"A life, a century, fifty years: you can't image those lying measurements any longer, you can't hold that bodiless dust within your hands" (Fuentes, 139). In was in this sentence that I let go of trying to figure out how Aura could be possible by putting the plot in terms of our real world and just let it be.
I consider myself a very practical and logical person. I like to make sense of what I see and this often conflicts when reading literature, particularly in this class. Even when picking up a work of fiction, my mind tries to make sense of what is going on and give time change/character morphs etc. a practical explanation. In reality, this is impossible and just a frustrating process that creates more confusion. It was finally when I read the quote above, and that I could make sense of it in my own practical terms that gave me the ability to release the binds of trying to justify every bizarre occurrence.
As we talked about in class, time is not linear. It is clearly not linear in Aura, but if you think about it, it's not even linear in own lives. Yes, we can have a stop watch and a calendar, but what about when seconds feel like hours or days feel like years or when we lose track of time or wait for time to pass. Time is like silence, we can't truly hold "bodiless" silence or time, but we can experience them and create truth from them or use them as a form. Just as silence was used as a construct in Foe, I would argue time is similarly used as well. What that fully means, I'm not sure...but I'm accepting the fact that I can't fully rationalize it.
I agree that in literature and in this class especially, as a reader you need to let go of "rational thought" sometimes. This reminds me of one of the first discussions we ever had in class about whether or not science is facts. The idea that science is just theories seemed extreme to us and many of us failed to believe that. I think this situation is a similar idea where we see that time really isn't linear. There's no way it can be if we incorporate the characters turning into one another. We are constantly shifting between present day life and the past experiences of the general and Consuelo, too. There must have been a purpose for this which we can ultimately conclude helped shape the young and old constructs of Aura/Consuelo and the general/Felipe. Time is an element, and just like any other element it can be manipulated and reconstructed.
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