Blog Post #8

"'You bastards!' he shouted. 'Take the extra minute and stick it up your ass!' After his shout something happened that did not bring on fright but a kind of hallucination. The captain gave the order to fire and fourteen machine guns answered at once. But it all seemed like a farce... Jose Arcadio Segundo barely had time to pick up the child while the mother with the other one was swallowed up by the crowd that swirled about in panic." (pg. 305)

This passage fascinated me. At first, I was very confused as to what was going on and why the people didn't react in terror in the face of certain death. I had to read it through a few times to understand what was happening to make sure I read it correctly. After I felt like I had a frim grasp on the passage, it amazed me how surreal the scene was. It seems like the soldiers began to fire but for a few seconds, nothing happened and there was just a shocked (astounded?) silence. It seemed like the crowd was just hypnotized by the entire situation; not fear, bravery, or defiance was felt by the crowd, just a sort of transfixion or even fascination. The word choice of this and the surrounding passages seems out of place: "Intoxicated by the tension", "miraculous depth of silence", "held tight in a fascination with death". If you were just glancing at the words used you couldn't even guess what is actually happening. The way that the people are totally indifferent to death amazes me. They're not scared or sad or really anything. Up until the reality hits, they all seem like emotionless drones. I keep wondering to myself if there actually was a brief moment where everyone was invulnerable to the bullets or if that was Marquez's way of letting reality sink in to everyone in the crowd like one of those intense situations where things seem to go in slow motion. Either way, I think this passage is beautiful written (ignoring the actual event). If it is a magical moment where everyone in the crowd was invulnerable for a few seconds but they knew it wouldn't last long, what were they thinking? Were the even thinking at all? If Marquez is just trying to emulate the burst of blind adrenaline you get in life or death situations, he captures the dreamlike state of no thinking, only gut instinct action almost perfectly. Either way, this while scene seems like something out of a dream and I'm curious to see what everyone  else thought was going on here.