tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post1941960010710607528..comments2024-03-29T03:04:00.853-05:00Comments on Wuthering <br>Expectations: Even apart from this last outburst of drivel - Leopoldo Lugones invents the Argentine Literature of DoomAmateur Reader (Tom)http://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-26447723081571147752015-10-15T13:08:21.758-05:002015-10-15T13:08:21.758-05:00I have a vague thesis that Borges at some point be...I have a vague thesis that Borges at some point began deliberately working against the doom tendency. It was not his temperament - as Doug says, he was too playful, too joyful. Pataphysics was a better fit for his creative gnosticism.<br /><br />Of course, as Scott notes, there is a lot of glee - which is not necessarily the same as joy - in the apocalypses of Lugones and Aira. The later especially, but he comes so late he can have it both ways.<br /><br />I remember that cartoon. It was his Uncle Fester character.<br /><br />Quiroga seemed like a better prose writer than Lugones, more original and surprising. The writing of Lugones seems to have become diminished, in Argentine literature I mean - is that right? But he wrote so much, and I just have these scraps, what do I know.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-49489270724210362902015-10-15T12:13:31.960-05:002015-10-15T12:13:31.960-05:00What most struck me with Lugones besides the "...What most struck me with Lugones besides the "doom" that marked nearly all of the tales in <i>Strange Forces</i> was the delight he seemed to take in conveying it. Reading him, I kept thinking of the Charles Addams cartoon that depicts a movie theater in which the whole audience is teary-eyed except for a single mischievous figure who's cackling with glee.seraillonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17654593356535433945noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-58323206638002040162015-10-15T11:45:16.207-05:002015-10-15T11:45:16.207-05:00There is a less doom-laden side as well. Borges...There is a less doom-laden side as well. Borges's crony Xul Solar, for example, invented languages, religions, games and many other things. There's a 'pataphysical current in Argentina, too, that I'm curious about. Both Borges and Cortázar belonged to a 'pataphysical group started in 1957 by Juan Esteban Fassio, who also translated Alphonse Allais's "Captain Cap" (who I suppose qualifies as a mad scientist too, although a pretty sanguine one). Doug Skinnerhttp://www.dougskinner.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-40920990461419282582015-10-15T11:41:07.668-05:002015-10-15T11:41:07.668-05:00More Argentinean Doom? Ha, what a fun post idea! ...More Argentinean Doom? Ha, what a fun post idea! Have not read much Lugones to date although his place in the Southern Cone canon is pretty much just as you describe it and this work is the one I'll probably read by him first. P.S. You could/should probably count Horacio Quiroga, whom you've previously written about in a similarly lively fashion, as the other "key figure in Argentine Doom" of the early era given that he was really just as much Argentinean as Uruguayan in terms of where he lived out his tragedy-laden life. In any event, great post.Richardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01746599416342846897noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-38970009982485455052015-10-15T08:24:00.960-05:002015-10-15T08:24:00.960-05:00Borges is having too much fun to be a true exponen...Borges is having too much fun to be a true exponent of Doom. Not everything can be apocalyptic, even in Argentina. <br /><br /><i>The Invention of Morel</i> belongs on the "mad scientist" list, doesn't it? As, perhaps, does Borges. No, there should be a separate "mad librarian" category.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-48845399969196938082015-10-15T07:33:12.974-05:002015-10-15T07:33:12.974-05:00Argentinian literature of doom - love it! Though I...Argentinian literature of doom - love it! Though I confess that not all the Argentinian lit I've read has been doomy - though it is dark....<br /><br />kaggsysbookishramblingsAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com