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Thread: Cortázar, Julio

  1. #1
    On the road, but not! Danik 2016's Avatar
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    Cortázar, Julio

    I am opening a short story thread for discussing the short stories of Julio Cortázar.

    I tried to add the part of the Canterbury Tales thread, that refers to Cortázar.

    http://www.online-literature.com/for...=1#post1343134
    "I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
    Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row

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    On the road, but not! Danik 2016's Avatar
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    I´m impressed that your library has Cortázar short stories collections in English.

    The choice for the next story is yours.
    Last edited by Danik 2016; 10-03-2017 at 08:29 AM.
    "I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
    Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row

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    Maybe YesNo's Avatar
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    I think I will try to read these in Spanish using the link you provided earlier: https://culturacolectiva.com/letras/...e-luis-borges/

    How about "Casa tomada": http://ciudadseva.com/texto/casa-tomada/ There is also a YouTube reading of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGGOv3t3BMo It is easier for me to understand if I can hear it. I may learn some Spanish at the same time.

  4. #4
    On the road, but not! Danik 2016's Avatar
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    "Casa tomada" is one of my favorites too. And it´s a great idea to use the reading of the story to remember or improve your Spanish. I try to do this with my English in the forum.

    I´ll have a look at the you tube reading.
    "I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
    Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row

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    Maybe YesNo's Avatar
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    I finished the story. It seemed to me that the house was taken over by all that knitting coming alive, but that wasn't clear to me. One of the good things about them losing their house is that they finally were forced to get out of it. It was a good story--haunting without being scary.

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    On the road, but not! Danik 2016's Avatar
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    Interesting interpretation. I hadn´t thought of that. I read the story as a political metaphor: Argentinia taken over by the military dictatorship and people having less and less liberty and space to move.

    "Lejana" or "No se culpe a nadie" next?
    "I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
    Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row

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    I was unaware of the politics of Argentina, but that interpretation would make sense. There was the mention in the story that nothing came into Argentina since 1939.

    "Lejana" sounds good. Here is the text: http://ciudadseva.com/texto/lejana/ And here is a reading of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzUEqGeuDzM

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    On the road, but not! Danik 2016's Avatar
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    I´m looking forward to it.
    "I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
    Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row

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    Maybe YesNo's Avatar
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    I read Lejana, however, I will have to read it again. It seemed that Alina dreamed of meeting someone on a bridge in Budapest and got married so she could go to Budapest and meet that person. Unless I totally misunderstood it. As a premonition the story was pretty good.

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    On the road, but not! Danik 2016's Avatar
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    You are right, Yes/ No, although,if I remember the story rightly, Aline feels drawn to Budapest as if by a force that she can´t resist. The marriage would be a movement of resistance.

    But I am rereading the story too, to remember the details.
    "I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
    Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row

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    Maybe YesNo's Avatar
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    She did seem to be drawn to Budapest to meet someone on a bridge. That was what kept my interest in the story: what was drawing her?

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    The anagram "Alina Reyes, es la reina y…" seems to dictate her destiny. She is the queen, with her very ordered but somewhat boring bourgeois life. As I see the story she gets more and more possessed by the identity of the unknown beggar woman of Budapest like the man who got obsessed with the axolotles. When they meet on the bridge there is the definite exchange of identity.
    "I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
    Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row

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    Her last name, Reyes, means Kings, so perhaps that is why she views herself as the "reina" or queen. What she predicted to see on that bridge was rather mundane. That she actually got there at all is what I find amazing. This does not seem to be an act of will on only her part.

    There is a sense of magical realism in the these stories. Perhaps that is what makes them interesting.

  14. #14
    On the road, but not! Danik 2016's Avatar
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    I don´t think she views herself as a reina, she seems to be bored by her life as an upper class girl and even by her fiancee. I think that is where it all starts. One of the things I like about Cortázar is how he takes peoples unconcious feelings and fears and transforms them in something very concrete, like an besieged house, for example. I don´t know if that is magic realism. It is very different from García Marques.

    If you want to go on with Cortázar, I suggest "No se culpe a nadie".
    "I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
    Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row

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    Garcia Márquez is not the paragorn of Magic Realism, if there is any. The very definition is of Magic Realism is sloopy, may be or not be something purelly aesthetical under Borges influence or something related to latin american resistense against imperialism under Carpentier influence. Anyways, it is sometimes a label, very alike the Latin American Boom, that Europeans used to group sometimes distinct authors (sometimes not so so) for an easy understanding and consume in europe.

    At any rate, not about this tale, but it is easy to identify magical realism traits in some of Cortázar work, after all he is heavily influenced by Borges (and precussors such as Poe and Kafka - which can be said about Márquez too), but some of his stories are clearly out of the label.
    #foratemer

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