Word: terrae
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...eons, the frozen north was terra incognita, the work of a mapmaker's imagination. Now it is the turn of writers to define its contours. The latest lyricist is Journalist Barry Lopez. "Much of the tundra," he notes, "appears to be treeless when, in many places, it is actually covered with trees--a thick matting of short, ancient willows and birches. You realize suddenly that you are wandering around on top of a forest." Icebergs the size of Cleveland drift through the dark waters, and sulfur butterflies mysteriously rise in the short, delirious summer. Mirages provide a weird history...
...informal meeting at Cabot House last month, Fuentes told listeners that Latin American authors often have so much to say that even 1000 pages are sometimes not enough to say it. Yet in 800 pages of "Terra Nostra," which take us from the Roman Empire to the year 1999, that is what Fuentes attempts to do: to say it all, to write the total novel...
...Terra Nostra" is not the only novel which uses the interplay between past and present and between the diverse elements of Mexican culture. Fuentes' first novel "Where the Air is Clear" (1958) is a mythical history of Mexico City. In this novel Mexico's mythical past of rituals and sacrifices appears parallel with the present. In "The Death of Artemio Cruz" (1962), the story is narrated by the revolutionary turned opportunist of the book's title as he lies on his death bed. The story is told by multiple voices with a constantly shifting narrative and chronological viewpoint...
...does the reader fit into this complex structure of interwoven times and multiple voices? "Terra Nostra," for example, has often been considered unreadable by critics. Yet Fuentes emphasizes that in spite of its difficulty, it is a novel which does not go unread. "The Death of Artemio Cruz" and "Where the Air is Clear" were both considered extremely difficult and complicated when they first appeared. Fuentes tells of one critic who suggested that "The Death of Artemio Cruz" served no better purpose than to be flushed down the drain. "Today," Fuentes says, "these novels are read by 15 year-olds...
...second year in a row, Fuentes is teaching a course--Lit and Art C-41, "History and Fiction in Spanish America"--which is a condensed and restructured version of "Terra Nostra." In the course, Fuentes traces the heritage of Latin America back to the different currents of thought which followed Columbus across the Atlantic. The New World became Europe's utopia: a place where Europeans could reconstruct their world without any of its faults. But as the invading Spanish and Portuguese driven by a Maciavellian thirst for gold and power, they did not face an empty continent. The history...