Some things I liked stylistically in Hopscotch

As I've stated earlier in this blog, reading Hopscotch was quite difficult and since I've only read it in the 'traditional' way and still have to hopscotch through it, I'm withholding my final judgment until then. After hopscotching through it I'm also going to do some research to help me understand some of the more difficult parts. Some of it is lost on me. For instance, I'm really unsure of how baby Rocamador died and am hoping that some of the 'extra chapters' reveal the answer. Second, chapter 34 was the most insanely frustrating chapter of a book I've ever read, but after the fourth reading I sort of figured it out.

But, here are some of the things I really liked from a pure style standpoint in the book. The following short list has just some of the things I labeled as "Good Imagery, Wording & Style". There is a whole lot more that could be added but these stood out to me at the time of reading.

1) [We] "used to get together to talk to a blind seer, a stimulating paradox" (Cortázar, 6). I just liked the 'blind seer' paradox and it being pointed out. Somehow the pointing out of the paradoxical nature of it wasn't overkill or stating the obvious.

2) Those that search, those “who go out at night with noting in mind, the motives of a destroyer of compasses” (Cortázar, 7). I like the idea of those who are searching with an openness in their head aren't really searching in the normal sense, but looking to smash the conventional ways of searching for that which I know not what.

3) “As if it were some sort of mean and sticky vengeance” (Cortázar, 10). I just really liked the sentence a lot. 'Mean and sticky vengeance' just hopped off the page and gave me a visual and tactile image in my head.

4)  “Happiness must have been something else, something sadder perhaps than this peace, this pleasure, a mood of unicorn…” (Cortázar, 13). Again, I just really enjoyed this phrase, 'a mood of unicorn' denotes something like a childlike happiness, but also the realization that it, like the unicorn was a myth.

5) In my own writing, I've often had characters or scenarios where alcohol has played a part. I've always struggled with writing that because I don't want to give it a technical feel or a celebratory feel unless it's right for the current story. But in a couple of passages, Cortázar was able to once again make a great visual in my head that connected the story with some experiences that I'd like to incorporate into my own work:

[Gregorovius] “was at that vodka level where the night began to become magnanimous and everything promised him fidelity and hope… With his wits ajar Gregorovius managed to make out the corner where Ronald and Wong were selecting and passing records” (Cortázar, 43-44). I really liked that first sentence and how it showed what alcohol can do. Of course the night did not turn out how Gregorovius thought it would, as is often the case when vodka levels get to that point because the vodka level often rises and surpasses that point too and begins to careen downwards in spiral fashion rather quickly in the opposite direction of hope.

Then later, towards Babs: “Sh, darling, stop crying, the girl has really tied one on, even her soul smells of cognac” (Cortázar, 198). In this sentence, I'm not really sure who the narrator is, but 'even her soul smells of cognac' gave me as the reader, a knowledge of Babs' current state.
 

6) When La Maga & Horacio parts ways he feels he cannot chase back after her. He tells himself, “Go home and read Spinoza. La Maga doesn’t know who Spinoza is…She will never suspect that she has condemned me to read Spinoza” (Cortázar, 96).  I loved this sentence so much because of my feelings on having to read Spinoza back in college. To be condemned to read Spinoza is a perfect way of putting what it was like to have to read Spinoza for me all those years ago.