http://gareth.blogsome.com A frantic adaptation to a new medium. Tue, 15 Apr 2008 03:54:50 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Well most of what I’d like to say about this course has already been said.  To get right to the point, the only real problem with this course was in fact the same problem that plagues every good course at UBC; students do not have enough time to do it ... http://gareth.blogsome.com/2008/04/14/span-312-8/ The General in His Labyrinth was written in a very unique style.  This is the first novel of Marquez’s that I have read, and so I did not know quite what to expect.  It took me some time to adjust to the dreamlike style of narrative and the rapid transitions ... http://gareth.blogsome.com/2008/04/14/span-312-7/ Well I didn’t have to eat my words.  I know how awful this will sound, but I just couldn’t muster up the shock and horror that Llosa’s final revelation seemed to demand.  For those of you good students reading the correct book, don’t read any further because it’ll spoil all ... http://gareth.blogsome.com/2008/03/10/span-312-6/     As I am supposed to be getting started on my Wikipedia article I devoted some time this reading week to Mario Vargas Llosa’s The Feast of the Goat, and will be writing about this book instead of I The Supreme.  The first thing that struck me about The Feast ... http://gareth.blogsome.com/2008/02/26/span-312-5/ The imagery in of The President is very rich.  There are the motifs of eyes and wings, as well as some interesting personifications of sleep.  These images really flesh out the characters.   The Judge Advocate is described as having “basilisk eyes”, which is only fitting given that nearly everyone upon ... http://gareth.blogsome.com/2008/02/26/span-312-4/     Miguel Angel Asturias’ The President is one of the most enjoyably written books I have read in a long time.  I won’t rave too much about the concise yet poetic nature of the prose as this blog is not a book review, but it deserves mentioning.   As for the ... http://gareth.blogsome.com/2008/02/25/span-312-3/ At long last, here are some more reflections on Facundo.  The later chapters of the book illustrate two distinct types of leaders, exemplified by the figures of Facundo and Rosas.  Rosas is in many ways a Machiavellian dictator who rules and maintains rule by possessing and exercising absolute control.  He ... http://gareth.blogsome.com/2008/02/05/span-312-2/     To me, the most poignant segment of Domingo Faustino Sarmiento’s Facundo: Civilization and Barbarism so far was the beginning of the chapter on "Argentine Originality".  Sarmiento suggests here that the very landscape of one’s origin determines ones character.  The people of Argentina, he says, are poets because they live ... http://gareth.blogsome.com/2008/01/17/span312-1/   I’ve never produced a blog before, largely because even Facebook scares me a little bit and I didn’t want to push my luck.  I consider myself comparitively tech-savvy, but I find large scale public participation initiatives like YouTube, Wikipedia, and blogging to be a little daunting in their potential both ... http://gareth.blogsome.com/2008/01/15/2/