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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

#121

Post by Trufa »

simonsarris wrote: post #15

Oh my. A paragon of magical realism and my second favorite author. Rest in peace. Liking storytelling alone is sometimes not enough to like Marquez, you have to love language too. He uses (some might say abuses) language to impact his storytelling, often using incredibly long, convoluted sentences to weave his narrative. It can be hard to follow, sometimes intentionally, but I find it enormously satisfying to read an…

This has got to be one of the most impossible to translate Spanish writing authors ever.

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

#122

Post by Trufa »

mhartl wrote: post #64
omegant wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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."

Gracias por esto. Entre otras cosas, la traducción de inglés no puede capturar la sutileza de "había de recordar" o "conocer el hielo". En inglés Aureliano Buendía podía ver el hielo, pero en español podía conocerlo .

Lo increíble de "conocer el hielo" es que te transporta ahí, a cuando vos conociste el hielo, cuando jugabas y descubrías una nueva sensación.

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

#123

Post by Jacqued »

rimantas wrote: post #96
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.

Master and Margarita by Bulgakov? Not sure if it is considered a work of magic realism, but elements are there for sure.

This.

One of the very best books of the century, by an often underappreciated author. When I first read it I didn't know Bulgakov and was amazed that such an interesting and beautiful novel could exist.

And yes, it is generally associated with magical realism as far as I know, although more loosely.

- Adolfo Bioy Casares, a friend of Borges' and another great argentine writer. See Diary of the War of the Pig

- Italo Calvino, an Italian writer whose writings you may find of interest in a smiliar (although more wondrous) vein

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

#124

Post by anuraj »

I read Marquez's master piece '100 Years of Solitude' in my native language Malayalam 25 years ago and it got etched into my mind forever. In the next 2-3 years I read almost all the works of Marquez available in English. Later a lot more Latin American Authors including Borges, Huan Rulfo, Carpentier, Manuel Puig, Fuentes,Cortazar, Paz etc. became popular among the reading public in my region, but GGM was the one who started it all and remains one of my favourite writers of 20th century. Have a feeling that Marquez' did his best in the short story genre - despite his reputation as a novelist.

It is a coincidence that one of the first magical realist novels of my mother tongue - 'Khazakinte Ithihasam (Legends of Khazak)' also got published almost at the same time as '100 years of Solitude' was being published in Spanish and both works present highly resplendent and almost spiritual language and journeys (almost untranslatable).

Opening line of 'Legends of Khazak'- 'When the bus finally reached Kooman Kavu, the place did not seem unfamiliar to Ravi'.

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

#125

Post by nfc »

RIP. I felt a shock when I discovered this when I woke up. He is probably the author that has influenced me more strongly in my literary tastes. Gabo wasn't just a great writer but loved by many in spanish speaking countries. His mastery of the prose and outstanding ability on his craft are laudable but Gabo was as well a great person. A friend had the chance to meet him in the context of his PhD, I guess I'll forever envy her for that.

Being this my first HN comment (thanks Gabo for the strength) I'll go all out with a second unrelated part of the comment, less emotionally charged but perhaps more HN-like:

There are many comments in the thread about the translation of the first sentence of "One Hundred Years of Solitude". Translating is such a hard task, there is no way part of the meaning/subtleties will not be lost in it since languages are not one to one. And even if we get to pass most of the meaning keeping the flow will be so hard except for very similar languages (spanish/portuguese). What is an impossible problem for computers is one as well for translators, we can only hope they give as a tasty human take on the task. I wonder if one day automatic translations of literary works will have a "style" options to simulate different translator sensibilities or we will settle for a winner-algorithm takes all the translations.

Something more I'd like to share, I'm very curious if other people feel the same because part of my homemade theory of the language depends on this :). I'm lucky enough to read high level literature in different languages, however even if I can appreciate it, the pleasure I experience while reading Spanish is in a different level. Somehow a similar experience happens while talking, I feel more strongly bound to spanish in a very subtle way, it's not something I usually notice, just on some occasions. I only started learning languages after 8. A possible reason is how the brain gets bound to words and language when very young, another is that I have lived more emotional experiences in that language. The second hypothesis would have to explain why I do not feel that way in french even if I've lived in Paris 10 years. Obviously one case study, apply a grain of salt ;)

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

#126

Post by jholman »

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.

I have enjoyed Louis de Bernières, in particular his Latin American trilogy, which Bernières acknowledges as highly influenced by GGM. I don't know that it's philosophically consoling, though. I guess I might call it Márquez-lite.

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

#127

Post by nfc »

anuraj wrote: post #124

I read Marquez's master piece '100 Years of Solitude' in my native language Malayalam 25 years ago and it got etched into my mind forever. In the next 2-3 years I read almost all the works of Marquez available in English. Later a lot more Latin American Authors including Borges, Huan Rulfo, Carpentier, Manuel Puig, Fuentes,Cortazar, Paz etc. became popular among the reading public in my region, but GGM was the one wh…

It has always struck me how Magic Realism seems to be so prevalent in the literary tradition of such distant and otherwise unrelated areas as South America and India.

I am no expert in any of the fields that could try to provide an answer to this so I'm unable to provide a data-backed explanation. All the explanations I can think about are quite "magic realists" so better suited for a short story than for hacker news ;)

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

#128

Post by jmadsen »

Much of what I read of his was in Spanish, a second language for me, but even so I could see his command of language was incredible.

Things like, in "Relato de un náufrago", the story teller has emotional ups and downs each chapter - and García Márquez carefully chose words that sounded emotionally up or down, giving a sense of rising and falling on waves through the whole story.

That, detected by someone whose Spanish was "solid" at best - what a joy it must be for a native to read.

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

#129

Post by [deleted] »

nardi wrote: post #107
tdees40 wrote: post #32

My favorite Marquez story is that he never used adverbs ending in -mente, so he called his English language translator (Edith Grossman) and requested that she not use any adverbs ending in -ly.

Hahaha. Definitely different in English. Adverbs I can think of in English that don't end in -ly: Fast, slow, quick, well. That's all I've got off the top of my head.

[deleted]

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

#130

Post by jacques_chester »

monjaro wrote: post #91
jacques_chester wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think he was, in no small part, popular for the same reason that Sean Penn got his second Oscar for Milk : politics. Marquez thumbed the eye of colonialism. And he wrote a bunch of rolling sentences with colourful imagery. But I don't see why he deserves the Nobel Prize over, to take a glaring example, Borges. Except that Borges didn't really write anything politically fashionable, as opposed to possessing any othe…

This is utter nonsense. García Márquez wrote some of the most compelling and beautiful stories of the 20th century. Borges wrote the literary equivalent of late night stoner conversations, covering up a lack of substance with erudition. I don't deny that the Nobel Prize can be political, but García Márquez was one of the most deserving recipients.

Clearly, we don't agree. I feel a similar feeling towards Marquez as you do towards Borges.
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