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Gabriel García Márquez, Literary Pioneer, Dies at 87

nytimes.com

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Re: Gabriel García Márquez, Literary Pioneer, Dies at 87

#21

Post by gone35 »

ch4s3 wrote: post #11

And now we may never know why Mario Vargas Llosa punched him in the face.

Well we kind of know some details at least[1]:

Mario strayed. He fell in love with a beautiful Swedish air stewardess whom he met while travelling. He left his wife and moved to Stockholm.

Distraught, his wife Patricia went to see her husband's best friend, Gabriel. After discussing the matter with his wife, Mercedes, he advised Patricia to divorce Mario. And then he consoled her. No one else quite knows what form this consolation took... Eventually Mario returned to his wife, who told him of Gabriel's advice to her, and of his consolation.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2010/10/the-nobe...

Re: Gabriel García Márquez, Literary Pioneer, Dies at 87

#22

Post by ulisesrmzroche »

noname123 wrote: post #20

OT but tangential any magical realism authors to read? So far, I got Marquez, Jorge Louis Borges and Murakami. And preferably recommendation should be good to provide philosophical consolation to a code monkey worker-bee in the capitalist society.

You may like Rudulfo Anaya, or Isabel Allende. Also, Salman Rushdie.

Re: Gabriel García Márquez, Literary Pioneer, Dies at 87

#23

Post by ulisesrmzroche »

stplsd wrote: post #13
paul_f wrote: post #2

Can someone provide a quick summary of what was it that made Marquez so prominent? I had not know much about him at all. FYI, if like me, you have trouble accessing the article, and using Chrome, right-click and open in an incognito window.

He's “a man terribly pleased to have hobnobbed with so many Presidents and Archbishops” He opened the flood gates of saccharine magic realism which haunts Latin America literature to this day.

Oh chill out buddy, #1, you're being a jerk. #2, you're wrong, Borges had more to do with it, but really it was there long before them anyway.

Re: Gabriel García Márquez, Literary Pioneer, Dies at 87

#24

Post by r4pha »

I absolutely adore this man. I was lucky to be given a portuguese-translated copy of "one hundred years of solitude" at the age of 16. I read it back then and loved the story itself and specially the beautiful writing style. About four or five years later I read it again in the original (even though I don't speak spanish very well) and was even more amazed about the beauty of it and about how _my_ interpretation of it changed. I loved everything I have ever read from him, but I loved "one hundred years" so much I even feel ashamed of trying to use my own words to describe it.

Re: Gabriel García Márquez, Literary Pioneer, Dies at 87

#25

Post by omegant »

rjtavares wrote: post #7

“Many years later, in front of the firing squad, colonel Aureliano Buendía would remember that distant afternoon his father took him to see ice." Best opening line of a book ever. RIP.

"Muchos años después, frente al pelotón de fusilamiento, el coronel Aureliano Buendía había de recordar aquella tarde remota en que su padre lo llevó a conocer el hielo."

Re: Gabriel García Márquez, Literary Pioneer, Dies at 87

#26

Post by omegant »

purplebutterfly wrote: post #12
rjtavares wrote: post #7

“Many years later, in front of the firing squad, colonel Aureliano Buendía would remember that distant afternoon his father took him to see ice." Best opening line of a book ever. RIP.

Not to be pedantic, but the Rabassa translation reads: "Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice."

I agred this translation gives a better idea of how old timer sounds the original.

Re: Gabriel García Márquez, Literary Pioneer, Dies at 87

#27

Post by 3am »

Oh no... GGM was an underappreciated author in non-spanish speaking world (in spite of wonderful, gift translators... he was just an intrinsically difficult author to translate because of the poetic quality of his writing IMHO). Cien Anos de Soledad was one of the first non-trivial, non-english books I read. RIP.

edit: okay, removed 'really'.. I think he was underappreciated on a popular level, even though he was very well appreciated on a critical level.

Re: Gabriel García Márquez, Literary Pioneer, Dies at 87

#28

Post by guelo »

purplebutterfly wrote: post #12
rjtavares wrote: post #7

“Many years later, in front of the firing squad, colonel Aureliano Buendía would remember that distant afternoon his father took him to see ice." Best opening line of a book ever. RIP.

Not to be pedantic, but the Rabassa translation reads: "Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice."

"Muchos años después, frente al pelotón de fusilamiento, el coronel Aureliano Buendía habría de recordar aquella tarde remota en que su padre lo llevó a conocer el hielo."

I think rjtavares' quote is more faithful. Except for "conocer", it should be "know ice" or maybe "know about ice", not "see" or "discover".

But the thing about translating poetic literature is that the translator also needs to be a poet.

Re: Gabriel García Márquez, Literary Pioneer, Dies at 87

#30

Post by igravious »

rjtavares wrote: post #7

“Many years later, in front of the firing squad, colonel Aureliano Buendía would remember that distant afternoon his father took him to see ice." Best opening line of a book ever. RIP.

I see your, “Many years later [...]" and raise you, “It was the day my grandmother exploded." Iain Banks, The Crow Road.
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