I know Juan Rulfo because of the book Pedro Paramo. I know the book Pedro Paramo because it has a big line written on its waist cover—the only book that Márquez can recite backwards.
García Márquez is one of the most popular writers among Nobel laureates in literature. Books that make him a literary giant turn upside down, I think, should be outstanding. So I bought the book.
Pedro Paramo
The book contains a long introduction to Marquez's text. Márquez made it clear that when he felt that his writing career had reached a dead end, always circling around the same point and unable to find a new way of writing, it was Pedro Paramo who shocked him, as well as a new direction of creation.
In other words, Rulfo was Márquez's mentor (I believe Márquez was a mentor to many readers), and it was because of watching Pedro Paramo that Márquez later created classics such as "One Hundred Years of Solitude" and "Love in the Time of Cholera".
Mo Yan, Yu Hua, and Su Tong were all deeply influenced by Rulfo. Su Tong believes that Pedro Paramo is a literary peak, which can only be looked up and silently climbed. Yu Hua believes that "Pedro Paramo" shows the fact that writing never ends, which is a fact that exists in all excellent works.
Márquez and Rulfo
In fact, in terms of storyline alone, the plot of the book "Pedro Paramo" is very simple, and the story is also very old-fashioned.
Pedro Paramo came from a rural Mexican family and suffered a lot as a child. When he grew up, he not only revived the family business, but also became a hegemon. But Pedro Paramo is not a good, even a no-evil, but everything is obtained by means of cunning and plunder.
Photography by Juan Rulfo
In order to pay for the debt, Pedro Paramo married his creditor, Doroles, and took possession of her property. He had no feelings for her and soon abandoned her, leaving her to the bitter end. To avenge the accidental death of his father, Lucas Palermo, he killed everyone at the scene of his father's death. In order to seize Aldelaide's land, he had him strangled. In order to regain his favorite, Susana, he ordered someone to kill Susana's father. For Susanna's death, he angered the entire Komara villagers, which eventually turned Komara into a deserted village.
But Pedro Paramo is not just a scoundrel, he also has a wise side. When the revolutionary army rebelled against him, he was good at drinking and eating, and expressed his willingness to support the revolutionary cause and provide human and financial resources. Its purpose was to penetrate its own people into the revolutionary army and, after seizing power, become an armed force to protect itself. He did it.
Photography by Juan Rulfo
Of course, Pedro Paramo also has a "loving" side. The untimely death of his beloved son, Miguel Paramo, left Pedro Paramo to beg Father Redria, whom he had never looked down on in the past, in spite of his face. Susannah was the only love of his life, but by the time he got Susanna, the poor woman was already mad and terminally ill. Even more ironically, what Susanna really loves in her heart is her deceased ex-husband, Florencio. After Susanna's death, Pedro Paramo could not bear the blow and became a walking corpse in his daily thoughts.
Pedro Paramo had relationships with countless women in his lifetime, and his sons were so numerous that he himself could not figure them out. Eventually, he was mistakenly killed by one of his sons, Avendio. The story is over.
Photography by Juan Rulfo
I must admit that I watched it three times to fully understand this simple and clichéd storyline. Because the writing method of Pedro Paramo is too special, it is a work written in the full sense of the modern novel.
First of all, the whole novel only has environmental descriptions and character dialogue.
In traditional novels, the author will explain the background of the times and characters, the characters and characteristics of the characters, and the development and context of the story through the characters or narrations in the novel. Pedro Paramo is not at all. Any of the above information, the author does not have any introduction and comments, and completely asks the reader to make his own judgment and summary through only environmental descriptions and character dialogues.
Photography by Juan Rulfo
Secondly, the narrative method of the novel is extremely strange, and there is no concept of time and space at all.
Usually, the narrative method is divided into sequential narration, flashback, interpolation, sub-narrative, and supplementary narrative. "Pedro Paramo" breaks the mold and completely loses the concept of time and space. Events that occur at different times, in different places, and in different characters can be included in the same section and the same picture. The whole novel can be said to be completely composed of parts that have no connection, but after the combination, the reader can find the inner connection through thinking.
The author has hardly set the age of any of the characters (except for Pedro Paramo's son Miguel Paramo), which gives the reader more freedom to use his imagination. A thousand readers have a thousand Hamlets. Maybe read Pedro Paramo a thousand times, and the same reader can have a thousand Pedro Paramo.
Photography by Juan Rulfo
Third, the characters who appear throughout the novel are dead.
According to the translator's postscript, the Aztec culture of the ancient civilization of the Americas believed that if the soul was not forgiven after death, it would be difficult for the soul to enter heaven, and it would be difficult to enter the earth, and it could only remain in the human world in the form of unjust souls.
I also checked the information and said that Mexicans celebrate The Day of the Dead on November 1 and 2 every year. The 1st is the Day of the Young Spirits, which honors the dead children, and the 2nd is the Day of enlightenment, which honors the dead adults. The Day of the Dead is similar to Halloween, but it is different in that it inherits the cultural characteristics of the Indian peoples.
Photography by Juan Rulfo
In the end, there are almost no good people in the novel.
Pedro Paramo, who did nothing wrong; Miguel Paramo, who did nothing wrong; Furgol, the housekeeper who aided and abetted abuse; Til quart, who was instructed by Pedro Paramo to join the revolutionary army; Truccio, a lawyer who covered up the crimes of Paramo's father and son; Dorothea, who made a woman for Miguel Paramo; Damiana, who looked forward to having some relationship with his grandfather Pedro Paramo; Eduvie hays, who had loved Pedro Paramo but often had a relationship with his son Miguel Paramo Bartolome, who had incest with his daughter Susana; the Donis brothers and sisters who committed incest...
Even Father Redriard, he was not a good man. As a priest, Redrià did not condone Dorothea, who had fucked a woman for Miguel Paramo, nor did he condone the Donis brothers and sisters who had committed incest. But he forgave Miguel Paramo, a man who killed his brother and raped his niece. It was because Miguel Paramo's father, Pedro Paramo, gave him a handful of gold coins to donate to the church. Father Redriard did not forgive the bishop after Contra confessed to him. Finally, Father Redriard also went up the hill and joined the revolutionary army...
Photography by Juan Rulfo
Because of these four characteristics, Pedro Paramo is very difficult to read. Without reading it several times, it is difficult to understand. The novel is unfolded in the first person. But it wasn't until A third of the reading that I knew that this "me" was named Juan Preciado; halfway through reading, I realized that "I" was also a dead man; and I continued to read, and finally understood that everyone was dead.
But even after reading it three times, I still didn't understand how the "I" in the book, Juan Preciado, died.
Juan Rulfo
Being able to plan such an ingenious structure, it is said that Rulfo changed the manuscript countless times that year. I'm convinced of that. If the structure of this story had been simple, it would not have had the effect it has now; if the structure had been more complicated, I am afraid that it would be difficult for the reader to understand it after reading it several times. It is this ingenious design that gives Pedro Paramo its place in the history of literature.
It can be said that Pedro Paramo is still considered one of the pinnacle novels of Latin American literature. Its writer, Juan Rulfo, has also been hailed as the hidden king of Latin American literature.
In fact, There are not many of Rulfo's works, and even very few can be described. During his lifetime, Rulfo wrote two novellas – Pedro Paramo and The Golden Rooster. The rest are short stories, and after compiling them into a collection of novels, one of the short stories, "Burning Wilderness", was taken as the title of the collection.
But with Pedro Paramo, everything is enough to make Rulfow look at the world.
Juan Rulfo
Mo Yan once suggested in a speech that writing should start from imitating famous artists, he said, "For children, it is important to start imitating and forming a style." For adults, why not?
Without Juan Rulfo, there might not have been One Hundred Years of Solitude. Without One Hundred Years of Solitude, there would be no Márquez's literary status.
Is Márquez a genius? Absolutely. But genius is not necessarily innate, and genius also needs to be guided and inspired. Juan Rulfo was undoubtedly the leader of Márquez. Just like Márquez, he is the leader of Mo Yan, Yu Hua, Chen Zhongzhong, and a number of other Chinese writers.
Mo
Finally, to give friends who want to read this book, you can first read "Burning Fields" and adapt to Rulfo's writing style. Short stories, read them once and you can understand them.
Read Pedro Paramo directly, and if you find something you can't read, what should you do? Don't think about it, just read it. After reading the whole book several times, I naturally understood everything, anyway, this book is not very long.