Amulet
At the beginning of this book I was very intrigued yet scared at the idea of a horror story taking place in this book. What took place was not what I was expecting but it was in fact intriguing and I wanted to read more. The narrator mentions that it will be a story of "murder, detection and horror" but that it wont seem like that. I was confused by this statement but it made such more sense after finishing the book.
The story takes off when the protagonist Lacouture hides in a bathroom of the "Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico for almost 2 weeks to resist the army during the "student movement". This is something I had no knowledge on prior to reading so I was very worried to see where it would go.
As I read on, I find myself once again relating this book to others we have read in the course. This is because, as I think I may have mentioned in every blog post, major themes of dreams and memories comes up once again. While she has locked herself in the bathroom, Lacouture begins to recall her life. she recalls Belano himself and other poets who were her friends.
As mentioned in the lecture, her memories were described very poetically themselves which was very beautiful to read. One contrast I found interesting was how she was telling these memories while violence was going on just outside of this bathroom stall. It made it seem like two different stories. Sometimes I'd forget she is even hiding because I would get so lost in her memories, then I would remember the circumstances.
Another thing I found myself doing while reading, besides comparing this book to others, is imagining myself in this scenario. I believe because it was set in a University, my mind was imagining bathrooms at UBC and corridors or windows I would be looking out in this circumstance. It was a very easy thing to imagine as all of us reading this attend a University, so my mind just automatically goes there, this definitely heightened my worry for this being a horror.
Lastly, I was confused about the title as there was no mention of an Amulet the entire book, until I read the last lines and see it being mentioned.
My questions for this week are, why do you think Bolano named this book "Amulet" , what significance does it have? and did you find yourself imagining UBC while reading, or picturing yourself if it were you in this scary circumstance?
This was a great read Sidney. To answer your question, the narrator (Auxillo) does refer to the chants of students (singing into the abyss) she sees at the end of the book as their "Amulet", which can be said about the book as well- it is a preserved artefact..waiting to be found when the time is right.
ReplyDeleteHi Sidney! I definitely had the sense of imagining myself at UBC, though I found that different parts of different school buildings I've been to over the years popped up in a somewhat incoherent manner in my mind, similarly to different settings I have in my dreams.
ReplyDeleteThis was a great blog post Sidney! I too didn't know what the title meant.. perhaps it is something fro spanish that has not been translated ? I found interesting that you mentioned if we'd envisioned ourselves at UBC because I definitely did. It was certainly a scary thought though.
ReplyDeleteHello Sidney, in response to your question I guess that the cultural differences for me really eliminated the whole "in her shoes" imagining kinda thing. To me it kinda falls under the category of big scary urban city.
ReplyDeleteHi Sidney! To answer your questions, I think that the title "Amulet" pretty much meant that Auxilio's memories of the occupation and the "lost generation" were valuable and indestructible in some sense, like it could be passed through generations. When I was reading, I tried visualizing the bathroom in UNAM, but I also didn't really know much about Mexico, and I found myself mainly visualizing her stories throughout.
ReplyDeleteHi Sidney! I loved reading your thoughts. I felt the exact same thing with the horror story part and how it didn't make sense at first. I honestly forgot half way thorugh that she mentioned it was going to be a horror story but it wouldn't seem like that, because it really did not seem like what you would expect a horror story to be. I think that part was really clever and added so much depth to the story.
ReplyDeleteHey, I really liked your post and your imput. I beleive he might have wrote it amulet as a way of mentioning that the book itself is an amulet, a way of remembering what happened in the student movement. In the book its mentioned that the song is their amulet, but I think in this case the book is the amulet.
ReplyDeleteMontserrat Avendano
Hi Sidney,
ReplyDeleteI really liked your blog post because I hadn't personally associated Auxilio's experience with being at university or at UBC but that connection is really powerful. I was also really confused with the last line being about an Amulet and I actually completely forgot about the title of the book when I read it. She describes a bird song, sung for the children as an amulet, when you google "amulet" the definition is a protective object. So something about the song being sung for the children being a protective element?
Hi Sidney,
ReplyDeleteGreat blog post! In response to your question when reading Amulet, I didn't particularly find myself imagining UBC. However, I did find myself picturing how I would have felt like locked up in the UNAM bathroom. Probably would've gone insane. This past semester, I found myself locked up in my OWN bathroom without a phone for a few hours, while my roommates were away. It was extremely scary! I don't find myself to be claustrophobic but not knowing when you're gonna get out was the scariest part (Thankfully, I freed myself). Reading how Auxilio handled the situation, it made me think of ways to become more patient, ways to soothe myself in situations like that if it were to ever happen again.
thanks for sharing!