Aura

        Aura was a pretty interesting read for many reasons. It really presented literature in a way that I'm not normally accustomed to seeing it. Namely, the use of the second person was peculiar. It brought down the fourth wall and pushes the line between the reader's reality and the fiction of the text. I felt that this use of the second person is what really helped give a definitive quality to the magical realism that the book strives to create. It makes the reader feel like they are the ones going into the pitch black room and taking part in the events, even though really you know that there is a main character and the narration is really meant for him.
         Another prevalent idea I found in this book was the use of authorial resistance. There were many moments while reading the book that I felt uneasy or confused, but the main character seemed utterly oblivious of. There are many moments where the main character would not seem to notice what should make most normal people feel uncomfortable. This made me think that there was some disconnect between the perception of the main character and the perception of the reader.  This difference in the perception creates situational irony to some extent, where the reader is thinking RUNAWAY..something bad is going to happen, yet the characters seem to just brush off the peculiarity of a situation.