Cortazar: Am I Dreaming?

The Continuity of Parks is a thought-provoking piece of work. I found it simply amazing that as a reader, I could involuntarily take part in the short story I was reading! Never before had this happened!

During the last scene in the story, el amante comes into the house and goes to the second floor where the narrator is sitting in the green velvet chair. This is a moment when only I, the reader, knows what will occur and the man in the chair doesn't!! As Palmer said, I, the reader, am also a stalker in the story because I have witnessed a private moment.

In my essay, I compared this moment to a painting I once studied in an Art History class. (It's amazing how literature and fine art go hand in hand!) The painting is titled "Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window, by Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer. We can assume the girl is in private by the almost mournful look on her face. She is in her bedroom, which may incline that the letter is from a lover. The most effective factor in this portrait is the sweeping curtain which crops part of the scene from view, as if I had intentionally stuck my head around the curtain for a better look. Because of this, we know that this scene is meant not to be seen; it was meant to be private. Like Cortazar has included the reader in the story, Vermeer has included the viewer in the painting. And I find this genius in the way the observer is actually participating! The Continuity of Parks will be a well-remembered piece of work.

Our Demeanor at Wakes is a piece of work that takes the pink elephant in the room and proudly displays it for all to see. What I mean is that Cortazar has taken human actions that most of us try to ignore or say we don't do, but do, and wrote an entire short story about it. He makes fun of the way people can be so hypocritical. Everyone can relate to the story because almost all people have at one time or another cast the first stone even though they were with sin.

Often I imitate my boyfriend while he's playing Call of Duty (an Xbox game where it's apparently required to cuss for every other word said and then shoot people as if in a war zone.) His behavior becomes so ridiculous and different than his usual nature, even though I'm sure he's just going with the crowd, that I start literally will mock him for it. And for some reason, he gives me the funniest look for doing so. Basically, I admire Cortazar for having the guts to make this commentary on the people that cannot really be themselves. (Wouldn't it be ironic if Cortazar actually went to wakes of people he didn't know and acted exactly as his characters had done?)

Cortazar's Axolotl itself is a dream. While reading it, I found myself being kept in a purgatory-like world where I was constantly on the verge of leaning towards both reality and imagination. When leaning towards this reality (some might call this the "literal meaning")I observed the narrator obsessing over the axolotl and letting the Aztec-looking creature consume him. He personified the character of the axolotl and created a world in which it had feelings. Was the axolotl really a human in disguise? Possibly the narrator wanted to escape his own world, so he created another where he could enter at any possible moment. This reminds me of Alice in Wonderland. Alice was quite bored with her own world, so she invented one with extraordinary people and exotic places. Perhaps the narrator will become so engulfed with his own thoughts that he will forget about what is really real. It's like a disease: if his mind tells him he is an axolotl, he will become one and will see himself as one.

The aforementioned perspective says that the narrator believes he is an axolotl, but on the contrary, I would also say he is one and has truly become the axolotl. I can empathize with the narrator though. Often while reading a good book, I really want to be the character and feel what he or she is feeling. Good or bad. Every time I read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, I wish I could feel what Harry feels when he finally realizes that he must give himself up for death and no one else can help him. Can you imagine feeling this way? Additionally the Harry Potter series has a literal meaning and numerous metaphorical meanings that can relate to daily life.

I also wanted to consider the narrator. This was mentioned in class I believe, but is the narrator's sex male or female? I often picture a narrator with a vague sexual identity with the sex of the author. In this situation, the narrator is Cortazar himself. Ironically, when he personifies the axolotl, he says that the salamander wished a man would write a story about axolotls. Does this conclude that Cortazar is looking through the glass at himself? Or is he looking at his own reflection? I suppose this may be a short story where the conclusion is in the hands of the reader and is open to interpretation.