Cortázar's Reader Response

Julio Cortázar is the first of many Latin American authors that I have read. Therefore, it was a new challenge to try to relate to the readings and have an understanding.  His readings were difficult because he doesn't write in 'black and white', but also interesting because 'black and white' doesn't always please me.  I love to analyze readings, and he is definitely an artist that forces readers to think critical, analyze, and use their imagination.

In his first reading, "The Continuity of Parks", Cortázar uses magical realism, by making realistic fiction believable.  He took a simple story of a man reading a book, and twisted it into the man being a victim in the novel he was reading.  Of course, like everyone else who has ever read this story, I had to read this story three times in order to wrap my brain around it. In the end, I found the story as a whole, very interesting.  But after reading and understanding, I found the story even more interesting when I read Julia Palmers analysis of "The Continuity of Parks" in her writing, "Verbs, Voyeurism, and the Stalker Narrative". I found it most interesting because, at this time in my life I am extremely passionate about becoming bilingual and learning the Spanish language.  So when she argued the preterite and imperfect tense Cortázar used in order to twist the story from novel to reality, I was hooked.  I tried reading and translating the spanish version.  Of course, I didn't get very far, but I definitely understood the message she was trying to convey about the purposeful grammatical choices, and found her point to be accurate and interesting.

Cortázar's next reading was "Our Demeanor At Wakes", which was much different than the first reading.   This story is about hypocrisy and a family acting fake in order to be accepted by their neighbors and family.  In the beginning, they are questioned on whether or not they go to the wake, because they don't want to, but they fear that people may not think they are sincere.  When they decide to go, they are completely ridiculous, by crying, hijacking cars to be with the body, and competing with others, in order to prove sincerity. When I first read this I thought, 'There has to be a reason why these people are acting this way', and I thought 'These people are acting too suspicious. What is up?'.  I laugh now because in the end, they end up leaving the funeral and go home.  It's funny how this story can relate to the reader's experience. Almost everyone has been a hypocrite or has known a hypocrite, and like the innocent people in the story, often times it's right in front of us and we don't even know. For me, it drew a red flag immediately.  I wasn't sure why, but I didn't trust them from the beginning.  For me, I couldn't put my finger on why they were faking their sincerity, but I didn't trust it. I had to take a step back and remind myself that it was just a short story and not reality.

The last story, "Axolotls" was my least favorite. I didn't relate to this story as much as I did the other two.  The story portrays isolation through the salamander, who wants to talk but is trapped with no voice.  I give Cortázar credit, because he did a great job using creativity in order to portray his personal emotional struggles. After Benander, told us about his personal exile form Argentina to France, and never being able to return home, I found the writing more meaningful.  But, I didn't have empathy for the Axolotls in the story, like Cortázar wanted. I had empathy for Cortázar, for being vulnerable enough to share this experience.  The story itself was odd.  Maybe it was the mood I was in when I was reading it, but I just wasn't impressed with a man who claimed he was an "Axolotl" because he saw one, researched one, and sympathized with one.  I found it unrealistic, and thought 'If this is the case, this man needs to seek medical attention immediately'.

Overall, I found my first experience of Latin America Literature to be interesting.  It was challenging at times, but it was interesting.  I found Cortázar twisted his stories in ways that twisted my thoughts. His writings were all realistic in a way, where they made the reader personally relate.  Most novels or short stories that I have read are pretty clear on what the reader is supposed to gain.  Cortázar's approach was much different because he wants readers to be confused, he wants to question their beliefs, and he wants to make them use their imagination.