Skip to main content

100 Readers of Solitude

source
The first time I read One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, I was mesmerized. I stumbled at first when trying to tell the characters' similar names apart, but each one was so colorful that I found even stumbling through the names, constantly referring back to the family tree in the front of the book, irresistible. Márquez had a way of exploring humanity with his words. He captured love, failures, struggles, beauty, and ugliness, and he wove it into magic.

I found out about an event in my area called "100 Readers of Solitude." It was an event at which 100 volunteers would read from Márquez's pages in a tribute to his life and body of work. I decided to go on a day that rained in torrents. One of the readers quoted a passage about rain, saying "The air was so damp that fish could have come in through the doors and swum out the windows, floating through the atmosphere in the rooms." My favorite reading was about Remedios the Beauty, the character who makes men go mad (literally), pays no attention to "manners" or other norms for females, sews herself a cassock, shaves her head, and ascends into heaven. I myself even got up to read. I left my book and had no idea what I was doing, but I got on the small stage and let fate decide which passage I should read out of a stranger's copy. I think it turned out pretty well.
from the reading (source)
I am currently making my way through Love in the Time of Cholera, and I have a challenge for those of you who have either never read Márquez or who need an excuse to read more (I know, why would you ever need an excuse?). I want One Hundred readers to pledge to read something written by Gabriel García Márquez. It can be a novel or a short story. Now, I know that I do not have even 100 followers, but I am still hoping to get 100 pledges (even if they're silent pledges and I never hear from you). Even if I can't quite make that number, I know it was worth the effort to get even one new reader to honor this author.

Let me know what you think in the comments. Please tell me of your experiences reading Márquez.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Devil's Turnaround

Noonday Missionary Baptist Church's Cemetery is also known as "Devil's Turnaround." It is located along a little back road in Kennesaw, Georgia, and most of the graves are scattered in the woods. It is easy to miss, but some of the gravestones are visible from the road. The cemetery has graves from the 1860's. I wouldn't doubt that some of its occupants were slaves at one time. Many say the land is haunted by malevolent spirits who hurl objects and make physical contact--shoving, scratching, and even biting visitors. I could understand why any lingering spirits might be upset: These grounds have been terribly neglected. Much of the graves are broken and toppled over. Some are barely visible through the overgrowth of ivy and weeds. People also say the root of the haunting may be related to rumored cult rituals performed on the property. Located right by the cemetery are huge power lines (high voltage transmission lines). I could hear them b...
7 comments
Read more

My Thoughts On The Term, " Ghost Hunting"

Many people may not know, but I rarely use the term, 'Ghost Hunting.' Usually I prefer to use 'Paranormal Investigating,' 'Paranormal Research,' or simply 'Investigating.' There's actually a specific reason for this. I feel that the term is inaccurate to describe how I perceive the field. The word, 'Hunting' is defined in the as "The pursuit and killing or capture of game and wild animals, regarded as sport." 'Hunting' is obviously an aggressive word, and I do not associate it with what my group and I do. 'Ghost Hunting' may accurately describe the 'investigating' style of the Ghost Adventures crew. If you have seen this program, you know what I am talking about. The team, especially Zak Bagans, are what ghost bullies would be. They aggressively confront and hunt down whatever entity may be on location. This, unfortunately, seems to be the style nowadays with many groups. This makes it that much harder fo...
6 comments
Read more

My Spiritual Journal: One Year Later

After the dawn of the year 2013, I made a resolution to create a spiritual journal. A suggestion from a friend a few months previous had put the idea in my head, but I kept thinking how it was a good idea. Although I had never before been able to keep up with journaling, I made the commitment this time. This past New Year's day was the one year mark for my journal, and I don't plan on stopping.  I recently finished a writing pedagogy class, where I discovered why journaling works. You see, writing isn't just a means for documenting thought; it's also a way of learning (epistemic writing). When we write, our thoughts spin out in a web, which allows us to make certain discoveries. Through journaling, which is personal and less-hindered, we are able to make self-discoveries. I had a professor who once said, "reality is a function of language," which to me means that through a shift of view or expression, the world can appear in many different ways. When journa...
4 comments
Read more