Ironically, though I found myself
particularly entranced by Carlos Fuentes’ Aura
for the depth of its aestheticism and heavy use of symbolic imagery, I felt as
if those very aspects of the story distracted too much from my ability to
process them as a composite whole (though I realize this is likely the
intention of the author, with one of the chief ideals of magical-realism being
a recognition of reality as “all out of proportion” – not everything has to
have a profound meaning or rational connection). That being said, the novel is
absolutely spouting with allusions to a reluctance to part with life – the
noted viscosity of the red “wine” the narrator drinks at his first supper in
the home of Consuelo (insinuating blood), the repeated serving of liver (the
organ responsible for blood-filtration, no less) at meals, the “scarlet silk
wrapped around [the wooden Christ’s] thighs,” and the repetition of all things
green (a color either signifying new, budding life, or, in the case of rot or
disease, the process of decay) in association with Aura. The reappearance of
Consuelo’s rabbit “familiar” also caught my attention – “Saga,” as the rabbit
is called, is also the name of a goddess with whom the Norse god of warfare and
shamanism converses regarding matters of history and the occult.
Hopefully further discussion in
section will prompt something a bit more analytical from me…
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