Sobre el autor y la obra
-
Atxaga
o
Basque
country, 1951-present
o
One of the major writers of Basque literature;
has become famous due to willingness to translate his works from Euskara
(Basque language) to Spanish and other languages
-
This text is a collection of framed short
stories centered around the fictional Basque village of Obaba, which is peopled
with rascals, innocents, intellectuals, shepherds, hunters, village idiots
(lots of these) and creatures of superstition.
-
Atxaga loves parody, riddles, and manipulating
texts within texts
Comps ideas to consider
-
Basque literature; peripheral/marginalized
narrative
-
Intermingling of fantasy and reality (magical
realism? Or real maravilloso?)
-
Experimental writing: parody and manipulation of
text, some exploration of how to write (sort of metafictitious?)
Structure – 3 parts
En realidad, en una acción
marco -un viaje hacia Obaba, a una reunión en la que se van a narrar historias-
se insertan 26 relatos independientes que, sin embargo, también configuran un
relato único. (Wikipedia)
I.
Childhoods
II.
Nine Words in Honor of the Village of
Villamediana
III.
In search of the last word
Themes/ideas
-
Marginalization of Basque literature/culture
-
Real maravilloso
(or magical realism?)
o
Questioning of the truth of myth
o
Mix of fantasy and reality
-
Metafiction
o
“Acerca de los cuentos”
o
“How to write a story in five minutes”
o
“How to plagiarize”
-
Intertextuality
o
Mentions various authors from all over the world
General notes from text (some of the stories)
Infancias/Childhoods
“Esteban Werfell”
E.W. has many books, notebooks. 1958. Old man who's in Hamburg who wants to write a memo re: his life, yet very doubtful that anyone would read it. Obaba is the place where he's from (we assume). Born out of wedlock, mom died in childbirth. Father is native to Germany, but can't return for sundry reasons. He goes into church for first time, canónigo tries to explain the church, pero "era claro que el argumento no se acomodaba a las circunstancias de mi vida." ... "Sí, la iglesia era un teatro. Con un gran escenario central, con imágenes de hombres barbudos y bancos para el público." While in church, he has a vision of this girl, Maria, asking him to come to her. (Story flashes back and forth between narrator and E.W.'s memoir) Maybe a budding relationship between E.W. and Maria...no, actually, their relationship ends and EW marries someone else. Finds out "La Maria que ud. creyó conocer fue sólo una invención de su padre." Father tried to influence his life by posing as this girl. "I didn't want you to become one of them, like the people of Obaba."
“Exposición de la carta del canónigo Lizardi.”
Some letter from 1903. Written by the canónigo who'd been living in Obaba for three years at the time the letter was written. Tells of an 11 y.o. boy who disappeared in the forest. He went there from time to time (he didn't really have parents). Some parts of the letter have disappeared. One day, un jabalí (wild boar) appeared in town...looked at the kids (kids the boy played with). Some men in the town shoot the animal; it runs back in the forest, wounded. An old man in the town told the men they were wrong to shoot the animal. (naturally, the jabalí is the 11 y.o. boy) The jabalí comes back and attacks some animals of the men to get back at them. The jabalí keeps attacking until the old man goes to talk to the canónigo to ask for permission to kill it. He knows the people of the town will try to kill it y "no le importa que su muerte sea lenta y dolorosa." Canónigo gives in, lets him kill it. Old man goes to cave, tries to kill it, dies. The jabalí is suffering, but alive, decía "madre."So priest finishes him off because he feels bad that he's suffering. Turns out this letter was never sent...the priest was sending it to his son (which would've been too much of a confession).
“Post tenebras spero lucem”
Man teaching at a school in Albania (which is a part of Obaba) de muy bajos recursos. Inspector is supposed to come by and doesn't. It's cold. One little boy goes to school-had worked as a shepherd/pretty strong and on top of things though he's not as literate. Again, theme of letter writing (to Su Mejor Amigo). Servant of the school is worried because he's going to miss a week and he's the only one who knows how to turn on the estufa. Criado and little boy end up sleeping over at the maestra's house, little boy in kitchen because it's the warmest place. Teacher gets mostly undressed, asks boy why he still has on his clothes...(getting weird!) Flashes to other moments in time...Other students knock on the door. She feels like she can't leave her house.
“Saldría a pasear todas las noches”
I. Declaración de Katharina
Katharina would go out and walk at night, but she's afraid of the stories she hears in the papers. She could buy a dog, but it's cold here and it would be inside all day. So, she'll stay inside and work on little projects. Waits for the train to pass, muses about the conductor (apparently, at some point in time, she may have had something with him).
II. Declaración de Marie
She used to walk with her grandpa, horse-Kent, dog-Toby. She's 11. Grandfather would measure the growth of plants. (more stream of consc. because it's the voice of a little girl) Finds out that horses are headed to the butcher, including Kent. Now, she won't go on walks at night porque nos falta Kent.
“Nueve Palabras en honor del pueblo de Villamediana”
Man shows up at kid's house, starts telling his uncle about the first time he met the kid. A doctor is present...I think they throw water on the man (whose problem is he remembers too much) and he gets "electroshock".
Now, 25 years later....house of "un indiano rico" which initially seems like a pretty place, but is somehow tainted. Has a sign "psychiatric hospital". Windows barred so no one could jump out. He's visiting an acquaintance at the hospital...the patient cries because he doesn't recognize him. "no tiene memoria" (opposite problem as before). How much should one remember? 9 words. So, I'm going to tell you the story of Villamedina in 9 words.
1.
Sun: saw it every day. Trigal...colors, etc. vacío, cuervo, y oveja- because usually, houses in the village were empty and crows and sheep were the only residents.
2.
"el helecho y el musgo de los comienzos de mi vida influyen podorosamente en las variaciones de mi estado de ánimo."
**Mi espíritu es en lo fundamental semejante al de las plantas: revive con el buen tiempo, y se apaga con la lluvia o con el frío. And when he first arrived to that town, it was winter. Meets a girl, tells her it's a nice town (though he's lying). She talks to him about the shepherds, how they don't send their kids to school and they buy them sweets instead of books. One of the shepherdesses has two husbands. Talks despectively about the lower classes. He realizes all societies, even the littlest ones, build walls around themselves and throw all of the fetid and negative over that wall (essentially, creating "the other".) "Y cuando el cristianismo, religión de la gente humilde y marginada en sus comienzos, relató el nacimiento del Niño Dios, colocó a su lado a los pastores de Belén por los mismos motivos por los que luego colocó a María Magdalena junto a la cruz." Another guy, Daniel, points out that there are black shepherds and white shepherds. The black one greets you from a mile a way, with a bottle of wine and tells stories of his conquistas. White one is calm, quiet, names Gabriel (who has angel wings in the back).
3.
Only 200 people are left in Villamedina, so newcomers are a novelty. Talks about his neighbor, a viudo, a dirty guy who's always eating. The neighbor is so lonely that a ticking clock feels like company.
4.
There were two bars in town- a more decent one that used to be a casino and another called Nagasaki. (one for the rich, one for the poor) The poor of Nagasaki favored military government- "su visión del mundo estaba impregnada de un pesismismo aderesado con refranes y dichos populares.", also: cazadores. The rich ones were "mitad ilustrada, mitad romántica."
5.
Talking about if heaven exists. seems like a relativist answer. One of the neighbors mentions how when he first walked through town, it seemed lonely and desolate; now a little less so because he knows the residents. (doesn't seem like they're talking about much of importance)
6.
summer homes don't usually have ghosts. abandoned houses do. There are many empty houses in this town. On sunday afternoons, he starts to see this boy walking through the town. One night, decides to walk into boy's neighborhood and sees him studying in a house. He tells his friend about this boy. Turns out to be an enano who tells him, "let me live in peace!" Then, guy puts his foot in his mouth by telling him the word nano comes from the word for deforme. Philosophical discussion about how God could create "imperfect" people, enano says that they used to consider people like him sub-human. They start to become friends. They talk about other words- ánima/animación. In the end, enano dies
7.
All of the young girls in Villamedina lived or worked out of town. Rosi, a 40 y.o., is one of the only women in town, fruit seller. Buys tomatoes from an old man (maybe just so she can see him when he comes around to sell them?)
8.
December is cold. Shepherds are nowhere to be found.
9.
He's leaving town. Taking one last walk to say goodbye to the places he's been.
En busca de la última palabra
“Jóvenes y verdes”
Kids at school, about to get a group photo. Girls from secondary school are supposed to get them ready for the photo. The kids keep the photo, but it doesn't matter much to them because they're "jóvenes y verdes". The world seemed to have so many possibilities. Later, when they're 25, they wonder how they got that old. They blow up the foto 5x and see that one boy had a lizard in his hands. Kids think that lizards can get in your ears and eat your brains. Then, finds out that the boy who was in front of the one with the lizard had gone deaf in that ear (so maybe the mythe is true!) Asks a doctor to look into his story. They head to the (now grown) Lizard-boy-Ismael's pub, called "El lagarto". They ask him if he's responsible for the deaf boy. He says he really doesn't remember what happened. (and that's that...no real conclusion.)
“El criado del rico mercader”
El criado fue al mercado para comprar y vio a la Muerte. He goes back to his amo, asks for the fastest horse to get out of the city of Baghdad to go to Ish. Amo goes to market, sees Muerte, asks why he threatened his servant. Muerte says, I was just surprised to see him here, so far from Ish, where "debo llevarme" a él. (dum dum dummmmm)
“Acerca de los cuentos”
Talking about what makes a story "good". One guy says he knows a good story- the Monkey of Montevideo. One of the guys speaks English. They talk about good stories, like Sueño de Chekov and others (they tell the juicy part of the story without the conclusion) They're driving in a car and stop outside of a pueblo to watch a baile. They determine that the value of a story is not in the story itself, but rather in the way it's told. (Metafiction?!) summary of a manual from Foster Harris about stories (This seems like one of those staged conversations between ilustrados in which they're trying to teach you something by talking about it through characters in the book. This collection of short stories, to me, feels random as he••...different writing styles, different lengths, different time periods, etc.) In this "chapter" the characters seem to reflect on some of the other stories in the book.
“Dayoub, el criado del rico mercader.”
Retelling of story above...When Dayoub gets to Ish, people don't want to help him because he says he's fleeing death. Goes to one man's house-man tells him "You can't run away from death-it will find you here." Man tries to help, so he puts him in a room with many servants. When death comes, he doesn't know who is who so he takes one and leaves...THEN, we find out that the neighbor in front says, "hey, last night I saw a robber leave with a mirror!" (Turns out, the man who helped Dayoub was a mirror maker.)
“Mister Smith”
Men commenting on stories get back together. Meet Mr. Smith, who says he knows a better story. He says "no es la más bonita, sino la más real." Narrator says he's faithfully written down his story, translating a few words from English. The following is his story:
“De soltera, Laura Sligo”
From Dublin, lives in Amazon listening to birds and fish and the snakes. She, along with a few others, have to go upriver (a long trip). They stop for the night and one of them gets bitten by a snake-one of the locals sucks out the venom. Others in the group start to talk about natives in the area, how they attack with different types of venom. She falls unconscious just as another tribe is arriving. Their witch-doctors cure her. They're trying to ask local tribes for news of Laura's husband, but there's none. a man looks around-finds one of her husband's medical books. Tribe leader comes in, takes a man to grave of her husband. ...but it turns out her husband had become one of the local doctors. Since her husband opted to stay with the locals, she wanted to be called by her maiden name and she went back to London with the man who she knew was in love with her.
“Finis Coronat Opus”
Smith finishes telling story. Narrator and friend wonder who he is. Mention of how grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. They're going to present some stories tomorrow. (Theme of the book: These men, walking around Obaba, collecting stories...kind of like a story we read by María de Zayas.) The story: children of Obaba want to learn to ride bikes (basically, child costumbrista-how kids interact with one another) Bike race passing through town. More metafiction: "Publicar los recuerdos de mi ídolo ciclista no me parecía pertinente." But one thing is worth writing down...this card from Gautier (dancing around a glass). Preparing for story reading.
“Por la mañana”
Preparing for the story reading. Uncle's gone to buy croissants. Boys read something of his. Celtic- sounding story (names are Olaf, Gunner ---This book takes you around the world- The Amazons, Celts, Germany, etc). Story about el antiguo dios Odín and how he was born/died. Another story (both have to do with a light apagándose- una vela, un tizón- and someone dying when the light went out.) The next stories in the book are the stories "that were read" at the 'tertulia'-type thing they were doing. "Estaría fuera de lugar continuar...sin antes haber dejado escritos los trabajos arriba mencionados."
“Hans Menscher”
Abandoned house in Hamburg where Hans used to live- a painter, a friend of Munch. Hans became the laughingstock of the neighborhood because of his obsession with painting. He would paint scenes as if he were there (but he wasn't- e.g. Greek ruins). He started to imagine a relationship with an Arab woman, Nabilah, which was going badly, which made him terrified and go even crazier. He died of a stab wound that looked decidedly Arab (but wasn't this not real? dum dum dummmm). Then, a judge finds a card from Arab police that they are looking for Hans because of his relationship with Nabilah (so maybe it was real...dum dum dummmm).
“Para escribir un cuento en 5 minutos”
You will need a clock. Music. Open window. Drink some water. Write this sentence (which is the sentence with which he started his story...) Look at the clock again. Use the dictionary. Write a sentence. (basically, a story of someone killing someone else for love.)
“Klaus Hanhn”
Sept. 2. Klaus' alarms go off, 5:15 am. It was the chosen day to "Cambiar la Vida". His brother Alex had drowned years ago, but he still communicated with him. He was 47 y.o. Used to deliver bread, but won't anymore. "A partir de aquel día viviría siempre así, dulce y lentamente, como un pez dormido que se deja llevar por la corriente." Goes into travel agency/clothing store; Alex tells him to kill the lady, but he doesn't. Goes to a salon for massage, manicure, etc. Wants to go to isla de las tortugas. Goes to fancy restaurant to eat, sits facing the aquarium (to get used to seeing fish). He gets drunk and waiter offers to call a taxi for him. Goes home. Grabs a gun with one bullet. (He's seeing things, hearing things....very bizarre) Enters a dream-like state, brother goes into water and doesn't come back (like his drowning at the beginning--so maybe Hans had caused his brother's death?) (90% of this story feels imaginative.)
Last story:
**marginalization of Basques/language.
“A modo de autobiografía”
El juego de la Oca representa una determinada concepción de la vida...que es una descripción de los trabajos y los días que nos toca pasar en este mundo. La vida=llena de dificultades, intevienen el Azar, nuestra Voluntad. There can also be setbacks along the way. Geese can go on land, water, sea; symbols of wisdom and perfection. The juego de la Oca can also be the autobio of a Basque author born in 1951. Basque authors don't lack tradition-diría que lo que nos faltaba era el antecedente, que nos faltaban libros donde aprender a escribir en nuestra propia lengua. Difficulties of writing in Basque
Yo diría que la primera obligación de un lenguaje literario es la de no molestar. New literary market is now allowing there to be possibilities for Basque lit.
“Esteban Werfell”
E.W. has many books, notebooks. 1958. Old man who's in Hamburg who wants to write a memo re: his life, yet very doubtful that anyone would read it. Obaba is the place where he's from (we assume). Born out of wedlock, mom died in childbirth. Father is native to Germany, but can't return for sundry reasons. He goes into church for first time, canónigo tries to explain the church, pero "era claro que el argumento no se acomodaba a las circunstancias de mi vida." ... "Sí, la iglesia era un teatro. Con un gran escenario central, con imágenes de hombres barbudos y bancos para el público." While in church, he has a vision of this girl, Maria, asking him to come to her. (Story flashes back and forth between narrator and E.W.'s memoir) Maybe a budding relationship between E.W. and Maria...no, actually, their relationship ends and EW marries someone else. Finds out "La Maria que ud. creyó conocer fue sólo una invención de su padre." Father tried to influence his life by posing as this girl. "I didn't want you to become one of them, like the people of Obaba."
“Exposición de la carta del canónigo Lizardi.”
Some letter from 1903. Written by the canónigo who'd been living in Obaba for three years at the time the letter was written. Tells of an 11 y.o. boy who disappeared in the forest. He went there from time to time (he didn't really have parents). Some parts of the letter have disappeared. One day, un jabalí (wild boar) appeared in town...looked at the kids (kids the boy played with). Some men in the town shoot the animal; it runs back in the forest, wounded. An old man in the town told the men they were wrong to shoot the animal. (naturally, the jabalí is the 11 y.o. boy) The jabalí comes back and attacks some animals of the men to get back at them. The jabalí keeps attacking until the old man goes to talk to the canónigo to ask for permission to kill it. He knows the people of the town will try to kill it y "no le importa que su muerte sea lenta y dolorosa." Canónigo gives in, lets him kill it. Old man goes to cave, tries to kill it, dies. The jabalí is suffering, but alive, decía "madre."So priest finishes him off because he feels bad that he's suffering. Turns out this letter was never sent...the priest was sending it to his son (which would've been too much of a confession).
“Post tenebras spero lucem”
Man teaching at a school in Albania (which is a part of Obaba) de muy bajos recursos. Inspector is supposed to come by and doesn't. It's cold. One little boy goes to school-had worked as a shepherd/pretty strong and on top of things though he's not as literate. Again, theme of letter writing (to Su Mejor Amigo). Servant of the school is worried because he's going to miss a week and he's the only one who knows how to turn on the estufa. Criado and little boy end up sleeping over at the maestra's house, little boy in kitchen because it's the warmest place. Teacher gets mostly undressed, asks boy why he still has on his clothes...(getting weird!) Flashes to other moments in time...Other students knock on the door. She feels like she can't leave her house.
“Saldría a pasear todas las noches”
I. Declaración de Katharina
Katharina would go out and walk at night, but she's afraid of the stories she hears in the papers. She could buy a dog, but it's cold here and it would be inside all day. So, she'll stay inside and work on little projects. Waits for the train to pass, muses about the conductor (apparently, at some point in time, she may have had something with him).
II. Declaración de Marie
She used to walk with her grandpa, horse-Kent, dog-Toby. She's 11. Grandfather would measure the growth of plants. (more stream of consc. because it's the voice of a little girl) Finds out that horses are headed to the butcher, including Kent. Now, she won't go on walks at night porque nos falta Kent.
“Nueve Palabras en honor del pueblo de Villamediana”
Man shows up at kid's house, starts telling his uncle about the first time he met the kid. A doctor is present...I think they throw water on the man (whose problem is he remembers too much) and he gets "electroshock".
Now, 25 years later....house of "un indiano rico" which initially seems like a pretty place, but is somehow tainted. Has a sign "psychiatric hospital". Windows barred so no one could jump out. He's visiting an acquaintance at the hospital...the patient cries because he doesn't recognize him. "no tiene memoria" (opposite problem as before). How much should one remember? 9 words. So, I'm going to tell you the story of Villamedina in 9 words.
1.
Sun: saw it every day. Trigal...colors, etc. vacío, cuervo, y oveja- because usually, houses in the village were empty and crows and sheep were the only residents.
2.
"el helecho y el musgo de los comienzos de mi vida influyen podorosamente en las variaciones de mi estado de ánimo."
**Mi espíritu es en lo fundamental semejante al de las plantas: revive con el buen tiempo, y se apaga con la lluvia o con el frío. And when he first arrived to that town, it was winter. Meets a girl, tells her it's a nice town (though he's lying). She talks to him about the shepherds, how they don't send their kids to school and they buy them sweets instead of books. One of the shepherdesses has two husbands. Talks despectively about the lower classes. He realizes all societies, even the littlest ones, build walls around themselves and throw all of the fetid and negative over that wall (essentially, creating "the other".) "Y cuando el cristianismo, religión de la gente humilde y marginada en sus comienzos, relató el nacimiento del Niño Dios, colocó a su lado a los pastores de Belén por los mismos motivos por los que luego colocó a María Magdalena junto a la cruz." Another guy, Daniel, points out that there are black shepherds and white shepherds. The black one greets you from a mile a way, with a bottle of wine and tells stories of his conquistas. White one is calm, quiet, names Gabriel (who has angel wings in the back).
3.
Only 200 people are left in Villamedina, so newcomers are a novelty. Talks about his neighbor, a viudo, a dirty guy who's always eating. The neighbor is so lonely that a ticking clock feels like company.
4.
There were two bars in town- a more decent one that used to be a casino and another called Nagasaki. (one for the rich, one for the poor) The poor of Nagasaki favored military government- "su visión del mundo estaba impregnada de un pesismismo aderesado con refranes y dichos populares.", also: cazadores. The rich ones were "mitad ilustrada, mitad romántica."
5.
Talking about if heaven exists. seems like a relativist answer. One of the neighbors mentions how when he first walked through town, it seemed lonely and desolate; now a little less so because he knows the residents. (doesn't seem like they're talking about much of importance)
6.
summer homes don't usually have ghosts. abandoned houses do. There are many empty houses in this town. On sunday afternoons, he starts to see this boy walking through the town. One night, decides to walk into boy's neighborhood and sees him studying in a house. He tells his friend about this boy. Turns out to be an enano who tells him, "let me live in peace!" Then, guy puts his foot in his mouth by telling him the word nano comes from the word for deforme. Philosophical discussion about how God could create "imperfect" people, enano says that they used to consider people like him sub-human. They start to become friends. They talk about other words- ánima/animación. In the end, enano dies
7.
All of the young girls in Villamedina lived or worked out of town. Rosi, a 40 y.o., is one of the only women in town, fruit seller. Buys tomatoes from an old man (maybe just so she can see him when he comes around to sell them?)
8.
December is cold. Shepherds are nowhere to be found.
9.
He's leaving town. Taking one last walk to say goodbye to the places he's been.
En busca de la última palabra
“Jóvenes y verdes”
Kids at school, about to get a group photo. Girls from secondary school are supposed to get them ready for the photo. The kids keep the photo, but it doesn't matter much to them because they're "jóvenes y verdes". The world seemed to have so many possibilities. Later, when they're 25, they wonder how they got that old. They blow up the foto 5x and see that one boy had a lizard in his hands. Kids think that lizards can get in your ears and eat your brains. Then, finds out that the boy who was in front of the one with the lizard had gone deaf in that ear (so maybe the mythe is true!) Asks a doctor to look into his story. They head to the (now grown) Lizard-boy-Ismael's pub, called "El lagarto". They ask him if he's responsible for the deaf boy. He says he really doesn't remember what happened. (and that's that...no real conclusion.)
“El criado del rico mercader”
El criado fue al mercado para comprar y vio a la Muerte. He goes back to his amo, asks for the fastest horse to get out of the city of Baghdad to go to Ish. Amo goes to market, sees Muerte, asks why he threatened his servant. Muerte says, I was just surprised to see him here, so far from Ish, where "debo llevarme" a él. (dum dum dummmmm)
“Acerca de los cuentos”
Talking about what makes a story "good". One guy says he knows a good story- the Monkey of Montevideo. One of the guys speaks English. They talk about good stories, like Sueño de Chekov and others (they tell the juicy part of the story without the conclusion) They're driving in a car and stop outside of a pueblo to watch a baile. They determine that the value of a story is not in the story itself, but rather in the way it's told. (Metafiction?!) summary of a manual from Foster Harris about stories (This seems like one of those staged conversations between ilustrados in which they're trying to teach you something by talking about it through characters in the book. This collection of short stories, to me, feels random as he••...different writing styles, different lengths, different time periods, etc.) In this "chapter" the characters seem to reflect on some of the other stories in the book.
“Dayoub, el criado del rico mercader.”
Retelling of story above...When Dayoub gets to Ish, people don't want to help him because he says he's fleeing death. Goes to one man's house-man tells him "You can't run away from death-it will find you here." Man tries to help, so he puts him in a room with many servants. When death comes, he doesn't know who is who so he takes one and leaves...THEN, we find out that the neighbor in front says, "hey, last night I saw a robber leave with a mirror!" (Turns out, the man who helped Dayoub was a mirror maker.)
“Mister Smith”
Men commenting on stories get back together. Meet Mr. Smith, who says he knows a better story. He says "no es la más bonita, sino la más real." Narrator says he's faithfully written down his story, translating a few words from English. The following is his story:
“De soltera, Laura Sligo”
From Dublin, lives in Amazon listening to birds and fish and the snakes. She, along with a few others, have to go upriver (a long trip). They stop for the night and one of them gets bitten by a snake-one of the locals sucks out the venom. Others in the group start to talk about natives in the area, how they attack with different types of venom. She falls unconscious just as another tribe is arriving. Their witch-doctors cure her. They're trying to ask local tribes for news of Laura's husband, but there's none. a man looks around-finds one of her husband's medical books. Tribe leader comes in, takes a man to grave of her husband. ...but it turns out her husband had become one of the local doctors. Since her husband opted to stay with the locals, she wanted to be called by her maiden name and she went back to London with the man who she knew was in love with her.
“Finis Coronat Opus”
Smith finishes telling story. Narrator and friend wonder who he is. Mention of how grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. They're going to present some stories tomorrow. (Theme of the book: These men, walking around Obaba, collecting stories...kind of like a story we read by María de Zayas.) The story: children of Obaba want to learn to ride bikes (basically, child costumbrista-how kids interact with one another) Bike race passing through town. More metafiction: "Publicar los recuerdos de mi ídolo ciclista no me parecía pertinente." But one thing is worth writing down...this card from Gautier (dancing around a glass). Preparing for story reading.
“Por la mañana”
Preparing for the story reading. Uncle's gone to buy croissants. Boys read something of his. Celtic- sounding story (names are Olaf, Gunner ---This book takes you around the world- The Amazons, Celts, Germany, etc). Story about el antiguo dios Odín and how he was born/died. Another story (both have to do with a light apagándose- una vela, un tizón- and someone dying when the light went out.) The next stories in the book are the stories "that were read" at the 'tertulia'-type thing they were doing. "Estaría fuera de lugar continuar...sin antes haber dejado escritos los trabajos arriba mencionados."
“Hans Menscher”
Abandoned house in Hamburg where Hans used to live- a painter, a friend of Munch. Hans became the laughingstock of the neighborhood because of his obsession with painting. He would paint scenes as if he were there (but he wasn't- e.g. Greek ruins). He started to imagine a relationship with an Arab woman, Nabilah, which was going badly, which made him terrified and go even crazier. He died of a stab wound that looked decidedly Arab (but wasn't this not real? dum dum dummmm). Then, a judge finds a card from Arab police that they are looking for Hans because of his relationship with Nabilah (so maybe it was real...dum dum dummmm).
“Para escribir un cuento en 5 minutos”
You will need a clock. Music. Open window. Drink some water. Write this sentence (which is the sentence with which he started his story...) Look at the clock again. Use the dictionary. Write a sentence. (basically, a story of someone killing someone else for love.)
“Klaus Hanhn”
Sept. 2. Klaus' alarms go off, 5:15 am. It was the chosen day to "Cambiar la Vida". His brother Alex had drowned years ago, but he still communicated with him. He was 47 y.o. Used to deliver bread, but won't anymore. "A partir de aquel día viviría siempre así, dulce y lentamente, como un pez dormido que se deja llevar por la corriente." Goes into travel agency/clothing store; Alex tells him to kill the lady, but he doesn't. Goes to a salon for massage, manicure, etc. Wants to go to isla de las tortugas. Goes to fancy restaurant to eat, sits facing the aquarium (to get used to seeing fish). He gets drunk and waiter offers to call a taxi for him. Goes home. Grabs a gun with one bullet. (He's seeing things, hearing things....very bizarre) Enters a dream-like state, brother goes into water and doesn't come back (like his drowning at the beginning--so maybe Hans had caused his brother's death?) (90% of this story feels imaginative.)
Last story:
**marginalization of Basques/language.
“A modo de autobiografía”
El juego de la Oca representa una determinada concepción de la vida...que es una descripción de los trabajos y los días que nos toca pasar en este mundo. La vida=llena de dificultades, intevienen el Azar, nuestra Voluntad. There can also be setbacks along the way. Geese can go on land, water, sea; symbols of wisdom and perfection. The juego de la Oca can also be the autobio of a Basque author born in 1951. Basque authors don't lack tradition-diría que lo que nos faltaba era el antecedente, que nos faltaban libros donde aprender a escribir en nuestra propia lengua. Difficulties of writing in Basque
Yo diría que la primera obligación de un lenguaje literario es la de no molestar. New literary market is now allowing there to be possibilities for Basque lit.
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