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This thread is for posting questions and links to resources for Julio Cortázar's novel, Hopscotch.

Hopscotch is actually two novels in one. The first version is in a normal format of 56 chapters read sequentially. The second version is the original 56 chapters with an additional 99 chapters inserted between them in a sequence given by the author that looks like this:

Chapter Sequence for second version

73-1-2-116-3-84-4-71-5-81-74-6-7-8-93-68-9-104-10-65-11-136-12-106-13-115-14-114-117-15-120-16-137-17-97-18-153-19-90-20-126-21-79-22-62-23-124-128-24-134-25-141-60-26-109-27-28-130-151-152-143-100-76-101-144-92-103-108-64-155-123-145-122-112-154-85-150-95-146-29-107-113-30-57-70-147-31-32-132-61-33-67-83-142-34-87-105-96-94-91-82-99-35-121-36-37-98-38-39-86-78-40-59-41-148-42-75-43-125-44-102-45-80-46-47-110-48-111-49-118-50-119-51-69-52-89-53-66-149-54-129-139-133-140-138-127-56-135-63-88-72-77-131-58-131

If you look closely, you’ll see that interspersed with the new chapters, the original 56 chapters are still read in order, with the exception of chapter 55 which is not included in this second version. You will also see that chapter 131 is read two times at the end of the sequence.

What Cortázar asks of us is to read his 56-chapter novel, then re-read an enhanced, 155-chapter version of the same story. And so that is what we’ll do. The challenge for Brain Pain is how to discuss the experience in our usual format. Here’s the plan:

We’ll spend the first four weeks reading the 56-chapter version and the second four weeks reading the 155-chapter version and in week nine, we can do a full compare and contrast of the two versions as a whole. A detailed schedule is available here:

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/9...

It is likely that members will want to do comparisons during the second four weeks as we go through the second version of the novel, which should work well. One strategy to try is to take notes about your impressions of characters, places, and events during your reading of the first version. Then you can compare those impressions with the second, longer version of the story.



Here are a few resources for Julio Cortázar and Hopscotch:

Wikipedia page for Hopscotch:




Wikipedia page for Julio Cortázar:




Paris Review interview with Cortázar from 1984:



Feel free to post your questions and add links for Hopscotch and Cortázar.

Also, if you’ve written a review of the book, please post a link to share with the group.

This is the read i've probably been looking forward to the most. Going to try and contribute to this on a regular basis. Work has really slowed my reading down.

So will there be an ongoing discussion for the first 4 weeks or will there be seperate threads for each week?

Travis wrote: "This is the read i've probably been looking forward to the most. Going to try and contribute to this on a regular basis. Work has really slowed my reading down.

So will there be an ongoing discuss..."

I split the reading into four parts so that there wouldn't be too many pages to cover each week, especially for people who find their work impinging on their reading time - LOL!

There is one plot point in particular that could serve as a spoiler, so I'd prefer if we discuss the first four weeks in parts. For the second four weeks, we'll already know said plot point, so spoiler issue won't exist. The challenge, I think, is finding ways to discuss the two versions. I guess 'compare and contrast' is the most likely way to go. I'm open to suggestions for this book.

I'm looking forward to this also. I've only read it the long way, so I will be reading it the short way for the first time. Also, I think Cortazar was really open to different ways of reading his book, not just the ones prescribed. He truly intended the book to contain MANY books.

I've heard of one university class where the professor intentionally let everyone decide which way they wished to navigate through the novel (not just the prescribed ways, but any way the student wishes, whether by throwing dice to determine the next chapter to read or whatnot) and then come back and share what they've learned each week. This method would also be interesting because they could start to see different student's paths crossing in interesting ways.

I'm really looking forward to this one as well. I'm waiting for my book in the mail, but I'm thinking the sequence will make perfect sense as soon as I get a copy and take a look at it.

For me, the exciting thing about reading Hopscotch is that it's a book that hinges on physicalness and random access. Like many, I've been doing a lot more reading on my kindle, which is a linear device. The kindle is great, but Hopscotch, and probably Infinite Jest as well, will affirm that the physical book has qualities that cannot be replicated on an ereader.

Jimmy wrote: "I'm looking forward to this also. I've only read it the long way, so I will be reading it the short way for the first time. Also, I think Cortazar was really open to different ways of reading his b..."

Throwing the dice sounds like fun, but the book is set in two locations - first in Paris with the Serpent Club characters, then in Buenos Aires with a different set of characters. Chaotic, but maybe fun if you could find a 155-sided dice.

Casey wrote: "For me, the exciting thing about reading Hopscotch is that it's a book that hinges on physicalness and random access. Like many, I've been doing a lot more reading on my kindle, which is a linear device. The kindle is great, but Hopscotch, and probably Infinite Jest as well, will affirm that the physical book has qualities that cannot be replicated on an ereader. ..."

Yes, I'm definitely thinking that Hopscotch, IJ, and House of Leaves should all be read as physical books.

Good timing, my copy arrived an hour ago. Looking forward to it, and despite my recent moving to a different town, I shall catch up on all the recent reads, and post comments on books already past, because.. well, you let me.

Jim wrote: "Jimmy wrote: "I'm looking forward to this also. I've only read it the long way, so I will be reading it the short way for the first time. Also, I think Cortazar was really open to different ways of..."

We can probably find a generator or algorithm for that, if you are really into this sort of stuff.

Whoo-ee!! So excited about this! I finally finished Gravity's Rainbow last night, as a cross-country move just played havoc with my reading as well. But one of the (many) good things about being back in Berkeley is that I was able to stroll on over to my trusty old used book store today and get a copy of Hopscotch, so I am ready ready and raring to hop.

Procrastination has probably been the bigger contributor if I'm being honest hahaha. Sticking to this as my main read so i dont get distracted. I was originally only going to read it through the long way but i think i will attempt to do it both ways now.

Travis wrote: "Procrastination has probably been the bigger contributor if I'm being honest hahaha. Sticking to this as my main read so i dont get distracted. I was originally only going to read it through the lo..."

Well, I think skipping the short version defeats Cortazar's purpose. The short version has missing information that makes it one kind of experience, while the second version is a different experience entirely, both because certain mysteries are explained, plus you already know the main plot, but will see it differently with the extra chapters - or so I've been lead to believe...

@Rachel - Welcome back to Berkeley! It's the first town I lived in in California back in '85. Books, coffee shops, and a view of San Francisco Bay! Enjoy!

I'd be interested in seeing what can be found out by comparing/contrasting short and long versions.

Also: Cortazar directly references about a million other works of literature (both real and imagined) in this book. It would be cool if we could document all the works referenced as we come across them, and create a kind of "table of references" with page numbers and such.

I can't imagine reading this books except in their physical form-the reading of them profoundly involves touch and holding and physical manipulation of the text. (and I am a huge reader of e-books)

A friend told me A Savage War of Peace: Algeria, 1954-1962 is a good background/secondary material to the book.

Jim -- You wrote elsewhere: "What Cortázar asks of us is to read his 56-chapter novel, then re-read an enhanced, 155-chapter version of the same story."

My copy doesn't say or even necessarily imply that, although it would seem prima facie a reasonable thing to do. My question is, given your comments, where has Cortázar elsewhere (letters, interviews, other editions,...) indicated that was his intent for readers?

My perusal of the longer reading suggests to me that the original chapters remain in their original order (except 55, which appears to be dropped), but the insertions ("expendable chapters" 57-155) are not added in any readily discernible numerical order.

Hi All,

I actually have a used copy of Hopscotch I bought for a buck and change at the SF public library about a year ago. It's an old white paperback that Signet (I think) released back in the day I couldn't get into but I jumped into the expanded version and didn't read the shorter version first.

Maybe that was a mistake at the time. Since I still have the book and I really enjoyed GR with Brain Pain, I'm going to try and give Hopscotch the read it deserves.

My reading schedule is limited now, and really needs to be rescheduled, so we will see how this works out.

*waves to everybody*

-Matt


-Matt

Lily wrote: "Jim -- You wrote elsewhere: "What Cortázar asks of us is to read his 56-chapter novel, then re-read an enhanced, 155-chapter version of the same story."

My copy doesn't say or even necessarily imp..."

I have the Pantheon edition. If you have that edition take a look at the "Table of Instructions":

"The first can be read..."

"The second should be read..."

In looking at resources about the book, what is implied is that the first version is somewhat mysterious, or at least ambiguous, and the second version is supposed to clear up some of the ambiguities.

Jim wrote: @Rachel - Welcome back to Berkeley! It's the first town I lived in in California back in '85. Books, coffee shops, and a view of San Francisco Bay! Enjoy!"

Hey, thanks!! While living in unincorporated DeKalb County, GA has its merits, I am SO GLAD TO BE BACK. Long live books, coffee shops, books, views of the bay and books.

Ali wrote: "And so on. I'm not sure why your copy wouldn't have that, but in case you absolutely can't find the table of instructions, I'm sure it can be typed out to the group. ..."

I have the introduction you quote. But, Ali, all those words do not, to my reading, comprise a "should" or "asking of" from Cortázar, but rather a straight-forward statement of the conditions of the "two" books without an "ought" from the author.

Jim's comments about the relationship of what the critics say happens between the two versions certainly adds credence to a logic of reading one and then the other; still, I find it interesting that at least two who have commented here apparently read the longer version on their first read. I'm not objecting to the proposal for this group, just attempting to plumb the reasoning.

I may be late starting the book. But I'd like to share what the translator Gregory Rabassa wrote about the novel, from his memoir If This Be Treason: Translation and Its Dyscontents (highly recommended to those interested in translation and/or Latin American literature).

"Hopscotch was the book that got me started in transla­tion, that won me that National Book Award [for Translation, no longer awarded], and also led me to do One Hundred Years of Solitude. García Márquez wanted me to do his book but at the moment I was tied up with Miguel Ángel Asturias’s “banana trilogy.�� Cortázar told Gabo to wait, which he did, to the evident satisfaction of all con­cerned. So Hopscotch was for me what the hydrographic cliché calls a watershed moment as my life took the direction it was to follow from then on. I hadn’t read the book but I skimmed some pages and did two sample chapters, the first and one far­ther along, I can’t remember which. Editor Sara Blackburn and Julio both liked my version and I was off and away.

"What drew me to the novel and to Julio were the varie­gated interests he and I had in common: jazz, humor, liberal politics, and inventive art and writing. As I have said, I read the complete novel only as I translated it. This strange and uncommon procedure somehow followed the nature of the book it­self and I do not think it hurt the translation in any way. In­deed, it may have insured its success. ...

"One stiff-necked critic was outraged that he should be called upon to read the novel twice. Julio wrote me and figu­ratively shook his head over the fact that the poor boob did not know that he was being toyed with. He went on to say that it was bad enough to ask people to read his novel once, let alone twice. He would never do such a thing. When I finished the translation I remembered the instructions at the beginning and realized that I had offered a third reading of the novel by simply barging through from the first page to the last. What that obtuse critic had not realized was that hopscotch is a game, something to be played. The version that Julio had sketched out on the cover of the novel was evidently the way the game is played in Argentina, starting on a square called Earth and following the numbers to a square called Heaven. It was only natural that his intellectual friskiness should have been noticed by his countryman, Jorge Luis Borges, who was the first to publish Julio’s work. Would that their poor, trou­bled and so often solemn birthplace had been more like them in its history. Cortázar also maintained that our species was misnamed and should have been called homo ludens (nothing to do with any coughing gays)."

Rabassa then discussed some language and translation issues in the book. Excerpts can be read here:

Very cool. Thanks Ryan

Also, I agree that understanding Cortazar's sense of play is very important. Here's a quote by him in a Paris Review interview:

"For me, literature is a form of play. But I’ve always added that there are two forms of play: football, for example, which is basically a game, and then games that are very profound and serious. When children play, though they’re amusing themselves, they take it very seriously. It’s important. It’s just as serious for them now as love will be ten years from now. I remember when I was little and my parents used to say, “Okay, you’ve played enough, come take a bath now.�� I found that completely idiotic, because, for me, the bath was a silly matter. It had no importance whatsoever, while playing with my friends was something serious. Literature is like that—it’s a game, but it’s a game one can put one’s life into. One can do everything for that game."

Thanks for the conversation above -- you are touching on what I was searching for, but hadn't taken the time to go looking for (ah, dangling prepositions, d...).

Somehow, I'm expecting this, based on the first few pages, to be somewhat like reading Durrell's The Alexandria Quartet , one of my favorite sets of books which has (have? -- yes, "one set has", but "books have") been sitting on my to-be re-read pile for much too long. We'll see if my guess is at all accurate -- same story revisited from different perspectives of space and time. At the moment I am charmed by one difference I feel from tackling Joyce's Ulysses (currently an effort abandoned, but too much sunk cost to want to walk away entirely, at least not yet) -- here, the erudition seems presented as a adjunct to living, necessary to some, oft irrelevant to others who strip life to different essentials. But, I'm curious, too, if these initial reactions will stand the test of further time invested.

Ryan wrote: ". The version that Julio had sketched out on the cover of the novel was evidently the way the game is played in Argentina, starting on a square called Earth and following the numbers to a square called Heaven. ..."

This is similar to Life, a User's Manual, where the stories jump around to different apartments in a building in the pattern of a knight on a chessboard.

I've been lugging Hopscotch with me for many years, not quite ever getting to it. I was originally intending to read it in the 'hopscoth' manner, but I like the idea of reading it once in the 'boring', normal way, and then comparing it to reading it the more adventurous way. You can't really do it the other way around if you want to compare.

Whitney wrote: "Ryan wrote: ". The version that Julio had sketched out on the cover of the novel was evidently the way the game is played in Argentina, starting on a square called Earth and following the numbers t..."

It also resembles, in its hopping spirit, The Unfortunates, a book-in-a-box by B. S. Johnson. The reading direction was printed on the inside of the box. It reads (center aligned in my edition):

NOTE
__________________________________

THIS novel has
twenty-seven sections,
temporarily held together by a
removable wrapper.

Apart from the first
and last sections
(which are marked as such)
the other
twenty-five sections
are intended to be read
in random order.

If readers prefer not
to accept the random order in
which they receive the novel,
then they may
re-arrange the sections into any
other random order before
reading.

I finally took the time to read the Wiki article on our author, Julio Cortázar:

Given my reaction to the first pages of Hopscotch, it was a little startling to encounter the following: "Cortázar also mentions Lawrence Durrell's The Alexandria Quartet several times in Hopscotch. Cortázar's first wife, Aurora Bernárdez, translated Durrell into Spanish while Cortázar was writing the novel."

I haven't read AQ to any extent since 1964-'65 and my memory of the characters is not crisp, but La Maga is already reminding me of aspects of the women in the Quartet.

(Cortázar's bio is fine, but, unless you don't mind spoilers, I wouldn't suggest visiting the Wiki page on Hopscotch itself.)

I noticed whilst reading the first section of the book and looking up the Jazz songs that 'The Club' play that there is an album which contains all these songs named Jazzuela: La Musica de Rayuela (Hopscotch) which is available from Amazon or Youtube. Makes it easily accessible for all the Jazz songs mentioned and gives you that extra little connection to the narrative.

Travis wrote: "I noticed whilst reading the first section of the book and looking up the Jazz songs that 'The Club' play that there is an album which contains all these songs named Jazzuela: La Musica de Rayuela ..."

Thank you for the info!Very interesting, I'm looking to hear this.

Cool! Thanks Travis.

I just bought Jazzuela... have been listening to it all morning. Really puts me in the Hopscotch mood! What a cool idea, a soundtrack to a book.

Now if I could only read every book referenced in Hopscotch also ;).

nice find, thanks!

Awesome find Travis. I was just thinking that it would be awesome to have a soundtrack to Hopscotch. There are moments where I hear Cortazar talking about Jazz, and Louis, and Bessie, and it really puts me in the mood for the setting of Hopscotch, i.e. 50s Paris (so far).

Here is a bibliography for Julio Cortázar/ Hopscotch :

Jaime Alazraki and Ivar Ivask, eds. The Final Island: The Fiction of Julio Cortázar. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1978. Insightful reading of Cortázar’s novels and short stories in the context of the “boom�� period in Latin American literature. Contains a bibliography.

Steven Boldy. The Novels of Julio Cortázar. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1980. Offers an in-depth reading of Cortázar’s major novels, examining the author’s stylistic experimentation as a living process. Contains a bibliography.

Evelyn Picon Garfield. Julio Cortázar. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1975. An excellent introduction to the major works of Cortázar. Contains biographical information on the author as well as a discussion of parody in his work.

Terry J. Peavler. Julio Cortázar. Boston: Twayne, 1990. In this thought-provoking overview and comprehensive treatment of Cortázar’s short stories and novels, the author places Cortázar’s work in a literary and historical context. Contains a chronology and bibliography.

Gordana Yovanovich. Julio Cortázar's Character Mosaic: Reading the Longer Fiction. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press, 1991. Excellent study of characterization in Cortázar’s longer fiction. Discusses the lack of traditional treatment of character in Hopscotch . Also includes a bibliography.

Source: Cyclopedia of Literary Characters, Revised Third Edition

Excerpt from: "Critical Evaluation" by Genevieve Slomski

Enclosing as spoiler, but should be okay through as least chapter 36: (view spoiler)[

"Julio Cortázar was a major figure in what became known as the 'boom' period in Latin American literature. A small group of writers, among them Jorge Luis Borges from Argentina, Alejo Carpentier from Cuba, Mario Vargas Llosa from Peru, José Donoso from Chile, Gabriel García Márquez from Colombia, and Carlos Fuentes from Mexico brought Latin American literature to international prominence within a span of less than thirty years in a literary flowering that had not been matched in Spanish literature since the 'Siglo de Oro,' the golden seventeenth century.

"Hopscotch, Cortázar’s second and most influential, best-known work, may well have had more of an impact on Latin American literary history than any other novel of the 'boom' period because of its revolutionary and iconoclastic structure. It quickly became a best seller in many languages, and it received more critical attention than any of Cortázar’s other works.

"Cortázar’s work is a product of the two schools of writing that dominated Buenos Aires during the period between 1920 and 1940: the Florida group, with its European type of intellectualism, polished style, and universal themes; and the Boedo group, with its realistic scenes, urban themes, and unkempt style. Cortázar’s fiction, however, remains universal, dealing with the search for self-identity, the fantastic that lurks beyond everyday reality, and the relationship between human beings and society. For Cortázar, the fantastic represents an alteration in the laws that govern an ordered reality according to the Western notion of logic and reason. Cortázar initially creates realistic settings and conventional characters in familiar situations, but he soon traps the reader by strange, even nightmarish, events that threaten the established order.

"In Hopscotch, the author revolutionizes the conventional modes of novelistic expression and strives for a new mode of consciousness. That is the real subject of the book. Cortázar demonstrates that the so-called real, concrete world is only one side of a coin whose opposing side is the fantastic, the repressed, the hidden, the taboo. Like the Surrealists, Cortázar ventures to the darker, ignored, and repressed side of human nature: obsessions, desires, and states between dream and wakefulness. He did not consider those darker dimensions to be pathological or abnormal; rather, he considered them to be pathways to a dimension of existence it is necessary to confront in order to appreciate life fully and in all its complexity."

(hide spoiler)]

Julio Cortazar - Rayuela Cap. 32
La carta de La Maga a Rocamadour

YouTube (view spoiler)[

(hide spoiler)]

Here's an interview with Cortázar at the Dalkey site. It contains SPOILERS as he discussed the ending of Rayuela.

He also shared his 5 desert island books.



I'm behind reading the book. But I will surely read the discussion posts for later.

This may be of interest:

A Rejected Chapter from Hopscotch, trans. Alberto Manguel

Ryan wrote: "This may be of interest:

A Rejected Chapter from Hopscotch, trans. Alberto Manguel

"

Well, that certainly changes my image of Traveler and Talita...

I was watching this avant-garde film this morning and was reminded of chapter 73, which begins the second version of Hopscotch. Although Hopscotch takes place in the late 50's, there feels like there is an undertone of the 1920's Lost Generation Paris, particularly when LaMaga and Oliveira are in the streets of Paris searching for a hotel to make love in.

The film, Ménilmontant, is by Dimitri Kirsanoff and was made in 1926.

Ryan wrote: "Here's an interview with Cortázar at the Dalkey site. It contains SPOILERS as he discussed the ending of Rayuela.

He also shared his 5 desert island books.

..."

This was very interesting Ryan. Thanks for linking to it. The interviewer really takes Cortazar to task for some of his sexism, while still clearly admiring his work.

My review of Hopscotch: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

Link to my review here:

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

This is dated 2014, but somehow came across my screen today. Some may find of interest, even though not a lot of information in the article.

Ariel Dorfman "Brother, Come Back."