Previously, we got our first section I drew a total blank on. I guess let’s keep an eye out for any mysterious falsetto singing. In addition to everything else we’re keeping track of.
Pages 44–45
At least we got a clear Juan Preciado1 section to work with today. Juan’s hyper-aware that this town is now chockablock full of ghosts, and he starts this section just watching the traffic, people carting stuff up and down the street on autopilot, too horrified to explicitly point out the implications that he has just learned that the afterlife is an eternity of the same mundane labor we do every day.
We also get some guillemets, but these don’t confuse us anymore. This is obviously the thoughts/feelings of his dead mother interjecting. Obviously.
«…Every morning the town shudders with passing carts. They come from all over, loaded down with saltpeter, with ears of corn, with hay […] Suddenly, the sky thunders. Rain falls. Perhaps spring is on its way. When you’re there you’ll get used to all the “suddenlies,” my Son.»
Or maybe it’s God talking to Jesus I don’t know. I’m just happy I cracked the guillemets, I can’t get hung up on why it’s in italics or what it means that “Son” is capitalized.
At last, someone acknowledges Juan’s presence and taps him on the shoulder, casually asking him what he’s doing here, and invites Juan into her dilapidated house with herself and another man. Our boy Juan has finally learned how things work in this town:
–Are you not dead? –I asked.
The woman smiled. The man stared at me sternly.
–He’s drunk –the man said.
oh my god karen you can’t just ask people why they’re dead
I suppose this highlights one lingering Pedro mystery: are the ghosts aware that they’re ghosts? Sometimes they seem to know, or at least are aware enough that they’re actively engaging with new things in their environment (ie, Juan), but then sometimes they seem to not notice him and just live out scenes from their lives again.
Oh also the new ghosts are naked for all of this.
She was completely naked, the way God sent her into the world. He was as well.
–We heard someone moaning and banging his head against the door. And there you were. What’s happened to you?
–So much has happened to me that all I want to do is sleep.
–We were already asleep.
–Then let’s get back to sleep.
tl;dr wtf happened in Pedro Páramo today
Juan has finally clocked that everyone he encounters in this town might already be dead. A naked old couple invites him into their house and he says ok let’s just all go to sleep now.
Our until extremely recently unnamed present day narrator, the son of Pedro Páramo. So, you know, “clear” save for that one thing that was not clear for a quarter of the book.