TT Book Club - The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares

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Welcome to the Talk Tennis Book Club Starting September 1st.

We will be reading The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares. This novella, approximately 105 pages long, will not require a long commitment so if you’ve always wanted to take part in a book discussion but hadn’t had the time, please consider joining us now.

To whet your appetite, a description of the book from goodreads follows:

“Jorge Luis Borges declared The Invention of Morel a masterpiece of plotting, comparable to The Turn of The Screw and Journey to the Center of the Earth. Set on a mysterious island, Bioy’s novella is a story of suspense and exploration, as well as a wonderfully unlikely romance, in which every detail is at once crystal clear and deeply mysterious.​
“Inspired by Bioy Casares’s fascination with the movie star Louise Brooks, The Invention of Morel has gone on to live a secret life of its own. Greatly admired by Julio Cortázar, Gabriel García Márquez, and Octavio Paz, the novella helped to usher in Latin American fiction’s now famous postwar boom. As the model for Alain Resnais and Alain Robbe-Grillet’s Last Year at Marienbad, it also changed the history of film. “​

Adolfo Bioy Casares (b.1914, d.1999) was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and lived there for most of his life. Bioy Casares was the recipient of the 1990 Miguel de Cervantes Prize which honors the lifetime achievement of a Spanish-language writer. Other winners include Octavio Paz, Carlos Fuentes, and Jorge Luis Borges. The Invention of Morel is regarded as Bioy Casares’ most notable work.

Just a few Book Club rules:

1. The Book Club will probably be more successful if we start at the same time. If you get your book early, please wait until the start date before engaging in detailed discussions of the text.​
2. BE NICE. This is an opportunity for a group of people to read and discuss an interesting book. Snide remarks, condescension, or otherwise rude behavior have no place here.​
3. Cite the chapter or pages you are referring to BEFORE making your comments. This allows everyone to more easily identify what you are discussing and also serves as a “spoiler warning” for those who are not as far along in the book.​
Example:​
Chapters 4 & 5​
Blah, bla, bla Blah, Blah I am discussing chapters 4 and 5 in this post, blab bla, Blah,..whatever..etc…bla blah and so on…blah…​


Thanks very much to @bogdan101 for suggesting this intriguing book. I hope everyone enjoys reading and discussing The Invention of Morel.
 
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Sudacafan

Bionic Poster
As I will start re-reading it, I searched and located this novel in my physical library. The copy I have was printed in 1993. Its pages have turned yellowish, by the way.
I believe I will be reading this for the third time. The first time must have been soon after my copy was printed, and the second one, approximately 10 to 15 years later.
This is the edition I got.

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@Sudacafan Have you ever read it in English? I would be curious to know what you (and other Spanish language readers) think of the English translation. I believe most of us will be reading the New York Review Books (NRYB) edition which was translated by Ruth L C Simms.
 

Sudacafan

Bionic Poster
@Sudacafan Have you ever read it in English? I would be curious to know what you (and other Spanish language readers) think of the English translation. I believe most of us will be reading the New York Review Books (NRYB) edition which was translated by Ruth L C Simms.
No, I never read any Spanish original in an English or any other language translation, nor I am honestly interested to, really.
Conversely, I would always like to have the access or the fluency required to read the non-Spanish originals of the books I am interested in their original language. And that's something I could hardly ever accomplish.
 

bogdan101

Semi-Pro
@Sudacafan Have you ever read it in English? I would be curious to know what you (and other Spanish language readers) think of the English translation. I believe most of us will be reading the New York Review Books (NRYB) edition which was translated by Ruth L C Simms.

I also have a University of Texas Press edition, same translation, but with some additional short stories from "La trama celeste" that are very much worth reading; this volume is available on archive.org.
 
I also have a University of Texas Press edition, same translation, but with some additional short stories from "La trama celeste" that are very much worth reading; this volume is available on archive.org.
Yes, I found it rather odd that we had the same translation and I think the NYRB edition may simply be a reprint of what you have. I think the UTP edition has a copyright date of 1969 and is now out of print. The used copies for sale on Amazon right now cost twice as much as the new NYRB. If I like Bioy Casares' writing, I might be tempted to scrounge around the used bookstores in my area to find an older copy with the other stories.
 
Reminder that we start reading and discussing today.

What are your first impressions?

Introduction, Prologue, pgs. 9 - 13
I haven't gotten very far, but already the author has piled on mystery after mystery. Why is the narrator a fugitive? Is he actually on the island he thinks he's on or is he someplace else? Who are the other people that are now on the island and what are they doing there? I like Bioy Casares' use of double entendre when he describes the dancers (page 11) "They are dancing on the grassy hillside as I write, unmindful of the snakes at their feet." Does he literally mean there are snakes in the grass that could bite them or does he figuratively mean treachery on the island or both?
 

Sudacafan

Bionic Poster
Started to reread the book today (after several years, as I said above).
The prologue written by Jorge Luis Borges is full of compliments for this short novel. He compares it to many styles of works. In the end, Borges says it’s just perfect.
I think it has been something really significant to have Borges say such a thing about a book.
We must also mention that Borges and Bioy Casares were friends.
 
Today is the 1st, are we starting, or waiting? Should we just start reading, or read a designated number of pages, then discuss?
Just start reading and discussing. This book is so short that I didn't think it necessary to have a set number of pages to read per day as I think we can pretty much stick together. In the future when we are reading a longer book an agreed upon number of pages per day is good idea.
 

bogdan101

Semi-Pro
Reminder that we start reading and discussing today.

What are your first impressions?

Introduction, Prologue, pgs. 9 - 13
I haven't gotten very far, but already the author has piled on mystery after mystery. Why is the narrator a fugitive? Is he actually on the island he thinks he's on or is he someplace else? Who are the other people that are now on the island and what are they doing there? I like Bioy Casares' use of double entendre when he describes the dancers (page 11) "They are dancing on the grassy hillside as I write, unmindful of the snakes at their feet." Does he literally mean there are snakes in the grass that could bite them or does he figuratively mean treachery on the island or both?

Literally snakes. This will make sense later.
 

Bagumbawalla

Talk Tennis Guru
OK, I just barely started- reading a bit between breaks during the US Open
Here are a few of my first impressions.

1. The story was written over 80 years ago and a lot has happened since then. I am doing my best to imagine it in its pristine state and influenced mainly by the writers and ideas mentioned in the introduction and prologue.

2. Why does it need an introduction and prologue? It seems like a well written, well conceived, story should stand on its own. Just a thought- almost every book, now, has them.

3. In most "fantasy" or sci-fi stories, we generally accept the "magic" as it is presented to us. Until I suspect otherwise, I am going with the flow of the story.

4. Recently, I read Invitation to a Beheading, which is often compared to The Trial, and may find some similarities. Hope.

5. No matter how good the author, and how well they attempt to control the reader's perceptions, they will always act as as kind of countervailing force to the effect the author is trying to create. Already, I am noticing some "resistance" on my part, but, still most of the story looms ahead. It may win me over in the end.

6. What is the crime that forces the narrator to flee to this uninhabitable island? With Nabokov it was "gnostic turpitud", in Kafka, Joseph K had been "traduced ". In Morel he might have been sentenced for choppy writing. Maybe later we will find a reason behind the choppiness. Nevertheless, the narrator seems well read and has intentions to write books, yet his writing is less than lucid. Is there a reason fo this?

7. In the first paragraph (page7 in my copy), he talks about tides flooding the marshes each week. If tides are influenced by the moon' cycle, then it would be a monthly event. Will we discover a reason for the difference?

8. The two books he wants to write (second paragraph) seem like a joke, but it's hard to know. I regret not knowing Spanish.

9. Back to the first paragraph- he talks about summer coming early. But isn't the island tropical with similar year-round temperatures? Should I just accept everything as it is related, or suspect some ulterior reasoning?

10. On both pages 10 and 11 he begins sentences/paragraphs with "but". Usually we think in terms like "this but that". Is this something he does for a reason?

11. I liked (page 11) where he writes "these people are real- at least as real as I am". To me this indicates a sort of self-conscious observation (author intrusion)- no one in the story exist, they are characters, imaginary, created for some purpose we may or may not discover.

12. On page 13 do we "learn that heaven is located in the memory of men? Is that significant?

13. On page 13 he talks about spring, summer, winter and autumn and how the plant life changes- yet, if I counted correctly, he had (at this point) been on the island about 102 days???

14. I like the idea that the "museum" could be a sanatorium, and I like the name "Belidor".

15. At the bottom of page 16 there is a confusing paragraph. He clears out stuff from his room "There were no more paintings by Picasso, or smoked crystal, or books inscribed by famous people, but still I felt wretched and uncomfortable".
Are we to assume the rooms had actual Picasso and rare books- and they made the narrator uncomfortable?

16. On page 18, another paragraph starting with "but". Is that a Spanish thing?

17. Back to page 14, 4th paragraph, he talks of a room with a "large but incomplete collection of books. Could that refer to- compare to, the infinite library in one of Borges stories- otherwise, what is a complete collection of books?

18. As I read, I find comparisons to other things I have read and liked. I look forward to liking this, as well. Hope.
 
Pages 13-16
12. On page 13 do we "learn that heaven is located in the memory of men? Is that significant?
I caught that too and I certainly think it is significant. The full sentence; "My book Apology will enshrine Ombrellieri in the memory of men -- the probable location of heaven -- as a kind person who helped a poor devil escape from an unjust sentence."

There are people who fear death because they are afraid they will be forgotten and that is the true death. Knowing that they will be remembered by others alleviates this fear and could be a sort of heaven. I think the sentence reveals a bit about the fugitive's own beliefs in this regard and also that he is a decent person for wanting to give credit to those who have helped him.

Just as an aside, when I read"...a poor devil escape from and unjust sentence," the first thing that popped into my head was, to help him escape from bad writing or words that have been spoken against him. I had to reread it a couple of times to realize he was probably talking about an unjust legal sentence. I wonder if these double entendres are intentional by the author, created by the translator, or just products of my wild imagination - whatever it is, this is the kind of writing I really like.

15. At the bottom of page 16 there is a confusing paragraph. He clears out stuff from his room "There were no more paintings by Picasso, or smoked crystal, or books inscribed by famous people, but still I felt wretched and uncomfortable".
Are we to assume the rooms had actual Picasso and rare books- and they made the narrator uncomfortable?

I did assume that the rooms really had autographed books and paintings by Picasso; remember TIOM was published in 1940 when Picasso was alive and very prolific, and of course, unconventional. I think the island is meant to be a fantastic place. The fugitive described the rooms as modern and pretentious and uncomfortable (modern furniture can be really uncomfortable - trust me) well, he can remove all the items from the room, but he can't remove the room from the room so I think he is talking about the lingering sense of pretentiousness and uncomfortableness he is feeling. FYI: people who practice crystal healing use smoky quartz as a grounding and healing stone to connect back to the earth. So he could be generally creeped out by the kind of people who believe in that sort of thing. That, as well as where his imagination takes him next could also make him uncomfortable.

17. Back to page 14, 4th paragraph, he talks of a room with a "large but incomplete collection of books. Could that refer to- compare to, the infinite library in one of Borges stories- otherwise, what is a complete collection of books?

I've never read Borges so I can't comment on that, but otherwise, "a complete collection of books," is sometimes thought of as a collection of books that educated people should have. Up until recently, in Western culture that would be the Classics and books from the Age of Enlightenment, etc. I'm up to page 20 (slow reader) and this place he's describing seems like a vacation conference center. The question for me is, who are these people and what kind of books to they have?
 
The story of both has some clear parallels and you will appreciate this better if you finish both.I believe TIOM was an inspiration for Lost.
I tried watching Lost, but I thought it went straight downhill after the season one finale. I think I sat through the next two seasons hoping it would get better and when it didn't, I quit watching. Have any of the other books that Sawyer read made as great an impression on the writers as TIOM?
 
I tried watching Lost, but I thought it went straight downhill after the season one finale. I think I sat through the next two seasons hoping it would get better and when it didn't, I quit watching. Have any of the other books that Sawyer read made as great an impression on the writers as TIOM?
I think TIOM is the main inspiration, and you will understand why when you finish the book. There are many elements in common.
 

Azure

G.O.A.T.
On page 65 and I am afraid I won't be reading further for about 3-4 days. I hope the others don't finish it by then!

I think I am beginning to understand what might be happening but putting them forth here may be a spoiler for the others.
 

Bagumbawalla

Talk Tennis Guru
Well, didn't get much reading done today. We are traveling on vacation. So, just a couple thoughts.

A. I am still having "difficulties" with the narrator's/author's writing. Possibly there is some conscious intention
that might explain the choices, but, so far, It is not working for me.

In The Turn of the Screw, for example, there are mysteries, contradictions, that build tension and apprehension, and create a sort of wonderment of uncertainty that is integral to the story. In TIoM, however, there are contradictions, and uncertainties, but the narrator comes across like a (insert your words here), and that causes me to lose interest in his fate.

B. Page 20- the narrator is spying on the "gypsy" woman. He writes "yesterday, and again today, I discovered that
my nights and days wait for this hour". Does that mean that he discovered it yesterday an then discovered it again today- and why do the days and nights wait? Couldn't he have said, simply, " night and day, I wait for this hour?

C. We see people dressed for tennis- are there tennis courts on the island?

D. In Invitation to a Beheading, there were 2 sorts of characters, transparent and opaque. The narrator seems to be invisible/transparent, possibly without substance who's actions derive not from his own inner direction, but, rather, imposed on him by the caprice of some outside force (author?)- that might explain some things- we will see- hope.

E. Page 21, the narrator fears being betrayed to the police, yet the visitors don't know him and there are no police on the island.

F. Page 21, I like how footnotes "explain" things.

G. Page 23- (it is the most unfrequented place on the island).
I am not sure that it makes sense to say "most unfrequented"- "least frequented" makes more sense. Is there a reason
behind his odd phrasing?

H. I like the comparison to Leonardo, this is a surreal, Daliesque, way of seeing things.

I. Page 26- I could hear the ocean with its sounds of movement and fatigue...
So far this is my favorite line in the story.

J. Page 28- he says that his sentence was too imperative,
and, yet, it was an interrogative sentence. Is he being funny?

Also, in these several pages, nobody notices him, hears him, sees, him or anything he has made or done, but he seems just too dense. It grew a bit tiresome.

K. Page 35, we seem to learn that "living is dying", and so it is- we suffer, yearn, regret, age, ache. Machines, automatons do not suffer as we do.

Also, on page 35, we get a very detailed description of Morel- the only person or thing, so far given such attention.

 

Bagumbawalla

Talk Tennis Guru
With this book, if you have questions at a given point, the only answer is to keep reading :)

This is a good observation, most likely one that could be made only after reading the entire novel.
Should we save any comments, questions, discussion, until then?
 

bogdan101

Semi-Pro
This is a good observation, most likely one that could be made only after reading the entire novel.
Should we save any comments, questions, discussion, until then?

I think questioning the logic of what's going on is a central part of this work; the reader must question the sanity of the main character, just like he does himself. Any answers at this stage can only give away that "which must not be given away".
 

Bagumbawalla

Talk Tennis Guru
The idea is to discuss the book as we read it. If we are not going to do that, there is no point in even having a Book Club.

Well, yes, this is what I was thinking, as well.
However, I do see B101s point. Sometimes reading a novel is like climbing a mountain seeking wisdom from the wise hermit who lives at the top. Sometimes it is the climb, itself, from which we learn.
I begin to suspect this book to be more of the second type, and, so far it It' been difficult to find solid footing.
 
Well, didn't get much reading done today. We are traveling on vacation. So, just a couple thoughts.
Don't worry about it. I'm just on page 30 and @Azure is taking a break for a few days. The rest of the people participating seem to have read the entire book already.

...but the narrator comes across like a (insert your words here), and that causes me to lose interest in his fate.
Generally speaking, I like the fugitive, but his constant whining reminds me of another person trapped on an island - Robinson Crusoe. In the Introduction to TIOM, it is pointed out that "Morel," is a play on the name "Moreau," from "The Island of Dr. Moreau," so I can't help thinking that ABC intentionally gave the fugitive one of Crusoe's personality traits in a nod to Robinson Crusoe.

B. Page 20- the narrator is spying on the "gypsy" woman. He writes "yesterday, and again today, I discovered that
my nights and days wait for this hour". Does that mean that he discovered it yesterday an then discovered it again today- and why do the days and nights wait? Couldn't he have said, simply, " night and day, I wait for this hour?
Of course he could, but then his writing wouldn't be nearly as poetic.

F. Page 21, I like how footnotes "explain" things.
It also explains to us that we are not reading events in real time as they happen but are reading them long after they have been written. The book has fallen into the hands of an editor who wrote those footnotes and the book has been published. How did the book get off the island and back to civilization? Was the fugitive ever on an island in the first place? How long ago did the actual events happen? Where is the fugitive now?
 
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Bagumbawalla

Talk Tennis Guru
Well, I'm back.

On page 36 we learn the name of the gypsy girl- Faustine. Just as Morel may be associated with Well's Moreau, I suspect that Faustine is derived from Faust. There are many Faust tales, stories, fables, plays- but they all involve Faust making a "deal" with the devil- for money, fame, influence, health, ease of life, happiness, eternal life. All these things might be granted, but there is always a "catch"... things begin to begin to start beginning.

Nowdays, we are used to mysteries, magics, aberrations of all kinds in the physical order of things in novels. We need just two sentences, or a paragraph to explain that a young woman "sleeping" during a galactic voyage is protected by a small cube containing a laminated mouse brain, that can conjure a protective "genie" whos thoughts can kill.
And, yet, Bioys is taking 50? Pages or more to set up something barely hinted at. Time and again the narrator makes implausible excuses to explain why he is not noticed by the visitors, why there are two moons, two suns. It grows tiresome.

In the movie The 6th Sense, the invisibility of the ghost is dealt with in a more subtle way. Is Bioys a poor writer, or is there a method to his messiness? Only half way through.

And what about the rising and falling tides. Are they symbolic, psychological, part of some running joke? Is the ocean some sort of Freudian unconscious, libido? In the marsh the "wood" is soft and pulpy, up above it is "hard". Does this have similar idiomatic meaning in Spanish? On page 43 the narrator believes that the tides supply energy to the motors. At this point, I am reminded of the novel The infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman by Angela Carter, also worth reading.

page 38- "They spoke French correctly, too correctly- like South Americans. Humor?

Somewhere between pages 46 and 56, I begin to notice things being explained - sort of.
Like in the "detective" mysteries of G K Chesterton, I suspect the denouement is not merely the solution of
baffeling evidence, but some more metaphysical quandary.

Page 54 "when one is alone, it is impossible to be dead". I like the line, does it mean anything?
I am also reminded of a "classic" sci-fi novel, Rogue Moon, where a persons from the earth are duplicated on the moon in order to study a strange an deadly object- by Algis Budrys. I believe he described the machine and its purpose in less than a page. I am signing off on page 62, and still we are in limbo.

 
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Bagumbawalla

Talk Tennis Guru
Well, I "finished" reading the book (I may need to read it again- what is that thing cows do with their food)?
And then I read the blurb on the back cover- explaining how the novel is a comic parody of the banality of our lives, allowing us to laugh at our foibles through his deft and elegant touch.

Not sure I got all that.

I suspect there was fairly frequent word play and sly hints that may have been lost in translation, but no, for the most part I felt like we were led through too much marshy morass, tedious explanation, and cardboard characters. I missed the Woody Allen (early films) touch.

I do see the work as a kind of fable where the characters personify some attitude or quality that they seem doomed to repeat. In trying to escape the dreariness of this world we see the narrator doomed to repeat...

Coincidentally, I found (yes, at a thrift shop) a copy of The Day of the Locust, that seems to explore some similar themes.

All for now. Will wait for others to finish, share their impressions.
 
Through page 43
I'm up to the part where everyone on the island just disappears and the narrator considers attributing his imaginings to the toxic roots he has eaten. If so, I find it humorous that he not only conjured up an imaginary lover, but also an imaginary rival. That the book is titled The Invention of Morel and not The Invention of Faustine is telling and perhaps speaks to the role that self-sabotage plays in the narrator's life. I really hope at least some parts of this story are true and the entire thing is not just the mad scribblings of some self-loathing recluse living in his mommy's basement.
 

Bagumbawalla

Talk Tennis Guru
Through page 43
I'm up to the part where everyone on the island just disappears and the narrator considers attributing his imaginings to the toxic roots he has eaten. If so, I find it humorous that he not only conjured up an imaginary lover, but also an imaginary rival. That the book is titled The Invention of Morel and not The Invention of Faustine is telling and perhaps speaks to the role that self-sabotage plays in the narrator's life. I really hope at least some parts of this story are true and the entire thing is not just the mad scribblings of some self-loathing recluse living in his mommy's basement.
Wouldn't it be interesting if the narrator and Morel were one and the same? I don't think this can be justified, but it would make for a clever twist.
 
Wouldn't it be interesting if the narrator and Morel were one and the same? I don't think this can be justified, but it would make for a clever twist.
That actually occurred to me as a possible outcome. I assume since you've read the novella in it's entirety and ruled it out that isn't the case. Does everything get explained in the end or are we left hanging?
 

Bagumbawalla

Talk Tennis Guru
That actually occurred to me as a possible outcome. I assume since you've read the novella in it's entirety and ruled it out that isn't the case. Does everything get explained in the end or are we left hanging?
Many of the things I "complained" about get explained, including the weekly tides, why he wants to write about Malthus... Some things once "explained" still make no rational or scientific sense- and some are not explained at all- who the narrator is, what "crime" he might have committed, how he got to the island by rowing and without knowing how to use a compass, how his diary came to be published and is it, in effect, a sort of immortalizing construct. Maybe he is Morel, at least in a sense. The novel may need a second, more thorough, reading- but I am going to give my brain an ice bath and a few days rest.

Oh, and I should say, despite some things that I still find irritating about the novel- it is a satisfying read, sort of a "closed ecology" of its own design and may just be a sort of self-referencing commentary on the writing/creative process.

For me, in one sense the novel works, but in another, I think it try's too hard to be too many things- a pastiche or homage to Wells, a kind of metaphysical detective mystery, a surreal experiment, a "gothic" ghost tale, a commentary on the nature of longings and the existential brevity of consciousness. By including too much, it seems to lack a substantial, relatable essence. Do we really care for these characters, their existence, their fate?
 
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pages 43 - 58
The fugitive has discounted his "toxic root theory," and is running around the island trying to figure out what is going on. People have reappeared without explanation and the fugitive hides behind pillars and trees observing them. He is so close he should have been found out by now but inexplicably, he hasn't. So far, I have thought that the title, "The Invention of Morel," was a figurative expression meaning that the fugitive has "invented" Morel in his mind. But what if it's meant to be taken literally and that Morel is a person who really exists and that he is a mad scientist secreted away on an island inventing machines that change the tides, cause the appearance and disappearance of people, and make extras suns appear in the sky? Or perhaps it is I, I, I who have finally gone mad Bwah Hah Ha!!! Seriously, I have no idea what's going on in this book, but I really like it.
 

Bagumbawalla

Talk Tennis Guru
pages 43 - 58
The fugitive has discounted his "toxic root theory," and is running around the island trying to figure out what is going on. People have reappeared without explanation and the fugitive hides behind pillars and trees observing them. He is so close he should have been found out by now but inexplicably, he hasn't. So far, I have thought that the title, "The Invention of Morel," was a figurative expression meaning that the fugitive has "invented" Morel in his mind. But what if it's meant to be taken literally and that Morel is a person who really exists and that he is a mad scientist secreted away on an island inventing machines that change the tides, cause the appearance and disappearance of people, and make extras suns appear in the sky? Or perhaps it is I, I, I who have finally gone mad Bwah Hah Ha!!! Seriously, I have no idea what's going on in this book, but I really like it.

I finished the book, and am still trying to resolve issues in its interpretation, possibly that is one aspect of a good book- that it contains multiple levels or "planes". Since the narrator is writing a book, is he not, himself, a creator/inventor, since Bioy is creating/inventing a story about the narrator... if we, ourselves, are created by a (cosmic event etc) and are products of an inevitable chain of cause/effect, then what are thoughts/emotions/sensations? This rambling may relate to the narrators comment- When one is alone, it is impossible to be dead.
 

Bagumbawalla

Talk Tennis Guru
50 years ago I read this novel. I don't remember it being so wordy/preachy, but it does share some themes with TIoM. Here are a few quotes that relate.


The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman Quotes.
21. "I can no longer tell the difference between memory and dream. They share the same quality of wishful thinking."

24. "The introduction of cinematography enabled us to corral time past and thus retain it not merely in the memory - at best, a falsifying receptacle - but in the objective preservative of a roll of film. But, if past, present and future are the dimensions of time, they are notoriously fluid. There is no tension in the tenses and yet they are always tremulously about to coagulate. The present is a liquid jelly which settles into a quivering, passive mass, the past, as soon as - if not sooner than - we are aware of it as present. Yet this mass was intangible and existed only conceptually until arrival of the preservative, cinema. The motion picture is usually regarded as only a kind of shadow play and few bother to probe the ontological paradoxes it presents. For it offers us nothing less than the present tense experience of time irrefutably past. So that the coil of film has, as it were, lassoed inert phenomena from which the present had departed, and when projected upon a screen, they are granted a temporary revivification. [...] The images of cinematography, however, altogether lack autonomy. Locking in programmed patterns, they merely transpose time past into time present and cannot, by their nature, respond to the magnetic impulses of time future for the unachievable future which does not exist in any dimension, but nevertheless organizes phenomena towards its potential conclusions. The cinematographic model is one of cyclic recurrences alone, even if these recurrences are instigated voluntarily, by the hand of man viz. the projectionist, rather than the hand of fate. Though, in another sense, the action of time is actually visible in the tears, scratches and thumbprints on the substance of the film itself, these are caused only by the sly, corrosive touch of mortality and, since the print may be renewed at will, the flaws of aging, if retained, increase the presence of the past only by a kind of forgery, as when a man punches artificial worm-holes into raw or smokes shadows of fresh pain with a candle to produce an apparently aged artefact. Mendoza, however, claimed that if a thing were sufficiently artificial, it became absolutely equivalent to the genuine."

25. "Even if it is the dream made flesh, the real, once it becomes real, can be no more than real."

27. "The world exists only as a medium in which we execute our desires. Physically, the world itself, the actual world - the real world, if you like - is formed of malleable clay; its metaphysical structures is just as malleable."
 

Azure

G.O.A.T.
I actually finished it in another 20 mins. Lol! I have a few points to make....

Few spoilers below

At the outset let me state that I liked the book - had it been even 10 pages longer I wouldn't have. I thought it was the perfect length.

The book raises incredible philosophical questions. I had to stop a few times to think about his statements - perhaps we always want the person we love to have the existence of a ghost... how deep is this sentence! I had to pause and think about many such sentences. I can only imagine how beautiful it must have been in the original Spanish.

The author often says that we don't need these bodies to 'live' and yet he had fallen in love with the physical appearance of Faustine. After all, he has just experienced a week in the life of a pretty lady and yet his love for her is so strong that he cannot live with the idea of being away from her. How ridiculous our emotions indeed are!

Our need to remain immortal is beautifully told in a few pages and a magical story - I don't have to 'understand' the magic to know that the magic is enthralling. At some point the author says that our whole life is indeed a week being spent over and over again - to me it's just one moment spent over and over again and we just enrich that one moment with our experiences. How I would like to chat with the author along these lines!

I did not quite get the nationalist sentiment towards the end, but perhaps someone can help me with that bit. I also did not understand the editor bit about telegraph not being mentioned - is that significant?

All in all, an enjoyable first pick for our book club! Yay!
 

Bagumbawalla

Talk Tennis Guru
Since not everyone may have completed the reading, I will not go into detail, but one aspect of the novel involves the brevity of life and a consequent desire for immortality. Maybe Bioy was mocking this desire for eternal life, but it is fairly obvious that Morel's invention was not workable, practical, or even sane, and yet the narrator goes to lengths to explain the method. So, what is going on there? Even in the 1940s, it would have been possible to write something like- "this elixir, treatment, procedure, will prohibit the aging process", but he chose otherwise, for some particular reason...
 
What? No further discussion? @milk of amnesia have you finished? Thoughts?
On page 80 now - I am a slow reader. I'm up to the point where the fugitive discovers that what he has been seeing are basically holographic projections - the remnants of Morel's failed or incomplete experiments. I think I'm the only person who hasn't completed the novella so if people want to have a general discussion about the meaning of the book feel free to do so - I'll join in once I've finished.
 

Azure

G.O.A.T.
On page 80 now - I am a slow reader. I'm up to the point where the fugitive discovers that what he has been seeing are basically holographic projections - the remnants of Morel's failed or incomplete experiments. I think I'm the only person who hasn't completed the novella so if people want to have a general discussion about the meaning of the book feel free to do so - I'll join in once I've finished.
Dont worry it looks like its just the three of us here anyway :)
 

Sudacafan

Bionic Poster
I have passed the middle of the book now.
I see I can’t compare my progress or notes based on the 105 pages of the version you have, as mine has 155.
I believe mine is a format with less text per page.
My apologies for not commenting anything. I did enjoy reading the comments and deep analyses of others here.
I have the excuse that the US Open has taken away most of my reading hours.
I would like to write something after I finished.
I see I had forgotten many details of my prior readings of many years ago, considering the first one was in 1993.
 

Bagumbawalla

Talk Tennis Guru
Just some aimless rambling to keep the topic alive..

Metafiction- is where/when the author tends to remind the reader that what he/she is reading is not reality or realism, but a work of fiction. It often involves self-referring comments or circular constructions regarding its own plotting or construction. It may play with reader's expectations or literary conventions. It could be a fiction within a fiction.
"Meta fiction has been around since (at least) Don Quixote, though it is associated with "modern" literature.

I think we can find examples in TIoM...?
Oops, my wife is reminding me it is time to go. More later.
 

Bagumbawalla

Talk Tennis Guru
That was quick, back from walking the dog.

Fiction as "dream". Recently, in a book of modern fables, I read "Fiction is the intellectual equivalent of dreams: events have meaning beyond their plotted purpose. This is especially true of fables...

Borges wrote of dreams within dreams in the short story, The Circular Ruins, for example.

Homage to Wells- in The Island of Dr Moreau, Moreau operates on animals to make them humman-like. I can't even remember why. Toward the end, Edward (protagonist) sees the animals reverting to their animal natures. Once back in England, surrounded by "real" people, he focuses on their (our) animal origins.

In the movie Forbidden Planet, the indigenous race, the Krell, invented a device by which their every thought or wis would become real. Overnight, the entire population was destroyed. Only their invention remained. The primitive (id) part of their mind was the cause.
I am about halfway through a book where the main character believes that three times in her life, she has brought some inanimate object into existence. When she was a child, her mother read her books about rabbits, bears, pumpkins, puppets, nutcrackers, coming alive. Now, she is faced with a dilemma. Is she going mad (like her mother) or is it something so much worse?

It seems that TIoM has some interest in exploring the relationship of fiction/reality.
 

Bagumbawalla

Talk Tennis Guru
If we are getting toward the end, we realize that (on the island) there is really only one person, the narrator.
Everyone else is a figment, a projection (of what), a dream) what we have is something like solipsism where objects do not exist externally from the mind. They are one and the same. In Borges' (long) short story, where Bioy is mentioned by name- Tlon, Orbis Tertius- he seems to explore the "subjective idealism" of Berkeley. But, more so, in my opinion, a more general concept. What is reality, how do we share a common existence, is memory real, are perceptions real?

What is "the other"- things out there that are not us? Do we exist without them?

Some of this thinking, I think, may apply to TIoM.
 
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