Dear Alejo,
 March 15, 2012

     I wanted to ask you, why do bad things happen? Our unsationable  appetite "in living, seeking, for pleasure they could find."(pg 83) For every action comes a reaction but what actions cause harm? Death and destruction! You wait for that one moment in life when all of a sudden you wish you could stop time. As if everything stops existing and the moment lasts for an eternity. Meanwhile 7 billion others are still meandering around looking for their one moment. It would seem obvious that destruction is an essential part of all processes of life. Entropy exist in all mater and that goes the same for humans. Conflicting and resolve. Each man on a sacred quest not letting any dangers or peril obstruct his vision no matter what things or what man my get in his way.
     You can imagine that all male conflict begins with a woman. A mans one biological goal is to create more little men. Conflict between men are a direct result to their desire and needs opposed to all other men. A social natural selection. At the same time man has always been at the whim and will of a woman from birth to death. Being oppressed for a subconscious eternity, the desire and selfish need to become the oppressor results in the destruction and damage of all that impedes regaining power. The oppressed becomes the oppressor deducing abuse as revenge to to personal ego damage. Gender roles reduce to this. T noel "made to keep to the edge of the pasture, and the indifferent females were surrounded by a wall of white feathers."(176) relating the intricate social workings of a so called class of individuals to the reasons for both pride and prejudice. As a final gesture he becomes a vulture, a feeder on death and a part of mother nature a being seen to control all life on this planet the ultimate giver of life and bringer of death.
     Sincerely Joe Latour!!!

March 13, 2012
Dear Alejo, 
     I wanted to ask you about the relationship between Ti Noel and Mackandal.  The reason I ask this is because even though Mackandal leaves early in the book he is brought back up constantly in the end of the book.  What I think is happening is that by bringing back the idea of Mackandal it gives the reader a sense of fulfillment because we thought that Mackandal was going to be a major role player throughout the book, but then you made him leave!  Why would you do that???
     The next thing I wanted to ask you is why was the story so violent in some places.  I think you were just trying to portray exactly what was going on at the time of this revolution.  I feel like you portrayed it pretty accurately and made an excellent use of the theme sexuality---> violence because there definitely were some pretty gruesome parts within this book. 
                                                                                                                 Sincerely,
                                                                                                                 Clarence E. Hollins

March 13, 2012


Dear Alejo,

I wanted to address my troubles with understanding the different narrative perspectives in your novel The Kingdom of this World.  I consistently found myself re-reading over the sections in an attempt to fully understand what was being discussed.  Specifically, seen on pages 178 and 179, I am confused as to who is speaking about T’ Noel?
What I see happening is a possible higher being speaking, separate from T’ Noel  physically or mentally.  I believe this paragraph searches beyond the obvious third person narrative and beyond simply another, human, narrator speaking.  For example, towards the end of the paragraph the narrator reveals, “In the Kingdom of Heaven there is no grandeur to be won, inasmuch as there all is an established hierarchy, the unknown is revealed, existence is infinite, there is no possibility of sacrifice, all is rest and joy”.  This statement affirms a possible higher being or entity discussing matters that goes beyond the minds of humans.  This entity also states that man finds his greatness, his fullest measure, in this “Kingdom”.  These statements lead me to believe, the narrator discussing T’ Noel, is actually T’ Noel’s soul.
I fully and whole heartedly enjoyed reading and struggling with your novel, The Kingdom of this World.  Although the material was difficult to comprehend, I enjoyed the challenge.  This was my first experience with a novel so heavily influenced by magical realism, but I enjoyed it non the less.



Sincere Regards,

Connor P. Maund

Letter to Alejo Carpentier: Alex Dorner

March 13, 2012

            Dear Alejo Carpentier,

Hello there I have recently been reading your book A Kingdom of this World. Within the book I see there is a heavy emphasis on being the oppressor rather than the oppressed. When there is revolution in your book the ones who were before suppressed and ruled in some way take power, and in the cyclical manner that appears in the book, the ruler becomes corrupted. They start out with maybe less than pure ideals, but none the less they are setting out to try and make things a better. The ideas of the revolution and the next ruled become twisted and the oppressed continue to be oppressed.

Take for example the original ruling class within the book. The French, who were there under the ideas of imperialism, which means they came along with the idea and the notion that they must “save the savages” that by being there they would somehow be benefitting those poor people.”…M. Lenormand de Mezy in his nightcap commented with his devout wife on the Negroes’ lack of feelings at the torture of one of their own—drawing therefrom a number of philosophical considerations on the inequality of the human races”, de Mezy is clearly within the same school of thought, thinking of them as lesser and therefore creatures in need, as a “good christian” would. They thought that by bringing them what they considered civilization they were helping them. And all they asked for in return was all of their land, their labor, and their resources. Because within the ideas of imperialism, the idea of colonization there was the need to have more than other countries, in the book you even state that the Spanish would be willing to help a revolution because of their fierce rivalry with that of the French.

Henri Christophe has the same thing happen to him as the others who ruled.  He was before the oppressed being nothing more than a cook to the French when they ruled the island and the people, but somewhere along the way he became a king. And as a king, as a ruler he fell into the same trap that those before him did. Ti Noel was in awe of his palace and the equality of black men in the church, of black men as the overseers. But he realized, too late, that it was worse than it was before. That there was still no equality and now even less care taken for those who worked. Ti Noel when he is freed from having to work sings a song to insult a king “That was the important thing: to a king.” It is that idea that no matter who is ruling and how they got there, that nothing will change. That there is just a cycle, an as long as there are those who are vying for power so that they can be the oppressor before they can get oppressed well, then nothing will ever change. At least that was something that I took note of within your book. 

Sincerely, Alex Dorner

March 13, 2010

Dear Carpentier,

            I’ve been reading your book, The Kingdom of this World, recently in my college English class, and I’ve been curious about something in you book and was hoping you could answer it for me. In your novel, in part two, chapter three, the Negroes revolt against their owners and take control of the house. Their “signal” for this revolt was the sound of a “conch-shell trumpet.” I was wondering, why use the conch shell as their battle instrument? Was there a purpose for using this specific item from the sea, or was it just a decision of coincidence? Were the conches chosen to symbolize something ancient, tribal, or barbaric about the Negroes culture as seen by their communication? “It was as though all the shell trumpets of the coast, [all the Indian limbis], all the purple conchs that served as doorstops, all the shells that lay alone and petrified on the summits of the hills, had begun to sing in chorus” (66). I may be looking too much into something of little importance, but throughout the book there are obvious mentions about the difference in the human hierarchy. I believe that through the use of this natural item that was being used as a doorstop places the Negroes on a way more “barbaric” and even less evolved mentally than their owners. Sure, what else could they have used – they have nothing to begin with. I just see the specific use of a “conch-shell” as trying to explain even more the differences between the owners and the owned. I hope to hear back from you with the truth behind this possibly meaningless detail!

                                                                                                Curious,

                                                                                                            Vaughn Elkourie

Garrett Rountree

Dear Alejo Carpientier,

As I was reading your book there were a few things that perplexed me. The use of magic sometimes overshadowed what was real. In the second half of the book when Ti Noel transforms into animals with his magical powers, I feel like he may actually be transforming into animals, but is that included purely as a story of Ti Noel being a shape shifter or are you comparing animals to people to teach us a lesson about human nature? I feel like that is included to show how people have animalistic instincts whether we realize it or not.

Secondly, I want to say the story was beautiful. As I read it, there were at first a few loose ends for me, but as time progressed all of the events in Europe and Haiti tied together with perfection. The way that you danced on lines between races and interracial relationships was controversial, but very true of the time and humans. From Leonard De Mezy, to the Henri Christophe, to the mullatos there always seemed to be some oppressor. There was never peace and always some reason to rebel and with good cause. What I gathered from this is that there is always a struggle for equality and even the strongest eventually break. The imagery of the emperor’s fall was legendary. From your descriptions of the starved priest and his perching on the rafters, I had a movie in my head, but what did you really mean by the phantom priest? Was he just a creative story for entertainment or did he have a deeper meaning What I gathered from it was that justice will prevail and that no matter what eventually the oppressed will rise even if it is from their grave.

Moving to other things from your incredible book, let’s actually backtrack a bit. I want to talk about Ti Noel and Macendol. They had a lot in common. It was almost as if you intended for Macendol to be a predecessor to Ti Noel, much like John the Baptist and Jesus. Macendol began the fight and earned the respect of Ti Noel with his famous last fight and strife towards freedom just before being burned at the stake. Ti Noel somehow found his magic of transforming into animals later in life just like Macendol, and Ti Noel was among the leaders of the rebellion against the emperor and his palace. By putting these two together what did you hope to accomplish? Was it your intention to have these two as to reflect one off of the other or some other reason?

Also, just a note here, when Ti Noel raped Mille Floridor what did you mean by that. “Ti Noel had dreamed of raping her for a while now.” That was very vivid and startling. I gathered that Ti Noel was a rapist. Was there perhaps hatred between races or some other thing that you meant to imprint on us?

Lastly, my overall question is did you mean for this book to teach us more about the Haitian revolution or about human nature? After reading the book I feel like I probably learned more about human nature. I know your book is one of the only written accounts of the Haitian revolution, but it still follows characters and shows their thoughts. I could understand the story and trace the beginnings of a revolution, but the historical value of it was unclear to me. I feel that it would be wrong to ask you to compare each event with a historical reference, but what I would like to ask you what was your goal? After reading the text did you want me to know more about social injustices, magical traditions, or the lives of people intertwined in the revolution? Each was touched on very delicately and precisely.

Thank You,

Future Man

Letter

Dear Alejo,

I was reading your novel The Kindom of This World, and had a question about it. What was your reasoning behind making sexual encounters so vulgar and open? For example, in the begining of the novel Ti Noel states that he has dreamed of raping Mlle Floridor for a while (68)? This was a common motif within the novel and I was wondering if it was neccessary to include it? However, I do understand that you were trying to remain true to the settingand the mindset of the slaves and other citizens that lived there. In your opinion, do you think that without the brash sexuality within the novel that the book would have been different or carried a different meaning? Just a thought.

Best,
Catherine