# One Hundred years of Soltitude (spoilers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 1, 2009, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hundred-years-of-soltitude-spoilers/498316 "2009-06-01T03:37:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hundred-years-of-soltitude-spoilers/498316/21 "2009-06-01T20:40:16Z")
Or Alejo Carpentier… I love his short story, _Viaje a la semilla_. A whole life rewinds in the space of a night. > [@](#): > > A hundred years. No, longer than that. The hundred years refer to the time when Melquiades wrote his manuscript and the time when the second to last Buendía deciphered. The prophecy was that a hundred years would pass before it could be understood. By the time it was written, though, about 30-50 years had already passed (if not more, damn those long lived Buendias). Juan Rulfo, Julio Cortazar, and Isabel Allende are other writers in the realismo magico movement. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hundred-years-of-soltitude-spoilers/498316/22 "2009-06-01T21:28:53Z")
> [@DiggitCamara](#): > > There are even a couple of movies, like “Como Agua para Chocolate” (arguably part of the current) The book is based on the novel by Laura Esquivel. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hundred-years-of-soltitude-spoilers/498316/23 "2009-06-01T21:40:06Z")
Er, the MOVIE is based on the book. Missed the edit window. ---
**Author:** ![DiggitCamara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df788c/32.png) [@DiggitCamara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiggitCamara)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hundred-years-of-soltitude-spoilers/498316/24 "2009-06-01T21:58:34Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > Er, the MOVIE is based on the book. Missed the edit window. Yeah, I kinda forgot to mention the author :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Invisible\_Chimp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f05b48/32.png) [@Invisible\_Chimp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Invisible_Chimp)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hundred-years-of-soltitude-spoilers/498316/25 "2009-06-01T22:02:18Z")
I, too, like Love in the Time of Cholera and Chronicle of a Death Foretold better than One Hundred Years of Solitude. But One Hundred Years is definitely very good. ---
**Author:** ![Lucky\_13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucky_13/32/13209_2.png) [@Lucky\_13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucky_13)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2009, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hundred-years-of-soltitude-spoilers/498316/26 "2009-06-02T07:13:02Z")
I read _One Hundred Years of Solitude_ in the original Spanish when I was 12 - it helped that Spanish was my first language.😃 I was rather naive and sheltered, so all the parts about whores [the vulgar Spanish word for whore, which is used in the book, is “puta,” a word that would have gotten me slapped upside the head if my parents ever heard me use it] and other sexual references were quite shocking to me. Especially the part about the girl whose grandma was pimping her to 100 men per night till she paid her back for the house she accidentally burned down; also the part in which Aureliano (?) married the first Remedios, who was only about 10 and still played with dolls. That book was quite an educational material for me. I decided not to tell my folks I read it for fear of being punished, but my dad found out years later, long after I would have gotten in trouble for it, and thought it was cool that someone so young was able to appreciate it. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2009, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hundred-years-of-soltitude-spoilers/498316/27 "2009-06-02T15:44:22Z")
> [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](#): > > That’s a bit strange to me, I’d consider Garcia Marquez to be one of the most important and most widely read authors of the 20th century… Anyway, it’s been a while since I read _One Hundred Years of Solitude_ or any of his works, I had a bit of a Marquez-phase a while back, but haven’t really revisited anything since (I tend to do that with authors). Perhaps, if you’re in the market for something similar-yet-entirely-different in the way of warping and playing with established rules, reality, and concepts, and if you aren’t already familiar with him, you could do worse than to look into Jorge Louis Borges’ work, who is widely credited with at least playing a significant part in kicking off the so-called Latin American Boom of the 1960s and '70s. Here’s the full text of his short story [_The Library of Babel_](http://jubal.westnet.com/hyperdiscordia/library_of_babel.html), if you’re interested (and here’s [_Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius_](http://www.coldbacon.com/writing/borges-tlon.html), just because I can never decide which one I like better). I’ll admit my social circle isn’t very big, and I probably read more then most of the people I know, but I’ve been mentioning the book to people and nobody has even heard of it. Granted, nobody I know has heard of Umberto Eco either until I mention _In the Name of the Rose_. I have heard of Jorge Louis Borge and I’ve read the Library of Babel. I haven’t read the other story yet, though I’ll take a look at it. ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2009, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hundred-years-of-soltitude-spoilers/498316/28 "2009-06-02T17:33:25Z")
> [@HPL](#): > > I’ll admit my social circle isn’t very big, and I probably read more then most of the people I know, but I’ve been mentioning the book to people and nobody has even heard of it. Granted, nobody I know has heard of Umberto Eco either until I mention _In the Name of the Rose_. Err, I hope you didn’t take this as criticism of your social circle, I’m just always amazed when things I take for granted don’t work the same way elsewhere. Like no-one in America knowing Robbie Williams, that sort of thing. Speaks more to my own tendency to over-generalize my own surroundings than anything. :o Hope you’ll enjoy _Tlön_! ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2009, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hundred-years-of-soltitude-spoilers/498316/29 "2009-06-03T01:19:01Z")
> [@bup](#): > > Seriously, I loved the book, and the questions you’re asking about whether things are literal or symbolic or jokes or whatever, if I may be so bold, are the wrong questions. Just trust the writer and enjoy the ride. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the hell out of it. For some reason, though, it remined me a little of a 1970’s Western called _El Topo_ by a Chilean Director named Alejandro Jodorowsky. That film in particular had me wondering if it’s supposed to be Symbolic and for a while I went with that theory. Eventually though, I came to the conclusion that Alejandro Jodorowsky is just insane(I still like the film though). And granted, I haven’t had much exposure to South American art, but I was vaguely wondering the same, based on a ridiculously small sample size. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2009, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hundred-years-of-soltitude-spoilers/498316/30 "2009-06-03T01:22:51Z")
> [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](#): > > Err, I hope you didn’t take this as criticism of your social circle, I’m just always amazed when things I take for granted don’t work the same way elsewhere. Like no-one in America knowing Robbie Williams, that sort of thing. Speaks more to my own tendency to over-generalize my own surroundings than anything. :o > > Hope you’ll enjoy _Tlön_! No offense taken. I feel that way quite often. Tlon was interesting. Definetly a bit less clear cut then the Library of Babel. I think I need to reread it to make more sense of it. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2009, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hundred-years-of-soltitude-spoilers/498316/31 "2009-06-03T09:28:12Z")
ETA: nothing to see here, **Kyla** said it first. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hundred-years-of-soltitude-spoilers/498316.md?page=1)