Two ideas struck me out that were mentioned in the texts:
1. The building of the story through what is unsaid, rather than what is said. Lines being drawn to contour out empty spaces with recognizable shapes.
2. The sense of being intruded upon by noise, and other newly perceived things "in the air".
With the first one, I find it to be an interesting and at the same time tricky approach - what I sometimes see happening is the author trying to point at what is not spoken through words, therefore still laying the gist within the text rather than outside of it. It would have been interesting to discuss this literary style more from a creative standpoint, as well as its potential function and impact in conveying stories of tumultuous or uncertain times - which is the nature of all times, in fact; this seems to be more a matter of perspective on a certain period of time than the essence of timings itself, and it made me think of possibility of writing similarly-styled reflections on life in Kazakhstan as what Di Benedetto wrote.. The usual Kazakhstani narrative is very much driven by "right and wrong", "us and them", "then and now" dichotomies and by the aim of crafting an illusionistic image rather than developing more angles into what actually is. Introducing "empty" spaces could be an important transition to pointing out what might at the moment feel uncomfortable to name bluntly.. Reading "Ace" and the articles made me ponder quite a bit on how Spanish literature could positively influence the development of Kazakh one, as there looks to be some directional overlap that I cannot pinpoint yet, but will think of how to flesh it out of hunch-vagueness.
-Ksenia
Friday Lecture:
ReplyDeleteI found it especially refreshing to hear that translators can propose books for translation and do not have their work simply controlled "from above" - such bi-directionality ensures the field stays dynamic and in constant flux, which is something to be desired for all fields. A question that arose for me only after the lecture and that I didn't get to ask is: "How can this situation be improved further? What else should we strive for?"
"Ace":
I found the story to be well-written and a solid read worth the time; something that the mind will continue wandering back to for some time afterwards. Yet, I also missed how parts of the story are meaningful and important to each other and connect in-between. My impression was that people simply do what they do, driven by some static shared invisible, and such representation of human life and psychology does have its charm to it. To me, it feels like a point of no point, in a way...