Ending of God of Small Things 10/16/08

Today in class, I was very happy to have found out that every other classmate seemed just as confused after completing The God of Small Things as I did. The discussion of incest, the beauty behind Velutha and Ammu's physical relationship, and the sadness of finding out exactly how Sophie Mol's drowning occurs was an interesting, but different ending than I had anticipated. However, the entire book was a bit out of the ordinary and unpredictable; I would expect nothing less from Roy and the ending.

For this particular blog, I would like to discuss the subject of incest and Roy's interpretation / acceptance with the concept. As discussed in class, although we as a western, modern day society believe that incest is not wrong, but disgusting in most situations, Roy and the Eastern culture seems to view incest as more normal than most. An example of a more accepted form of incest is within a high profile, royal family such as England. For centuries, the royal family felt that only relatives were worthy of breeding and as a result only procreated with family members (it must stay in the family). In the case of Roy, I feel that she is almost making fun of the concept as taboo, and as a result, uses Estha and Rahel's relationship to prove what lengths close-minded people will go to in order to keep their world "perfect" and normal.

Moving on to the new assignment for this week, I have just began reading One Hundred Years of Solitude. As Paul pointed out in class, if a book such as this is a representation of sheer perfection, than it does have a better chance of not meeting expectations. So far, I appreciate the language. The characters are a bit overwhelming, but the new blog should help me to stay organized, but I am already confusing the time line. I am very interested to continue reading on through the assigned reading and see if if a time line presents itself.