World Famous Comics > About | Columns | Comics | Contests | Features

COLUMNS >> Tony's Online Tips | Law is a Ass | Baker's Dozen | Cover Stories | After the Golden Age | Philodoxer | CyberDen

Schedule TODAY!
Thu, March 28, 2024

Anything Goes TriviaAnything Goes Trivia
Bob Rozakis

Buy comics and more at TFAW.com Mr. Rebates

The Philodoxer
Thoughts on writing and publishing, and the various sources of entertainment...
A weekly column by Abel G. Peña, best known for his Star Wars work.

Current Column >> Column Archives | About Abel | Message Board

THE PHILODOXER for 10/08/2006
Solitude's Delight

"Impossible."

The word spilled from my mouth. Perhaps meaningless, still, the occasion called for something immodest as I reached the end of Gabriel García Márquez' One Hundred Years of Solitude.

One Hundred Years of Solitude

The novel, written in the 1960s and translated by Gregory Babassa, follows the story of the Buendías for a period of six generations. Within that family, over the course of a century, we pay witness to humanity in its every permutation: in youth and old age, as murderers, celestials, adulterers, adventurers, alchemists, liars, and madmen. By the end, we feel the equivalent of a Nirvana; the book has recalled to us all of our past lives and we find we can no longer construe the future as mysterious.

Contemporary peers of Márquez were likely able to dismiss the grandeur of One Hundred Years -- dismissal was probably requisite for confounding the urge to commit suicide in its wake. The novel's flaws can be stressed toward little value, but, for what it's worth, the book is flawed. The last third of the novel is a chore, and until we arrive at the last two paragraphs, we feel we've merely read a technical masterpiece with moments of genius -- we don't suspect we're about to be judged.

One Hundred Years may be criticized, but the book is so rich, it transcends opinion. It exists as one of life's indescribable delights, like falling in love, tasting morelianas, and confronting the ocean in the dead of night. It seeks only to be experienced.

See you next week, folks!

-- Abel

<< 10/01/2006 | 10/08/2006 | 10/15/2006 >>

Discuss this column with me in World Famous Comics' General Forum and at Pop Culture Bored.
Also, visit my website at www.abelgpena.com.

Recent Installments:
NEWESTMany September 11ths (09/09/2007)
08/26/2007Madness? This-is-Reefer!!!
08/12/2007D'oh! I mean, Woo-hoo!: The Simpsons Movie
07/29/20075 Essential Self-Promotion Practices and "Closing the Circuit"
07/15/2007Spaceballs: The Book Review!
07/01/2007Kill Bush, or Death of a Perfectly Good Idea
06/17/2007The Cold War Comes to Iceland
04/15/2007Grindhouse: The Art of the Twofer
03/25/2007300²
03/11/2007Of Vulgar Eloquence
02/25/2007Michael Wilson Vs. Michael Moore
02/11/2007The Last Weasel of Scotland
01/28/2007Don't Go Bush Before Having A Good Piss, Mate!
01/14/2007Labyrinth of Similitude
Archives >>

Current Column >> Column Archives | About Abel | Message Board


COLUMNS >> Tony's Online Tips | Law is a Ass | Baker's Dozen | Cover Stories | After the Golden Age | Philodoxer | CyberDen

World Famous Comics > About | Columns | Comics | Contests | Features



© 1995 - 2010 World Famous Comics. All rights reserved. All other © & ™ belong to their respective owners.
Terms of Use . Privacy Policy . Contact Info