Saturday, December 6, 2014
Macondo and El Dorado
As we discussed in class the similarities between Macondo and El Dorado, I came to realize how El Dorado is truly a "magical" type of place like Macondo is. Although Voltaire isn't using magical realm, the fact that El Dorado is a type of utopian society, in my opinion, does give it a sense of magical realism, especially when the kids were playing with gems. I think the idea of a utopian society by itself is something that seems "unreal" and "magical." The idea of a place where everyone is equal and puts happiness first and where items of value seem like simply pebbles cause me to feel that El Dorado is a dream like and an idealized type of place. I think it's interesting how Voltaire and Marquez point out that the only obstacle preventing a perfect place like Macondo and El Dorado from existing is the influence of the outside world. I think that once people have a knowledge and a desire for the ways of the outside world, there is no way to preserve a utopian kind of society.
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Could that have something to do with the nature of the concept of corruption? Could it be that when one society is imperfect, interactions with a utopia will automatically corrupt it? Just food for thought but this reminds me of water and poison. When one drop of poison is put into water, the entirety of the water is contaminated, but it's so diluted that it doesn't matter. Corruption could take the properties of liquids. Another interesting point: Liquids tend to fill the container they're in. When sin (corruption) was introduced to this world (in the Judeo-Christian narrative) it filled the universe with corruption. HOWEVER, if this was to happen, it would most likely be a gas, as gasses can expand to fill the container while liquids cannot.
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