RMST 202 Blogs

Hi, everyone. Welcome to my week 12 blog. How was everyone's weekend? Time flies so fast. This week’s blog is also the last book I read this semester. I have to say that this course is really a wonderful course that allows me to read a lot of meaningful books. If I have opportunities in the future, I would like to take more reading courses just like this course. This week I read the book "Faces in the Crowd" which was written by Valeria Luiselli. When I'm reading this book, I still feel a bit confused, as if the narrator is interweaving memories while recounting them. I don't know if you understand what I mean. It's like many segments of memories are mixed together, so I often feel lost when I'm reading. The "I" in the novel is a mother and a writer. Although we can sense her love for her children from her words and actions, the existence of two children undoubtedly hinders her writing. Just as mentioned in the book, she can only write when her d...

Hi, everyone. Welcome to the week 11 blog. The cherry blossoms in UBC are in bloom. I wonder if you have gone to see them, they are really beautiful. I took a lot of photos! OK, Back to the book.  This week I read "The Book of Chameleons" which was written by  José Eduardo Agualusa.  At first, I thought it was a book about chameleons, but it turned out to be told from the perspective of a gecko, and not just any gecko, but a special one, a tiger gecko that can make sounds like human laughter. In fact, I think the title of this book may be based on the owner of this gecko,  a man named Felix Ventura who has albinism . He is a person who fabricates a good past for others. So, I believe the title "The Book of Chameleons" might symbolize Felix Ventura tailoring a beautiful past for each individual based on their experiences. Chameleons can change the color of their bodies in different environments to adapt to the current environment. The name of the Chinese ver...

Hi, everyone. Welcome to my week 10 blog! The weather is really nice this week, but my mood is not as good as the weather because I have two midterm exams this week. . . But even though I had a lot of things to do, I still found time to read this novel. I have to say that reading the novel outdoors in the sunshine is really a good choice. This book tells the story of a large-scale bank robbery and is based on a real bank robbery in Buenos Aires in the 1960s. I'm actually not very fond of novels related to crime themes. I feel scared when I read them, especially when the novel is based on true events, which makes it even harder for me to accept. I feel like when people discuss this novel, they tend to focus on the protagonist, who is the criminal in this novel. I also want to briefly discuss my perspective here. In my eyes, most crimes are unforgivable. It's not justifiable to forgive someone for committing a crime just because they have a mental illness or childhood trauma. Mor...

This week I read the book "The Lover". When I heard the name of the book, I was thinking if it was a happy ending, but actually not... But this is also very realistic, because life is often full of regrets, and regrets about love account for part of it. It is really lucky to meet a lover who can stay with you for a lifetime. This novel tells the love story between a 15-year-old impoverished French girl and a 27-year-old wealthy Chinese man. The book was written by the author Marguerite Duras based on her own experiences, and it unfolds entirely from the perspective of the female protagonist. Therefore, I believe Marguerite Duras inserted herself into the female lead, thus achieving this classic novel. The love between the girl and the man at the beginning is not pure, because initially, the girl is attracted to the man's wealth. Due to her mother and brother's circumstances, she needs money, and at the same time, she also needs someone to give her love, which this wea...

Hi, everyone. Welcome to my week 8's blog. I read the book "The Hour of the Star" this week and have many thoughts to share with you.  This book is written by  Clarice Lispector. This book was written shortly before her death. Although it is not an autobiographical novel, some of the things that happened in the book also reflect Lispector's life, such as the poor life of the heroine Macabea. It is very similar to Lispector's childhood life. At the end of the book, the heroine goes to visit a fortune teller, and Lispector also visited a fortune teller before. The initial impression this book gave me was one of confusion and strangeness. I feel like I often use the word 'confusion' when writing blog posts, but sometimes I really don't understand why the author chose to write this way, so I can only use the word 'confusion' to describe it. At the beginning of the book, it describes a girl through the eyes of a writer. The girl depicted by the writ...

Hi, everyone. Welcome to my week 7 blog! I read this novel during the reading break and have many thoughts to share with you.  The novel "The Time of the Doves" is written by Mercè Rodoreda. I think this book gave me a depressing feeling, and I thought Quimet and Natalia's marriage was doomed to be a mistake from the beginning.  I didn't feel that Quimet had a strong love for Natalia; on the contrary, I felt that Quimet wanted Natalia to be obedient to him. Before they got married, Quimet had been extremely angry when Natalia went out for a walk with another man, demanding that she beg for his forgiveness. This makes me feel that Quimet never really loved Natalia from the beginning, but tried to control her, restrict her and possess her. This is a relationship that I cannot accept, but I can also understand why Natalia chose to marry Quimet. Part of the reason should be because of the death of her mother. In the book, Natalia mentioned that her mother never talked to ...