetard
I just finished reading One Hundred Years of Solitude, from Oprah's Book Club (it says so on the book jacket!). I like Marquez's flowing, rambling, irrelevant style where he basically just talks about whatever is on his mind. It gives me hope that one day I might be a famous writer for being able to ramble despite lack of talent. Anyone else a fan? His short stories are fantastic; "Eva Is Inside Her Cat" was exceedingly clever, whatever that means (nothing).

Has anyone read his works in Spanish? I plan to read "Memoria de mis putas tristes" even though I don't know any Spanish.

Re: Gabriel García Márquez

Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2009 9:07 pm
by Edminster
My Spanish is faltering at best, but is that last title 'Memories of my sad Whores'?

Re: Gabriel García Márquez

Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2009 10:44 pm
by LordRetard
Yeah, published in English as "Memories of my Melancholy Whores". It sounds exciting.

Re: Gabriel García Márquez

Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2009 10:47 pm
by Edminster
Note to self: LordRetard is 'excited' by people paid to cry.

Re: Gabriel García Márquez

Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2009 12:57 am
by LordRetard
You can't PAY someone to cry, it's just not the same if it's not real.

:wink:

Re: Gabriel García Márquez

Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2009 1:59 am
by cheez.wiz

Re: Gabriel García Márquez

Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2009 5:53 am
by Lethal Interjection
The only thing I've read from Marquez is a short story called A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings.
A fantastic short story, and one of the best I've read.
Though I've known about him for over 15 years. Thanks to Moxy Fruvous' song, Baby Loves a Bunch of Authors.

Re: Gabriel García Márquez

Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2009 6:33 am
by LordRetard
Do people still listen to the Bloodhound Gang? I'm so far behind the times, I guess.

Thanks for the link, Lethal, I read about that story and thought "that sounds fantastic", I'll have to read that. Very old men with wings are one of those things that gets me "excited", I guess.

Re: Gabriel García Márquez

Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2009 7:13 am
by Lethal Interjection
LordRetard wrote:Do people still listen to the Bloodhound Gang? I'm so far behind the times, I guess.

Thanks for the link, Lethal, I read about that story and thought "that sounds fantastic", I'll have to read that. Very old men with wings are one of those things that gets me "excited", I guess.
Yeah, its a great title. I read the story probably 5 years ago and loved it, and actually wrote a paper on it and another that was set in Latin America (and written by a Latin American author also, I believe). I actually couldn't remember the title and had to search for it, and the story came up in the first few links. So I figured some people might want to read it.

Re: Gabriel García Márquez

Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2009 3:57 pm
by smiley_cow
Lethal Interjection wrote:The only thing I've read from Marquez is a short story called A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings.
A fantastic short story, and one of the best I've read.
Though I've known about him for over 15 years. Thanks to Moxy Fruvous' song, Baby Loves a Bunch of Authors.
I love that song, if only for the line "Who needs a shave? He's Robertson Davies." (I love Robertson Davies' beard)

Man I haven't listened to Moxy Fruvous for ages, though my brother was playing Big Fish the other day and I happened to be sitting near him, so maybe that counts.

Re: Gabriel García Márquez

Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2009 7:29 pm
by Edminster
I was flipping through my copy of Sudden Fiction International when I noticed that one of his stories was included. 'One of those days', a short short about an unlicensed dentist and the Mayor of the town. Not that great, in my opinion, but it could also have suffered because of translation.

Re: Gabriel García Márquez

Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2009 10:50 pm
by LordRetard
Edminster wrote:I was flipping through my copy of Sudden Fiction International when I noticed that one of his stories was included. 'One of those days', a short short about an unlicensed dentist and the Mayor of the town. Not that great, in my opinion, but it could also have suffered because of translation.
I'm not surprised, I could see how someone could easily not like Marquez. Like most of the authors I read I stumbled on it because I was reading about Kafka, but they're not very similar in style, either. I don't think Marquez is like a lot of modern English authors; they tend to be more character- and plot-driven, whereas with Marquez everything is mostly somewhere... I guess that doesn't mean anything, but that's the closest to what I was thinking and I can't phrase it. I guess Marquez is less structured than other authors. But a lot of people say, too, that his work varies a lot, depending on what he is trying to write.

Re: Gabriel García Márquez

Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2009 3:52 am
by Edminster
LordRetard wrote:
Edminster wrote:I was flipping through my copy of Sudden Fiction International when I noticed that one of his stories was included. 'One of those days', a short short about an unlicensed dentist and the Mayor of the town. Not that great, in my opinion, but it could also have suffered because of translation.
I'm not surprised, I could see how someone could easily not like Marquez. Like most of the authors I read I stumbled on it because I was reading about Kafka, but they're not very similar in style, either. I don't think Marquez is like a lot of modern English authors; they tend to be more character- and plot-driven, whereas with Marquez everything is mostly somewhere... I guess that doesn't mean anything, but that's the closest to what I was thinking and I can't phrase it. I guess Marquez is less structured than other authors. But a lot of people say, too, that his work varies a lot, depending on what he is trying to write.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that he's a bad author, I'm just saying that 'One of those days' was not a story that I enjoyed. The one about the fallen angel was fantastic, which just makes me think that translation may have been the issue that I had with 'One...'.

Re: Gabriel García Márquez

Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2009 4:40 pm
by Lethal Interjection
smiley_cow wrote:I love that song, if only for the line "Who needs a shave? He's Robertson Davies." (I love Robertson Davies' beard)

Man I haven't listened to Moxy Fruvous for ages, though my brother was playing Big Fish the other day and I happened to be sitting near him, so maybe that counts.
I don't know much of their stuff other than the Video Bargainville album, which I love. First tape I ever bought, and I still love it to this day (though I lost the tape at some point, and finally found a used copy of the CD for purchase last year).

Re: Gabriel García Márquez

Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2009 5:04 pm
by smiley_cow
Lethal Interjection wrote:
I don't know much of their stuff other than the Video Bargainville album, which I love. First tape I ever bought, and I still love it to this day (though I lost the tape at some point, and finally found a used copy of the CD for purchase last year).
I have three of their albums, Bargainville is probably the best one though. Big Fish is a really good song, it's on the B album and it's about premiere Mike Harris. The other album I have is, I think, called "You will go to the moon" (I'm not home right now so I can't really go check), and except for the title track it actually sounds really different than all their other stuff, but it's good too if you ever come across it. About three years ago Moxy Fruvous was my favourite group, so it's actually weird that I haven't listened to anything by them in such a long while. I should remedy this. *goes to look for iPod*