viernes, 31 de enero de 2020

The 2020 Argentinean Literature of Doom: January

Rodrigo Fresán

Richard, Caravana de recuerdos
Mantra by Rodrigo Fresán

To my knowledge, I was the only doomster to review something for the 2020 Argentinean Literature of Doom this month but no worries since we have 11 months left for the rest of you to catch up to the furious pace of that start of mine.  Still, here's a related ALoD tidbit to beef up the lone link above.  In Pepe Fernández's June 29, 2003 "El país de Juan Rodolfo Wilcock" ["Juan Rodolfo Wilcock's Country"], which I hope to return to later in the Doom calendar year, there's a series of great anecdotes having to do with Argentine turned Italian Borges and Silvina Ocampo and Pier Paolo Pasolini pal/writer and actor and translator J.R. Wilcock.  Would you like to hear the one about the talking cat?  Wilcock, who was meeting with Gigi Proietti at Wilcock's home in Italy to discuss a translation of Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, "exponía sus ideas con una voz calma" ["was calmly expounding his ideas"] according to memoirist Vittorio Gassman "cuando un gato cruzó la habitación diciendo claramente: 'Me voy porque ustedes me aburren'" ["when a cat crossed the room clearly saying, 'I'm leaving because you two are boring me'"].  "El escritor continuó hablando imperturbablemente.  Al cabo de un instante, Gigi no pudo más y preguntó, estupefacto: 'Pero... acabo de ver pasar un gato, ¿no?  'Sí, sí, es mi gato.'  'Me imaginaba pero, ¿habla?'  Y Wilcock, secamente: 'Sí, pero no siempre.  Así que como decíamos, Fausto...'" ["The writer continued speaking as if nothing had happened.  After a moment, Gigi couldn't take it any more and, stunned, asked, 'But...did I just see a cat pass by?'  'Yes, yes, that's my cat.'  'I thought so, but he talks?'  Wilcock, drily: 'Yes, but not all the time.  So as we were saying, Faust...'"].

viernes, 24 de enero de 2020

Mantra

Mantra (Mondadori, 2002)
by Rodrigo Fresán
Spain, 2001

So what might a 2020 Argentinean Literature of Doom novel written in Barcelona but set in Mexico City look like?  Well, I'm so glad you asked!  Three chatty narrators--one about to be dead, one already dead, and one probably lucky not to be dead--weigh in on their association with the shadowy Martín Mantra, who's first introduced to us as a Russian roulette-loving schoolboy with a gun in his hand.  As the quasi-science fiction space time continuum of the 500-plus page opus expands from this, pardon the expression, initial storytelling big bang, the shape-shifting Mantra is revealed to be either the prodigal son of a super wealthy Mexican film- and telenovela-making family, a guerrilla commander in Chiapas fighting under the comic book-like name of Capitán Godzilla, a sort of messianic figure dear to the lucha libre community or maybe all of the above.  While somewhat repetitive in spots, Fresán's freewheeling shaggy dog story has a lot to commend itself to the Des Esseintes aesthetes among you.  Fellow Roberto Bolaño fans, for example, may well laugh out loud with delight as I did upon coming across this otherwise run of the mill description of one of the young Mantra's tutors--"Chileno.  Poeta.  Arturo, se llamaba.  O Roberto" ["Chilean.  Poet.  His name was Arturo.  Or Roberto"], the face and name of the tutor now hazy but not the image of the poet unleashing verses on his listeners from tabletops "como cayeron las bombas sobre tantas otras ciudades" ["like the bombs dropped on so many other cities"].  Uncredited selections from the poems "En la sala de lecturas del infierno" ["In the Reading Room of Hell"] and "Godzilla en México" ["Godzilla in Mexico"] drop the mic at the end of the inside joke (86-88).  Elsewhere, in the long second section of the book narrated as an A-Z of encyclopedia entries, we're treated to an ace six-page set piece on "D.F. (Historia)" ["Mexico City (History)"] told backwards from the here and now of the apocalyptic present  to before the founding of Tenochtitlan--the rewind style leading to such bodily fluid highlights as "Veo a Malcolm Lowry aterrorizado por su propio vómito saltándole a la cara con la ferocidad de un organismo extraterrestre" ["I see Malcolm Lowry horrified by his own vomit pouring back into his face with the ferocity of an extraterrestrial organism"] and "El esperma conquistador de Cortés vuelve a sus testículos conquistadores" ["Cortés' conquistador sperm returns to his conquistador testicles"] (237 & 240).  Mantra, which was commissioned by Mondadori to be the Mexico City entry in a series of novels dedicated to the great metropolises of the world, naturally has more than its share of local color.  The flavors come in varieties 1) expected--the description of a masked wrestling-themed food joint known as El Cuadrilátero ["The Ring"], purveyors of a nearly three-pound sandwich known as "la legendaria torta Gladiador" ["the legendary Gladiator torta"]; 2) unexpected--as in the revelation that the Cafetería El Cuadrilátero actually exists and can be sought out by the hungry reader at Luis Moya 73, Local Cuatro, Colonia Centro (260-262); and 3) super unexpected--get back to me once any of you poseurs come up with a character name as awe-inspiring as Jesús Nazareno y de Todos los Santos Mártires en la Tierra Fernández (a.k.a) Black Hole (a.k.a) Mano Muerta.  For those looking for more doom than comedy, rest assured that you can find it here mixed--a married woman's comic lament that "Yo vivo en el primer párrafo de Ana Karenina" ["I live in the first paragraph of Anna Karenina"] (352)--or straight up courtesy of Joan Vollmer's bitter rant from beyond the grave over being left a permanent resident of Mexico City with a hole in the forehead "y el sonido de mar que hace una bala cuando entra en tu cabeza" ["and the sound of the sea that a bullet makes when it enters your head"] thanks to her hubby William Burroughs' fondness for playing with guns whilst on vacation (496).  Anyway, hope you get the ALoD picture.

Rodrigo Fresán (Buenos Aires, 1963)

domingo, 5 de enero de 2020

Les gouvernantes

Les gouvernantes (Champ Vallon, 1992)
por Anne Serre
Francia, 1992

Les gouvernantes [Las institutrices; en inglés, The Governesses], la divertida primera novela de la francesa Anne Serre, tiene toda la riqueza narrativa de una fábula, un cuento de hadas erótico o incluso una novelita de don César Aira.  Las tres institutrices del título, Eléonore, "une espèce de femme à la manière d'Ingres" ["una especie de mujer en el estilo de Ingres"], Laura, "plus douce, plus tendre" ["más dulce, más cariñosa"], e Inès, "très espagnole...la plus vive des trois" ["muy española...la más vivaz de las tres"] (61-62), viven en un mundo cerrado y casi mágico centrado en la casa y el terreno de sus empleadores el monsieur Austeur y la madame Austeur.  Allí las adolescentes organizan fiestas elaboradas para los chicos de la casa, tienen aventuras amorosas bastante picantes, van de excursiones desnudas y otras cosas por el estilo.  Serre tiene una manera traviesa con sus palabras como se puede ver en las descripciones de sus protagonistas: se dice que Laura tiene "une langue serpentine" ["una lengua serpentina"], Eléonore está sujeta a "vipérines pensées" ["pensamientos venenosos"] y, una mañana, todas las chicas "s'arment de stylets" ["se arman con tacones de aguja"] y llevan "un aspic entre leurs seins" ["una víbora entre los senos"] (57, 62 y 63).  El lenguaje, aunque juguetón, está enriquecido por su lado sexualizado y sus alusiones ironizantes a la historia de Eva y la serpiente.  Serre, que recién publicó una novela que se llama Viaje con Vila-Matas en la que el famosísimo español se convierte en el narrador del libro, también demuestra una sensibilidad caprichosa en cuanto a su punto de vista autorial; una escena concluye con el comentario que "C'est une scène pareille à celle d'un conte, parce qu'alors des animaux apparaissent à la lisière du bois" ["Es una escena semejante a la de un cuento porque luego aparecen unos animales en el borde del bosque"] (69) y otra, cerca del final, concluye con la desaparición de los personajes de la página.  Genial.

Anne Serre