Hey everyone, I hope your weekend was good!
I chose to read the novel Captain Pantoja and the Special Service by Mario Vargas Llosa. However, due to the themes of corruption, force, piety, and sexual exploitation, this wasn't the book for me. This may be biased, but I didn't appreciate this reading, especially how women were portrayed and seen.
In my judgment, the way the novel commonly portrays the female characters is misogynistic, demeaning, and in some ways, validates highly harmful gender standards. Directly speaking, women are portrayed as objects to be exploited for male desire and their sexual fulfillment without even any respect for the well-being of the women. I can get how this book might be deemed comedic, and there were points when I did find myself amused at the satire, but I felt the book to be grim, and the humour didn't seem appropriate for the subject. It was almost uncomfortable for me.
Even with my critical eye, I did enjoy and respect how it stimulated and provoked my mind and drew the characters to life. Because Mario Vargas Llosa writes in such a vibrant and detailed manner, conjuring up interesting and critical situations, his novel keeps me reading. The representation of the numerous Special Service members, who are complicated and multifaceted and have unique backstories and agendas, was another aspect I liked, as each one felt essential to the overall novel.
"These were prostitutes, it was true, but they were also mothers, daughters, sisters, and many of them had entered the profession because there was no other way to feed their children or pay for a sick relative's medicine." This really stood out to me because it adds humanity back to those women (sex workers for the Special Service) who have been stripped of it.
"The euphoria of being able to have a woman whenever he wanted was the most potent narcotic he had ever tasted." This quote was revolting to me. The corruptness and objectification it portrays as a woman are unpleasant to hear. Yet, it does a good job of capturing the addicting aspect of power and pleasure.
All in all, Captain Pantoja and the Special Service is a complex and thought-provoking story that brings a complex viewpoint on the connections between sex, hierarchy, and society. It's important to acknowledge that the novel eventually criticizes the systems of power that support exploitation and degradation.
Question:
Did you like the humour aspect of the novel? Did anyone else find it a bit unusual for this topic?
Julia, thanks for your post. "Even with my critical eye, I did enjoy and respect how it stimulated and provoked my mind and drew the characters to life. Because Mario Vargas Llosa writes in such a vibrant and detailed manner, conjuring up interesting and critical situations, his novel keeps me reading." I am very intrigued to know what made you continue reading, as you mentioned. That is, if it could have been the structure, the cinematographic way of telling this story or the farcical tone that appears. The absurd situation is uncomfortable, no doubt. Are there other ways to tell it?
ReplyDeleteHi Julia,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your post,
To answer your questions, I did like the humour aspect of this novel but not from the specialists or soldiers. I found comedic relief from Pochita because whenever she would take over, she would have lots of jokes in her letters. I also found humour in Pantoja’s mom and how she would agree with Pochita regarding her son's problems. It reminded me of my life and how my boyfriend's mom would always side with me, which made me relate to the text and laugh. However, regarding your second question, the humour intended toward the sex work was offputting. I think the soldiers deserved punishment, not this service to attend to their needs because the more they received, the more they wanted. It is sort of like a kid with candy, you give them some, and they are going to keep wanting more, which we see in the novel with the downfall of the service.
Hi julia! Great blog post! I found the humour of this novel hard to grasp. Because there is so much exploitation and abuse it is hard as a women to read it and not feel sad or angry. Though I did my best to separate serious contexts with Llosa'a parodical elements. I wanted to add a thought from my post that relates to your question: His themes of sex, desire, and prostitution are put into very serious terms. As Jon mentions in the lecture, these terms are usually in a freer environment and not discussed or used in formal senses. This comedic play on desire differs greatly from other texts we have read. Although this book had very complex topics, Llosa does a fantastic job at turning 'sex' into something structured, creating a parodical, funny view. This humour is more making fun of, and making something light into serious terms. It is a humour i am not used to but I am started to enjoy it.
ReplyDeleteHi Julia! I really liked your blog post on the reading this week. Personally, I did enjoy the style of humour used in the novel, however, I do agree that given the topic it was used on it seemed a bit unusual. I also had not given a deeper thought to the portrayal of women in this novel, and somewhat just wrote it off as needed for the story line and did not think much deeper, but after reading your post and some other ones that call attention to all the misogyny that occurred it is now hard to ignore, which does change my view of the book overall a bit.
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