Julio Cortázar
Magic realism at its finest. (Vol. 2; Issue 47)
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The Stop
Julio Cortázar (26 August 1914 - 12 February 1984), was an Argentine intellectual, novelist and short story writer whose work combined ‘existential questioning with experimental writing techniques.’ Considered a central author in the genre of South American magic realism,1 Cortázar created fiction in which the ‘laws of ordinary reality are almost always subverted by the surreal and the fantastical.’ Generally agreed to be a ‘modern master’ of the short story, his four novels explore - through a variety of forms - ‘basic questions’ about the place of human beings in society.2
Born in Brussels to Argentine parents,3 Cortázar’s first years were spent in Barcelona until the family returned to Argentina when he was four. A sickly child, he spent a large portion of his childhood in bed and ‘reading became his great companion.’ Though he attended the University of Buenos Aires and studied philosophy and languages, he never completed his studies. While working as a secondary school teacher and translator, in 1938 he published his first book - a volume of sonnets - under the pseudonym Julio Denis, though he would later ‘disparage this volume.’ In 1944, he became professor of French Literature at the National University of Cuyo, where in 1949 he would publish his first play - The Kings - based on the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur.
In 1951, motivated by a dissatisfaction with the government of Juan Perón and what he saw as the ‘general stagnation of the Argentine middle class,’ as a ‘statement of his opposition,’ Cortázar emigrated to France - where he would live until his death. This year also saw the publication of his first collection of short stories - Bestiary - and the beginning of his work as a translator with UNESCO. As part of this work, Cortázar translated numerous authors into Spanish, including Daniel Defoe and Edgar Allan Poe - both of whom became decisive influences on his fiction. Further collections of stories quickly followed, including End of the Game (1956) and The Secret Weapons (1958) - several of which would later be translated into English and published as End of the Game, and Other Stories in 1967.
In addition to short stories, Cortázar published poetry, plays, numerous volumes of essays and four experimental novels including The Winners (1960),4 62: A Model Kit (1968) and A Manual for Manuel (1973). His ‘masterpiece,’ however, is Hopscotch (1963) - a ‘dazzling literary experiment that ranks among the best novels written in Spanish’ - which concerns an Argentinian expat’s ‘existential and metaphysical’ explorations in the nightlife of Paris and Buenos Aires. An open-ended antinovel5 influenced by Modernism, Surrealism and jazz, Hopscotch is structured so that the reader can choose either a traditional linear reading or a non-linear one in which the linear version is rearranged according to the author’s plan which interpolates additional chapters in order to create an entirely different novel.6
Throughout his life Cortázar was politically engaged and, despite living in France, eventually obtained dual French and Argentinian citizenship and for many years returned to his home country. This was stopped in 1971 when the ruling junta, having ‘taken exception to several of his short stories,’ officially exiled him. Cortázar’s politics continued to move left and he became engaged in various causes and supported both the Cuban Revolution and Nicaragua’s Sandinista government. At the time of his death from leukemia in Paris in 1984, he was focused on opposing human rights abuses in Latin America.
The Detour
Today’s Detour is to Don Hertzfeldt’s World of Tomorrow. A brilliant film (16:32) in which a little girl is taken on a bizarre, mind-bending exploration of her distant future, it was a 2016 Academy Award nominee for Best Animated Short Film. Strange, funny and remarkably prescient - it’s worth a watch.
The Recommendation
Today’s recommendation is Cortazar’s Blow-up and Other Stories (1968). Containing fifteen short stories, it is rightfully considered one of the best collections of the form, regardless of the genre. Three of my favourites - ‘Axolotl,’ ‘Continuity of Parks’ and ‘The Night Face Up’ - were regulars in my 10th grade Honours English class back in the late 90s. Brilliant stories all, it was fun getting the class to figure out exactly when the ‘switch’ in each one occurred - and how, exactly, Cortázar pulled this off linguistically. It’s a great book - and one I highly recommend.
From the back: A young girl spends her summer vacation in a country house where a tiger roams … A man reading a mystery finds out too late that he is the murderer’s victim … In the stories collected here - including ‘Blow-Up,’ on which Antonioni based his film7 - Julio Cortázar explores the boundary where the everyday meets the mysterious, perhaps even the terrible. This is the most brilliant and celebrated book of short stories by a master of the form.
You can buy Blow-Up and Other Stories from Amazon, but you can also get it from new or used local bookstores - or even check it out from the library. And those options are better for everyone.
The Sounds
Today’s playlist is composed of five upbeat tracks that have appeared on many mixes over the past decade or so. Don’t knock them - they’re well-crafted, good tunes: ‘Heavyweight Champion of the World’ (Reverend and The Makers, 2007), ‘Classic’ (MKTO, 2013), ‘Little Dark Age’ (MGMT, 2018), ‘Everybody Talks’ (Neon Trees, 2012), and ‘Candy’ (Robbie Williams, 2012). Enjoy!
The Thought
Today’s Thought is, of course, from Cortázar:
‘Memory is a mirror that scandalously lies.’
If you have a thought on this Thought - or any part of today’s issue - please leave a comment below:
And that’s the end of this Stop - I hope you enjoyed the diversion!
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Until the next Stop …
Magic realism is a predominantly Latin American genre characterised by the ‘matter-of-fact inclusion of fantastical or mythical elements into seemingly realistic fiction.’ Famous authors in this genre include Gabriel García Márquez, Jorge Amado, Isabel Allende, Jorge Luis Borges and, of course, Cortázar.
I really enjoy Cortázar. I reread a couple of his stories last night for the first time in years and was as captivated by them as I had been 25 years or so ago. Sources for today’s Stop include: Julio Cortázar (Britannica), Cortázar (New World Encyclopedia), Julio Cortázar, The Art of Fiction No. 83 (The Paris Review) and Magic Realism (Britannica).
His father was part of Argentina’s diplomatic presence. As nationals of a neutral country, they were able to pass through Switzerland and eventually reside in Barcelona where the young Cortázar spent so much time in the Park Güell that the ‘colourful ceramics would remain vivid in his memory for many years.’ A must-see if you’re in Barcelona, for more information see: Park Güell.
This is a fun book. His first published novel, it was out of print for years until the New York Review of Books reprinted it in 1999 as part of its inaugural catalogue. I picked it up because I was teaching a few of Cortázar’s short stories at the time and found it really enjoyable. Give it a try.
‘Antinovel’ was first used by Jean-Paul Sartre in 1948 and became the term to describe a type of experimental (largely French) fiction produced by writers who believed the ‘potential of the traditional novel had been exhausted.’ Rather than traditional conventions, these authors were interested in ‘more demanding fiction, presenting compressed, repetitive, or only partially explained events whose meaning is rarely clear or definitive.’ See: New Novel (Antinovel) (Britannica).
It’s bizarre, but really fun - especially if you read the linear version first, wait a while, and then read the non-linear version. One volume, two totally different books.
This is Michelangelo Antonioni’s film Blow-Up (1966), the quintessential 1960s art-film. To say it’s based on the Cortázar story is more than overstatement - with the exception of a photographer being the central character, there’s little similarity - but that’s irrelevant for a film that remains a film-school and film-aficionado staple for good reason. For a great revisiting-the-film review by Roger Ebert from 1998, see: Blow-Up (Ebert Revisit Review).
I actually don't know this work so thank you for passing it along! But my novel is very far from being perfect and in fact that is precisely what told me that I was no longer writing in the novel form. I characterized it to my business partner as a 'tesseractic text', in that it was a 3D shadow of a 4D object but only incompletely read in our usual 3D space. 'St. Kirsten' is thus an analogue shadow narrative of a digital interactive immersion experience. I'm going to try to get it out next year sometime.
This was very handy Bryan as my most recent novel is very much in this pedigree. So much so, I rather ostentatiously entitled it 'the last novel', as in, this is the end of the novel as narrative form, finally.
I think my transition to writing for digital in my recent role as CEO of a gaming software start-up prompted this post-novel book, but I have no doubt if interactive media had been around in the 1920s onward, authors such as Cortazar and Camus would have leapt on its hydrogen powered bus. - Greg