Leyendas de Guatemala - Second half

These readings made me think of a couple of guys sitting around a fire getting drunk, contemplating the meaning of life. I found the comparison of a woman's breast to a birds nest quite interesting. On the one hand a nest is a save place, a place of nurture and warmth, but on the other hand they stories also refere to birds as something rather evil. Coincidence? Maybe... or maybe not. Overall, it seemed like women were of less importance then men, and although the role of a birds nest is quite important...there didn't seem to be much use for them in the story other than for sexy and making babies.



I felt that in these readings magic realism was quite prominent, and I noticed it here more than in the first half of the readings. This might be something to do with language, but non the less I found it quite poetic and full of insight. Again these texts try to relate Mayan thought and Mayan beleifs to nature and its cycles, this time with a great focus on the the sun.



A difference between the first half of the readings and the second half is that in the second half the details and description of what is going on is mostly found within dialogue. This made a bit harder to figure out exactly what was going on. What I did like about it is that I could break the stories down converstation by conversation rather than trying to decipher a giant paragraph filled with greatly detailed run on sentences.



The idea of days and of time being broken up into colours with a focus on the cyclicle journey of the sun is interesting. I like how each story focused on a particular time of day and a particular colour. The references to these colours were both obvious and suttle. I am still a bit confused about the significance of the drunk guys tooth ache...hopefully we talk more about this and the story line in class. Also, the significance of the arrow.



Although interesting, I have to admit I felt a bit depressed reading parts of this. The stories talk about the sun and the changes from day to night as being the only real things that exist. It made me and my life seem very small in the scheme of things...but still, a good read. :)