brio. The Fall 2011 Issue

A

Comparative

Literature

Journal

/BREE-oh/, noun Vivacity: livelinesB; spirit. An individual energ'y.

The discipline of Comparative Literature is based on the assumption that the study of single texts and cultures is enriched by a knowledge

of the texts and cultures surrounding them. It views literature from a broad and inclusive perspective in which philosophy, anthropology,

history, language, and literary theory come together, and where drama,

the visual arts, and modern media suggest crucial comparisons. This journal aspires to embody these ideas.

•Cover art by Coralie Harmache

A special thank you to Susan Protheroe for her unwavering support.

♦ FEATURES ♦ Love in a Second Language . 1 Can Aesthetics Save Us7.2

Le Feu . 9

Spring Bird . 10 Winter Clowns . 11

Parque centenario .12 When Our Age . 13

Word$ . 14

Wish Him Luck . 16 Night Vision . 17 Los muertos . 18

My Teddy Bear . 24 Moth . 25

Red Lipstick Fades to a Paler Hue . 26

JULIA MINKIN

Amor on eJ seg’undo id Loma

Love In a Second Langpiage

No te preocupes por la lengna torpe.

Ya se sabe

Don’t worry about your clumsy tongue.

Everyone knows

a los hombres les excita una chica que parece un poco lenta.

men are excited by a girl who seems a little slow—

Te ensenaran el vocabulario elemental palabritas relucientes

let him teach you that elemental vocabulary, little words that shine

como cuchillos aquellas que esculpen el cuerpo imagtnarlo

like knives carving out the imaginary body

del deseo. Cada palabra es un hechlzo de resurrecclon

of desire. Each word is a spell of resurrection,

a la cual el respondera robado de la lengua como una marloneta.

to which he will respond, robbed of his tongue like a marionette.

-

1

AURORA BELL

Can Aesthetics Save Us7 Thoug-h Diminishing, Hope Remains Across Flaubert and Mann By the end of the nineteenth century Europe was dissatisfied with the bourgeois

existence that had come to dominate after the bourgeoisie claimed its first victory in

the French Revolution. The bourgeois world had to be negotiated in terms not only political, economic, and social, but also aesthetic. Throughout the century,

philosophers as well as writers and artists tried to mediate what they perceived to be the boredom, sterility, and stagnation of the bourgeoisie. According to Friedrich Nietzsche, it would be art that could offer salvation. Gustave Flaubert and Thomas Mann explore the possibility of aesthetic salvation in their respective works.

Sentimental Education (1869) and Death in Venice (1911). Between the two pieces of

fiction, as, over time, bourgeois values tightened their hold on Europe as the degree of hope that aesthetics could lead to a truly productive transformation decreased.

Nonetheless, each contains a hopeful element, suggesting (as Nietzsche maintains) that if anything could save us, it would be aesthetics.

After the July Revolution, which was seen as great triumph of the bourgeoisie,

guaranteeing its political and cultural ascendancy in France, Bohemianism arose at the intersection of the intellectual and artistic spheres. As a movement, Bohemianism was

self-consciously antibourgeois—characterized by youth, sexual freedom, poverty, and

rejection of work and of the social system—while remaining a subclass of the bourgeoisie. La vie bohetne was characterized by the fantasy of a gypsy-like lifestyle

taking place in a constructed country, for Bohemia (the modern-day Czech Republic

and the alleged land of the gypsies) was a space for the imagination, for art and

literature, and for politics that ran contrary to bourgeois norms; centered in the Latin

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Quarter of Paris but immanently transplantable, spreading among the major cities of

Europe. Placing immense importance on the outward form—on appearances and

associations—/a vie bohemc was contradictorily aestheticized. (Not to mention that especially during the 1830s many young Bohemians were able to sustain their lifestyles

only because they were supported by their bourgeois parents.) Just as the bourgeoisie was predominantly occupied with appearances, many Bohemians considered it more important to have style and participate in the movement as such than to successfully create as an artist or writer, eschewing success as antithetical to the Bohemian spirit.

In his novel Sentimental Education, Flaubert presents the conflicts between the bourgeois and Bohemian worlds in the years leading up to the Revolution of 1848. His

protagonist, Frederic Moreau, is himself decidedly bourgeois. Throughout the novel, Frederic, who begins as a failing law student and hopeless romantic, intermittently attempts to achieve success both monetary and romantic, with varying results.

Hussonet, a journalist who comes to be a newspaper owner, is the only young man with whom (or perhaps in parallel to whom) Frederic undergoes his sentimental

education, who Flaubert only labels a Bohemian. However, despite Frederic’s

continued endeavors to gain social standing and the assurance of a comfortable financial future, he continually expresses his discontent with bourgeois life. Frederic

is not exactly a Bohemian, but he betrays Bohemian tendencies not only early in the novel when he drifts between cafes and contemplates art, searching for individuality

and authenticity, but also as the narrative progresses. He characterizes his

indifference to the events of the 1848 in Paris as "mean and bourgeois,” but is “bored to tears" by the bourgeois politics that the revolution brings forth (358, 340).

Frederic seems to use first art and then his love affairs to mitigate the boredom of the bourgeoisie, an attempt to render his life aesthetically pleasing. However, in

the world that Flaubert constructs in Sentimental Education—a world in which even

3

artists think that “a sort of Stock Exchange handling; aesthetic interests” couild be

creatively productive—Frederic's exploits are inherently doomed to failure (3*9)« In keeping with the manner in which Flaubert's characters commodify aesthetics, they

treat love as part of an economy wherein all emotion is coded by money. Frederic’s interactions with Madame Amoux, the married woman whom he episodically

professes to love, come to revolve around monetary loans between himself and her

family. Additionally, Frederic and several of the other men vie for the opportunity to

provide patronage for Rosanette, a prostitute whose parties offer some of the only

vibrancy and liveliness present in the novel. At Rosanette's parties the men of the bourgeoisie and fallen nobility indulge in physicality and emotion, but Flaubert renders them ridiculous for their excess.

Flaubert not only exposes the flaws of bourgeois and Bohemian existence (and the conflicts between them) in his plot, but also expresses them in his style. In this way, his art comes to perform the problems of society that it presents. Instead of

romanticizing Frederic, Flaubert portrays his protagonist as self-romanticizing, a rhetorical gesture that allows the author to critique the society that produced a character such as Frederic while avoiding pedantry. Flaubert's realism is performative,

for in addition to allowing the author to express his distaste for the romanticization

that Bohemianism is apt to lead to, it gives him the means to enact the boredom and failure of expression that he ties to bourgeois life. Flaubert’s political passages seem

deliberately tedious, reflecting his character's insincere engagement with politics.

When Frederic meets with Madame Arnoux, language fails them, rendering moments that could be poignantly romantic ridiculous and banal, always cliched, at once overblown and common.

Art and aesthetics do not offer salvation for Flaubert's characters. In their

attempts to escape the stagnation off the bourgeoisie, the characters construct lives

4

that are only pseudo-aesthetic, for profit remains their greatest desire. There is, however, still an element of hope in Flaubert's text: aesthetics can offer salvation. In

the novel the barrier between the characters and any sort of fulfillment is inherent to

them and to the system rather than to aesthetics itself. The novel, as an artwork—an aesthetic product—thus becomes an instrument of hope, presenting the failings of an

earlier era with the intention that they be avoided in the future.

Nearing the end of the century, in his 1887 polemic A Genealogy of Morality, Nietzsche, condemning “the great nausea" provoked by man that characterizes the contemporary world—a sickness not unlike that which Flaubert described—suggests

that a possible redemption would necessarily be aesthetic (11:24:66). The ‘^rodeemingman” capable of *'giv|ing| earth its purpose and man his hope again" would be a

“creative spirit" (66-67). While Nietzsche is not explicit about the aesthetics of redemption in A Genealogy of Morality, in his first book The Birth of Tragedy (published in 1872) he describes the failure of Euripidean tragedy, which corresponds

to the failure of bourgeois Europe. According to Nietzsche, Euripides disrupts the balance between the Dionysian and Apollonian (simply put, chaotic and ordered)

elements of tragedy as they were established by Aeschylus and Sophocles, replacing

the Apollonian with the starkly rational Socratic and thereby causing the system to

collapse. After the rupture, Europe continued along the trajectory of disproportionate

reason that lead to the “great nausea" that Nietzsche diagnoses in A Genealogy of

Morality. In A Genealogy of Morality he maintains that the problematically ascetic present is characterized by a “fear of happiness and beauty” and a desire to remain

removed from all that might fall under the umbrella of the Dionysian (lll:28:i2o).

The solution Nietzsche proposes in The Birth of Tragedy is a return to

Dionysian feeling (to the very capacity ior feeling), which would be necessary for artistic and cultural rebirth. In A Genealogy of Morality, while the problem and

5

solution are not explicitly artistic, they are tied to aesthetics throug^h this insistence

on feeling—on aesthesis. Asceticism is problematic not only because it turns away

from beauty, but also because it seeks to escape physical feeling. The positive ideals that Nietzsche refers to are therefore physically EZInesthetized, beautiful in their vigor and display of good health and strength (1:7:17). This aesthetic strength is necessary to

Nietzsche's concept of the “will to power,” which relies on such strength (11:12:51). And in a world devoid of absolute truth and inherent values (as Nietzsche would have it),

an aesthetically-based ethics may be the only kind possible.

Mann's argument in his novella Death in Venice is intimately tied to Nietzsche's, but he is much less hopeful about the possibility of redemption through a

return to a balance between the Apollonian and Dionysian. He shapes his protagonist,

the author Gustave von Aschenbach, as the perfect example of the Socratic tendency toward absolute reason, and by placing this constraint within an artist, makes him the ideal subject through with to attempt to overcome the Socratic and return to a

balance between the Dionysian and Apollonian (elements which Mann's allusions make explicit). Nearly from the start of the narrative the protagonist, Gustave von

Aschenbach, the young boy, Tadzio, with whom he falls in love, and Venice itself are

in poor health with little hope of recovery, a trope that directly reflects Nietzsche's

concerns with health in A Genealogy of Morality. (Aschenbach is aging, and he seems

habitually troubled by the Venetian climate; Tadzio is fragile and sickly; “Asiatic cholera” infects the city |27-28, 54, 62|.) In addition to Aschenbach's physical ailments,

he is plagued by his bourgeois upbringing: “he was pushed on every side to achievement” (9), a force which he internalizes, such that as an adult, his actions are

driven by “the productive mechanism within him” and his “whole soul |is| bent on fame” (3, 8). Mann stresses the conflict between this overdeveloped Socratic element

that controls Aschenbach and his ability to create, which it stifles, driving away all

6

“feeling'” and “ecstasy” (7). Devoid of feelings, Aschenbach’s situation becomes

indicative of the general stagnation of the European bourgeoisie.

While Aschenbach is a self-professed enemy of Bohemianism (70), he, like

Flaubert's Frederic, turns in the direction of Bohemianism (albeit sixty years too late) to escape stagnation, embarking for Venice, which is far enough east to carry an

exotic, intrinsically Bohemian aspect. It is in Venice that Aschenbach sees Tadzio, who becomes, for him, an Apollo (25). And it is Tadzio’s Apollonian beauty that awakens in Aschenbach the hope of artistic and personal rejuvenation. Aschenbach's admiration of

Tadzio ^quickly grows into a passion. But, although his newfound capacity for strong emotion is positive, Aschenbach finds this force of feeling is at odds with all that is

bourgeois, especially the Socratic restraint that governs him (a problem only in as much as it is a conflict within Aschenbach) (5^-53). If the Dionysian element was not

explicit already, it becomes so in Aschenbach’s dream, which is characterized by “fear

and desire” (65) and in which he submits to Dionysus, “the stranger god [becoming] his

own” (67), after a struggle between “dignity and self-control” and “whirling lust” (66), And when a delusional Aschenbach re-imagines Plato’s The Ph^edrus, using Socrates’ logic to legitimate his descent to the frenzy of desire, Mann suggests that there can

be (for Aschenbach) no resolution between the aesthetic modes of Socratic rationality,

Apollonian beauty, and Dionysian ecstasy, that all paths will lead him to the “abyss” (7«)

In the world Mann constructs, aesthetics cannot save Aschenbach. In fact, his decision to follow the Dionysian element marks a significant step towards his downfall. It is only after his dream, that “it [seems to Aschenbach] as though the moral

law were fallen in ruins and only the monstrous and perverse held out a hope” (67).

Have we reached a time (by 1911) when beauty cannot productively transcend the boredom and sterility of the bourgeois world? This may be, but there is a sense at the

7

end of the novella that while aesthetics cannot save Aschenbach within his life, they can save him from it. In the final parag^raphs, Aschenbach seems tied, as he quickly approaches death, to the aesthetic sublime, to the godlike Tadzio who leads him into

the sun (73).

While neither Flaubert nor Mann allows his protagonist salvation through aesthetics, both suggest that any possible salvation would be aesthetic. In Sentimental Education, Frederic’s failure to reconcile his bourgeois desire to ascend in society and

need for a more aesthetic life results in habitual discontent, restlessness, and an inability to find substantial meaning in his world. In Flaubert’s text, however, the hope

remains that the banality arising among the bourgeoisie can be outgrown through a commitment to art, which is preformed by the realism of the novel itself, wherein

Flaubert’s art enacts the very banality that it condemns. The conclusion that Mann

brings his readers to in Death in Venice, on the other hand, is that while there was

hope in aesthetics, bourgeois values have been too far ingrained for worldly salvation.

Nonetheless, even in Mann hope remains, for though it accompanies his death,

Aschenbach’s encounter with the aesthetic sublime saves him from stagnation.

Therefore, although Frederic and Aschenbach are doomed by their environments, both Flaubert and Mann lean toward Nietzsche’s hope that the world can be revalued

in aesthetic terms.

Works Cited Flaubert, Gustave. Sentimental Education. Translated by Robert Baldick, translation revised by Geoffrey Wall. London: Penguin Books, 2004.

Mann, Thomas. Death in Venice and Seven Other Stories. Translated by H. T. Lowe-

Porter. New York: Vintage International, 1989.

Nietzsche, Friedrich. On the Genealogy of Morality, revised student edition, edited by Keith Ansell-Pearson, translated by Carol Diethe. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press, 2007.

8

KATHERINE TSAMPARLIS

9

LAURA VALENZA

Spring' Bird

BRITTANY HUTZEL

Winter Clowns

Contrary to popular opinion, Winter Clowns roam only in April. Otherwise, they are exactly as you mig^ht expect. They are curt and ambidextrous though entirely unlimber. Their exercise consists of observing others do hot-yoga twice daily. Winter

Clowns grow in the apple orchards when the frost consummates with trees. The Clowns greatly resent any implication to the contrary. Unlike Autumn Clowns, they refuse to wear perfume; they refuse to pander to the tourists. They eat only acorns

and study only Greek, but they still excel at knitting and take great pride in the art.

For your convenience, the Winter Clowns will be making an appearance at the Met this Easter. The viewing is scheduled from 6:oop.m.-6:o8p.m, though seating, as always,

is subject to availability.

11

OLAYA BARR

Parque centenario

El ritmo del tambor en el Parque Centenario.

Che, che, bofutJo, holudo.

Al lado del lag^o nos sentamos en un circulo, tumbandonos sobre la tierra y el verde.

Que bien me sientan las coscjuillas del cesped. Cliicos pasan con sus bicicletas o patines, las chicas morenas con sus helados color naranja y violeta, sus faldas larg^as y bohemias bailando en el viento.

Pibe. che, osea, <che

Agrupaciones de subculturas esparcidas por el parque. La estatua del ang;el nos mira, quizas admira. Los patos inconscientes, flotando por el lag’o. Como nosotros: concentos en el sol, contentos en la sombra.

Piala, boUsdo, faao, birra.

Malabares, Quilmes cerveza y pies descalzos me rodean. Gritos y carcajadas, risillas sofocadas y el no tener obligaciones. Alegria y las cuerdas de la guitarra: una pareja eterna.

Posta, botudo, posta,

Los chicos con melena de perros callejeros. Como perros contentos, amando la vida.

Ese chico tiene una rastra larga, un gusano peludo crece desde su cabeza. Le falta un diente pero le hace la sonrisa perfecta.

Tipo, che, cheto, che.

Cancan y comparten merienda y cuentos. Tatuajes caseros, piercings por aqui y por aca. Ojos de LChrist negro, carinosos y generosos. Por aqui viene el mate.

Dale, dale, dale.

El ritmo de las voces de esta juventud.

12

JORDAN FOGLE

When Our Aye

When our Ag^e becomes ancient

When all our information is exchanged When our satellites become stardust When life returns to being archaic When the '^skyline” is only the horizon When our libraries are dust

When all that's left of us are clusters of bones and artifacts When our souls have been planted back into the earth

Will they dig?

Will they study our markings on the subway tunnel walls

Just like we study theirs in the Chauvet Caves?

Will they remember us fondly?

Will our traces teach them anything?

r-e

Will they be willing to learn?

.g

Well, they'd better.

13

CORALIE HARMACHE

Words

A Collection of Words I’ve learned (and re-leamed) Since Declaring a Comparative Literature Major at NYU 5 Semesters A^o “Some words appear more chan once

duivel: DEVIL erudite: learned scintillated: emit a flash, sparkle, photons cupola: arched or domed roolF, astronomical observatoiry obstreperous: rowdy, noisy and

difficult to control peripatetic: traveling from place to place progeny: a descendant or the descendants of a person animal or plant sublunary: belonging to this world as contrasted with a better or more spiritual one (like 'not lunar?)

posterity: all future generations of people acrimonious: argumentative angry bitter in speech volubility: spoken incessantly and fluently brief: scant, a short

duration, a conscience explanation, aimed at bettering an original understanding of said thing obstinacy: stubbornly refusing Co change one's opinion or chosen course

of action forbear: "I will not" maw: guelle! mouth of an animal, ferme ta maw!

subversion: undermining the power of an established authority.brio: vigor or vivacity of style or performance abject: extremely hard, bad, unpleasant and

degrading_anomie: lack of the usual social or ethical standards in an individual or

group_vat: a large tank or tub used to hold lic^uid especially in industry_emote: Speed Levitch display emotion in a theatrical way undulate: move with wave-like motion

(swell heave ripple billow flow, roll, wind, wobble, oscillate, fluctuate) edified: instruct or improve someone morally or intellectually invagination: the action or process of being turned inside out or folded back on itself to fold a cavity or pouch,

yes based on vagina/ sheathpolemic: strong verbal or written attack on someone or somechingjatent: but no yet developed or manifest; hidden (latent tooooooalent)

biologically: lying dormant, symptoms are not yet manifest, present without

causing disease Circumambulate: walk all the way around something_Perdition: the state of eternal punishment and damnation into which a sinful and impenitent

person passes after deach.avocation: hobbies incubus; a male demon believed to have sex with sleeping women Embroiled: involve someone within conflict

argument or difficult situation vintner: wine distributor caviling: mid i6th century, make petty or unnecessary objections "they caviled at the cost" corpus:

14 ft-______________________________ .

’____________________

body of work mimes: inimetic, production fo imitation_pedantry: someone who is relentlessly concerned with minute details and rules or with displaying academic

learning mercurial: a person subject to sudden or unpredictable changes of mood or

mind Topographical: of or relating to the arrangement or accurate representation of the physical features of an area. Dealing with or depicting places buildings and

natural prospects in a realistic and detailed manner_occlude: shut up but quick usurp: take a position of power or importance illegally or by force (in terms of fate in Gabrielle's paper)_prurient: having or encouraging an excessive interest in sexual

matters_licentiou8: promiscuous and unprincipled in sexual matters_iride9cent:

showing luminous colors that seem to change when seen from different angles chimeras: a fire breaking female monster with a lions head a goats body and a

serpents tail. Any mythical animal with parts taken from various animai$_diachronic:

the technical term for something happening over time fop: a man who is excessively concerned with his appearance; a dandy noisome: extremely smelly and offensive

15

MAX STIVERS

Wish Him Luck

Step ri^hc up, folks! Please deposit your token, And I'll share with you words chat most oft g^o unspoken, Show you inside of doors that are never so open...

See the man’s life as a run of bad jokes! And See his eyes tear from the cigarette smoke! And See him play guitar string’s like his heartstrings were played- ‘til they broke! And You’ll see that the Heimlich’s no help when it only feels like you’re choking...

So with the alarm clock each day, He resumes his part in our play, Takes back the role of a soul who acts like everything^ is okay.

And when cold eyes lock with his greys, The kid just turns awayNo one asks him to stop, there’s no way he could stay, ‘Cause behind that stage smile, there’s nothing he can say...

But through silence, he screams As nightmares replace dreamsHe’s drowning in rapids overflowing his screams.

And finally, it gets to the point where it seems That the only way out is the Bobst Diving Team...

But that option’s as viable as the facts are deniable, Like the fact that everyone loves and everyone dies, and we’ll All just keep settling for our pain and our lies to ourselves.

When we have nothing to fear but real life itself.

And his greatest fear is that the story writes itself, But if he pulls this off, then it just might sellAnd if he sells it right, he could even sell himself, And maybe, well, maybe it all might turn out well...

So wish him luck...

16

LAURA VALENZA

Nig'ht Vision

ALICE BLUMENFELD

Lob muertO9-vivo8, los vivos-muertos, comillaa, y otros asunCoB en Yo el auprenao Abstract in Eng^Ush: The Living-Dead, the Dead-Living, Quoation Marks, and Other Matters in Vo el supremo

This paper examines Roa Bastos’ novel, Vo el supremo, using Barthes' "The Death of the Author” to understand Bastos' text and characters. Bastos has broken the oppositional binary of living and dead within the plot of the novel, and he also created a new type of relationship between author and reader, which is best understood with Barthes' text in mind. I enter into the text by examining the lack of quotation marks and how that affects the reading of the novel and changes our perception off voice.

The main character of Yo el supremo is driven mad trying to comprehend the impossibility of language and all the paradoxes created through our own language.

Es imposible descifrar la obra de Roa Bastos, Vo el supremo. Como dice Roland Barthes en su ensayo "The Death of the Author,” “Once the Author is removed, the claim to decipher a text becomes quite futile. To give a text an Author is to impose a limit on that text, to furnish it with a final signified, to close the writing.” Por estas razones, yo creo que Bastos escribe de tai manera que no el mismo, sino un compilador, parece. Entonces, Bastos no nos ha dado un sentido final o una sola interpretacion en esta novela. Mientras el caracter central. Doctor Francia, se muere, y el autor nunca se manifiesta, nosotros—los lectores—nacemos. De este modo, la unica manera en que puedo analizar y tratar de comprender esta novela, y poner mis interpretaciones en palabras, es en explicar mi propio nacimiento como lectora de este texto. Como Doctor Francia nace por su craneo, yo tambien tengo que nacer por mis pensamientos; ojala no de forma en que yo me convierta en loca.

En format la novela con un compilador, Bastos manifiesta las teorias de Barthes.

Barthes dice que un texto viene de fuentes multiples, y el linico punto en que todas las ideas y fuentes conjuntan es el lector; el autor ni es el punto de unido ni de origin.

Bastos literalmente crea la ilusion de fuentes multiples en usar un compilador de varios textos. Tambien por eso, no voy a tratar de encontrar el autor; primero tengo que llevar a cabo mi rol como lectora.

Lo mas dificil del libro es que no hay trama estructurada. La novela mueve siguiendo Doctor Francia haciendose esquizoffrenico. Por esta estructura, no hay una sola verdad que impregna todo el libro. Lo que parece ser una verdad al principio es invertida por las paginas, y los lectores tienen que compilar los temas en busco de un mensaje complete del autor. Pero eso es el problema precise: no hay un proposito final en las palabras. A continuacion de la novela “writing ceaselessly posits meaning and ceaselessly evaporates it” (Barthes). Pero ^como vamos a encontrarnos en este

18

Entonces, el unico lug^ar log-ico para empezar es el principio. (Aunque El Supremo diria que tengamos que ver las cosas al reves, va a ser mas facil se^ir mi entendimiento del libro si empezamos desde el empiezo.) Al leer los primeros pag^inas del Ubro, lo mas sorprendente para mi fue la falta del uso de comillas. Ya en ios primeros frases, se tiene que rnotar que hay dos voces distintas participando en un dialogo. Parece obvio, pero este es algo de que el lector tiene que darse cuenta. Si no, todo el libro no funciona. La ausencia de comillas es la representacion gramatica de unos de los temas centrales del libro: la presencia y la voz.

Mi primera cuestion al leer mas del libro, con respeto a las comillas, es ipor que no uso comillas en un libro que subraya la importancia de la voz? Hay una disyuncion porque las palabras explica el poder de la voz, pero la estructura gramatica no apoya esta idea porque no senala la presencia de una voz. Por todo el libro, Doctor Francia esta dictando a Patino, un bobo que de veras no entiende lo que dice su lider. Aunque a El Supremo le valora que todo sea escrito—la historia de Paraguay y sus pensamientos—no deja de explicar la jerarquia de hablar/escribir en que hablar es mas poderoso. Describe la diferencia entre la voz y lo escrito asi: “Lo hablado vive sostenido por el tono, los gestos, los movimientos del rostro, las miradas, el acento, el aliento del que habla. En todas las lenguas las exclamaciones mas vivas son inarticuladas.. .Cuando te dicto, las palabras tienen un sentido; otro, cuando las escribes" (89). En este ejemplo vemos que El Supremo cree que las palabras habladas tienen un dinamico que seria imposible reproducer en las palabras escritas.

En no sehalar al lector cuando uno esta hablando, parece que disminuye el valor de la voz. Normalmente, las comillas nos hace leer en otro tono, tomando en cuenta que se expresa una voz distinta del narrador, autor, o los otros personajes de la novela. Pero aqui, todo se mezcla en una voz unica. Nosotros tenemos que decidir donde una voz entra y otra sale. Entonces, el rol del lector ya es mucho mas activo; el autor ha dejado parte de su trabajo para nosotros. Por eso, el autor esta aun menos presente, y la obra es una compilacion de palabras y frases—no es un dialogo estructurado como la mayoria de novelas hoy en dia.

De otra manera, se puede decir que no vemos nin^una voz de ninguna personaje porque no existen las comillas. Todo es escritura; solamente sabemos que las palabras deberian venir desde la voz originalmente por lo que las frases mismas cuentan. En manifestar todo sin comillas, no hay empiezo ni final de lo que los personajes dicen.

Se tiene que tener en cuento que hay una diferencia entre decir y dictar. El segundo tiene un sentido que cumple algo—dictar es actuar. El primero no connota accion por solamente decir algo, aunque a veces puede ser asi. Lo dictado actua, o en ingles se dice “performative."

Ya vemos que el autor es menos activo. iSon los personajes menos vivos dentro del libro, o menos accesible al lector, por esta ausencia de comillas? Para contestar esta pregunta, tenemos que definir “vivo." En este libro, no es tan sencillo decir que estar vivo es el opuesto de estar muerto. Es exactamente estos binarios que Bastos permite ser des-construidos por la obra. Esta nocion es una idea que viene de Derrida. En los pensamientos de Derrida, Borges, Barthes, y otros, lenguaje es un laberinto imposible desentranar porque cada palabra es significada por otra palabra en un ciclo infinite. El unico modo que el lenguaje tiene para evitar esta imposibilidad es metafora.

El Supremo invierte el binario de morir/vivir para sehalar la significancia de presencia y consciencia. Otra vez, tenemos que empezar a analizar esta idea desde el

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principto del Ubro. En la vista de los lectores, el dictador nace de la muerte. En empezar con el pasquin, su muerte ya ha sido senalada. El vive bajo el sig^no de la muerte por toda la obra. Dice, “La muerte no nos exig-e tener un dia libre” (165). El miedo de la muerte siempre esta detras de los vivos porque “Se empieza a envejecer desde que se nace” (204). Entonces la vida existe siempre ba|o el sig’no de la muerte; y la muerte solamente existe porque uno se hubiera nacido—eintonces no existe una jerarquia vertical, sino una relacion entre morir-vivir que no se puede separar.

La frase que me fascina mucho es esta: “Mas el muerto vivo en la muerte...”

(561). Claramente, esta frase es una paradoja: no se puede describir un muerto con el adjetivo vivo—eso rompa las leyes de nuestro lenguaje. Pues, actualmente rompa el lenguaje “muerto” compuesto de sentidos estaticos. En un sentido metaforico, esa frase tiene sentido para mi, como lectora quien vive en el aqui y ahora. Para mi, esta frase sola significa que una persona en que la mente no esta consciente ni activa esta lo mas viva cuando se muere. En morirse, ellos pasan a estar fuera de la paradoja de la vida, y eso tiene un sentido de cumplimiento—lo fisico y lo abstracto estan juntados en el mismo estado por un momento.

Esta idea de tener una persona viva y muerta parece en los Bultos del pueblo de Tevego. Estos Bultos mueven tan lentamente que no parecen ser humanas, y al primer visto, se dice que parecen como piedras. En esta gente*-piedra, la idea de un humano que fisicamente esta vivo/muerto se clarifica. Ellos existen ^nota que no se puede decir “viven”) en un silencio completamente vacio. Ellos comen y estan “ahi sin vivir ni morir” (41). Lo importante de este mito es lo que dice Doctor Francia despues de que Patino lo cuente; dice, “Con esta gente, ni noticia, ni la menor sena para saber o no saber” (42)* Esta es una inferencia interesante, relacionada con las teorias de Derrida: por no dejar signo, no se puede saber nada de ellos. No podemos “leer” esta gente para saber algo de ellos; existen pero no son definidos. Ellos no son humanos, por lo menos no como El Supremo define lo humano: “En cada cosa hay oculto un significado.

En cada hombre un signo” (511). iQue contradiccion! Si los Bultos no tienen signo, no pueden ser hombres—eso es facil entender, pero tambien parece que los Bultos no tienen un significado tampoco. Sin embargo, ^como pueden existir de cualquier manera si no tienen ningun significado? La paradoja es inescapable. En estos muertos/vivos tenemos un problema: no tienen un sentido—es posible que el significado es bastante oculto que no se puede verlo? Yo diria no. En estar en este estado entre lo muerto y lo vivo, ellos pierden sentido de si mismos, pero tienen sentido cuando Patino hablan de ellos—su sentido es creado por otro.

De la misma manera, la escritura pierde su significado a menos que alguien esta leyendola en el “aqui y ahora.” La escritura existe entre el punto en que el autor escribio, y el presente. Solamente puede cambiar a lo vivo otra vez cuando un lector se convierte en ser el punto de tomar y juntar las palabras y metaforas en el momento de leer.

Veo el tema “vivo/muerto” en el sujeto del Supremo quien tiene que nacer por el pensamiento para de veras estar vivo. Pero en el caso del Supremo, es mas como escapar del craneo—como un bebe en la matriz vive despues de salir al mundo y irse del cuerpo de la madre. Entonces, para nacer del pensamiento, tiene que salir de su propio mente. Y aqui entra el problema del Supremo—el trata de encontrar lo que significa ser consciente de la conciencia, escapando del craneo, pero en hacer eso, el se cierre del mundo y hace lo opuesto de lo que estaba tratando de hacer. El compilador, o aqui mejor dicho el autor, usa la estructura de los folios quemados para darnos una indirecta: explicando el carcel del pensamiento del hombre, y diciendo que “Nacer es

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mi actual idea...(^ue/naJo, ile^ible cl restof (204), y el proximo parrafo empieza con la pregnmta, iPor cuanto tiempo se puede estar enterrado sin descomponerse? Para mi, en poner estas ideas en yuxtaposicion, se puede notar cjue su mente es lo que esta descomponiendose por ser enterrado fuera del mundo actual. Implica que la preg^unta debe ser, <Por cuanto tiempo puede estar la mente encarcelado sin descomponerse.

Para ser completamente vivo, uno tiene que nacer del pensamiento, pero se tiene que tener cuidado porque hay una diferencia entre dejar sus pensamientos y cerrar su mente en un estado solicario fuera del mundo actual. Lo sigTjiente muestra El Supremo luchando con las ideas: A horcajadas el capital) de milicias sobre un muchachuelo de doce anos, que ha envejecido treinta anos o trescientos anos en el interior de un craneo sin haber podido nacer. Lo cual puede parecer exCrano si pensamos que las cosas empiezan/acaban; si se piensa que la muerte es el unico remedio para el anhelo de inmortalidad al que la puerCa del sepulcro cierra el paso. Como la mia ya ha sido cerrado debera ser reabierta ahora para que el sueno pueda ser explicado. ^Por quien? Explicado solo por mi para mi solo. Pero no; cal vez no es asi. La vida de uno no acaba. No; tai vez si... ^Nace algo de la nada? Nada. iQue es vida/muerte? Que es este misterio desdoblado en otros Lnfinito misterios, me estoy preguntando.. La razon del misterio es el misterio mismo. (216)

Yo dije que no iba a buscar el sentido de la novela en el autor. Pero en este momento culminante, me parece que Bastos nos senala que de veras no hay respuesta ni idea que desata la paradoja de vida/muerte. En un momento pensamos que hayamos descubierto la respuesta, p^to en otro momento no—exactamente como el Supremo dice “no” y “si.”

Ahora regreso a esta frase, “Mas el muerto vivo en la muerte...” (561). Lo que viene en el parrafo antes tiene que ser indicado. En este momento El Supremo ha provocado el iincendio final que destruira sus papeles y tomara su vida. El va a morir en soledad completa: “Solo. Sin origen. Sin destino. Encerrado en perpetuo cautiverio. Solo...” (561). Al pensar en esta idea de estar solo sin destino ni origen, no se como dar El Supremo valor. En la sociedad, nos definimos por donde hemos ido y adonde vamos. Nunca nos definimos del presente porque no podemos agarrar nuestro presente, siempre nos escapa. Quizas el cautiverio es el presente que no podemos escapar ni aguantar.

Leia esa frase muchas veces, pero en las primeras instancias no me di cuenta de que no hay un verbo principal—no hay accion. Esta conectado con la frase anterior, “Los muertos son muy debiles,” como refutacion. Y tambien en ver la gramatica y estructura de la frase en mas detalle, note que “muerto” o “vivo” pueden funcionar como sustantivo o adjetivo. Las diferencias entre vivo y muerto sigue siendo destruidas.

He llegado aqui en busca de definir “vivo” pata decidir si los personajes son menos vivos porque su habla no esta marcado con comillas, y me pierdo. Comillas normalmente sehalan que el personaje esta vivo, hablando. Aqui, el libro completo es un espacio entre el nacimiento y la muerte. Solo se puede definir la vida asi en el mundo actual, pero esta frase en que enfoco confusa esta idea. Si alguien esta mas vivo al estar al punto de morir, estos puntos iniciales y finales, que deben marcar y definir lo que viene adentro, son paradojas, y el binario esta roto otra vez. Del mismo modo, este libro describe el tiempo entre el nacimiento y la muerte del dictador. El

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nacimiento en g^eneral senala que alg-uien morira; el pasquin funciona como un nacimienCo, senalando y marcando la muerce del dictador al fin.

En g^eneral las comillas marcan la voz viva, como la muerte y el nacimiento marcan la existencia. Entonces, es como si no hubiera existencia en los personajes dentro del libro. No creo que Bastos este tratando de hacer los personajes menos presences, sino mostrar que no se puede marcar presencia asi con un empiezo y un acabo. Los personajes todavia tienen presencia en el libro, pero sus presencias no son marcados ni senalados ni con comienzo ni final. Derrida explica presencia asi, ^'The formal essence of the signified is presence, and privileg'e of its proximity to the log^os [word] as phone [voice] is the privileg^e of presence.. .The formal essence of the sig’n can only be determined in terms of presence.” Eso me hace pensar que la esencia de los personajes es mas clara porque el log^os y la phone son menos distintos por la ausencia de las comillas.

En la escritura sin comillas, no hay diferenciacion entre personajes ni en lo escrito ni lo dicto. Entonces, lo dicho parece que nunca sea dicho; las palabras no vienen de una voz entre comillas, sino viene de la pag'ina. El lector tiene que pensar mas, y actuar y imag^inar menos. Al fin y al cabo de esta idea, pienso que la novela busca escritura natural. Derrida la define asi: Natural writing is immediately united to the voice and to breath. Its nature is not grammaCological but pneumacological...There is much to say about the fact that the native unity of the voice and writing is prescripci^'e. Archespeech is writing because it is a law. A natural law...There is therefore a good and a bad writing: the good and natural is the divine inscription in the heart and the soul; the perverse and artful is technique, exiled in the exteriority of the body...Once must constantly go back toward the 'voice of nature,* the ‘holy voice of nature,’ that merges with the divine inscription and prescription; one must encounter oneself within it, enter into a dialogue within its signs, speak and respond to oneself in its pages.

Lo que describe Derrida es exactamente lo que El Supremo hace; dentro de su propio pensamiento, busca un dialogo que tiene el proposito de describir lo que significa pensar. El Dictador dice, "Busco el secret© del pensamiento” (2»i). En buscar eso, el dictador trata de naturalizar las palabras: “No trates de artificializar la naturaleza de los asuntos sino de naturalizar lo artificioso de las palabras”(S9j. Entonces, las palabras no ocurren en el mundo, sino son creadas por la mente de los humanos. El secrete del pensamiento no es natural, no es el mundo actual. Las palabras son una totalidad infinita, nacida por nuestro pensamiento.

Normalmente un libro es una totalidad, creado por palabras y marcado per la primera y ultima pagina. Derrida nota que no hay ningun mode de reconciltar la totalidad de un libro con el sentido de la escritura. Un libro es una totalidad cerrado y infinite, aunque eso es una paradoja. Yo razono que este libro no es tan cerrado ni es una totalidad porque el lector existe afuera, en el mundo del aqui y ahora. Somos los objetivos del libro, y existimos fuera del libro.

Bastos nos hace pensar, tratamos de poner todos los temas y palabras juntos, pero es imposible. Buscamos el secrete del autor detras de las palabras, y en hacer eso nos ponemos mas y mas consciente de nosotros mismas y nuestra lucha para comprender el libro. Tenemos una relacion con las palabras, una relacion vivo en el presente. Somos el punto en que todo debe unirse, pero hay demasiado, solo podemos entrar en el libro por un punto; nuestras mentes solamente tienen una capacidad p^ra eso. O quizas no sea demasiado, sino todo es paradoja llena de sentido, pero en tratar

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de desenredarlo, nos perdemos. Pero nos nacemos porque enconcramos una consciencia de la imposibilidad de nuestro propio pensamiento basado en un lengmaje que solamente funciona cuando no pensamos en la imposibilidad del laberinto del lenguaje. De este modo, IBastos rompe los binaries del lenguaje, el negro/blanco, el vivo/muerto, con un personaje que se vuelve loco tratando de ver las cosas en un lenguaje inexistente en que el signo y el significado son la misma cosa.

Works Cited Barthes, Roland. “The Death of the Author." Imag’e, music, text. Trans. Stephen Heath. New York: Hill & Wang, 1978. (142-148).

Bastes, Augusto Roa. Yo el supremo. Barcelona: Debolsillo, 2oo8.

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BRITTANY HUTZEL

My Teddy Bear

In my room, Teddy’s laying on my bed again. “High on life,” Teddy says.

High on meth. She’s stained my blue quilt with green wine coolers.

Glassy eyes and rancid breath.

Oh, Teddy.

“Fucking want a life is all,” Teddy says. “You try having a kid at fifteen.” rd really rather not.

Teddy’s fur is brown and ragged. “It’s your fault that I’m this way. You stole my childhood.”

Oh yes, I stole it and claimed it for my own.

In spots, you can see the thinning cotton material. She hasn’t looked like new in years.

“Don't you judge me,” Teddy shouts, reading the disgust in my eyes.

Her staining, my distaining. “Elitist bitch,” Teddy continues to herself, “thinks she knows everything. But she’ll see. Life sucks the happy right out of you.”

Teddy always wears a faded red scarf around her neck. Once looked festive, now Just trashy,

“Tell me you love me,” Teddy demands, her reddened button nose scrunching with the effort. “Love me,” she demands.

Teddy always gets this way when she’s drunk—so needy and so childish.

But I don’t love Teddy, and I haven’t for some time.

Guess life sucked the happy right out of me.

“Stupid whore.”

At least I didn’t have three more kids by twenty-one. Tiny teddies with the fluff ripped out, Teddy stands up on the bed. She hits me like I deserve it.

“Get the hell out of here,” Teddy says.

Soon I will go away, and I won’t see my teddy anymore.

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JULIA MINKIN

Moth A hotel stay in Florida

My mother found a moth folded softly in the curtain—

a big, fuzzy thing^ the size of my thumb.

We cracked the window before we left, in case he woke.

At church, her hands fluttered— opened, closed the prayer book, flew up

to touch her hair, —she didn't cry,

-

but everyone said she had his eyes.

,

There was a wake at the hotel— wrinkled women in perfume touching my cheeks.

1 snuck away.

Loss is a strange awakening: The room was cold.

The moth was gone.

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AURORA BELL

Red Lipstick Fades to a Paler Hue

Her fingers twined around the stem of the glass,

Gracefully arabesquing tendrils of Art Nouveau indulgence on the crystal flute,

Fine lines now parsing her brow, She remembered the days before —

The laughteranddancing and latenights and Jazz — that she would never

Forgive herself for losing (Gracefully). She had never been wanting

In grace; always near, it was

Never more than a lovely friend

And so she sat, graceful, Her slight weight leaving no more than a dimple On the red velvet cushion at the bar

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♦PEOPLE*

Editor-Ln-ChLef Roxana SoroudL

Associate Editors Nafeesa Dawoodbhoy

; }

Coralie Harmacke

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Emma Hohenstein

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Megan Myecofski

Laura Valenza

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