Modern editions of One Hundred Years of Solitude usually include a family tree at the beginning, to help you make sense of all those different Arcadios, Remedios, and Aurelianos, but Gabo didn’t write it that way, and he didn’t include anything of the sort for the same reason he intentionally gave his characters different variations on the same damnable names. You are supposed to forget. You are supposed to get confused. You are supposed to blur different characters together, mix up timelines, be surprised to find that you’re not quite sure who is who. The last thing you are ever supposed to do is keep everything straight.

Modern editions of One Hundred Years of Solitude usually include a family tree at the beginning, to help you make sense of all those different Arcadios, Remedios, and Aurelianos, but Gabo didn’t write it that way, and he didn’t include anything of the sort for the same reason he intentionally gave his characters different variations on the same damnable names. You are supposed to forget. You are supposed to get confused. You are supposed to blur different characters together, mix up timelines, be surprised to find that you’re not quite sure who is who. The last thing you are ever supposed to do is keep everything straight. →

Aaron Brady, The New Inquiry

10 months ago / 8 notes
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