RMST 202 Blog

 Hello everyone! This weeks book is The Time of the Doves by Mercè Rodoreda, a book originally written in the romance language of Catalan, set in Spain during the Spanish Civil War. It follows Natalia and her life married to Quimet and Antoni.  Firstly, I already feel like I have so much to say about the translators note. I have been enjoying the inclusion of these at the beginning of these translated texts because I feel like it closes the gap a bit of what we miss from reading the text in its original language. I think it is a little ironic that we are reading the translated text yet the translator highlights the significance of the civil war forbidding Catalan, and the importance of it being used and taught in schools now. The inclusion of the historical context was important to this translated text because it highlights how this book stood the test of an attempted cultural genocide of Catalan.  I found Natalia's husband Quimet insufferable for many obvious reasons but...

This weeks assigned reading is Proust's Swann's Way, specifically "Combray", a 1913 novel originally written in French. I initially had trouble getting into this book. I started off reading the introduction and writing notes about it, but I quickly realized I could not get into the book if I was sitting here thinking about the background. I had to just immerse myself into the words. Remembering throughout the reading that I would later be obliged to write a 400-500 word post about my thoughts made it difficult to enjoy the reading because I was just thinking about what I could possibly write about. In fact, while I was reading, I even jotted down this note "difficult to read and forget about the homework assigned," which has later prompted me to write this section. After this initial realization I tried to refrain from stopping reading and jotting down notes, and while I failed a few times, this did help me to actually get through the reading. One other thin...