THE GREAT SUBJECTIVITY OF FILBO

BY:

ANDREA GERALDINE SANCHEZ

FREDY VANEGAS RAMOS

L.E.B.E.I

Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas

 INTRODUCTION

In the following paper we will analyze and review some articles and news related to

FILBO. As we know FILBO is one of the main events in regards to literature in our

country; the importance of such important event relies on the new features and titles that

can be found year by year, and also the special guests that every year are involved in the

fair.

Thus, many people share their ideas and their experiences about the event, in

addition people usually make statements about it. This year especially the special guest

create an atmosphere of expectative due the presentation of Macondo, the iconic place

where One Hundred Years Of solitude by the Nobel Prize Gabriel Garcia Marquéz develop

his story. The remarkable characters and the landscapes and such magical qualities based

on the author´s childhood memories.

On top of that, analyzing different points of view which may be relevant on the

understanding and also preventing the misunderstanding created around this fair. To this

end using the tools given not only through this English Forms and Functions course as well

as the ones we have been studying in our path will help us this time.
First part: Language Forms and functions

Colombia police finds stolen 1st edition of Garcia Marquez book

 Complex sentence

Subject Main Verb Predicate

Colombian police said Saturday that they had found a first edition of Gabriel

Garcia Marquez’ book One Hundred Years of Solitude that had been stolen at the Bogota

Book Fair.

1. Colombian police said:

1. That they found a first edition of Gabriel Garcia Marquez
2. That the book had been stolen at FILBo.

 Simple sentence
Subject Main verb

According to National Police commander General Rodolfo Palomino, the book was found
on Friday in a book store in Bogota. Predicate.

1. According to National police commander General Rodolfo Palomino the book was
found on Friday.

 Compound – complex sentence

Subject

While a normal first edition copy of Garcia’s Nobel Prize winning book is worth more than

Main verb

$2,000, this one was supposed to be sold for more than $50,000 as it was signed by the
author who died last year. Predicate.
 1. A first edition copy signed by the author was supposed to be sold for more than
$50.000.

 Complex sentence

Subject Main Verb

Foreign buyers had expressed interest in buying the book, the police commander said.

1. The police commander said:

1. That foreign buyers has expressed interest in buying the book.

 Complex Sentence

Subject Main Verb

After finding the book, police focused on the alleged theieves, who they believe to be part
of a criminal organization dedicated to stealing local antiques and selling them abroad.
Predicate.

1. After finding the book, police focused

1. The police believe that thieves were part of criminal organization.

 Simple sentence

Subject Main Verb

The owner of the book, collector Alvaro Castillo, announced he would donate the book to

the National Library of Colombia “as it no longer belongs to me but to all Colombians.”

Predicate.

1. Alvaro Castillo announced he would donate the book.

 Second part: Speech analysis

As a summary of this news and articles, the authors of those are just telling us their

not so pleasant experience going to the FILBO. Their hopes were really high about the

guest; Macondo this year was the guest country. Immediately they expected finding some

of the most representative things in Garcia’s book, but they find themselves totally

disappointed about the tribute made to Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude.

About the articles pretty much we can realize that some people did not even like the

FILBO. But the reasons given for some of those writers are plenty of subjective thoughts,

trying to organize such event demands time, money and a lot of effort to make it an

enjoyable event for everyone. In fact we did not go to the FILBO and also we prefer not to

do it, why? specially two articles made put an eye on why we try not going there, the one

wrote by Ivan Gallo and the other one written by Andres Burgos.

First a reason of why we do not like going there is people, just a bunch of

pretentious guys, it is like every year the number of people who think that they are better in

some way for just going to an event like this and write or say something bad about it make

them and their egos went upside. Critics are needed, but good critics not this pseudo

complains. May be we are not the right ones to say something about FILBO, because we

were not there, but at least we are no stepping on other people’s work.

On the other hand another reason is the fact that FILBO year by year has become

more on a merchandising fair, it’s not about the books, we can see the same stands full of

things that have nothing whatsoever to do with books. In fact it has turned into a fair similar

to SOFA (salón del ocio y la fantasía) The same stands, even the same stores are up there

selling the same things. Furthermore a lot of friends told us that in the fair, stores were still
selling the same mainstream books. We do not even care about this kind of books, or chick

literature but it is really annoying going to a place that is supposed to be dedicated to

different kinds of literature and find the same common titles and books we find at

downtown, at least in downtown we find almost any kind of book.

By the way, we thought that more independent brands will make an appearance into

this scene, and finally have the chance to show their works, but merchandising and the

mainstream media books are first, leaving no place to see new proposals, which is really

sad.

Finally the news about the FILBO were informative, and mostly about the robbery

on the first edition book. About the blogs were just full of opinions. At least Ivan Gallo’s

article was written in some poetic way, which made some interesting points about the fair.

But Burgos article seems more like a list of complaints made by a five-year-old kid. With

this in mind the next years, the news and articles will be probably under the same wing, just

complains about the way the FILBO did not fulfill their expectations, maybe another

robbery, who knows everything could happen in this love-hate country.

Speech acts, pragmatic maxims and principles (cooperative and courtesy)

In regards to the speech acts, those will be analyzed according to Kent Bach and its studies

about those.

“Garcia Marquez's signed masterpiece stolen from Colombian book fair”; this article is

classified inside Speech acts as constative – informing because this article asserts
something that can be jugde as true or false and we consider it is informing because is a

new.

“Great Success of FILBO 2015: Colombia Wants to Read”; it is a constative –

announcing because it is an assert which can be judged as true or false. The article is

announcing because is telling us how the FILBO 2015 was but is only one perspective from

FILBO organizing.

“La magia de Macondo no llegó a la feria; Macondo fue el país invitado a la Feria del

libro. En principio (…)”; this fragment is constative because the author is affirming when

he says something that was a fact.

“(…) Para empezar, en la entrada del pabellón había un cartel gigantesco con las primeras

líneas de Cien años de soledad (…)”; the next fragment is constative too, because the

author is telling us his perspective about the evironment in the FILBo so he is announcing.

“(…) Pero tal vez lo que más me decepcionó fue la biografía de García Márquez, dispuesta

en diferentes vitrinas (…)”; finally, it is a conjecturing- constative fragment, because the

writer is not sure about his feeling about the FILBo and he is conjecturing about

improvisation in the FILBo organization.

“La feria del libro este año ha sido un fiasco”; is constative – affirming because the

writer is talking from his experience.

“(…) Pobre Gabo, se merecía un homenaje que estuviera a su altura (…)”; when the author

says that, he is attributing to Gabo to be gifted. Attributing is classified as constative.

“(…) Este año el mejor stand de la Feria del Libro de Bogotá es el de Club Colombia. Si

estás sentado allí, rodeado de una legión de botellas vacías (…)”; in this fragment the

author is affirming something that for him is true, although it could be judge as true or false

so it is a constative.

When the writer says: “(…) te aconsejamos no caer en la tentación de soportar una

fila de varias cuadras para entrar a Macondo. Quédate ahí, (…)” he is advising to people

that pretend go to the FILBO; Advising is classified as Direct because the writer looks for a

reaction in the other.

“(…) Les digo que no se levanten de allí porque el sábado por hacerle caso a un par de

amigos (…)” the writer in this fragment is suggesting and he wants create a reaction in

others for that reason he talks from his experience. It is Directive.

“(…) Una fila interminable aguardaba ansiosa porque se abrieran las puertas de Macondo.

Un niño rechoncho (…)” when the writer talks about his own experience he is announcing

how it was. And it is a self-expression so it is a constative.

“(…) Dicen que Mercedes está en Bogotá arreglando unos problemas legales y que rechazó

la invitación, acaso (…)” in this fragment the author is not sure about what happen with

Mercedes so, he is conjecturing and it is a self- expression; it is constatives.

“(…) Para los que no han ido los invito a visitar antes la página de internet de la feria. Se

darán cuenta del caos (…)” the writer is suggesting to other so, it is Directive.

“(…) Familias enteras, con paquetes repletos de libros que nunca leerán, salen con la

satisfacción del deber cumplido. Mañana (…)” here the author is conjecturing because he

does not know what is going to happen with the books. It is a constative.

In addition, the cooperative principle and its maxims states that our contributions

are ruled by a rationale which could be the following: “Make your conversational

contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or

direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged”. (Grice, 1975)

Furthermore, 4 categories are within the cooperative principle which he calls:

Quantity, quality, relation and manner.

Quantity: 1. Make your contribution as informative as is required (for the current purpose

of the exchange).

2. Do not make your contribution more informative than is required.

Quality: Try to make your contribution one that is true:

1. Do not say what you believe to be false.

2. Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.

Relation: Be relevant.

Manner: Be perspicuous:

1. Avoid obscurity of expression.

2. Avoid ambiguity.

3. Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity).

4. Be orderly.

In order to this Cooperative principle and its maxims, the information and articles regarding

the FILBO will be compared next:

In the article “La feria del libro este año ha sido un fiasco” by Ivan Gallo, He really

follows the Quantity maxim, the article is short enough and the information within is a

valid point of view of the writer despite the fact he overextend his words sometimes. By the

way, regarding Quality this really depends on the reader and its own experience on FILBO.

At this point we can go through the relevance of the text and the words spoken by the

author, which implies once again the conventionally of the communicative act. As well as

the manner and the way the author writes the article in a poetic way which makes it look a

little bit overloaded with non-relevant information.

Now going on the article called “La magia de Macondo no llegó a la feria” the

quantity maxim may be ok the author expressed his ideas in a clear way, but the quality of

the information given is not as good as we expect, as it is said previously a large amount of

complaints are given and may be it is the breaking point of the article because we

immediately discard them as a good review of the fair.

 As is in the communicative act many factors could affect it as it is said by Grice:

“However, it is mostly generated via an apparent violation of it. A participant in a talk-

exchange may fail to fulfil a maxim in a variety of ways. He may “quietly and

unostentatiously violate a maxim”, or he may “opt out from the operation both of the

maxim and of the Cooperative Principle” (Grice, 1975)

The article written in the web page of the FILBO, we observe that is an informative

review about what happened at the event, in addition the article give us relevant

information and numbers about the visitors and the business going on the event, in this case

maxim of quality, quantity, relevance and manner are well coordinated. The data given is

relevant and it is long enough and easy to understand even for those who did not attend to

the fair and may be wanted to know more about it.

Finally article called “Garcia Marquez's signed masterpiece stolen from Colombian

book fair” which is an informative article about the shameful event occurred at the FILBO.

It describes the robbery in a few words, here the quantity maxim is exposed. The maxim of

quality might not be fulfilled, because the information shows a lack of evidence, and by the

way the information about the robbery has changed through the days and different mass

media magazines, newspapers even on T.V, this data it is not confirmed at all. This makes

the article clunky as it needs something more than a vague source to show that kind of

information.

In some in this articles we can found that sometimes maxims are not fulfilled at all

sometimes the information is not enough or what is said lacks on relevant input, so some

maxims in the process are violated. But in this sense maxims help us to understand better
the communicative process and the different ways to approach to it. “Grice’s principle

assumes that people cooperate in the process of communication in order to reduce

misunderstanding.” (Finch, 2000).

Critical discourse that comes from the news

First of all, from Ivan’s article we can infer from the use of such words as “fiasco”

the actual disdain for this event, most of the writing refers to the lack of creativity of the

ones who tried to recreate Macondo. Going through the title the active verb “ha sido”

shows part nature of the article immediately which is a critic. Going between lines the

author expresses the non-use of naming in the article. Also, a lot of emphasis on non-

relevant information about himself, like: “Salgo. En el arco plateado los marihuaneros de

siempre planean nuevas tertulias, nuevos cadáveres exquisitos” This information is not

relevant, maybe the writter has some poetic influences, but if someone is writing a critic or

a review this information is useless for the reader. As is said previously the information is

not enough to conclude if the FILBO was worth to visit. This article just shows the

inconformity of a Gabriel Garcia Marquéz’s fan.

Now following the article written by Andres Burgos in his blog, goes under the

wing of the previous, again disdain words appear, also the frequent use of indirect quotation

like: “A algunos les pareció pretencioso y facilista que se escogiera un pueblo imaginario

como país invitado”, once again the lack of resources and just an overall opinion and critics

from someone who really appreciate Marquez’s is given here, passion really drives the

author to give such statements.

 The FILBO’s web page article shows an impressive information about the success

of the event; the writer tried to show the FILBO as a great place for business as well as

Macondo as the honor guest, it is curious how the article did not even mention the robbery,

which is considered as a high point for the event. The author of the article wanted to show

the good things about the FILBO and maybe giving such good information to the readers

will try to persuade new audiences to come the next year.

Finally the article given by Theguardian, shows neutral point of view despite the

shameful act of robbery, the purpose of the article is inform, using some indirect and direct

quotations, especially what the owner of the stolen book said, and information given by the

police to clarify the robbery. On the other hand maybe the authors wanted to show and

made fun of our country and the way we constantly harm even our culture.

Why do you consider important the study of language in its forms and functions as an
English teacher today?

As future English teachers, understanding the way a language works is maybe the

most relevant thing for our careers despite the fact of the pedagogical component which is

really helpful, our discipline and the skills we have on it are really the key to make a good

performance as teachers in the future. We are not trying to say that pedagogy is not

important, but if our understanding about the language that we are supposed to teach and

our skills are not the best, all the pedagogy and the nice words are thrown away,

subsequently in the pedagogical exercise we will fail. On the other hand the ability to read

and write in a foreign language does not develop naturally as we have to learn which is

different from native speakers which acquire it.

 Having this in mind learning about the correct use of English grammar, academic

writing, speech analysis etc. Those are our main tools that will help us to understand better

the culture from Anglo-Saxon countries, getting their context and the point of view of many

writers and people, which usually differ a lot from Latin-American culture. We are the ones

who transmit knowledge and the power of transmit it, is in our hands to do it in a proper

manner is our goal. Leave a footprint in our students mind, not only regarding to their

English skills but also to behave and live among others, in an apathetic society.
CONCLUSIONS

In this paper we have presented some speech analyses regarding some FILBO’s

articles, the speech within them. It help us a lot having a better understanding about speech

acts and also trying to discover different types of speech.

At the point of analyzing a text it is not enough just to read it, we must have to read

between lines, understanding the author’s intention, for that we use different tools; but it is

not enough, discovering the speech within a reading is really important for getting a better

understanding about the situations around us.

References

http://colombiareports.com/colombia-police-finds-stolen-1st-edition-of-garcia-

marquez-book/

http://www.las2orillas.co/la-feria-del-libro-este-ano-ha-sido-fiasco/

http://blogs.eltiempo.com/palabras-movedizas/2015/05/05/la-magia-de-macondo-

no-llego-a-la-feria/

http://feriadellibro.com/index.cfm?doc=noticia&id=314

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/05/garcia-marquezs-signed-

masterpiece-stolen-from-colombian-book-fair
Bibliography

Finch, G. (2000). Linguistic Terms and Concepts. London: Macmillan Press.

Grice, Paul H. (1971) ‘Meaning’. Philosophical Review

Kent Bach, Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry.