Once Upon a Quinceanera: Coming of Age in the USA by Julia Alvarez

[afterannabel.livejournal.com]

3) Once Upon a Quinceanera: Coming of Age in the USA by Julia Alvarez

I have mixed feelings about this book. My biggest complaint was that I was often frustrated by Alvarez's use of Spanish words and idioms, of which she rarely provided translation. I took Spanish on and off in high school and college, and some words' meanings are intuitive (familia) or obvious from the context, so that was helpful. But it made me stumble many times throughout the book. I really liked the fact that Alvarez dug deeper and explored how young Latina women in America struggle with incorporating both cultures into their lives in meaningful ways, without compromising themselves.

Comments

[alias_sqbr]

I haven't read this book so can't speak for if it is written well.

But in general, from what I can tell making your work deliberately semi-opaque is a common literary technique. Look at all the science fiction and fantasy authors who use made-up words for things that are basically horses or whatever to create a sense of alien-ness. Or authors who use symbolism and allegory or dream-sequences so you never quite know what's literally happening. Have you read anything by Gene Wolfe? I like his stuff but I never have more than half a clue what just happened.

To be honest I tend not to like these techniques, but I've seen them done well. Like any technique they're partly a matter of taste.

(Also I wouldn't classify Agatha Christie the same way, I think that's more an artifact of an earlier time when more people spoke french. Dorothy L Sayers and Charlotte Bronte do it too, really makes me wish I'd studied french rather than german at school :) )

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

Does trying to read Gene Wolfe count?

I suppose that making things semi-opaque could be done well. I can't think of any examples of it being done well, but I concede the possibility.

Also I wouldn't classify Agatha Christie the same way, I think that's more an artifact of an earlier time when more people spoke french. Dorothy L Sayers and Charlotte Bronte do it too, really makes me wish I'd studied French rather than German at school.

I'm not sure it's an artifact of an earlier era. One of the people whose work I proofread is English, and I recall one manuscript in which one of her heroes turned to another person and spoke two or three lines of (to me) incomprehensible French. I couldn't tell what was being said from the context or from the other person's reply (which was something along the lines of, "Yes, I agree"), so I asked her what the French meant.

She was rather shocked to discover that I had no clue what was being said, and that I'd had to resort to Babelfish to get even an approximation of a translation, albeit a surreal one It hadn't occurred to her that some readers might not understand.

(I'm also not sure that taking French in school would have helped. I had two years of French, four years of Latin and two years of Spanish. The Latin is the only one that halfway stuck, and even then I need dictionaries and grammar books.)

[alias_sqbr]

Oh I'm sure there's still some people who assume that "everyone" speaks french, but in the 1930s (or 1850s) that assumption was more reasonable and thus more common. (If classist, I'm pretty sure the majority of everyday people didn't know french. I think. Maybe?)

You're right, now that I think of it the odd times I've encountered untranslated german in books or movies I've at best been able to get the vague gist of what was being said. *remembers the Dr Who episode with the Daleks going "Exterminieren! Exterminieren!" which isn't even a real german word*

[afterannabel.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I've not read any Gene Wolfe but I think now I want to try.

[alias_sqbr]

He's pretty awesome. My favourite thus far is "The Book of the New Sun" (a fantasy series in four parts). Though, yes, you really don't ever fully know what all the events or words mean. One of the cool things is that it's set in a post-technological far-future so you'll have scenes where the main character describes something using his vocabulary and concepts, and it's strange and interesting, and then you go "Oh wait! That's a picture of a guy in a space-suit on the moon!" or whatever and it's a whole different skew on the situation. Apparently the book is full of stuff like that but most of it went over my head :)

[ms-noemi.livejournal.com]

writing like this called "semi-opaque" and to "create a sense of alien-ness"? Really?

[alias_sqbr]

I'm not an english graduate or anything, that's just the way I see it as someone who reads books. I would describe it as semi-opaque, but I have no idea if anyone other than me has used the term to mean that, I'm not even sure it's a real word :) (And similarly, that's what I think the authors are doing, that's certainly the effect it has on me)