Sensuality in Pedro Paramo

• When we begin to read Pedro Paramo it is not obvious at first that we are entering the underworld, a place of the dead, Comala.
• We follow along the journey with Juan Preciado, thinking that he is going to find his father’s roots.                              
• Strange things begin to happen, once he gets to the town, everything looks barren, no doors on the buildings and desolate.
• Images of people and horses appear and disappear; voices are heard and not heard, murmurs.
• The heat of August intensifies more so, in Comala,
• The smell of death is evident, and the fruit is bitter.
• The confusion rests on our senses, once we accept Juan Rulfo’s world, there is no going back for it has taken us in. We have a perceived notion that when death comes, all life and our senses cease.
• Juan Rulfo presents us an underground world, through the memory of it’s inhabitants, a world full of life and passion. The sins of Comala are replayed over and over in order to find salvation
• When one dies,  All of the senses are at play in Comala.

 TTFN

Reflections on Marxism & Capitalism

• One thinks of the US as big Capitalist society, however, if we examine closer we find that We have a Social Security Benefit ( as terrible as it is); Medicare, Welfare, Head Start, Free lunch program, Free Breakfast program, We also have Disability benefits, Food Stamps, etc I can go on and on. Marxism has been here and will keep going, the latest “Prescription Care”?
• Do I believe that these are necessary, of course they are, if they are not abused, and like most government programs, they are abused and out of control.
• Capitalism works only when government is out of it’s way, low taxes, and fewer regulations. It allows us to dream, to have optimism, to hope for better days.
• Some have villafied the corporate world, “Big Oil”, “Big Pharm”,  etc. unfairly, I dont hear anyone complaining about the cost of water and milk  they drink. It’s all political!
• The Basic ingredient for any ideology to work, is what we sometimes take for granted and that is FREEDOM!

The Cubs

Growing up in this world is difficult enough without the hardships presented by one’s society, especially the one that Cuellar comes from. Miraflores in Peru is typical for any South American small city, with its amenities, bars and social problems. This particular group of “fourteen Incas” is Cuellar’s world along with the church run school, its priests, his family and the group’s girlfriends. LLoza narrates the story of Cuellar, through his friends, who played and bonded with him on a daily basis. It is a sensitive time in a boy’s life when he is trying to find out who he is as an individual, within the world framework around him “Machismo”. Living within a man’s world, he finds out early that he must be competitive in order to survive and have the respect of others. In Cuellar’s world, his ability to get good grades and to learn to play soccer well, won him admiration by the priests and friends early on in Miraflores. “We should follow his example” Brother Augustine said (4). The “wiz kid” as he was called only emboldened his ego especially when his parents rewarded him with a bigger allowance than everyone else, and “would polish his nails on the lapel of his jacket” (11).

One day “Judas” betrayed Cuellar and castrated him. The pain and suffering one endures is long-lasting and scarring.  Just to mention the word “castration” most men will give you a facial expression of anguish. Everyone around him started acting differently towards him,” his old man didn’t want, either his old lady, anybody to know, my  boy, better if you don’t say anything”(7). The priest had him serving mass, reading the catechism, carrying the banner for the procession, singing in the chorus, and on Fridays he would come into breakfast even though he had not received communion. At first after the accident, Cuellar liked all of the attention he was getting from everyone involved. The kids were throwing stones at Judas in the cage. “Too bad Judas didn’t bite us too” (8) for the special treatment he was receiving.

Cuellar’s problems and behavior started changing after the nickname “PP” was coined in the classroom, he cried at first but then got insulted if you didn’t call him that. The society around PP failed him in coping with his problem, making it impossible for him to live with himself. The parents felt embarrassed and became very lenient in disciplining him on most occasions, including coming home drunk. The church feeling guilty for letting the dog out of the cage, tried to sweep the incident under the rug, as if nothing ever happened, replacing the dog with bunnies. However it was his group of so called friends that put daily pressure on PP to respond in such a way that it was impossible to. As they all got girlfriends they would make remarks, “And you PP dying for anybody? And he no, blushing, not yet” (12).” Aren’t you tired of playing solo?”. He responded by being antisocial or crying, and at times responded “He did not want to have a girlfriend, I like my freedom, and of a skirt chaser, he was better off single”. That was until he fell in love with Teresita Arrarte, and for a while changed. “Stopped doing crazy things, wearing jacket and tie, comb his hair in a D.A. like Elvis and shined his shoes (25). This lasted briefly for he could not get himself to ask her to go steady, realizing that he was not capable of satisfying her later on. He started acting odd “He talked about strange and difficult things, religion, being immortal”. He finally tried living in the mountains alone growing coffee beans to get away from society, but that too was too much to bear, and finally ended his suffering in Pasamayo.

Why is everything Italian oriented with me.

Through the years, the media has picked on Italian-Americans, especially Sicilians. The Pizza connection did’nt help, the arrest of John Gotti prolonged the agony of honest hard working people. I’ve been asked if I was ever in the cement business, and funeral home operator. I then had to hear about positive comments about what a show the “Sopranos” is, the three Godfather movies, and the sequels that followed “The Sicilian Connection”, “The Palermo Connection” and so forth.

Well, I simply despise all of these shows for they portray criminals, not Italian  characteristics. For this reason I try to share my thoughts and knowledge of my cultures. As president of the Italian Club, York College, member of the Italian Charities of NY, and recipient of the DAnte Medal for excellence in spreading Italian Culture to my community in NYC, I will keep on watching, and listening to the radio for unwarrented remarks.

Unfortunately, second generation Italian-Americans have little knowledge of what their ancestors and parents struggled against. They first of all think they are speaking Italian, when the reality is that their grandparents were mostly uneducated and illeterate. they d’ont even mind portraying mobsters or making jokes on tv.

It is remarkable that such a small territory has produced all this talent, from science to literature, from filmaking to the world’s most popular cuisine. I have been blessed to have had the opportunity to live in this country for most of my life, and I must stress that I am an American first and foremost, for this great land has given me the opportunity to pursue happiness.

I can deal with the Ninja Turtle Movie, in the hope that when adults and kids go on google, they will type in Leonardo and get a genius on their screen.

Thanks for listeninng

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-usrudy0406,0,3411630.story?coll=ny-top-headlines

Pedro Paramo

I wish that the presentation was a bit longer, for I’m sure there is a lot more to this masterpiece than was covered.

This story reminded me of Dante’s “Inferno”, the way that it began, a journey into the underworld. In this case Comala was the destination, as Rulfo described it “a Purgatory”. In the “Inferno” we find out about prior lives with Dante and Virgilio asking the lost souls to tell their stories, Francesco e Paolo and  Conte Ugolino being the most interesting. In Pedro Paramo, the souls of the dead come and go as they please telling their own stories, “Purging” themselves of their sins, a  sort of confession. Padre Renteria tries to make sure that the penances are all carried out.

With Comala being a Purgatory, Rulfo condemns the souls to penance, but gives them a way to cleanse themselves of their wrongdoings, in preparation for their wings.

Endgame

What a superb introduction by Dr Van Noort. It was the most passionate lecture to date. The movie clarified a lot of questions that I had. I guess “Endgame is better theatre than a text.

Thanks

Existentialism

A philosophical movement is often named not by the philosophers who are taken to be its representatives, but rather by its opponents, by those who observe from the outside a community of thought amongst certain thinkers, and who give the name to what they regard as a trend in order to be able to refute or attack it.

Why would anybody want to attack such a movement? Is it because it is depressing, or is it because the glass is always half empty. Either way this movement reminded me of some old standards, “Is that all there is?” by Peggy Lee and “What’s it all about Alfie?” Dione
Warwick.

Sartre and others were quick to criticize and make us wonder about life in general, a good thing. However, they never suggested any solutions to bring forth the human spirit. That spirit in the Man of La Mancha song “The Impossible Dream”, which makes you want to go out and do something positive and believe in life again.

Wars in the twentieth century, had a way of depressing the human spirit, people always became more religious during these difficult times, reflecting of where we stood as a species. As the decades rolled on, we questioned everything, from government to music. We now find ourselves, at the crossroads of opportunity, the richest country on earth, however we are divided as a nation once again by war. There are no easy answers in today’s situation; however I will always side with optimism.

The Italian angle to Existentialism is Luigi Pirandello, playwright, author of “Six characters in search of an author”, winner of the Nobel Prize in 1932. This plays deals with the interplay of actors getting lost in the play itself, a lot like two of the characters in “Endgame”.

Ciao a tutti.

Arte, Musica e Letteratura Italiana

Just some relative thoughts on art from the Rinascimento. Profesor Ivanova gave an excellent overall presentation of what the Rennaisance was all about. These are just added thoughts, that were not mentioned. If one looks at a painting from Raffaello one notices that for the first time there was a sense of field percetion in the paintings. The human figures were all in the front and the landscape was behind. In Medieval art this was not evident.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Giotto_Madonna_In_Glory_Tempera_on_Panel_1305-10_582px.jpg If one continues looking  especially at the elbows, one notices triangles forming, be patient,  I see six. The reason for the triangle is that it is a symbol of the Holy Trinity and Classical Structures (Roman, Greek and Egyptian arquitecture.)After all the Rennaisance was a re-birth of Classical Ideas.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Raffael_027.jpg    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Raphael_Spasimo.jpg

Paris! Oh I remember it well!

What a week I had, while reading Faubert. All of a sudden I started thinking about Paris with its flair and excitement. Though the trip was 20 years ago, my fond memories were vivid. Without noticing it, this past week I put on my favorite opera “La Boheme”which takes place in Paris, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sc%C3%A8nes_de_la_vie_de_Boh%C3%A8me, the Pavarotti-Freni edition (Alanza-Gerorgiou, a husband and wife team gives the opera a more realistic love element). Of course with most operas someone dies, but not before Puccini (a Romantic) mesmerizes you with his unforgettable melodies “O soave fanciulla”.

I of course took out pictures of the Paris trip, focusing on the impressionist art which I love.(Monet my favorite),

http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/monet/paris/capucines.jpg

all of which can be seen in the Muse de Orsay, the most unique museum in the world, a 19th century train station.

To top off the week, I was disappointed with the movie “Marie Antoinette”, was a bit unrealistic  especially with the music selection starting with Blondie.

Of course all the guys in the class are asking themselves, “where do I a get a job like Frederick’s, able to support four women at the same time?”

Dore & Dante

http://triggur.org/inferno/big/005.jpg

According to Dr. Conway, in the poem “Benedetto sia’l giorno, e ‘l mese, et l’anno”  Petrarca’s references and passion to love and nature has Romantic elements in it.This interpretation of Dante and Virgilio in the Inferno Canto I by Dore (famous for his illustration of Don Quixote), takes us to a naturalistic part of the outer shell  of hell (below Jerusalem). Can Dante’s poetry also be considered  Romantic? Is hell part of Nature? Is it the artist’s interpretation the only part that is Romantic?