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Vit Babenco's Reviews > The Hive
The Hive
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Community of bees and city of humans: can there be anything in common?
The city is the hive where its dwellers swarm similar to bees trying to survive, succeed, prosper�
The city is the tomb where its denizens suffocate helplessly trying to escape�
Brutal poverty and celestial poetry, pure love and scabrous lechery, crepuscular wishes and fiery desires � the contrasts reign over human minds. This is life:
The human hive is overwhelmed with the anguish and hopes of the living. And the anguish is thick like honey and hopes are sweet�
The morning unfolds slowly; it creeps like a caterpillar over the hearts of the men and women in the city; it beats, almost caressingly, against the newly wakened eyes, eyes which never once discover new horizons, new landscapes, new settings.
And yet, this morning, this eternally repeated morning, has its little game changing the face of the city, of that tomb, that greased pole, that hive�
The city is the hive where its dwellers swarm similar to bees trying to survive, succeed, prosper�
The city is the tomb where its denizens suffocate helplessly trying to escape�
Brutal poverty and celestial poetry, pure love and scabrous lechery, crepuscular wishes and fiery desires � the contrasts reign over human minds. This is life:
Martin walks down the long lanes of the cemetery. Sitting at the door of the chapel, the priest is immersed in a Wild West story. The sparrows are chirping in the mild December sun, they hop from one cross to the next and swing on the bare branches of the trees. A very young girl rides a bicycle down a path; in her immature voice she sings a gay song hit. Everything else is gentle silence, welcome silence. Martin has an ineffable sense of well-being.
The human hive is overwhelmed with the anguish and hopes of the living. And the anguish is thick like honey and hopes are sweet�
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Reading Progress
September 6, 2006
–
Started Reading
September 8, 2006
–
Finished Reading
June 19, 2013
– Shelved
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by
Julio
(new)
May 03, 2023 02:40PM
Franco actually permitted this to be published under his regime and it was largely on the basis of HIVE that Cela won the Nobel Prize in literature.
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Cela's sympathies were with the nationalists and he was a supporter of Franco. That support might be why Franco allowed the book to be published
Despite anything the novel is a masterpiece.
Jay wrote: "Cela's sympathies were with the nationalists and he was a supporter of Franco. That support might be why Franco allowed the book to be published"Good to know, thanks Jay. In his speech accepting the Nobel Cela made it sound like he had written a dissident novel critical of life under Franco. that nevertheless got published. Alberto Moravia was like that too. He boasted to Italian newspapers that his first novel, THE TIME OF INDIFFERENCE had been published with Mussolini's blessings, although Moravia was not a Fascist, but then went on to add, "Mussolini was not such a bad man, just ignorant".
I do think that at one point la colmena was banned in Spain not for its political content but for its " morality". The Spanish Catholic Church found it offensive, counter to public morality. Cela was always a controversial figure in Spain.
That's what I've read also, Jay. The depiction of everyday life was controversial to Catholics and Falangists, not so much any purported political message.
Yes. I think you're right.
Controversy and offence are things that make true literature.
Spanish novels are underrated. I would recommend El Hereje and The Athenian Murder
I also enjoyed this novel with it one thousand characters):
Thank you, Iluvatar. Both books you mention are quite acclaimed but they’re not exactly my stuff.
The second one is very experimental and interesting
I have the book. I was looking at it for a long time without any decision. Probably I'll give it a try after all.
Iluvatar wrote: "Spanish novels are underrated. I would recommend El Hereje and The Athenian Murder""Big authors are nothing without big guns behind them. Who outside of Spain knows Becquer?'---Luis Bunuel.
