Cortazar

The works of Julio Cortazar are brilliant and, at times, mind-blowing works of literature. The first story, "The Continuity of Parks", was completely surprising. The story goes from an innocent escape from reality to a sinister betrayal of trust. This was my first experience with magical realism in literature and, I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed it. The way that Cortazar bended what is true and what is fantasy completely caught me off guard and I felt betrayed as a reader. It is apparent that magical realism is used in movies today. The concept of reality being challenged is not something new. An example of this would be the movie Fight Club, in which the viewer doesn't find out what reality is until the end of the movie. "The Continuity of Parks" follows a similar format. The reader doesn't find out that the story has been twisted until the end.

The second story by Cortazar, "Axolotl", he tells a story of a man who becomes obsessed with the axolotl and becomes the animal. The axolotl are trapped in an unnatural environment and aren't free to move within their cramped tank. The story is representative of the man feeling trapped within his circumstances. Similarly, I can relate to feeling trapped within my circumstances. When I was in high school, my parents banned me from going to a separate youth group that I had found my identity in. My parents essentially took away the most important thing I valued and, as a teenager, that was very hard to take. I felt trapped and cramped. The notion of feeling trapped and stuck is something I can relate to very well. In Jon Foreman's article, "What's in a Word", he talks about a group of people in India known as the Dalit. These people have been oppressed for over 3000 years and are viewed as lower people in India. They relate closely to the Axolotl in that both the Dalit and Axolotl are cramped and trapped in their circumstances.

The final story that I read by Cortazar was "Our Demeanor at Wakes". This story caused many emotions in me ranging from confusion, anger, and laughter. The whole concept of the story is absolutely absurd in that a family takes over an entire funeral and removes the host family from participating in the funeral. When I was reading this, I imagined this happening to someone I care about and the rage I would feel whilst laughing at the thought of crying over a stranger. However, I can appreciate their attack on hypocrisy and lying. Their approach may have been a terrible way to do so, but the idea behind it wasn't. I feel like I take a bad response to hypocrisy by being sarcastic and, at times, mean about it. I'm fixing that but an occasional, brutal comment will sometimes come from me. With that in mind, I found Cortazar's stories to be brilliant and very enjoyable.