Letters of Insurgents: Part 1

So, things are heating up over at Insurgent Summer, a participatory reading of Letters of Insurgents. Tomorrow is the deadline for the first letters to be completed, and I’ve just finished them, so I’ll try and write down some thoughts to get the ball slowly rolling. I’m going to try and do this for every set of letters, so we shall see how that goes. It is really exciting for me to be reading this book again (I first read it last summer), since I consider it to be within my current top all-time favorite books. If you must know, Finnegans Wake by James Joyce and One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez are my other two favorite books, so this one is in very good company. Also, even though I’ve previously read the book, I’ll only be commenting on the weeks section (or the previous sections, when related) – so I’ll try not to bring up any spoilers before their time, even if it can be tempting [maybe you would like to try and do the same if you are commenting here, although - I'm not one much for rules, so whatever].

What I’d really like to do, and what I wanted to do before when I read the book, was write an all-encompassing review of the work – however, this never really happened (does it ever?). Perhaps, these weekly posts along with other commentary from individuals will help in the overall creation of an in-depth review of the book by someone. And just because I said that, please don’t hesitate to create your masters thesis on this book, since it appears so many graduate students are reading it [heh!].

So, I actually have a real copy of the book, which is important for me because I can’t see reading such a large novel on a computer screen. Also, I feel like it would be a completely different experience having to read it on a screen, but that is just me. If you didn’t know, I’m not really that old, but older than some I guess. So I kind of always grew up with computers and the such, but it is just that unexplainable feeling of actually holding a book in your hands that makes all the difference for me (and I hope it does, even still for the youngest of young, growing up in this digital world).

Which, kind of brings me to one of the reasons I really like this book. The fact that, even in these first letters – I got a sense of how absolutely touching these letters between Yarostan and Sophia are. Do you think letter writing has changed with the advent of computers and e-mail? I do, dramatically. I’m old enough to remember writing letters through the mail to friends, but also young enough to know that this really doesn’t happen anymore. It is kind of a lost art if you ask me. How is it different writing a letter on a computer and sending it through e-mail vs. handwriting a letter and sending it through snail mail?

Perhaps, more on my own end – what about even writing a truly honest, long note to your friend? Or receiving such a note from someone? Have these also disappeared? I’m I out of the loop? So sad. I mean, I like to think that I’m a cool enough person (double heh!) to write letters now-a-days. As much as I enjoy the fact of being able to quickly communicate with friends; at the same time, I really miss the personal touch of snail mail. Reading Letters of Insurgents kind of makes me envious of friends who can write such eloquent long letters, and express themselves in this way.

Visions of horror are inverse utopias so beautiful tears come to my eyes

There is so much to comment on in the first letters alone, if one is to really delve in (a bit of a cop out on my part, no?). But, that’s tough, and it’s only Thursday – so we can leave it for the easy going… for the moment at least.

If anything, I will try and comment a bit further in comments on the first part and continue with some posts on the other letters. And most of all, have fun this summer. Saludos!

“In a context where any word or gesture can lead to the dreaded arrest there’s no freedom”

- an excerpt from Yarostan’s first letter