LiToC day 16

Urbino's affair - captures the illicit, fumbling hurrying excitement, again he's writing inflaming stuff for the times.  But the passage where Leoni Cassiani is described as waiting forever for the "the strong young man" who raped her is patently ridiculous fantasy.  What is he intending here? Is it satire or what. It's so baldly stated, so matter of fact, and yet it is part of the plot, the reasons why she does not succumb to Florentino's experienced seducers hand on her thigh.
Was it just to put one in the eye for the feminists of the time??

 I'm intrigued enough to type Leoni Cassiani into Google. Of course the first two results are fucking study guides, one of which introduces a 14 year old girl who Florentino seduces in his old age, who commits suicide when he rejects her.  Thanks very much for the spoiler, not that it matters that much - it's kind of on keeping with what i am investigating.  Interestingly the "study guides" don't mention the rape, in that long tradition of cribs and education that avoids anything it can't explain and sticks to the superficial stuff it can make comments about. Actually that's a bit unfair - later on one of the study guides asks students to discuss and think about "the problematic notion that a young woman, even a child, might enjoy being raped "  (my italics)

Here, in this the critical companion, the author,  Ruben Pelayo,  blathers on that LiToC "fares well under a feminist reading" - women in control of their sexuality, women bounding back from adversity , he says.

There is someone who takes offence, and says because of this , don't bother with this book on the beach - and I'm almost in agreement with her because the Marquez's passage is as crass as she describes it below::
http://www.featheredquill.com/reviews/romance/marquez.shtml

"At one time, Florentino considers pursuing his secretary, Leona Cassiani, and she him, but when she is raped on the beach by an unknown assailant who, we are told, provided her with the best sex she ever had, she no longer has any desire to bed Florentino Ariza. Instead, she walks the beach at night hoping her rapist will ravish her again. As a woman, I was insulted by this passage in the novel, a passage only a man could write. And I was shocked that Oprah Winfrey, a woman who has been so open about her own sexual abuse, could recommend a story in which a character felt this way.

Quill says: Don’t bother taking Love in the Time of Cholera to the seashore this summer; it’s one book you can leave on the shelf."

But, but, but, the review above is from the Romance section of "Feathered Quill" reviews who do say , I quote

 "Every reviewer is carefully selected based on their educational background, expertise, and dedication to reading a broad spectrum of genres. Our reviewers are consummate professionals who are committed to giving you, the consumer, an honest and all-inclusive appraisal, delivered in a timely fashion."

And they are a weird lot - well that's entirely wrong really, they aren't a weird lot, they're very homely and nice, and about 50% of them have a best companion dog / cat with a barfingly yukky name who helps them with their reading. Here's the link so you can see for yourself: http://www.featheredquill.com/aboutus.shtml

So where do i stand? Well I think Marquez's view of rape here is probably not intended to be taken literally, but there are no clues to support that really, it's just taking it on trust as so.  It seems a shame to reject the entire book, and the entire author's oeuvre because of one offensively worded piece.  It seems obvious that it will grate and offend anyone who has been raped, or knows someone who has.  It grates on my reading of the book. So I end up on the fucking fence, in an offended way.

I agree with this reader: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/339634766 .  there's lots of other similar responses, summed up as "Seriously?" , "Really?" "wtf is going on here?".

Of course there are clever academic twists on this theme: says Ruben Pelayo:

 "The best example of a triumphant woman and the antithesis of victim feminism is Leona Cassiani."

Because she isn't defined by the rape etc. etc.  And interestingly in a critique of the film of the book (The Hispanic Connection: Spanish and Spanish-American Literature in the Arts ...By Zenia Sacks Da Silva)  it is said that Leona says something that suggest some complicity in the rape.  As if that made it better, ffs.

So in the end I'm just left with my own response which is, loosely expressed, " Fuck you, Marquez, I don't know what you meant by it - whether you're some sad old misogynist or somehow your "art" lets you get away with it. I don't take it literally, I just don't understand it."