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丌诏乇丕賳丿蹖爻賲丕賳 賵 趩賳丿 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 丿蹖诏乇
禺賵賱蹖賵 讴購乇鬲丕孬丕乇 (郾酃鄹鄞 鈥� 郾酃郾鄞) 蹖讴蹖 丕夭 丕爻胤賵乇賴鈥屬囏й� 丕丿亘蹖丕鬲賽 丕賲乇蹖讴丕蹖 賱丕鬲蹖賳 丕爻鬲. 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴鈥屫й� 丌乇跇丕賳鬲蹖賳蹖 讴賴 丿乇 亘賱跇蹖讴 亘賴 丿賳蹖丕 丌賲丿貙 爻丕賱鈥屬囏� 丿乇 丌乇跇丕賳鬲蹖賳 夭蹖爻鬲 賵 丿乇 賮乇丕賳爻賴 丕夭 丿賳蹖丕 乇賮鬲 賵 丿乇 賲賵賳倬丕乇賳丕爻 丿乇 禺丕讴 卮丿. 丕賵 讴賴 亘丕 丿賵賱鬲賽 丌乇跇丕賳鬲蹖賳 賲禺丕賱賮 亘賵丿 鬲賳 亘賴 讴賵趩賽 丕噩亘丕乇蹖 亘賴 倬丕乇蹖爻 丿丕丿. 丕賵 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴贁 乇賲丕賳鈥屬囏й� 賱蹖鈥屬勠屸€屫ㄘж槽� 賵 丕賲鬲丨丕賳 賳賴丕蹖蹖 丕爻鬲貙 蹖讴蹖 丕夭 亘賴鬲乇蹖賳 丿丕爻鬲丕賳鈥屭┵堌з団€屬嗁堐屫池з� 噩賴丕賳賽 丕丿亘蹖丕鬲貙 賲乇丿蹖 賲賵爻蹖賯蹖鈥屫促嗀ж� 讴賴 毓賱丕賵賴鈥屫ㄘ� 匕賵賯 丿丕賳卮賽 丕丿亘蹖 賵 鬲丕乇蹖禺蹖鈥屫ж� 賲賳丨氐乇亘賴鈥屬佖必� 亘賵丿. 丕賵 賳賲丕丿賽 蹖讴 賳爻賱 丕夭 賳賵蹖爻賳丿诏丕賳 丕賲乇蹖讴丕蹖 賱丕鬲蹖賳 亘賵丿 賵 丌孬丕乇 爻蹖賳賲丕蹖蹖 賲賴賲 亘爻蹖丕乇蹖 亘乇丕爻丕爻 丿丕爻鬲丕賳鈥屬囏й屫� 爻丕禺鬲賴 卮丿賴鈥屫з嗀� 丕夭 噩賲賱賴 丌诏乇丕賳丿蹖爻賲丕賳 讴賴 丌賳鬲賵賳蹖賵賳蹖 爻丕禺鬲卮 蹖丕 鬲毓胤蹖賱丕鬲賽 丌禺乇 賴賮鬲賴 讴賴 诏購丿丕乇 丕賯鬲亘丕爻卮 讴乇丿. 丌诏乇丕賳丿蹖爻賲丕賳 賲噩賲賵毓賴鈥屫й� 丕爻鬲 丕夭 亘賴鬲乇蹖賳 丿丕爻鬲丕賳鈥屬囏й� 讴賵鬲丕賴賽 丕蹖賳 睾賵賱賽 丌乇跇丕賳鬲蹖賳蹖. 睾賵賱蹖 讴賴 蹖讴蹖 丕夭 卮蹖賮鬲诏丕賳卮貙 诏丕亘乇蹖賱 诏丕乇爻蹖丕 賲丕乇讴夭貙 丿丕爻鬲丕賳賽 賲卮賴賵乇賽 夭蹖亘丕鬲乇蹖賳 睾乇蹖賯 丿賳蹖丕 乇丕 丿乇亘丕乇賴贁 丕賵 賳賵卮鬲鈥� 丿乇 丿丕爻鬲丕賳鈥屬囏й� 鬲讴丕賳鈥屫囐嗀囐� 丕蹖賳 讴鬲丕亘 丕爻鬲 讴賴 賲孬賱丕賸 賲賵丕噩賴 賲蹖鈥屫促堐屫� 亘丕 丿禺鬲乇讴蹖 讴賴 鬲毓胤蹖賱丕鬲 鬲丕亘爻鬲丕賳蹖鈥屫ж� 乇丕 丿乇 禺丕賳賴鈥屫й� 蹖蹖賱丕賯蹖 賲蹖鈥屭柏必з嗀� 讴賴 亘亘乇蹖 丿乇 丌賳 倬乇爻賴 賲蹖鈥屫操嗀€� 賲乇丿蹖 丿乇 丨丕賱 禺賵丕賳丿賳 丿丕爻鬲丕賳蹖 噩賳丕蹖蹖 禺蹖賱蹖 丿蹖乇 丿乇賲蹖鈥屰屫жㄘ� 讴賴 禺賵丿卮 賯乇亘丕賳蹖 賯丕鬲賱賽 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 丕爻鬲 賵鈥� 讴購乇鬲丕孬丕乇 亘乇 賲乇夭 賲蹖丕賳 丕賲賵乇 乇賵夭賲乇賴 賵 賲乇賲賵夭 賵 丨鬲丕 賲禺賵賮 賯丿賲 亘乇賲蹖鈥屫ж必�. 丿乇 丿丕爻鬲丕賳鈥屬囏й� 丕賵 賴賲蹖卮賴 爻丕蹖賴鈥屬囏� 賵 乇賲夭賴丕蹖蹖 賵噩賵丿 丿丕乇賳丿 讴賴 賵賯鬲蹖 丕賳鬲馗丕乇 賳丿丕乇蹖 禺賵丿卮丕賳 乇丕 亘乇賵夭 賲蹖鈥屫囐嗀�.
314 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1968
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About the author
Julio Cort谩zar
729听books6,961听followersJulio Cort谩zar, born Julio Florencio Cort谩zar Descotte, was an Argentine author of novels and short stories. He influenced an entire generation of Latin American writers from Mexico to Argentina, and most of his best-known work was written in France, where he established himself in 1951.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 494 reviews
April 26, 2021
Julio Cort谩zar鈥檚 stories are like the tales told by voices in the head鈥� And the characters in them are like shadows鈥�
The young protagonist admired axolotls so much that finally he turned into an axolotl, at least mentally.
House Taken Over is a ghostly tale about two 鈥� male and female 鈥� recluses without a place in the sun鈥� Or are they ghosts?
The Distances is a crazy diary of a girl鈥� 鈥淵our soul is a chosen landscape鈥︹€� as said.
The Idol of the Cyclades is a mystical horror comedy.
Letter to a Young Lady in Paris is something like the extravagant confessions of a lunatic.
Continuity of Parks reads like a miraculous tribute to .
Bestiary is the most enigmatic and highly imaginative story, which is open to many possible and impossible interpretations鈥�
A little girl Isabel is sent to the country estate of the Funes family to spend there the summer. And somewhere in the house there is a tiger in hiding鈥�
And I may suggest my very simplistic interpretation as well鈥�
Bestiary is a symbol of the world鈥� Rema symbolizes an origin of good鈥� Kid 鈥� an origin of evil鈥� Isabel stands for innocence鈥� And tiger is a retribution鈥�
Eventually the origin of evil is trapped and is devoured by the tiger.
Blow-Up, which in original is titled something like The Devil鈥檚 Drooling, is a story of a failed temptation鈥� An amateur photographer inadvertently disrupts the machinations of the devil by just taking a photograph.
The Gates of Heaven is a mockingly romantic tale of a revenant鈥�
At Your Service is a dark funereal satire about the pretensions of high society.
The Pursuer is about the demons pursuing artistic personality and ruining musician鈥檚 mind鈥� Or probably it is musician who pursues the demons and makes them slave for him.
The world is a vast place where anything may happen鈥� And what doesn鈥檛 happen can be dreamt.
It was their quietness that made me lean toward them fascinated the first time I saw the axolotls. Obscurely I seemed to understand their secret will, to abolish space and time with an indifferent immobility.
The young protagonist admired axolotls so much that finally he turned into an axolotl, at least mentally.
House Taken Over is a ghostly tale about two 鈥� male and female 鈥� recluses without a place in the sun鈥� Or are they ghosts?
The Distances is a crazy diary of a girl鈥� 鈥淵our soul is a chosen landscape鈥︹€� as said.
The Idol of the Cyclades is a mystical horror comedy.
Letter to a Young Lady in Paris is something like the extravagant confessions of a lunatic.
Continuity of Parks reads like a miraculous tribute to .
Bestiary is the most enigmatic and highly imaginative story, which is open to many possible and impossible interpretations鈥�
A little girl Isabel is sent to the country estate of the Funes family to spend there the summer. And somewhere in the house there is a tiger in hiding鈥�
Before dropping off to sleep, when faces appear in the darkness, she remembered again the Kid going out onto the porch for a smoke, thin, humming to himself, saw Rema who was bringing him out coffee and he made a mistake taking the cup so clumsily that he caught Rema鈥檚 fingers while trying to get the cup, Isabel had seen from the dining room Rema pulling her hand back and the Kid was barely able to keep the cup from falling and laughed at the tangle.
And I may suggest my very simplistic interpretation as well鈥�
Bestiary is a symbol of the world鈥� Rema symbolizes an origin of good鈥� Kid 鈥� an origin of evil鈥� Isabel stands for innocence鈥� And tiger is a retribution鈥�
Eventually the origin of evil is trapped and is devoured by the tiger.
Blow-Up, which in original is titled something like The Devil鈥檚 Drooling, is a story of a failed temptation鈥� An amateur photographer inadvertently disrupts the machinations of the devil by just taking a photograph.
The Gates of Heaven is a mockingly romantic tale of a revenant鈥�
It seems right for me to say here that I come to this dance hall to see the monsters, I know of no other place where you get so many of them at one time. They heave into sight around eleven in the evening, coming down from obscure sections of the city, deliberate and sure, by ones and by twos, the women almost dwarves and very dark, the guys like Javanese or Indians from the north bound into tight black suits or suits with checks, the hard hair painfully plastered down, little drops of brilliantine catching blue and pink reflections, the women with enormously high hairdos which make them look even more like dwarves, tough, laborious hairdos of the sort that let you know there鈥檚 nothing left but weariness and pride.
At Your Service is a dark funereal satire about the pretensions of high society.
The Pursuer is about the demons pursuing artistic personality and ruining musician鈥檚 mind鈥� Or probably it is musician who pursues the demons and makes them slave for him.
The world is a vast place where anything may happen鈥� And what doesn鈥檛 happen can be dreamt.
June 21, 2022
2/20/21 Update after I had a dream last night of Julio Cort谩zar writing in his Paris apartment.
Oh, Julio, if I could just have a moment to talk to you. You are up here in your heavenly jazz tree, on a higher branch then where I'm sitting, laughing at the sadness of the world stuck in its own grass and mortar rather than taking a ride in the whirlwind of imagination, reading Blow-Up, Axolotl, House Taken Over, Continuity of Parks, End of the Game and the other stories in this little book of yours. You play the divine trumpet, buzzing your lips on the horn of plenty, the jazz of words, improvising, taking a look inside, your fantasy being the fun stuff, exciting, the way you take a certain vision, say the room in a house, and come up with a story where the room is taken over by a mysterious presence.
If the man in another story, like Blow-Up, starts saying funny, nonsensical things, then you simply ball up his talking and throw it against your imagination and the story slides into its rightful place. Up here in the tree with your trumpet, no branch is too high for you to climb to pick the fruit of words, a word on each leaf, some pretty exotic fruit up here in your jazz tree.
Suddenly, I hear a voice down below asking: 鈥淲hat is Julio Cort谩zar doing up in that jazzword tree?鈥�
I freeze, look down at the two men on the ground. 鈥淣ow that鈥檚 really odd,鈥� continues the man, 鈥淚 thought he was dead . . . and now he鈥檚 up in that tree playing his trumpet.鈥�
The other man says, 鈥淟et鈥檚 get Billy and his friend to cut the tree down with their two-man saw.鈥�
I shout at them: 鈥淧lease don鈥檛 have Billy and his friend cut down this tree 鈥� Julio won鈥檛 do you any harm.鈥�
鈥淯nless Julio plays his trumpet and all his words start shaking things up,鈥� comes the reply.
I鈥檓 trying to figure it all out. I thought you were dead anyway, Julio, but as you always said, that鈥檚 only one part of the story. Maybe you are more than dead and came out the other side. If anyone could pull it off, it would be you, around the block and back again, around the day in eighty worlds.
I shout down at the men, 鈥淣o need to call Billy and his friend. I can recommend Blow-Up and Other Stories, and let Julio go back to playing his trumpet.鈥�
February 1, 2019
賯氐氐 賯氐賷乇丞 賲鬲賵爻胤丞 丕賱賲爻鬲賵賶 賷禺鬲賱胤 賮賷賴丕 丕賱賵丕賯毓 亘丕賱禺賷丕賱 賮賷 賲夭賷噩 睾賷乇 賲鬲噩丕賳爻 兀丨賷丕賳丕賸貙 賵賷睾賱亘 毓賱賷賴丕 丕賱賲亘丕賱睾丞 賮賷 丕賱賵氐賮 賵丕賱丕爻鬲胤乇丕丿 賮賷 鬲賮丕氐賷賱 賮乇毓賷丞 賰孬賷乇丞 賱丕 鬲禺丿賲 丕賱丨亘賰丞 丕賱乇卅賷爻賷丞.. 亘卮賰賱 毓丕賲 賱丕 兀丨亘 鬲賱賰 丕賱賳賵毓賷丞 賲賳 丕賱賯氐氐 丕賱賯氐賷乇丞 丕賱賲賱賷卅丞 亘丕賱鬲賮丕氐賷賱貙 賮丕賱賯氐丞 丕賱賯氐賷乇丞 鬲毓鬲賲丿 毓賱賶 丕賱鬲賰孬賷賮 賱丕 丕賱廿胤丕賱丞 .. 賱賲 鬲毓噩亘賳賷 爻賵賶 賯氐丞 "丕爻鬲賲乇丕乇賷丞 丕賱丨丿丕卅賯" 賵廿賳 賰丕賳 毓賳賵丕賳賴丕 睾乇賷亘 賵睾賷乇 賲毓亘乇
January 1, 2017
The author has made Axolotls alive like beings who are conscious of their existence; as if they can steer their lives at their 'will'.
As if they can define it, which only a conscious being can do.
"They were lying in wait of something, a remote dominion destroyed, an age of liberty when the world had been that of axolotls."
The central theme of the story is existential angst about no inherent meaning of life and still existing authentically by defining your life and then taking responsibility to live accordingly.
As I progressed through the story it remind me of 'The Metamorphosis' by Franz Kafka, which is a seminal work in existentialist literature.
The 'House Taken Over' follows the same existential theme; protagonist feels angst over losing his abode.
"They've taken over our section", Irene said. The knitting has reeled off from her hands and the yarn ran back toward the door and disappeared under it. When she saw that the balls of yarn were on the other side, she dropped the knitting without looking at it.
"Did you have time to bring anything?' I asked hopelessly.
"No, nothing."
The story moves like a game with a definite plan. However it lacks the depth the other story- 'Axolotl' has but it makes existential themes, explored in 'Axolotl', more discernible.
Cortazar- Certainly a literary master !!
As if they can define it, which only a conscious being can do.
"They were lying in wait of something, a remote dominion destroyed, an age of liberty when the world had been that of axolotls."
The central theme of the story is existential angst about no inherent meaning of life and still existing authentically by defining your life and then taking responsibility to live accordingly.
As I progressed through the story it remind me of 'The Metamorphosis' by Franz Kafka, which is a seminal work in existentialist literature.
The 'House Taken Over' follows the same existential theme; protagonist feels angst over losing his abode.
"They've taken over our section", Irene said. The knitting has reeled off from her hands and the yarn ran back toward the door and disappeared under it. When she saw that the balls of yarn were on the other side, she dropped the knitting without looking at it.
"Did you have time to bring anything?' I asked hopelessly.
"No, nothing."
The story moves like a game with a definite plan. However it lacks the depth the other story- 'Axolotl' has but it makes existential themes, explored in 'Axolotl', more discernible.
Cortazar- Certainly a literary master !!
April 26, 2021
Now I am an axolotl!
After spending some quality time in the company of Julio Cortazar and his choice short prose, I believe I can more easily identify with the weirdness, wonder and mystery of existence, as seen though the 鈥榣ens鈥� of his imagination. I may not be sure which side of the glass wall I am standing right now and what exactly I am looking at, but I recognize that reality/ realism is not providing all the answers I need, and that sometimes we need a tiger roaming around the house for his own reasons ( Bestiary) , other times fluffy rabbits pop out of our mouths ( Letter to a Young Lady in Paris), an entire life can be told in a minute and a half of a jazz tune ( The Pursuer ) and axolotls know better than us what the meaning of life is:
It鈥檚 that we don鈥檛 enjoy moving a lot, and the tank is so cramped 鈥� we barely move in any direction and we鈥檙e hitting one of the others with our tail or our head 鈥� difficulties arise, fights, tiredness. The time feels like it鈥檚 less if we stay quietly.
I have come across the name often enough in references to influential modern writers and 鈥榖est of鈥� lists of South American writers, I have even seen the Antonioni movie a couple of times without clicking on to the source material, but this is my first read of Cortazar stories. The hype is in his case entirely justified, at least as far as I am concerned. He is a master stylist, a poet that playfully yet carefully constructs his phrases (I wish I could be able to read in the original Spanish, or at least in the French he adopted in his later career). The main attraction is not the prose itself, so much as the masterful capture of things usually left unsaid, of the inner labyrinths of the psyche where logic and science must take second place to the fears of the subconscious. His stories are more metaphor than mirror of the world, and almost all of them provide an unusual angle, a skewed point of view that is meant to push us out of the comfort zone and challenge us to consider said world and our fellow humans from a new perspective, like that of a tiny invertebrate:
Or it was also in him, or all of us were thinking humanlike, incapable of expression, limited to the golden splendor of our eyes looking at the face of the man pressed against the aquarium.
I don鈥檛 think the stories included in the present collection have been written in a planned manner, as one of those interlinked episodes that together form a whole novel, yet I got an impression of consistency and continuity from the ensemble, of an unique voice that may put on different masks, yet remains true to its inner self and remains troubled by the same questions of identity, loneliness, limited means of communication and art as a sublimation of life.
Axolotl opens the book, just like my review, with an invitation to consider that as we are looking at the world, the world is looking back at us. We are maybe haunted by our lizard brains who remember a time we lived in primeval swamps waiting for our minds to develop higher powers of reasoning.
House Taken Over is almost a horror story, the tale of a brother and sister living alone in a big mansion somewhere in Argentina, spending their entire lives cloistered inside, one of them reading books, the other knitting useless knick-knacks. ( We were fine, and little by little we stopped thinking. You can live without thinking.) Slowly, inexorably, mysterious and invisible visitors/ burglars/ strangers are pushing them out of the nest, room by room, until the whole house is locked out and the duo is left destitute on the streets. I think the metaphor here is the way we waste our best years in inconsequential pursuits, denying the slow draining of the sand from the hourglass.
The Distances is another haunting story, this time the hunting of a young woman鈥檚 dreams, instead of a house. Alina Reyes has trouble falling asleep, and when she does she experiences the life of a woman thousands of miles away, in Budapest. The theme of confused identity and soul changing will be reiterated in other stories in the collection, almost always with an unexpected ending and a provocation to make sense of events that defy logic and common sense. See as examples The Idol of the Cyclades where an archaeological team discovers and ancient fertility statue, and later in Paris they get involved in a dangerous love triangle that may be provoked by the memories stored in the ancient stone; or A Yellow Flower where a middle aged man thinks he has discovered his doppelganger in a young boy he sees on the street, doomed to repeat the same life he has lived through once already; or The Night Face Up where a young man has a bike accident and the trauma flips his brain into reliving the emotions of an Aztec prisoner being prepared for ritual slaughter. A couple of quotes from these stories highlight the concept of deja-vu, of repeated histories and subconscious memory:
... the coming and going gestures of his hands which also seemed to want to glue pieces of air, putting together a transparent vase, his hands pointed out the statuette, obliging Morand to look once more against his will at that white lunar body, a kind of insect antedating all history ...
---
... that whatever they might do was no use whatsoever, that whatever they might do the result would be the same, humiliation, a deadly routine, the monotonous years, calamitous disasters that would continue to nibble away at clothes and the soul, taking refuge in a resentful solitude, in some local bistro. [...] an infinity of poor devils repeating a pattern without knowing it, convinced of their freedom of will and choice. The man was crying in his beer, only it was wine in this case, what could you do about it, nothing.
Letter to a Young Lady in Paris is probably the funniest in a collection whose major tonality is dark and anxious. It is almost a prank, the story of a man house-sitting for a friend visiting overseas, and of an infestations of rabbits.
I have never described this to you before, not so much, I don鈥檛 think, from lack of truthfulness as that, just naturally, one is not going to explain to people at large that from time to time one vomits up a small rabbit.
The rabbit in question is for me the result of the creative mind, the poem or the story or the painting that the artist produces in order to explain the world better, when regular words fail to capture the feelings he is experiencing:
A month is a rabbit, it really makes a real rabbit; but in the maiden moment, the warm bustling fleece covering an inalienable presence ... like a poem in its first minutes, 鈥渇ruit of an Idumean night鈥� as much one as oneself ... and afterwards not so much one, so distant and isolated in its flat white world the size of a letter.
Continuity of Parks is something that I think every modern writer has tried at one point or another: metafiction, the reader being read, being inside and outside of the story and being visited by the characters from the book. Scary, clever and thought provoking.
Bestiary is a bit longer than the previous stories, but all good. A young girl is send away every summer to Las Horneros, a mansion in the countryside, and the pains of growing up in the midst of obtuse minded adults are reflected in the kids鈥� obsessions with ants, mantises, scary and disgusting bugs and insects of every sort. Oh, and there鈥檚 a tiger that for some obscure reason is walking in and out of the house as it pleases.
The Gates of Heaven is a love story of sorts, a requiem for a woman who died too young and a nostalgic memento of the Argentinian passion for dancing - tangos, machichas, boleros, etc 鈥� of cheap dancing halls tiered like the rings of the underworld in Dante鈥檚 Inferno, and lives getting lost in the anonymity of trivial pursuits (again)
Blow Up is the title story, and it is easy to see why. Michael is more than a photographer, he is an artist with an unquenchable curiosity about the world around him, prone to flights of fancy but able to see deeper and truer into the lives of the people around him, able to enjoy the sun, the streets, the life surrounding him as only people who look at the world trough a special lens, searching to capture its essence in a still image, can do.
In all ways when one is walking about with a camera, one has almost a duty to be attentive, to not lose that abrupt and happy rebound of sun鈥檚 rays off an old stone, or the pigtails-flying run of a small girl home with a loaf of bread or a bottle of milk. Michael knew that the photographer always worked as a permutation of his personal way of seeing the world as other than the camera insiduously imposed on it.
There is a mystery, a puzzle to anchor the story, as Michael witnesses a strange duo having an argument on the quai of Ile St Louis and as he tries to imagine what they are fighting about and what their lives are like ( Michael is guilty of making literature, of indulging in fabricated unrealities. ). There is also danger, and a recurring theme of clouds passing overhead that I will not spoil other than to say that I see it as the result of the artist being unable to live in an ivory tower, insulated from life, coldly objective ( ... to be only the lens of my camera, something fixed, rigid, incapable of intervention. ). There is, as I have become by now accustomed to, ambiguity and metaphor and mystery that make the story open to interpretation depending on the reader鈥檚 own reaction and experience. I am sure I will look now with different eyes at the movie version, trying to find the common ground as well as the artistic licence the Italian filmmaker used.
End of the Game is a second story focusing on the growing up pains and on the weird universe the children create around themselves in their innocence. Three girls are playing hooky from their house during siesta time and dress up for the entertainment of passing trains in costumes and jewelry from their elders, re-enacting theatrical and historical personages. Reality tries to intrude in the form of a young man who witnesses their antics, but the girls remain impenetrable in their private dreams.
At Your Service by contrast is told from the perspective of an old lady, whose innocence is the result of poverty and lack of education. After being employed as a dog sitter for a posh Parisian party, she is latter bribed to impersonate a grieving mother for the funeral of a talented and gay fashion artist. Her point of view is used as an accusing finger at the hypocrisy, meanness and fake glitter of the haute-monde.
The Pursuer is my favorite novella from a crowded pack of candidates here. Like Blow-Up, it looks at the condition of the artist, exploring the final days of a famous American jazz player, told by his friend and critic witnessing the dissolution induced by drugs and excessive habits, the unpredictable mood swings and the moments of genius that can only be expressed through music. Wikipedia gives as the source of inspiration for the story the life off jazz giant Charlie Parker, who revolutionized saxophone playing in the sixties with his fast technique and daring improvisations.
Now you know what can happen in a minute and a half ... Then a man, not just me but her and you and all the boys, they could live hundreds of years, if we could find the way we could live a thousand times faster than we鈥檙e living because of the damn clocks, that mania for minutes and for the day after tomorrow
Most of the piece is a duel between the jazzman and the critic, between the tortured soul who searches for illumination in drugs and wild imaginings and the analytical man who likes order and clear cut situations, the one who creates and the one who only listens. Johnnie/Charlie sees himself like Jim Morrison 鈥� as an opener of doors, letting the sunshine into a darkened room.
I feel like there鈥檚 something that I鈥檇 like to admit at some point, a light that鈥檚 looking to be lit, or better yet, as though it were necessary to break something, split it from top to bottom like a log, setting a wedge in until the job鈥檚 done.
Johnnie/Charlie is surprisingly revealed as the one closer to the hidden truth of existence, more in touch with his subconscious, either though drugs or through honest intellectual curiosity, wary of the smarty-pants who believe they already know everything while the world around us is still full of mystery and wonder:
That made me jumpy, Bruno, that they felt sure of themselves. Sure of what, tell me what now, when a poor devil like me with more plagues than the devil under his skin had enough awareness to feel that everything was like jelly, that everything was shaky everywhere, you only had to concentrate a little, feel a little, be quiet for a little bit, to find the holes.
Secret Weapons ends the collection, and it鈥檚 not bad, but suffers a little from coming along right after the body blows in The Pursuer. Thematically it is a return to the question of ghost memories and parallel lives, in this case a young man who tries to woo his girlfriend but has scary flashbacks from another lifetime as a German soldier during the war. The girl herself has her own secrets from dealing with the French Resistance, and possibly with said German soldier in another timeline. The intersection of the closely guarded secrets can result in another tale with strong horror overtones, reminding me for some reason of a Bradbury collection I read earlier in the year.
A conclusion and recommendation is not easy to write, my own interest in Cortazar being helped along by my fascination with jazz and photography and South American magical realism. Nevertheless, I believe all lovers of good literature will enjoy his stories. Last quote is an invitation to more flights of fancy:
Do you have fireflies in you garden?
After spending some quality time in the company of Julio Cortazar and his choice short prose, I believe I can more easily identify with the weirdness, wonder and mystery of existence, as seen though the 鈥榣ens鈥� of his imagination. I may not be sure which side of the glass wall I am standing right now and what exactly I am looking at, but I recognize that reality/ realism is not providing all the answers I need, and that sometimes we need a tiger roaming around the house for his own reasons ( Bestiary) , other times fluffy rabbits pop out of our mouths ( Letter to a Young Lady in Paris), an entire life can be told in a minute and a half of a jazz tune ( The Pursuer ) and axolotls know better than us what the meaning of life is:
It鈥檚 that we don鈥檛 enjoy moving a lot, and the tank is so cramped 鈥� we barely move in any direction and we鈥檙e hitting one of the others with our tail or our head 鈥� difficulties arise, fights, tiredness. The time feels like it鈥檚 less if we stay quietly.
I have come across the name often enough in references to influential modern writers and 鈥榖est of鈥� lists of South American writers, I have even seen the Antonioni movie a couple of times without clicking on to the source material, but this is my first read of Cortazar stories. The hype is in his case entirely justified, at least as far as I am concerned. He is a master stylist, a poet that playfully yet carefully constructs his phrases (I wish I could be able to read in the original Spanish, or at least in the French he adopted in his later career). The main attraction is not the prose itself, so much as the masterful capture of things usually left unsaid, of the inner labyrinths of the psyche where logic and science must take second place to the fears of the subconscious. His stories are more metaphor than mirror of the world, and almost all of them provide an unusual angle, a skewed point of view that is meant to push us out of the comfort zone and challenge us to consider said world and our fellow humans from a new perspective, like that of a tiny invertebrate:
Or it was also in him, or all of us were thinking humanlike, incapable of expression, limited to the golden splendor of our eyes looking at the face of the man pressed against the aquarium.
I don鈥檛 think the stories included in the present collection have been written in a planned manner, as one of those interlinked episodes that together form a whole novel, yet I got an impression of consistency and continuity from the ensemble, of an unique voice that may put on different masks, yet remains true to its inner self and remains troubled by the same questions of identity, loneliness, limited means of communication and art as a sublimation of life.
Axolotl opens the book, just like my review, with an invitation to consider that as we are looking at the world, the world is looking back at us. We are maybe haunted by our lizard brains who remember a time we lived in primeval swamps waiting for our minds to develop higher powers of reasoning.
House Taken Over is almost a horror story, the tale of a brother and sister living alone in a big mansion somewhere in Argentina, spending their entire lives cloistered inside, one of them reading books, the other knitting useless knick-knacks. ( We were fine, and little by little we stopped thinking. You can live without thinking.) Slowly, inexorably, mysterious and invisible visitors/ burglars/ strangers are pushing them out of the nest, room by room, until the whole house is locked out and the duo is left destitute on the streets. I think the metaphor here is the way we waste our best years in inconsequential pursuits, denying the slow draining of the sand from the hourglass.
The Distances is another haunting story, this time the hunting of a young woman鈥檚 dreams, instead of a house. Alina Reyes has trouble falling asleep, and when she does she experiences the life of a woman thousands of miles away, in Budapest. The theme of confused identity and soul changing will be reiterated in other stories in the collection, almost always with an unexpected ending and a provocation to make sense of events that defy logic and common sense. See as examples The Idol of the Cyclades where an archaeological team discovers and ancient fertility statue, and later in Paris they get involved in a dangerous love triangle that may be provoked by the memories stored in the ancient stone; or A Yellow Flower where a middle aged man thinks he has discovered his doppelganger in a young boy he sees on the street, doomed to repeat the same life he has lived through once already; or The Night Face Up where a young man has a bike accident and the trauma flips his brain into reliving the emotions of an Aztec prisoner being prepared for ritual slaughter. A couple of quotes from these stories highlight the concept of deja-vu, of repeated histories and subconscious memory:
... the coming and going gestures of his hands which also seemed to want to glue pieces of air, putting together a transparent vase, his hands pointed out the statuette, obliging Morand to look once more against his will at that white lunar body, a kind of insect antedating all history ...
---
... that whatever they might do was no use whatsoever, that whatever they might do the result would be the same, humiliation, a deadly routine, the monotonous years, calamitous disasters that would continue to nibble away at clothes and the soul, taking refuge in a resentful solitude, in some local bistro. [...] an infinity of poor devils repeating a pattern without knowing it, convinced of their freedom of will and choice. The man was crying in his beer, only it was wine in this case, what could you do about it, nothing.
Letter to a Young Lady in Paris is probably the funniest in a collection whose major tonality is dark and anxious. It is almost a prank, the story of a man house-sitting for a friend visiting overseas, and of an infestations of rabbits.
I have never described this to you before, not so much, I don鈥檛 think, from lack of truthfulness as that, just naturally, one is not going to explain to people at large that from time to time one vomits up a small rabbit.
The rabbit in question is for me the result of the creative mind, the poem or the story or the painting that the artist produces in order to explain the world better, when regular words fail to capture the feelings he is experiencing:
A month is a rabbit, it really makes a real rabbit; but in the maiden moment, the warm bustling fleece covering an inalienable presence ... like a poem in its first minutes, 鈥渇ruit of an Idumean night鈥� as much one as oneself ... and afterwards not so much one, so distant and isolated in its flat white world the size of a letter.
Continuity of Parks is something that I think every modern writer has tried at one point or another: metafiction, the reader being read, being inside and outside of the story and being visited by the characters from the book. Scary, clever and thought provoking.
Bestiary is a bit longer than the previous stories, but all good. A young girl is send away every summer to Las Horneros, a mansion in the countryside, and the pains of growing up in the midst of obtuse minded adults are reflected in the kids鈥� obsessions with ants, mantises, scary and disgusting bugs and insects of every sort. Oh, and there鈥檚 a tiger that for some obscure reason is walking in and out of the house as it pleases.
The Gates of Heaven is a love story of sorts, a requiem for a woman who died too young and a nostalgic memento of the Argentinian passion for dancing - tangos, machichas, boleros, etc 鈥� of cheap dancing halls tiered like the rings of the underworld in Dante鈥檚 Inferno, and lives getting lost in the anonymity of trivial pursuits (again)
Blow Up is the title story, and it is easy to see why. Michael is more than a photographer, he is an artist with an unquenchable curiosity about the world around him, prone to flights of fancy but able to see deeper and truer into the lives of the people around him, able to enjoy the sun, the streets, the life surrounding him as only people who look at the world trough a special lens, searching to capture its essence in a still image, can do.
In all ways when one is walking about with a camera, one has almost a duty to be attentive, to not lose that abrupt and happy rebound of sun鈥檚 rays off an old stone, or the pigtails-flying run of a small girl home with a loaf of bread or a bottle of milk. Michael knew that the photographer always worked as a permutation of his personal way of seeing the world as other than the camera insiduously imposed on it.
There is a mystery, a puzzle to anchor the story, as Michael witnesses a strange duo having an argument on the quai of Ile St Louis and as he tries to imagine what they are fighting about and what their lives are like ( Michael is guilty of making literature, of indulging in fabricated unrealities. ). There is also danger, and a recurring theme of clouds passing overhead that I will not spoil other than to say that I see it as the result of the artist being unable to live in an ivory tower, insulated from life, coldly objective ( ... to be only the lens of my camera, something fixed, rigid, incapable of intervention. ). There is, as I have become by now accustomed to, ambiguity and metaphor and mystery that make the story open to interpretation depending on the reader鈥檚 own reaction and experience. I am sure I will look now with different eyes at the movie version, trying to find the common ground as well as the artistic licence the Italian filmmaker used.
End of the Game is a second story focusing on the growing up pains and on the weird universe the children create around themselves in their innocence. Three girls are playing hooky from their house during siesta time and dress up for the entertainment of passing trains in costumes and jewelry from their elders, re-enacting theatrical and historical personages. Reality tries to intrude in the form of a young man who witnesses their antics, but the girls remain impenetrable in their private dreams.
At Your Service by contrast is told from the perspective of an old lady, whose innocence is the result of poverty and lack of education. After being employed as a dog sitter for a posh Parisian party, she is latter bribed to impersonate a grieving mother for the funeral of a talented and gay fashion artist. Her point of view is used as an accusing finger at the hypocrisy, meanness and fake glitter of the haute-monde.
The Pursuer is my favorite novella from a crowded pack of candidates here. Like Blow-Up, it looks at the condition of the artist, exploring the final days of a famous American jazz player, told by his friend and critic witnessing the dissolution induced by drugs and excessive habits, the unpredictable mood swings and the moments of genius that can only be expressed through music. Wikipedia gives as the source of inspiration for the story the life off jazz giant Charlie Parker, who revolutionized saxophone playing in the sixties with his fast technique and daring improvisations.
Now you know what can happen in a minute and a half ... Then a man, not just me but her and you and all the boys, they could live hundreds of years, if we could find the way we could live a thousand times faster than we鈥檙e living because of the damn clocks, that mania for minutes and for the day after tomorrow
Most of the piece is a duel between the jazzman and the critic, between the tortured soul who searches for illumination in drugs and wild imaginings and the analytical man who likes order and clear cut situations, the one who creates and the one who only listens. Johnnie/Charlie sees himself like Jim Morrison 鈥� as an opener of doors, letting the sunshine into a darkened room.
I feel like there鈥檚 something that I鈥檇 like to admit at some point, a light that鈥檚 looking to be lit, or better yet, as though it were necessary to break something, split it from top to bottom like a log, setting a wedge in until the job鈥檚 done.
Johnnie/Charlie is surprisingly revealed as the one closer to the hidden truth of existence, more in touch with his subconscious, either though drugs or through honest intellectual curiosity, wary of the smarty-pants who believe they already know everything while the world around us is still full of mystery and wonder:
That made me jumpy, Bruno, that they felt sure of themselves. Sure of what, tell me what now, when a poor devil like me with more plagues than the devil under his skin had enough awareness to feel that everything was like jelly, that everything was shaky everywhere, you only had to concentrate a little, feel a little, be quiet for a little bit, to find the holes.
Secret Weapons ends the collection, and it鈥檚 not bad, but suffers a little from coming along right after the body blows in The Pursuer. Thematically it is a return to the question of ghost memories and parallel lives, in this case a young man who tries to woo his girlfriend but has scary flashbacks from another lifetime as a German soldier during the war. The girl herself has her own secrets from dealing with the French Resistance, and possibly with said German soldier in another timeline. The intersection of the closely guarded secrets can result in another tale with strong horror overtones, reminding me for some reason of a Bradbury collection I read earlier in the year.
A conclusion and recommendation is not easy to write, my own interest in Cortazar being helped along by my fascination with jazz and photography and South American magical realism. Nevertheless, I believe all lovers of good literature will enjoy his stories. Last quote is an invitation to more flights of fancy:
Do you have fireflies in you garden?
August 14, 2012
This volume is my introduction to Cort谩zar, part of my 2012 Year of Discovering Latin American and Spanish writers. I have his novels on my horizon, and I'm itching to read them, but I thought starting with a short story volume would be a good introduction.
In the past, I have neglected short stories, in part because of an early preference for huge novels that I could escape in for days at a time. There may have been some elements of an introvert's frustration over getting to know a series of characters, only to say goodbye to them after 15 pages or so and to have to ready myself for meeting a whole new set of characters all over again. (Silly, I know - treating a short story collection as a literary cocktail party.)
I'm very glad that I've shaken off those earlier views, because I found this collection to be captivating. Cort谩zar destablizes our understandings of identity in every story. Characters merge into other characters. Boundaries, physical and psychic, dissolve in thin air. When reading the first story, Axolotl, I actually had a physical sense of my perspective shifting at a key point in the story, almost as if I were watching a film and visualizing an extreme change in perspective. Cort谩zar also is masterful at creating a surreal atmosphere of menace in many of these stories, which is all the more effective because the danger doesn't unfold all at once. It creeps up on the reader.
I have read other reviewers who discussed their confusion when reading many of these stories. Cort谩zar often uses a technique of jumping midway into his narrative and leaving it up to the reader to patiently hang on for the ride until he provides clues to piece together later in the story. If you're willing to play along with Cort谩zar, there's a game-like quality in many of these stories. For this reason, I recommend not reading it all at once from beginning to end. Some time between stories helps to increase the feeling of tension at Cort谩zar's approach.
This is a volume that begs for re-reading. I plan to revisit it soon.
In the past, I have neglected short stories, in part because of an early preference for huge novels that I could escape in for days at a time. There may have been some elements of an introvert's frustration over getting to know a series of characters, only to say goodbye to them after 15 pages or so and to have to ready myself for meeting a whole new set of characters all over again. (Silly, I know - treating a short story collection as a literary cocktail party.)
I'm very glad that I've shaken off those earlier views, because I found this collection to be captivating. Cort谩zar destablizes our understandings of identity in every story. Characters merge into other characters. Boundaries, physical and psychic, dissolve in thin air. When reading the first story, Axolotl, I actually had a physical sense of my perspective shifting at a key point in the story, almost as if I were watching a film and visualizing an extreme change in perspective. Cort谩zar also is masterful at creating a surreal atmosphere of menace in many of these stories, which is all the more effective because the danger doesn't unfold all at once. It creeps up on the reader.
I have read other reviewers who discussed their confusion when reading many of these stories. Cort谩zar often uses a technique of jumping midway into his narrative and leaving it up to the reader to patiently hang on for the ride until he provides clues to piece together later in the story. If you're willing to play along with Cort谩zar, there's a game-like quality in many of these stories. For this reason, I recommend not reading it all at once from beginning to end. Some time between stories helps to increase the feeling of tension at Cort谩zar's approach.
This is a volume that begs for re-reading. I plan to revisit it soon.
June 28, 2016
Here are stories of the prismatic-elastic-imaginative-labyrinthine type. Okay, Cortazar isn鈥檛 for everyone - his sentences stubbornly don鈥檛 do what you expect them to do, and those readers resistant to the particular magic of language, that it can simultaneously be music and meaning, archaic and capable of instigating a profoundly new perspective, bewildering and grounding, need not proceed. Those of you who have already closed avenues of readerly-possibility off, need not proceed. Those of you who read primarily to have the book perform how you wish it to perform, rather than to perform the book according to the choreography of the author, need not proceed. But for the rest of you good readers, Cortazar is utterly refreshing, absent of cliche, deeply committed to positing his metaphysical riddles in lattice-like compact tales, at home at play in the nearly infinite field of the imagination. This is literature that eases its unease and its multiple eyes into your way of seeing, alters and massages the pulse of your quotidian roamings into something less sure-footed, more ready to be toppled, Reality a thing to be only suspect of, permanently called into question. And it is accomplished in beautiful, unique sentences. These are stories to be read and re-read, to better fortify yourself against the stultifying nature of habitual, inertial modes of thinking and living. Cortazar鈥檚 long novel Hopscotch is another antidote to this dulling down. Highly recommended.
May 29, 2016
"I prefer the words to the reality that I'm trying to describe.",
says Cort谩zar. Through his exquisitely beautiful sentences what he offers is more than reality. The question of magical realism as his style is debatable. But what his stories overwhelm with is eccentricity. Most of his stories can be easily classified as 'uncanny', because of his way of encompassing his characters in a surreal mystery, of which they think as reality.
Time and Identity evidently seem to be the play things for Cort谩zar. Almost all his characters have some kind of ambiguous assertion over their existence. The aquarium frequenter from Axolotl says, in a trance, 鈥淣ow I am an axolotl.鈥�. Imagine a man claims to be his object of obsession. Is it neotenous metamorphosis or unconscious awareness? It is up to us, the readers. From The Pursuer, "I am not I", Johnny says feverishly. If he is not he, who is he?
This recurring question of identity simmers across the lives of almost all his protagonists - a guy who vomits rabbits, sisters posing as statues beside railroads for the weary travelers, a widowed maid appearing as the mother of her employer's guest, a reader who becomes the victim of the mystery novel he reads, a fiance who is haunted by ideas of 'otherness', and so on. Even amidst these alienness and otherness, the closeness among the characters can be warmly felt and their dialogues echoing inside us.
Will the story be invalid, if it was told in a different tense? Such is the point of Cort谩zar. Most of the time he keeps us going without knowing what is happening has already happened or is going to happen, but leading only to a stranger fantasy.
Blow Up
Neither the protagonist nor the author reveals everything that has to be told about the story. In the forms of unsnapped photographs, the story is told, with a single click to blow up someone's devious scheme and to free a poor boy, and ending up with a large sized photograph of an illusory reality.
Instead of creating an incredible universe for his characters, what Cort谩zar did in these stories truly deserves undue admiration: A day-to-day reality, but with a spine chilling twists...
December 3, 2017
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丿丕爻鬲丕賳鈥屬囏� 亘賴 噩夭 賵蹖跇诏蹖 睾蹖乇賵丕賯毓蹖 亘賵丿賳賽 讴丕賲賱丕賸鈥� 亘丕賵乇倬匕蹖乇卮丕賳 (丕賱亘鬲賴 讴賴 亘毓囟蹖 丿丕爻鬲丕賳鈥屬囏� 讴丕賲賱丕賸 乇卅丕賱 賴爻鬲賳丿) 丕夭 丨蹖孬 鬲賳賵毓 賴賲 賯丕亘賱 鬲賵噩賴鈥屫з嗀�. 丿丕爻鬲丕賳鈥屬囏� 丿乇 賮囟丕賴丕 賵 賴賲趩賳蹖賳 鬲賵爻胤 乇丕賵蹖丕賳蹖 賳賯賱 賲蹖鈥屫促堎嗀� 讴賴 亘賴鈥屫簇� 丕夭 蹖讴賳賵丕禺鬲蹖 亘賴鈥屫堌辟嗀� 賵 賲丨丕賱 丕爻鬲 禺賵丕賳賳丿賴 乇丕 丿趩丕乇 讴爻丕賱鬲 讴賳賳丿. 賲賵夭蹖爻賳鈥� 賲亘鬲賱丕 亘賴 卮蹖夭賵賮乇賳蹖貙 倬蹖乇夭賳 賲爻鬲禺丿賲 亘蹖趩丕乇賴貙 亘趩賴鈥屬囏й� 卮蹖胤丕賳 賵 亘丕夭蹖诏賵卮 賵 丿蹖诏乇 噩丕蹖 賴蹖趩 卮禺氐蹖鬲蹖 丿乇 丕蹖賳 賲噩賲賵毓賴 禺丕賱蹖 賳蹖爻鬲 賵 讴賲鈥屫臂屬� 趩蹖夭蹖 讴賴 賳氐蹖亘 禺賵丕賳賳丿賴 賲蹖鈥屫促堌� 賮丕乇睾 丕夭 賴乇 丿乇蹖丕賮鬲蹖貙 賱匕鬲 賲鬲賳 丕爻鬲.
賵 卮丕蹖丿 賱丕夭賲 亘賴 鬲賵囟蹖丨 賳亘丕卮丿 讴賴 賮蹖賱賲 Blow-Up 爻丕禺鬲賴鈥屰� 丌賳鬲賵賳蹖賵賳蹖貙 丕賯鬲亘丕爻蹖 锟斤拷夭 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 芦丌诏乇丕賳丿蹖爻賲丕賳禄 丿乇 丕蹖賳 賲噩賲賵毓賴 丕爻鬲 讴賴 亘賴 丿賱蹖賱 卮賳丕禺鬲賴 卮丿賴 亘賵丿賳 賮蹖賱賲貙 賳丕賲 賲噩賲賵毓賴 乇丕 亘賴 禺賵丿 诏乇賮鬲賴 丕爻鬲.
丿丕爻鬲丕賳鈥屬囏� 亘賴 噩夭 賵蹖跇诏蹖 睾蹖乇賵丕賯毓蹖 亘賵丿賳賽 讴丕賲賱丕賸鈥� 亘丕賵乇倬匕蹖乇卮丕賳 (丕賱亘鬲賴 讴賴 亘毓囟蹖 丿丕爻鬲丕賳鈥屬囏� 讴丕賲賱丕賸 乇卅丕賱 賴爻鬲賳丿) 丕夭 丨蹖孬 鬲賳賵毓 賴賲 賯丕亘賱 鬲賵噩賴鈥屫з嗀�. 丿丕爻鬲丕賳鈥屬囏� 丿乇 賮囟丕賴丕 賵 賴賲趩賳蹖賳 鬲賵爻胤 乇丕賵蹖丕賳蹖 賳賯賱 賲蹖鈥屫促堎嗀� 讴賴 亘賴鈥屫簇� 丕夭 蹖讴賳賵丕禺鬲蹖 亘賴鈥屫堌辟嗀� 賵 賲丨丕賱 丕爻鬲 禺賵丕賳賳丿賴 乇丕 丿趩丕乇 讴爻丕賱鬲 讴賳賳丿. 賲賵夭蹖爻賳鈥� 賲亘鬲賱丕 亘賴 卮蹖夭賵賮乇賳蹖貙 倬蹖乇夭賳 賲爻鬲禺丿賲 亘蹖趩丕乇賴貙 亘趩賴鈥屬囏й� 卮蹖胤丕賳 賵 亘丕夭蹖诏賵卮 賵 丿蹖诏乇 噩丕蹖 賴蹖趩 卮禺氐蹖鬲蹖 丿乇 丕蹖賳 賲噩賲賵毓賴 禺丕賱蹖 賳蹖爻鬲 賵 讴賲鈥屫臂屬� 趩蹖夭蹖 讴賴 賳氐蹖亘 禺賵丕賳賳丿賴 賲蹖鈥屫促堌� 賮丕乇睾 丕夭 賴乇 丿乇蹖丕賮鬲蹖貙 賱匕鬲 賲鬲賳 丕爻鬲.
賵 卮丕蹖丿 賱丕夭賲 亘賴 鬲賵囟蹖丨 賳亘丕卮丿 讴賴 賮蹖賱賲 Blow-Up 爻丕禺鬲賴鈥屰� 丌賳鬲賵賳蹖賵賳蹖貙 丕賯鬲亘丕爻蹖 锟斤拷夭 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 芦丌诏乇丕賳丿蹖爻賲丕賳禄 丿乇 丕蹖賳 賲噩賲賵毓賴 丕爻鬲 讴賴 亘賴 丿賱蹖賱 卮賳丕禺鬲賴 卮丿賴 亘賵丿賳 賮蹖賱賲貙 賳丕賲 賲噩賲賵毓賴 乇丕 亘賴 禺賵丿 诏乇賮鬲賴 丕爻鬲.
December 14, 2020
3.5 stars
I had looked forward to reading Blow-Up and Other Stories by Argentine writer Julio Cort谩zar for several years, but though I found some of the stories to be downright brilliant, the collective whole was a bit of a disappointment. I've heard a lot of comparisons between this writer and Jorge Luis Borges, and though those comparisons are certainly valid, I personally find that Borges at his best slightly exceeds the quality of Cort谩zar at his.
Some of these stories I absolutely loved, my favourites being The Night Face Up, Bestiary, Blow-Up, and End of the Game. It's hard to pin down Cort谩zar's style; some of his stories contain magical realism, some are metaphysical, and some are just ordinary stories grounded in a normal reality. He writes beautifully for the most part, and can invoke specific images and associations in the reader's mind, like Borges. One interesting thing I noted is that several of the stories feature the same everyday items, particularly nescaf茅, Gauloise cigarettes, and cognac. One has to wonder if Cort谩zar himself enjoyed these things, or if they were just prevalent in France at the time he was writing his stories (or maybe if they're still prevalent there today).
Though I liked many of the stories in this collection, some, like The Pursuer, I just didn't get the point of. That particular story is over 60 pages long, making it by far the longest in the entire collection, and it revolves around a group of friends that hover in the orbit of Johnny Carter, a drug-addicted, schizophrenic, insane jazz musician who has lost his grip on life. The story is mostly filled with Johnny's crazy ramblings about time and reality, nothing of note ever happens, and after a while it just became a tedious read. I didn't get anything out of that story, and was glad when it was over. Further, some of the stories were what I would call "word soup"; they're well-written and highlight Cort谩zar's abilities as a wordsmith, but there isn't much substance to them.
Overall, this is a decent collection, though it's a bit of a disappointment compared to something like Labyrinths by Borges. That being said, I still recommend checking it out.
Here are my ratings for each story out of five, and my cumulative score for the whole book:
Axolotl: 4/5
House Taken Over: 4/5
The Distances: 3/5
The Idol of the Cyclades: 3.5/5
Letter to a Young Lady in Paris: 2/5
A Yellow Flower: 1/5
Continuity of Parks: 2/5
The Night Face Up: 5/5
Bestiary: 5/5
The Gates of Heaven: 2.5/5
Blow-Up: 5/5
End of the Game: 5/5
At Your Service: 4/5
The Pursuer: 1/5
Secret Weapons: 4/5
51/75 = 68% = 3.4 stars
I had looked forward to reading Blow-Up and Other Stories by Argentine writer Julio Cort谩zar for several years, but though I found some of the stories to be downright brilliant, the collective whole was a bit of a disappointment. I've heard a lot of comparisons between this writer and Jorge Luis Borges, and though those comparisons are certainly valid, I personally find that Borges at his best slightly exceeds the quality of Cort谩zar at his.
Some of these stories I absolutely loved, my favourites being The Night Face Up, Bestiary, Blow-Up, and End of the Game. It's hard to pin down Cort谩zar's style; some of his stories contain magical realism, some are metaphysical, and some are just ordinary stories grounded in a normal reality. He writes beautifully for the most part, and can invoke specific images and associations in the reader's mind, like Borges. One interesting thing I noted is that several of the stories feature the same everyday items, particularly nescaf茅, Gauloise cigarettes, and cognac. One has to wonder if Cort谩zar himself enjoyed these things, or if they were just prevalent in France at the time he was writing his stories (or maybe if they're still prevalent there today).
Though I liked many of the stories in this collection, some, like The Pursuer, I just didn't get the point of. That particular story is over 60 pages long, making it by far the longest in the entire collection, and it revolves around a group of friends that hover in the orbit of Johnny Carter, a drug-addicted, schizophrenic, insane jazz musician who has lost his grip on life. The story is mostly filled with Johnny's crazy ramblings about time and reality, nothing of note ever happens, and after a while it just became a tedious read. I didn't get anything out of that story, and was glad when it was over. Further, some of the stories were what I would call "word soup"; they're well-written and highlight Cort谩zar's abilities as a wordsmith, but there isn't much substance to them.
Overall, this is a decent collection, though it's a bit of a disappointment compared to something like Labyrinths by Borges. That being said, I still recommend checking it out.
Here are my ratings for each story out of five, and my cumulative score for the whole book:
Axolotl: 4/5
House Taken Over: 4/5
The Distances: 3/5
The Idol of the Cyclades: 3.5/5
Letter to a Young Lady in Paris: 2/5
A Yellow Flower: 1/5
Continuity of Parks: 2/5
The Night Face Up: 5/5
Bestiary: 5/5
The Gates of Heaven: 2.5/5
Blow-Up: 5/5
End of the Game: 5/5
At Your Service: 4/5
The Pursuer: 1/5
Secret Weapons: 4/5
51/75 = 68% = 3.4 stars
September 21, 2024
禺亘 讴鬲丕亘 丨丕囟乇 丕夭 爻乇蹖 賲蹖賳蹖賲丕跇 賳卮乇 賳蹖賲丕跇 賴爻鬲卮. 丕賵賱丕 亘诏賲 讴賴 讴丕乇 賵丕賯毓丕 噩丕賱亘蹖 讴乇丿賴 賳卮乇 賳蹖賲丕跇 讴賴 蹖賴鈥屫池臂� 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 讴賵鬲丕賴 乇賵 鬲賵 蹖賴 讴鬲丕亘 噩蹖亘蹖 噩賲毓 讴乇丿賴. 丿爻鬲 賲乇蹖夭丕丿.
鬲賵 丕蹖賳 讴鬲丕亘 蹖賴鈥屫池臂� 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 讴賵鬲丕賴 丕夭 亘賵乇禺爻貙 讴賵乇鬲丕爻丕乇貙 讴丕爻丕乇爻貙 亘賵賱丕賳蹖賵 賵 讴蹖乇賵诏丕 丕賵賲丿賴. 賴乇 鄣 鬲丕 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴 賯賱賲 賵 爻亘讴 禺丕氐 禺賵丿卮賵賳 乇賵 丿丕乇賳 讴賴 丕睾賱亘 賲蹖卮賴 丕賵賳丕乇賵 噩夭賵 乇卅丕賱蹖爻賲 噩丕丿賵蹖蹖 蹖丕 丨鬲蹖 爻賵乇乇卅丕賱蹖爻賲 丿賵賳爻鬲.
丕蹖賳胤賵乇蹖 賳蹖爻鬲 讴賴 亘诏賲 丕夭 丿丕爻鬲丕賳鈥屬囏� 禺賵卮賲 賳蹖賵賲丿 蹖丕 丿丕爻鬲丕賳鈥屬囏й� 禺賵亘蹖 賳亘賵丿賳. 丕夭 賯囟丕 禺蹖賱蹖 賴賲 卮賵讴賴鈥屭┵嗁嗀� 賵 毓噩蹖亘 亘賵丿賳. 丕蹖賳讴賴 丿乇 毓蹖賳 毓丕丿蹖 亘賵丿賳 蹖賴鈥屫池臂� 趩蹖夭丕 乇賵丕蹖鬲 賲蹖鈥屫簇� 讴賴 卮賵讴賴鈥屭┵嗁嗀� 亘賵丿.
丕乇鬲亘丕胤 亘乇賯乇丕乇 讴乇丿賳 亘丕 賲丨鬲賵丕蹖 丿丕爻鬲丕賳鈥屬囏� 亘賴鈥屫簇蒂� 爻禺鬲 亘賵丿 亘乇丕賲貙 亘丕 丕蹖賳讴賴 賮乇賲 丿丕爻鬲丕賳鈥屬囏ж辟� 丿賵爻 丿丕卮鬲賲 賵 丕蹖丿賴鈥屫ж� 亘賵丿賳 賵賱蹖 賳鬲賵賳爻鬲賲 賮乇賲 賵 賲丨鬲賵丕 乇賵 鬲賱賮蹖賯 讴賳賲 賵 丿乇讴 丿乇爻鬲蹖 丕夭 鬲乇讴蹖亘 丕蹖賳 丿賵 亘賴鈥屫池� 亘蹖丕乇賲.
蹖讴蹖 丕夭 丿丕爻鬲丕賳鈥屬囏й屰� 讴賴 禺蹖賱蹖 丿賵爻 丿丕卮鬲賲 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 賮賱丕賲蹖賳诏賵鈥屬囏� 亘賵丿.
賳賲乇賴 賲賳 鄄.鄣 禺賵丕賴丿 亘賵丿.
鬲賵 丕蹖賳 讴鬲丕亘 蹖賴鈥屫池臂� 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 讴賵鬲丕賴 丕夭 亘賵乇禺爻貙 讴賵乇鬲丕爻丕乇貙 讴丕爻丕乇爻貙 亘賵賱丕賳蹖賵 賵 讴蹖乇賵诏丕 丕賵賲丿賴. 賴乇 鄣 鬲丕 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴 賯賱賲 賵 爻亘讴 禺丕氐 禺賵丿卮賵賳 乇賵 丿丕乇賳 讴賴 丕睾賱亘 賲蹖卮賴 丕賵賳丕乇賵 噩夭賵 乇卅丕賱蹖爻賲 噩丕丿賵蹖蹖 蹖丕 丨鬲蹖 爻賵乇乇卅丕賱蹖爻賲 丿賵賳爻鬲.
丕蹖賳胤賵乇蹖 賳蹖爻鬲 讴賴 亘诏賲 丕夭 丿丕爻鬲丕賳鈥屬囏� 禺賵卮賲 賳蹖賵賲丿 蹖丕 丿丕爻鬲丕賳鈥屬囏й� 禺賵亘蹖 賳亘賵丿賳. 丕夭 賯囟丕 禺蹖賱蹖 賴賲 卮賵讴賴鈥屭┵嗁嗀� 賵 毓噩蹖亘 亘賵丿賳. 丕蹖賳讴賴 丿乇 毓蹖賳 毓丕丿蹖 亘賵丿賳 蹖賴鈥屫池臂� 趩蹖夭丕 乇賵丕蹖鬲 賲蹖鈥屫簇� 讴賴 卮賵讴賴鈥屭┵嗁嗀� 亘賵丿.
丕乇鬲亘丕胤 亘乇賯乇丕乇 讴乇丿賳 亘丕 賲丨鬲賵丕蹖 丿丕爻鬲丕賳鈥屬囏� 亘賴鈥屫簇蒂� 爻禺鬲 亘賵丿 亘乇丕賲貙 亘丕 丕蹖賳讴賴 賮乇賲 丿丕爻鬲丕賳鈥屬囏ж辟� 丿賵爻 丿丕卮鬲賲 賵 丕蹖丿賴鈥屫ж� 亘賵丿賳 賵賱蹖 賳鬲賵賳爻鬲賲 賮乇賲 賵 賲丨鬲賵丕 乇賵 鬲賱賮蹖賯 讴賳賲 賵 丿乇讴 丿乇爻鬲蹖 丕夭 鬲乇讴蹖亘 丕蹖賳 丿賵 亘賴鈥屫池� 亘蹖丕乇賲.
蹖讴蹖 丕夭 丿丕爻鬲丕賳鈥屬囏й屰� 讴賴 禺蹖賱蹖 丿賵爻 丿丕卮鬲賲 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 賮賱丕賲蹖賳诏賵鈥屬囏� 亘賵丿.
賳賲乇賴 賲賳 鄄.鄣 禺賵丕賴丿 亘賵丿.
August 26, 2017
Cover of the 1968 Collier Books mass-market paperback (248 pages).
November 22, 2018
Having taken a bigger interest in Latin-American writers in the past few years, I was asked the question recently had I ever read julio cortazar? No, I hadn't, I replied. I was then asked are you a fan of the short-story? Yes, yes I am, I said. I was then told to absolutely read Blow-Up and Other Stories. So I did. And although I can't score it a five, it was a collection that really grabbed my attention. I found then vividly experimental in nature, and a mixture of all sorts of things, some surrealism, a strong sense of symbolism, a little bit nouveau roman, and the Borgesian fantastical. There is also a feeling Cort谩zar had a big thing for Identity, and he displays throughout these tales the capacity to elevate them above the condition of the gimmicky which depend solely on a twist ending or some big finale. Comparison with other writers is difficult because he seems to have a voice all of his own. They are like nothing I have read before. I had to read the title story three times before before moving on to the others, it dazzled the hell out of me. I found the stories ranged from being good to damn right brilliant!
November 6, 2018
脰yk眉 okumay谋 neden seviyorum onu hat谋rlad谋m Cortazar 枚yk眉leriyle. Bulundu臒um yerden uzakla艧谋p bamba艧ka d眉nyalara buyur edildim. Hem de k谋sa k谋sa aral谋klarla. Gezdim, tozdum, e臒lendim, korktum, sevdim, 眉z眉ld眉m, sonra evime geri d枚nd眉m.
Sen 莽ok ya艧a(!) Cortazar :)
Sen 莽ok ya艧a(!) Cortazar :)
October 4, 2018
爻讴賵鬲 賳丕丿蹖丿賳蹖 讴賵乇鬲丕爻丕乇
May 23, 2022
Cortazar鈥檇an 13 g眉zel ger莽ek眉st眉c眉/fantastik 枚yk眉. Kalemi ile 枚yk眉lerde sizi gezdirirken bir h谋zlan谋yor bir ani d枚n眉艧 yap谋yor, sersemlemiyorsunuz ama, siz de onun kalem oyunlar谋na teslim oluyorsunuz. Anlat谋lanlar谋n ger莽ekd谋艧谋 oldu臒unu bilmenize ra臒men sizi niye olmas谋n diye d眉艧眉nd眉r眉yor hatta bunun ya艧anabilece臒ine inand谋r谋yor sizi Cortazar. En 莽ok sevdiklerim 鈥淥yunun Sonu鈥�, 鈥淓le Ge莽irilen Ev鈥�, 鈥淧ariste Bir Gen莽 Han谋ma Mektuplar鈥� oldu. Hikaye seviyorsan谋z 枚neririm.
November 7, 2014
I've been starting a lot of story collections lately without (yet) finishing them, and this is another of those. I was reading it aloud, which is interesting and a little tricky, because the words here perform very strange and nuanced tricks of tone and configuration, resulting in elegant sentences that don't always make immediate sense. At least not until they've fully left the mouth, which can make it a challenge to anticipate the cadences and stresses as they emerge.
Published in 1968, but actually translated all from three earlier collections, dated 1951, 1956, and 1959. All seemingly quite great.
Breakdown:
Axolotl -- Jimmy seems to have been seduced entirely by the sounds of the words in this story, to the point that the story's mechanism barely matters. But I would say the wonderful flow of the words serves the mechanism, it creates a necessary slipperiness, a fluidity, an essential changeability. It really is an excellent and uniquely formed story, from either standpoint.
The House Taken Over -- A kind of a ghost story. Or not! In a world of uncertainties by omission, the rules may be unpredictable. I assume nothing.
The Distances -- Perhaps reconfiguration of Axolotl over a different spatial and personal system, to very different ends. The perspective switches here create a gorgeous confusion, it takes some time to grasp the terms. But the arc and voice are, nonetheless, immaculately formed.
The Idol of the Cyclades -- Actually, in some ways Axolotl is the purest example of a technique repeated in many variations throughout this collection: a kind of bleeding-through of perspective until a switching of places (of characters, of perspectives, of times, of consciousnesses) has taken place). Here, the change is apparently the induced madness of a still-powerful primitive icon, in a kind of interior horror story.
Letter to a Young Lady in Paris -- This, however, is actually the outlier, a bizarre premise is enacted and then the protagonist mostly just worries about its absurd practical implications and attempts to explain himself. Kinda great!
The Continuity of Parks -- The shortest, simplest of Cortazar's "crossing-over" stories (and one that has essentially become a lame ghost story form in the intervening years) and yet there's a perfection in the actual idea of "the continuity of parks". Essentially, it posits a liminal space in the woods where levels of narrative reality can intermingle and be moved freely between. This is a device in much post-modern writing, but with less of a literal locus of narrative destabilization than this usually. It's an excellent concept, simply expressed here and so easy to remap and expand across other uses.
(starting to skip some as I don't have time to note down all right now!)
Blow-Up -- Completely different from the Antonioni film, but also fantastic. Fantastically slippery and unsettling at all levels of content. Need to re-read perhaps.
At Your Service -- Great voice here, very warm and personal and different from every other narrator in these: an old women, working as a maid, who performs a couple very unrelated and, um, unusual tasks for a wealthy family and society circle. Through her eyes a very sympathetic, if somewhat uncomprehending, view of a portion of Parisian culture.
The Pursuer -- Actually more of a novella, a long treatment of a jazz musician in struggle with reality, with music his escape and his bane, and the center of his struggle. Great, though at times the jazz-writer narrator can be terribly patronizing towards his subject / friend(?). In retrospect, though you spend the length of the story dangerously awash in his voice and self-justification, he's a total vampire, which is probably a not-inaccurate portrait of certain parts of jazz journalism and race-relations in those times. Complicatedly, Cortazar takes on racism not in any overt case, but in those subtler unknowing examples with so much power to harm -- and as far as those go, not so much has changed since the 50s. (My initial reaction was a little more ambiguous, see discussion below)
The Secret Weapons -- An excellently creepy ghost story of another kind, where history and memory may be the things that haunt and consume.
Published in 1968, but actually translated all from three earlier collections, dated 1951, 1956, and 1959. All seemingly quite great.
Breakdown:
Axolotl -- Jimmy seems to have been seduced entirely by the sounds of the words in this story, to the point that the story's mechanism barely matters. But I would say the wonderful flow of the words serves the mechanism, it creates a necessary slipperiness, a fluidity, an essential changeability. It really is an excellent and uniquely formed story, from either standpoint.
The House Taken Over -- A kind of a ghost story. Or not! In a world of uncertainties by omission, the rules may be unpredictable. I assume nothing.
The Distances -- Perhaps reconfiguration of Axolotl over a different spatial and personal system, to very different ends. The perspective switches here create a gorgeous confusion, it takes some time to grasp the terms. But the arc and voice are, nonetheless, immaculately formed.
The Idol of the Cyclades -- Actually, in some ways Axolotl is the purest example of a technique repeated in many variations throughout this collection: a kind of bleeding-through of perspective until a switching of places (of characters, of perspectives, of times, of consciousnesses) has taken place). Here, the change is apparently the induced madness of a still-powerful primitive icon, in a kind of interior horror story.
Letter to a Young Lady in Paris -- This, however, is actually the outlier, a bizarre premise is enacted and then the protagonist mostly just worries about its absurd practical implications and attempts to explain himself. Kinda great!
The Continuity of Parks -- The shortest, simplest of Cortazar's "crossing-over" stories (and one that has essentially become a lame ghost story form in the intervening years) and yet there's a perfection in the actual idea of "the continuity of parks". Essentially, it posits a liminal space in the woods where levels of narrative reality can intermingle and be moved freely between. This is a device in much post-modern writing, but with less of a literal locus of narrative destabilization than this usually. It's an excellent concept, simply expressed here and so easy to remap and expand across other uses.
(starting to skip some as I don't have time to note down all right now!)
Blow-Up -- Completely different from the Antonioni film, but also fantastic. Fantastically slippery and unsettling at all levels of content. Need to re-read perhaps.
At Your Service -- Great voice here, very warm and personal and different from every other narrator in these: an old women, working as a maid, who performs a couple very unrelated and, um, unusual tasks for a wealthy family and society circle. Through her eyes a very sympathetic, if somewhat uncomprehending, view of a portion of Parisian culture.
The Pursuer -- Actually more of a novella, a long treatment of a jazz musician in struggle with reality, with music his escape and his bane, and the center of his struggle. Great, though at times the jazz-writer narrator can be terribly patronizing towards his subject / friend(?). In retrospect, though you spend the length of the story dangerously awash in his voice and self-justification, he's a total vampire, which is probably a not-inaccurate portrait of certain parts of jazz journalism and race-relations in those times. Complicatedly, Cortazar takes on racism not in any overt case, but in those subtler unknowing examples with so much power to harm -- and as far as those go, not so much has changed since the 50s. (My initial reaction was a little more ambiguous, see discussion below)
The Secret Weapons -- An excellently creepy ghost story of another kind, where history and memory may be the things that haunt and consume.
September 2, 2023
Interesting story. Rather unconventional storytelling. Probably not for all audiences. Three and a half stars.
May 22, 2017
Cinco hist贸rias reveladoras da genialidade de Cort谩zar. N茫o gostei de todas da mesma forma, nem as compreendi no seu todo. Exigem muito do leitor pela sua estrutura complexa, significados ocultos e finais abertos.
Blow-up
茅 o t铆tulo do filme de Antonioni, inspirado no conto Las Babas del Diablo.
Mais do que pela hist贸ria subjacente - um fot贸grafo que observa e fotografa tr锚s pessoas e que constr贸i o acontecimento atrav茅s da an谩lise da foto - o conto 茅 fascinante pela originalidade do narrador, que intercala entre a primeira e a terceira pessoa. Muito curioso e interessante.
5*
As cartas da m茫e
de como as ilus玫es, os sonhos, as mentiras, criados na mente servem para camuflar um casamento moribundo; para sobreviver 脿 morte de um filho; para atenuar remorsos...
5*
Os bons servi莽os
茅 uma hist贸ria divertida sobre uma senhora contratada como ama de c茫es e, depois, como carpideira...
5*
O perseguidor
茅 um conto inspirado na vida do m煤sico de jazz Charlie Parker. (Um conto muito extenso, com muito jazz, muita droga...perdi-me algures...)
2*
As armas secretas
as divaga莽玫es de um jovem apaixonado que se questiona porque a namorada n茫o permite que tenham rela莽玫es sexuais. (Achei um pouco mon贸tono.)
2*
Blow-up
茅 o t铆tulo do filme de Antonioni, inspirado no conto Las Babas del Diablo.
Mais do que pela hist贸ria subjacente - um fot贸grafo que observa e fotografa tr锚s pessoas e que constr贸i o acontecimento atrav茅s da an谩lise da foto - o conto 茅 fascinante pela originalidade do narrador, que intercala entre a primeira e a terceira pessoa. Muito curioso e interessante.
5*
As cartas da m茫e
de como as ilus玫es, os sonhos, as mentiras, criados na mente servem para camuflar um casamento moribundo; para sobreviver 脿 morte de um filho; para atenuar remorsos...
5*
Os bons servi莽os
茅 uma hist贸ria divertida sobre uma senhora contratada como ama de c茫es e, depois, como carpideira...
5*
O perseguidor
茅 um conto inspirado na vida do m煤sico de jazz Charlie Parker. (Um conto muito extenso, com muito jazz, muita droga...perdi-me algures...)
2*
As armas secretas
as divaga莽玫es de um jovem apaixonado que se questiona porque a namorada n茫o permite que tenham rela莽玫es sexuais. (Achei um pouco mon贸tono.)
2*
January 2, 2018
Video review:
There's gold for everyone in this amazing collection, showcasing some of Cortazar's best stories. Fans of the quirkier and more sinister tales might be put off by the more sprawling, epiphanic stories, and vice-versa, but what can you do - it's still a must read.
There's gold for everyone in this amazing collection, showcasing some of Cortazar's best stories. Fans of the quirkier and more sinister tales might be put off by the more sprawling, epiphanic stories, and vice-versa, but what can you do - it's still a must read.
October 1, 2024
Sneaking suspicion that this and Bestiary (which I鈥檝e been reading since October of last year) contain the exact same collection of stories. Nevertheless, this edition had a much, much better typeface and was absolutely thrilling!
June 11, 2018
A tiger stalking the house a young girl is holidaying in; middle-aged siblings who experience an enforced segregation in their home; a young man who cannot stop vomiting baby rabbits; a disaffected and drug-addled jazz musician via the eyes of his morose biographer-this is the rich tapestry from which Cortazar weaves his short stories, whether it be the lachrymose streets of Paris or the sultry neighbourhoods of Buenos Aires, the constant theme which runs through Cortazar's novel is the limitless wonders of story-telling; at times playful and at others meditative, Cortazar's range is varied but brilliant.听
The title story, on which Antonioni's famous film is based, in one of the stand out stories in the collection. In it the narrator believes he witnesses-and prevents-an attempted murder via the lens of his camera. Subjectivity is a central theme in Cortazar's novels; the reader is at the behest of the narrator, whose interpretation of the picture-if indeed any picture exists-or if the narrator exists outside of the mind of Cortazar and the reader (which of course he doesn't), Cortazar leaves it up to the reader to interpret whether the scene the narrator witness was indeed an attempted murder, or a harmless frolic,听 or just a mediocre snap-shot of a everyday scene with no special significance outside the paranoid ramblings of a mad-man. One suspects the readers interpretation may change as often as the colours of the clouds at the end of the story.听 This feeling pf unreliability spreads its way through the other stories; in 'Continuity of Parks' the reader is killed by the very murderer he is reading about, in 'The Idol of Cyclades' a Borgesian thriller in which the homicidal mad-man may not be the person the reader originally anticipates it being or in 'Bestiary' where a-perhaps real or perhaps imaginary tiger stalks the house and imagination of the narrator.听
Whether it be a surreal story of a human-like fish or the obsessive love of a neurotic, Cortazar's short stories as wonderfully told and beautifully rendered snap-shots into the mind of a genius.听
The title story, on which Antonioni's famous film is based, in one of the stand out stories in the collection. In it the narrator believes he witnesses-and prevents-an attempted murder via the lens of his camera. Subjectivity is a central theme in Cortazar's novels; the reader is at the behest of the narrator, whose interpretation of the picture-if indeed any picture exists-or if the narrator exists outside of the mind of Cortazar and the reader (which of course he doesn't), Cortazar leaves it up to the reader to interpret whether the scene the narrator witness was indeed an attempted murder, or a harmless frolic,听 or just a mediocre snap-shot of a everyday scene with no special significance outside the paranoid ramblings of a mad-man. One suspects the readers interpretation may change as often as the colours of the clouds at the end of the story.听 This feeling pf unreliability spreads its way through the other stories; in 'Continuity of Parks' the reader is killed by the very murderer he is reading about, in 'The Idol of Cyclades' a Borgesian thriller in which the homicidal mad-man may not be the person the reader originally anticipates it being or in 'Bestiary' where a-perhaps real or perhaps imaginary tiger stalks the house and imagination of the narrator.听
Whether it be a surreal story of a human-like fish or the obsessive love of a neurotic, Cortazar's short stories as wonderfully told and beautifully rendered snap-shots into the mind of a genius.听
November 3, 2017
Cortazar roman ve 枚yk眉y眉 kar艧谋la艧t谋r谋rken "D眉zyaz谋 bir boks ma莽谋 gibidir, roman谋 puan alarak kazanabilirsiniz ama 枚yk眉de nakavt etmeniz gerekir" diyerek tercihini 枚yk眉den yana yapm谋艧. Y谋llar 枚nce tercihini romandan yana yapm谋艧 benim gibi insanlar谋n 枚yk眉lere 谋s谋nmas谋 i莽inse Cortazar gibi b眉y眉k 枚yk眉c眉lere ihtiya莽lar谋 varm谋艧.
Bu kitaptaki 枚yk眉leri unutmak istemiyorum. Baz谋lar谋n谋 daha 莽ok sevdim elbette ama hepsi de 莽arp谋c谋, e艧siz 枚yk眉ler. Ger莽ekd谋艧谋l谋k zorlamas谋z bir 艧ekilde girivermi艧 bu 枚yk眉lere, sanki herkesin hayat谋n谋n bir d枚neminde ya艧amas谋 莽ok muhtemel olaylarm谋艧 gibi. Abs眉rd ve fiziksel ger莽eklik aras谋ndaki s谋n谋r son derece ge莽irgen ve mu臒l芒k. Okur olarak ne tarafta kalaca臒谋n谋z tamamen size kalm谋艧.
Ho艧uma giden bir di臒er 艧ey, ayn谋 枚yk眉de bak谋艧 a莽谋s谋n谋n bir anda de臒i艧ivermesi. Bu de臒i艧im okurun konforunu bozmadan 枚yle ustal谋kl谋 bir 艧ekilde yap谋l谋yor ki bir anda kendinizi 枚yk眉y眉 anlatan谋n s谋rt谋n谋 izlerken buluyor ve buna 艧a艧谋rm谋yorsunuz.
脰yk眉leri kendime hat谋rlatmak ad谋na a艧a臒谋daki k谋sa 枚zetleri yazd谋m. SPOILER i莽erir.
Gece Y眉z眉 Yukarda 鈥� Motosiklet kazas谋 ge莽iren adam hastanede tedavi olurken, uykuya dald谋臒谋 anda kendisini Azteklerin 脟i莽ek sava艧谋nda esir al谋nm谋艧 g枚r眉r. Kurban etme t枚reninde, d枚rt aztek rahibinin omuzlar谋 眉zerinde, eli kolu ba臒lanm谋艧 olarak y眉z眉 g枚ky眉z眉ne d枚n眉k tap谋na臒谋n merdivenlerinden 莽谋kmaktad谋r. Ger莽ek hangisi, r眉ya hangisi?
Put 鈥� 脺莽 arkeolog - Morand ve Teresa 莽ifti ve Somoza- Ege denizi k谋y谋lar谋nda yapt谋klar谋 kaz谋da antik d枚neme ait bir ikona bulurlar. 陌kona鈥檡谋 yetkililere teslim etmeyip gizlice ka莽谋r谋rlar. Somoza鈥檇a kalan ikona zamanla adamda tutku haline gelir. 陌kona鈥檔谋n kopyalar谋n谋 yontmaya ba艧lad谋k莽a ge莽mi艧le ba臒lant谋 kurar. Bir kurban etme t枚reni d眉zenlemesi gerekecektir. Fakat t枚reni d眉zenleyen kurban olacak ve ikona kendine yeni kurbanlar arayacak.
Axolotl 鈥� Paris鈥檛e bir hayvanat bah莽esine gidip oradaki akvaryumun kar艧谋s谋nda saatlerce g眉nlerce kal谋p kendini bir t眉r kertenkelenin larva hali olan Axolotl鈥檒a 枚zde艧le艧tiren adam谋 anlat谋yor. Adam 枚yk眉 boyunca ger莽ekten Axolotl oluyor ve 枚yk眉 kertenkelenin bak谋艧 a莽谋s谋ndan bitiyor.
Cinayeti G枚rd眉m 鈥� Kitaba ad谋na veren bu 枚yk眉de anlat谋c谋 bir foto臒raf莽谋d谋r ve parkta orta ya艧l谋 bir kad谋n ve gen莽 bir 莽ocu臒un foto臒raf谋n谋 gizlice 莽eker. Kad谋n ile foto臒raf莽谋 aras谋nda tart谋艧ma 莽谋kar. Kad谋n fotonun filmlerini ister ama alamz. Adam foto臒raf谋 b眉y眉k boy tab ederek odas谋na asar ve kar艧谋s谋nda saatlerce foto臒raftan yans谋yan ihtimalleri d眉艧眉n眉r. Her bak谋艧 a莽谋s谋ndan farkl谋 farkl谋 枚yk眉ler do臒urur tek bir foto臒raf. Foto臒raf sanat谋na ili艧kin 莽ok 莽arp谋c谋 tespitler var 枚yk眉de.
B眉t眉n Parklar U莽 Uca 鈥� Malik芒nesinin 莽al谋艧ma odas谋ndaki rahat koltu臒una oturan adam roman okumaktad谋r. Romanda bir yasak a艧k bulu艧mas谋 sahnesini okurken, roman kahraman谋 kendisini 枚ld眉rmek 眉zere malik芒nenin arka kap谋s谋ndan girmektedir.
Oyunun Sonu 鈥� Bu 枚yk眉deki tren yolu sahneleri y谋llard谋r akl谋mdayd谋. Nerde okudu臒umu, hangi yazar谋n hangi kitab谋ndan oldu臒unu hi莽 hat谋rlam谋yordum. 脺莽 k谋z 莽ocu臒u her g眉n tren yoluna gidip heykelcilik oynuyorlar. 陌莽lerinden biri, Letitia鈥檔谋n kemik yap谋s谋yla ilgili a臒谋r bir hastal谋臒谋 var. Bu nedenle hem aileleri taraf谋ndan hem de di臒er iki 莽ocuk taraf谋ndan kollan谋yor, daha do臒rusu naz谋 莽ekiliyor. Trenden onlar谋n oyununu izleyen bir 莽ocuk tren cam谋ndan mektup at谋yor. 鈥渆n g眉zeliniz en tembeliniz鈥� diye. Oyun 莽ocu臒un onlarla tan谋艧mak 眉zere bir sonraki istasyonda inmek istemesiyle bitiyor. Letitia 莽ocukla bulu艧maya gelmiyor ve bir mektup g枚nderiyor. Mektupta ne yazd谋臒谋n谋 asla 枚臒renemiyoruz. Ac谋kl谋 bir 艧eyler olmal谋. 脰yk眉deki oyun 莽ok ho艧uma gitmi艧ti. 脰zellikle Letitia鈥檔谋n v眉cudunu heykele d枚n眉艧t眉rmekteki becerisi, di臒er k谋zlar谋n ona 艧efkati ve sevgisi. Ak谋ldan 莽谋kmayacak bir 枚yk眉 ger莽ekten.
Ele Ge莽irilen Ev - Ayn谋 evde ya艧ayan iki karde艧in oturduklar谋 eve endekslenmi艧 hayat rutinleri yava艧 yava艧 bozulmaya ba艧lar. 脰nce arka b枚l眉mden sesler duyarlar ve evin o k谋sm谋n谋n ele ge莽irildi臒ini anlarlar. Evin her taraf谋 yava艧 yava艧 ele ge莽irilirken iki karde艧in tek tepkisi evin kendilerine kalan k谋sm谋na t谋k谋l谋p ya艧amaya 莽al谋艧mak olur. Sonunda ev tamamen ele ge莽irilir ve iki karde艧 evi terk ederler. Acayip bir 枚yk眉yd眉. Hayatlar谋m谋z谋n kimbilir kimler, kimbilir neler taraf谋ndan zapt edilmesi ve bireysel olaral k眉莽眉c眉k alanlar谋m谋za b眉z眉lerek belki de o en ufak k枚艧elerimizden bile kovularak sona ermesi gibi. Sonra da sokaklara yani asl谋nda kimseye ait olmayan, hi莽 de ki艧isel olayan genel ge莽er hayatlara savruluyoruz.
Bir Sar谋 脟i莽ek - Elli ya艧lar谋nda bir adam otob眉ste g枚rd眉臒眉 k眉莽眉k bir 莽ocu臒un kendisinin yeniden v眉cut bulmu艧 hali oldu臒una tak谋nt谋l谋 bir 艧ekilde inan谋r. 脟ocu臒u takip eder, evini 枚臒renir, ailesiyle bir 艧ekilde dostluk kurar. 脟ocuk onun 枚l眉ms眉zl眉臒眉n眉n kan谋t谋d谋r. Ama 莽ocuk bron艧itten 枚ld眉臒眉nde adam谋n hipotezi 莽眉r眉m眉艧t眉r. Sonra 莽i莽eklere bakar ve o 莽i莽eklerin kendisi i莽in oldu臒unu, 枚l眉nce kendisi i莽in hi莽 莽i莽ek olayaca臒谋 gibi hi莽lik d眉艧眉nceleri say谋klar鈥�(pek de sevmedi臒im bir 枚yk眉)
Uzakl谋klar - Alina Reyes k眉莽眉k ya艧lardan beri, 莽ok uzaklarda, Budape艧te鈥檇e ya艧ayan bir dilenci kad谋n谋n hayat谋n谋 duyumsamakta, ac谋lar谋n谋 hissetmektedir. Evlenince kocas谋na Budape艧te鈥檡e gitmek istedi臒ini s枚yler. Orda kendi ba艧谋na y眉r眉y眉艧e 莽谋kar ve onu bulur. As谋l amac谋 ondan kurtulmakt谋r asl谋nda. Ama k枚pr眉n眉n 眉st眉nde birbirlerine sar谋ld谋ktan sonra Alina鈥檔谋n v眉cudunu al谋p giden dilenci kad谋n olur.
Gizli Silahlar - K眉莽眉kken bir nazi鈥檔in tecav眉z眉ne u臒ram谋艧 olan Michele erkek arkada艧谋 Piere鈥檇e tecav眉zc眉n眉n ruhunu g枚r眉r. Tecav眉zc眉 nazi Michele鈥檌n arkada艧lar谋 taraf谋ndan 枚ld眉r眉lm眉艧t眉r ama Michele鈥檌n bundan haberi yoktur. Piere k谋z arkada艧谋n谋n kendisiyle birlikte olmamas谋na 莽ok sinirlenmekte ve b枚yle sinirlendik莽e zihninden kendisini bile 艧a艧谋rtan d眉艧眉nceler ve k眉f眉rler ge莽mektedir.
Hizmetinizde - Ya艧l谋 bir hizmet莽i olan Madam Francinet鈥檈 bir parti s谋ras谋nda k枚peklere bakmas谋 kar艧谋l谋臒谋nda 枚deme yap谋lacakt谋r. Parti bitti臒inde madam Francinet a莽, yorgun ve susam谋艧t谋r. Ama kimsenin dikkatini 莽ekmez. Yaln谋zca partide sona kalm谋艧 olan Bay Bebe onunla ilgilenip i莽kisini payla艧谋r. Madam Francinet adam谋n ilgisinden 莽ok ho艧lanm谋艧 ve duygulanm谋艧t谋r. Aylar sonra bir cenazede meftan谋n annesi rol眉n眉 oynamas谋 kar艧谋l谋臒谋nda para 枚denece臒i s枚ylendi臒inde kabul eder. 脰len g眉zel y眉zl眉 gen莽 Bay Bebe鈥檇ir ve madam Francinet鈥檌n rol yapmas谋na gerek yoktur.
Pariste Bir Gen莽 Han谋ma Mektuplar - K谋sa s眉reli臒ine bir arkada艧谋n谋n evinde kalan adam谋n 莽ok de臒i艧ik bir 枚zelli臒i vard谋r. Gerginle艧ince tav艧an kusmaktad谋r. Tav艧anlar谋 bir s眉re besleyip yeterli b眉y眉kl眉臒e gelince de 莽iftli臒e vermektedir. Ancak arkada艧谋n谋n evinde kal谋rken kustu臒u 10 tav艧an谋 dolapta beslemeye ba艧lar. Tav艧anlar谋n varl谋臒谋n谋 evin hizmet莽isinden gizlemek i莽in bir rutin olu艧turur. Tav艧anlar b眉y眉d眉k莽e evdeki d眉zen tamamen bozulacak, adam ba艧a 莽谋kamayacakt谋r. On birinci tav艧an谋 kustu臒unda art谋k arkada艧谋na evin mahv谋ndan bahseder.
Bu keyifli 枚yk眉de adam谋n, tav艧anlar谋 yarat谋p sonra da onlar谋n geli艧imini, 莽o臒almalar谋n谋 izlemesinde tansr谋sall谋k vard谋. Tav艧anlar b眉y眉yor, 莽o臒al谋yor ve daha y谋k谋c谋 oluyorlar. Adamsa b眉t眉n bunlar谋 engelleyebilir ama engellemiyor.
Canavar Masal谋 - Isabel ailesi taraf谋ndan yaz tatilini ge莽irmek 眉zere k谋rsaldaki bir ailenin 莽iftli臒ine g枚nderilir. Bu 莽iftlikteki g眉nl眉k hayat 鈥渒aplan鈥澞眓 o anda nerde oldu臒una g枚re d眉zenlenir. 陌莽lerinden biri gelip haber verir 鈥淜aplan 莽al谋艧ma odas谋nda鈥� o zaman 莽al谋艧ma odas谋na girilmeyecektir. 脟iftli臒in han谋m谋 Rema, h眉z眉nl眉 bir kad谋nd谋r. Kocas谋n谋n karde艧i Velet, k眉莽眉k Nino鈥檡a 艧iddet uygularken, Rema鈥檡谋 da taciz etmektedir. Rema鈥檔谋n kocas谋 Luis iyi bir adamd谋r ama s眉rekli 莽al谋艧ma odas谋nda kapan谋p kitap okumakta, evle ilgilenmemektedir. Isabel bir g眉n Kaplan鈥櫮眓 yerini bilerek yanl谋艧 s枚yler ve Kaplan Velet鈥檌 枚ld眉r眉r.
Bu kitaptaki 枚yk眉leri unutmak istemiyorum. Baz谋lar谋n谋 daha 莽ok sevdim elbette ama hepsi de 莽arp谋c谋, e艧siz 枚yk眉ler. Ger莽ekd谋艧谋l谋k zorlamas谋z bir 艧ekilde girivermi艧 bu 枚yk眉lere, sanki herkesin hayat谋n谋n bir d枚neminde ya艧amas谋 莽ok muhtemel olaylarm谋艧 gibi. Abs眉rd ve fiziksel ger莽eklik aras谋ndaki s谋n谋r son derece ge莽irgen ve mu臒l芒k. Okur olarak ne tarafta kalaca臒谋n谋z tamamen size kalm谋艧.
Ho艧uma giden bir di臒er 艧ey, ayn谋 枚yk眉de bak谋艧 a莽谋s谋n谋n bir anda de臒i艧ivermesi. Bu de臒i艧im okurun konforunu bozmadan 枚yle ustal谋kl谋 bir 艧ekilde yap谋l谋yor ki bir anda kendinizi 枚yk眉y眉 anlatan谋n s谋rt谋n谋 izlerken buluyor ve buna 艧a艧谋rm谋yorsunuz.
脰yk眉leri kendime hat谋rlatmak ad谋na a艧a臒谋daki k谋sa 枚zetleri yazd谋m. SPOILER i莽erir.
Gece Y眉z眉 Yukarda 鈥� Motosiklet kazas谋 ge莽iren adam hastanede tedavi olurken, uykuya dald谋臒谋 anda kendisini Azteklerin 脟i莽ek sava艧谋nda esir al谋nm谋艧 g枚r眉r. Kurban etme t枚reninde, d枚rt aztek rahibinin omuzlar谋 眉zerinde, eli kolu ba臒lanm谋艧 olarak y眉z眉 g枚ky眉z眉ne d枚n眉k tap谋na臒谋n merdivenlerinden 莽谋kmaktad谋r. Ger莽ek hangisi, r眉ya hangisi?
Put 鈥� 脺莽 arkeolog - Morand ve Teresa 莽ifti ve Somoza- Ege denizi k谋y谋lar谋nda yapt谋klar谋 kaz谋da antik d枚neme ait bir ikona bulurlar. 陌kona鈥檡谋 yetkililere teslim etmeyip gizlice ka莽谋r谋rlar. Somoza鈥檇a kalan ikona zamanla adamda tutku haline gelir. 陌kona鈥檔谋n kopyalar谋n谋 yontmaya ba艧lad谋k莽a ge莽mi艧le ba臒lant谋 kurar. Bir kurban etme t枚reni d眉zenlemesi gerekecektir. Fakat t枚reni d眉zenleyen kurban olacak ve ikona kendine yeni kurbanlar arayacak.
Axolotl 鈥� Paris鈥檛e bir hayvanat bah莽esine gidip oradaki akvaryumun kar艧谋s谋nda saatlerce g眉nlerce kal谋p kendini bir t眉r kertenkelenin larva hali olan Axolotl鈥檒a 枚zde艧le艧tiren adam谋 anlat谋yor. Adam 枚yk眉 boyunca ger莽ekten Axolotl oluyor ve 枚yk眉 kertenkelenin bak谋艧 a莽谋s谋ndan bitiyor.
Cinayeti G枚rd眉m 鈥� Kitaba ad谋na veren bu 枚yk眉de anlat谋c谋 bir foto臒raf莽谋d谋r ve parkta orta ya艧l谋 bir kad谋n ve gen莽 bir 莽ocu臒un foto臒raf谋n谋 gizlice 莽eker. Kad谋n ile foto臒raf莽谋 aras谋nda tart谋艧ma 莽谋kar. Kad谋n fotonun filmlerini ister ama alamz. Adam foto臒raf谋 b眉y眉k boy tab ederek odas谋na asar ve kar艧谋s谋nda saatlerce foto臒raftan yans谋yan ihtimalleri d眉艧眉n眉r. Her bak谋艧 a莽谋s谋ndan farkl谋 farkl谋 枚yk眉ler do臒urur tek bir foto臒raf. Foto臒raf sanat谋na ili艧kin 莽ok 莽arp谋c谋 tespitler var 枚yk眉de.
B眉t眉n Parklar U莽 Uca 鈥� Malik芒nesinin 莽al谋艧ma odas谋ndaki rahat koltu臒una oturan adam roman okumaktad谋r. Romanda bir yasak a艧k bulu艧mas谋 sahnesini okurken, roman kahraman谋 kendisini 枚ld眉rmek 眉zere malik芒nenin arka kap谋s谋ndan girmektedir.
Oyunun Sonu 鈥� Bu 枚yk眉deki tren yolu sahneleri y谋llard谋r akl谋mdayd谋. Nerde okudu臒umu, hangi yazar谋n hangi kitab谋ndan oldu臒unu hi莽 hat谋rlam谋yordum. 脺莽 k谋z 莽ocu臒u her g眉n tren yoluna gidip heykelcilik oynuyorlar. 陌莽lerinden biri, Letitia鈥檔谋n kemik yap谋s谋yla ilgili a臒谋r bir hastal谋臒谋 var. Bu nedenle hem aileleri taraf谋ndan hem de di臒er iki 莽ocuk taraf谋ndan kollan谋yor, daha do臒rusu naz谋 莽ekiliyor. Trenden onlar谋n oyununu izleyen bir 莽ocuk tren cam谋ndan mektup at谋yor. 鈥渆n g眉zeliniz en tembeliniz鈥� diye. Oyun 莽ocu臒un onlarla tan谋艧mak 眉zere bir sonraki istasyonda inmek istemesiyle bitiyor. Letitia 莽ocukla bulu艧maya gelmiyor ve bir mektup g枚nderiyor. Mektupta ne yazd谋臒谋n谋 asla 枚臒renemiyoruz. Ac谋kl谋 bir 艧eyler olmal谋. 脰yk眉deki oyun 莽ok ho艧uma gitmi艧ti. 脰zellikle Letitia鈥檔谋n v眉cudunu heykele d枚n眉艧t眉rmekteki becerisi, di臒er k谋zlar谋n ona 艧efkati ve sevgisi. Ak谋ldan 莽谋kmayacak bir 枚yk眉 ger莽ekten.
Ele Ge莽irilen Ev - Ayn谋 evde ya艧ayan iki karde艧in oturduklar谋 eve endekslenmi艧 hayat rutinleri yava艧 yava艧 bozulmaya ba艧lar. 脰nce arka b枚l眉mden sesler duyarlar ve evin o k谋sm谋n谋n ele ge莽irildi臒ini anlarlar. Evin her taraf谋 yava艧 yava艧 ele ge莽irilirken iki karde艧in tek tepkisi evin kendilerine kalan k谋sm谋na t谋k谋l谋p ya艧amaya 莽al谋艧mak olur. Sonunda ev tamamen ele ge莽irilir ve iki karde艧 evi terk ederler. Acayip bir 枚yk眉yd眉. Hayatlar谋m谋z谋n kimbilir kimler, kimbilir neler taraf谋ndan zapt edilmesi ve bireysel olaral k眉莽眉c眉k alanlar谋m谋za b眉z眉lerek belki de o en ufak k枚艧elerimizden bile kovularak sona ermesi gibi. Sonra da sokaklara yani asl谋nda kimseye ait olmayan, hi莽 de ki艧isel olayan genel ge莽er hayatlara savruluyoruz.
Bir Sar谋 脟i莽ek - Elli ya艧lar谋nda bir adam otob眉ste g枚rd眉臒眉 k眉莽眉k bir 莽ocu臒un kendisinin yeniden v眉cut bulmu艧 hali oldu臒una tak谋nt谋l谋 bir 艧ekilde inan谋r. 脟ocu臒u takip eder, evini 枚臒renir, ailesiyle bir 艧ekilde dostluk kurar. 脟ocuk onun 枚l眉ms眉zl眉臒眉n眉n kan谋t谋d谋r. Ama 莽ocuk bron艧itten 枚ld眉臒眉nde adam谋n hipotezi 莽眉r眉m眉艧t眉r. Sonra 莽i莽eklere bakar ve o 莽i莽eklerin kendisi i莽in oldu臒unu, 枚l眉nce kendisi i莽in hi莽 莽i莽ek olayaca臒谋 gibi hi莽lik d眉艧眉nceleri say谋klar鈥�(pek de sevmedi臒im bir 枚yk眉)
Uzakl谋klar - Alina Reyes k眉莽眉k ya艧lardan beri, 莽ok uzaklarda, Budape艧te鈥檇e ya艧ayan bir dilenci kad谋n谋n hayat谋n谋 duyumsamakta, ac谋lar谋n谋 hissetmektedir. Evlenince kocas谋na Budape艧te鈥檡e gitmek istedi臒ini s枚yler. Orda kendi ba艧谋na y眉r眉y眉艧e 莽谋kar ve onu bulur. As谋l amac谋 ondan kurtulmakt谋r asl谋nda. Ama k枚pr眉n眉n 眉st眉nde birbirlerine sar谋ld谋ktan sonra Alina鈥檔谋n v眉cudunu al谋p giden dilenci kad谋n olur.
Gizli Silahlar - K眉莽眉kken bir nazi鈥檔in tecav眉z眉ne u臒ram谋艧 olan Michele erkek arkada艧谋 Piere鈥檇e tecav眉zc眉n眉n ruhunu g枚r眉r. Tecav眉zc眉 nazi Michele鈥檌n arkada艧lar谋 taraf谋ndan 枚ld眉r眉lm眉艧t眉r ama Michele鈥檌n bundan haberi yoktur. Piere k谋z arkada艧谋n谋n kendisiyle birlikte olmamas谋na 莽ok sinirlenmekte ve b枚yle sinirlendik莽e zihninden kendisini bile 艧a艧谋rtan d眉艧眉nceler ve k眉f眉rler ge莽mektedir.
Hizmetinizde - Ya艧l谋 bir hizmet莽i olan Madam Francinet鈥檈 bir parti s谋ras谋nda k枚peklere bakmas谋 kar艧谋l谋臒谋nda 枚deme yap谋lacakt谋r. Parti bitti臒inde madam Francinet a莽, yorgun ve susam谋艧t谋r. Ama kimsenin dikkatini 莽ekmez. Yaln谋zca partide sona kalm谋艧 olan Bay Bebe onunla ilgilenip i莽kisini payla艧谋r. Madam Francinet adam谋n ilgisinden 莽ok ho艧lanm谋艧 ve duygulanm谋艧t谋r. Aylar sonra bir cenazede meftan谋n annesi rol眉n眉 oynamas谋 kar艧谋l谋臒谋nda para 枚denece臒i s枚ylendi臒inde kabul eder. 脰len g眉zel y眉zl眉 gen莽 Bay Bebe鈥檇ir ve madam Francinet鈥檌n rol yapmas谋na gerek yoktur.
Pariste Bir Gen莽 Han谋ma Mektuplar - K谋sa s眉reli臒ine bir arkada艧谋n谋n evinde kalan adam谋n 莽ok de臒i艧ik bir 枚zelli臒i vard谋r. Gerginle艧ince tav艧an kusmaktad谋r. Tav艧anlar谋 bir s眉re besleyip yeterli b眉y眉kl眉臒e gelince de 莽iftli臒e vermektedir. Ancak arkada艧谋n谋n evinde kal谋rken kustu臒u 10 tav艧an谋 dolapta beslemeye ba艧lar. Tav艧anlar谋n varl谋臒谋n谋 evin hizmet莽isinden gizlemek i莽in bir rutin olu艧turur. Tav艧anlar b眉y眉d眉k莽e evdeki d眉zen tamamen bozulacak, adam ba艧a 莽谋kamayacakt谋r. On birinci tav艧an谋 kustu臒unda art谋k arkada艧谋na evin mahv谋ndan bahseder.
Bu keyifli 枚yk眉de adam谋n, tav艧anlar谋 yarat谋p sonra da onlar谋n geli艧imini, 莽o臒almalar谋n谋 izlemesinde tansr谋sall谋k vard谋. Tav艧anlar b眉y眉yor, 莽o臒al谋yor ve daha y谋k谋c谋 oluyorlar. Adamsa b眉t眉n bunlar谋 engelleyebilir ama engellemiyor.
Canavar Masal谋 - Isabel ailesi taraf谋ndan yaz tatilini ge莽irmek 眉zere k谋rsaldaki bir ailenin 莽iftli臒ine g枚nderilir. Bu 莽iftlikteki g眉nl眉k hayat 鈥渒aplan鈥澞眓 o anda nerde oldu臒una g枚re d眉zenlenir. 陌莽lerinden biri gelip haber verir 鈥淜aplan 莽al谋艧ma odas谋nda鈥� o zaman 莽al谋艧ma odas谋na girilmeyecektir. 脟iftli臒in han谋m谋 Rema, h眉z眉nl眉 bir kad谋nd谋r. Kocas谋n谋n karde艧i Velet, k眉莽眉k Nino鈥檡a 艧iddet uygularken, Rema鈥檡谋 da taciz etmektedir. Rema鈥檔谋n kocas谋 Luis iyi bir adamd谋r ama s眉rekli 莽al谋艧ma odas谋nda kapan谋p kitap okumakta, evle ilgilenmemektedir. Isabel bir g眉n Kaplan鈥櫮眓 yerini bilerek yanl谋艧 s枚yler ve Kaplan Velet鈥檌 枚ld眉r眉r.
May 24, 2018
賳讴鬲賴: 乇蹖賵蹖賵鈥屬囏ж堎嗁� 賯亘賱 爻賳丿 夭丿賳 讴倬蹖 讴賳蹖賳 讴賴 賲孬 賲賳 賳卮蹖賳!
乇蹖賵蹖賵:
丿丕爻鬲丕賳鈥屬囏й� 丌賲乇蹖讴丕蹖 賱丕鬲蹖賳 賴賲蹖卮賴 禺賵亘賳!
亘賵乇禺爻丕卮 讴賴 賲丨卮乇 亘賵丿. 丕夭 亘賵賱丕賳蹖賵 賴賲 蹖讴蹖 丿丕卮鬲 讴賴 禺蹖賱蹖 毓丕賱蹖 亘賵丿. 蹖賴 爻乇蹖 丿丕爻鬲丕賳讴 讴賵鬲丕賴 賴賲 丿丕卮鬲 讴賴 丕賵賳丕 賴賲 丕蹖丿賴鈥屬囏й� 噩丿蹖丿蹖 丿丕卮鬲賳. 亘丕 讴賵乇鬲丕爻丕乇 丌卮賳丕 卮丿賲 賵 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 丌诏乇丕賳丿蹖爻賲丕賳鈥屫ж� 讴賴 丕賵賳賲 毓丕賱蹖 亘賵丿.
蹖賴 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 賴賲 亘賵丿 丿乇亘丕乇賴 倬賱蹖讴丕賳鈥屬囏� 讴賴 禺蹖賱蹖 噩丕賱亘 亘賵丿!
乇蹖賵蹖賵:
丿丕爻鬲丕賳鈥屬囏й� 丌賲乇蹖讴丕蹖 賱丕鬲蹖賳 賴賲蹖卮賴 禺賵亘賳!
亘賵乇禺爻丕卮 讴賴 賲丨卮乇 亘賵丿. 丕夭 亘賵賱丕賳蹖賵 賴賲 蹖讴蹖 丿丕卮鬲 讴賴 禺蹖賱蹖 毓丕賱蹖 亘賵丿. 蹖賴 爻乇蹖 丿丕爻鬲丕賳讴 讴賵鬲丕賴 賴賲 丿丕卮鬲 讴賴 丕賵賳丕 賴賲 丕蹖丿賴鈥屬囏й� 噩丿蹖丿蹖 丿丕卮鬲賳. 亘丕 讴賵乇鬲丕爻丕乇 丌卮賳丕 卮丿賲 賵 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 丌诏乇丕賳丿蹖爻賲丕賳鈥屫ж� 讴賴 丕賵賳賲 毓丕賱蹖 亘賵丿.
蹖賴 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 賴賲 亘賵丿 丿乇亘丕乇賴 倬賱蹖讴丕賳鈥屬囏� 讴賴 禺蹖賱蹖 噩丕賱亘 亘賵丿!
June 21, 2020
I've read it long ago, but still struggle the best way to review it. For now suffice to say that it contains two of my favourite stories by him: "Blow-Up" and "The Pursuer". Both are spellbinding and deserve separate reviews.
January 21, 2009
While reading this book, I turned into the book, but remained myself looking at the book looking at me. Then I threw up a bunny who, it turns out, is creeping up behind me as I write these wor-
February 13, 2010
There was a time when I thought a great deal about the story "Axolotl". When I envied those rhythms, their faint movements, those sentences in particular, intimate, slightly illogical, thought-like vectors achieving a rolling quality that is not like a sentence at all. Yes, above all I envied Cortazar's sentences, which are unique in their grammatical messiness, their organic connections, the imperceptible consequences of unfolding. Those days I read "Axolotl" obsessively, drunk on the sound of "Ambystoma", "Port Royal", and "an indifferent immobility", sometimes three or four times a day, captured by that minute looking, that description in which the words are just a cake of dust upon what is actually a chthonic--slow--turning over and over. Often I would drift off while reading, and they would enter my dreams, the axolotls and the sentences both, together.
"Axolotl" is probably the best story in this collection. The sentences are what I fell in love with first, but Cortazar is preoccupied with other notions. With the idea of becoming the Other, switching identities, with time, with perception. Most of these concepts, dare I say it, are weights that hinder his gifts, yes sometimes even gimmicks. Once you read one story, you begin to see the pattern and start looking for it, which is incredibly distracting, especially when you're trying to focus your eyes on those mysterious sentences at the bottom of the tank. But the particulars, that is where these stories sit implacable, where the concept cannot infringe. I insist that these stories do not need to be weighed down by such concepts, that they should live alone at the level of the sentence, that they need to be freed from the constraints of expectation.
"Axolotl" is probably the best story in this collection. The sentences are what I fell in love with first, but Cortazar is preoccupied with other notions. With the idea of becoming the Other, switching identities, with time, with perception. Most of these concepts, dare I say it, are weights that hinder his gifts, yes sometimes even gimmicks. Once you read one story, you begin to see the pattern and start looking for it, which is incredibly distracting, especially when you're trying to focus your eyes on those mysterious sentences at the bottom of the tank. But the particulars, that is where these stories sit implacable, where the concept cannot infringe. I insist that these stories do not need to be weighed down by such concepts, that they should live alone at the level of the sentence, that they need to be freed from the constraints of expectation.
September 19, 2016
I had the same problem with this book that I've had with most of the short story collections I've read the last few years. I really liked the first stories, but then it only went downhill. I'm almost starting to suspect that this is a conscious strategy - putting the best works first, and then just filling up the rest.
I bought this book solely because of the story "Continuity of Parks", the only thing I had previously read by Cortazar. In only two pages it can be said to contain everything a whole novel contains, and it plays with different narrative levels, bringing the reading main character into the narrative he is reading about in a wonderfully surreal way that I just love.
It was because of this story, and because Cortazar is often compared to Borges, that I wanted to read more by him. And don't get me wrong - there were some stories that I really enjoyed here, like "Axolotl", "House Taken Over" and "The Night Face Up". These were wonderfully surreal, yet easy to follow - just what I was looking for.
But it is extra disappointing when a book that starts out so well, ends up with a long stretch of stories that are just ok.
I bought this book solely because of the story "Continuity of Parks", the only thing I had previously read by Cortazar. In only two pages it can be said to contain everything a whole novel contains, and it plays with different narrative levels, bringing the reading main character into the narrative he is reading about in a wonderfully surreal way that I just love.
It was because of this story, and because Cortazar is often compared to Borges, that I wanted to read more by him. And don't get me wrong - there were some stories that I really enjoyed here, like "Axolotl", "House Taken Over" and "The Night Face Up". These were wonderfully surreal, yet easy to follow - just what I was looking for.
But it is extra disappointing when a book that starts out so well, ends up with a long stretch of stories that are just ok.
July 19, 2014
Cortazar's craft as a short story writer is staggering. Even when I wasn't completely engaged by the characters and situations, it was hard not to be blown away by his sinuous, rhythmic way of turning sentences. Like Borges, he operates in a territory where time and memory bleed in and out of each other, where reality flirts with the surreal, the magical and the menacing but is still grounded by the concrete, charmed details of everyday existence. I can't think of many things as utterly mesmerizing as "axoltol" or "continuity of parks" and even the longer ones, while not quite as mysterious or fabulistic, are still beautifully odd and evocative. It's not Hopscotch, but at its best these are still mostly wonderful.
June 25, 2016
Well, shit. Now I have to change my opinion of Cortazar. These stories, at least toward the beginning of this collection are in a vein quite separate from that of Hopscotch, a book I loathed. And as much perverse pleasure as I've gotten out of poo-pooing that novel, I know now that at some point I'm going to have to give it a second chance. This was just too good.
I'm fairly sure that in every picture I've seen of Borges, he's wearing a suit. Imagine that old gentlemen instead in flip-flops and a greasy t-shirt, and you might have some kind of metaphor for the way Cortazar writes. Our friend Cortazar is a lot looser with his language, but often that same Borgesian cosmic weight is felt in his work. I'm not particularly adept at describing prose, so I'll just say it's good. Really good. This was just too good.
I'm fairly sure that in every picture I've seen of Borges, he's wearing a suit. Imagine that old gentlemen instead in flip-flops and a greasy t-shirt, and you might have some kind of metaphor for the way Cortazar writes. Our friend Cortazar is a lot looser with his language, but often that same Borgesian cosmic weight is felt in his work. I'm not particularly adept at describing prose, so I'll just say it's good. Really good. This was just too good.
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