December 2- Casual Voodoo?

 This week we read The kingdom of this world and though I struggled to fully understand everything that was happening in the book I did find it really interesting. The thing I found the most intriguing in the book was how closely it tied some of the events that had occurred to voodoo and magic. I also found it fascinating how naturally it combined with the story not like it was some crazy idea but rather that it was perfectly normal. While the King was at the church in chapter V of part three the king thinks, “In some remote house - he suspected - there was probably an image of him stuck full of pins hung head down with a knife plunged in the region of the heart.” These acts of voodoo are things that I have heard of and are ways to cause harm to others. I find it very interesting how the king thinks about this act of violence and threat to his life so naturally like it was the expected thing to do, which it most likely was, but as a person only knows the voodoo of fairy tales, reading about it as if it was normal is crazy to me. This shock is of mine most likely greatly tied to the images I have tied to due to how voodoo is portrayed in society. When I think of this mysterious practice I think of New Orleans and crazy colored smoke appearing from thin air, to be honest I mainly think of the voodoo guy from the Princess and the Frog. So imagining it as something quiet, simple, and normal is completely strange to me.

Comments

  1. Lexie HartnagleDecember 3, 2021 at 10:01 AM

    Hi Victoria! I also really struggled at times when I was trying to figure out exactly what was going on in the book when they started talking about magic and voodoo. The first thought that comes to my head when voodoo is mentioned is New Orleans and it being very showy because that is how it is portrayed in the media now. It was very interesting to see it as almost an everyday occurrence and as something that is just another explanation for something a little strange happening instead of something that is used for harm or as a big show.

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  2. Olivia SchienkeDecember 3, 2021 at 1:06 PM

    Hey Victoria! I also thought it was very intriguing how the idea of Voodoo and magic fit so well into the book. When I hear of Voodoo, I think of some crazy magic that is not real, however, in the book, it was weird to see how normal it was and how well it fit the story. I also found it interesting to think that if everyone believes in the magic, what is stopping it from being a real thing.

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  3. Médar SerrataDecember 8, 2021 at 4:59 AM

    Thank you for your post, Victoria. I'm glad you could see how Carpentier depicts vodou (I prefer this spelling as opposed to voodoo, which conjures the images you refer to in your post) as part of everyday life in Haiti. I think it is not hard to see why our society has demonized the religious beliefs of African slaves, considering the fact that those beliefs led the slaves of the wealthiest colony of the 18th century to revolt against their masters. Can you imagine how would slaveowners in the United States (and in the rest of the continent) feel about what happened in Haiti?

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