Julio Cortazar died in 1984, specifically on February 12, because of what he did yesterday 34 years after his death. They say that geniuses never die, and it is true, their works always endure, so today we wanted to review some of their best writings with you. Yes, there are many, but we have a little while that we can very well dedicate to one of the best Argentine writers we have had. Although as you may already know, his native country was Belgium.
Julio Cortázar, Argentine teacher
Cortázar wrote story, wrote proseWas translator, did tests, he also gave the poetry and of course, at critical… Did you miss something to write? We think not!
Each and every one of his complete works can be found edited by the Gutenberg Galaxy; however, today in Actualidad Literatura, we wanted to review some of his best writings ... Although literature, like any other art, has a certain subjective taste, we can be almost convinced that among the selected writings, you will find some of your favorites. We hope you enjoy them!
"Hopscotch" (1963)
This counter novel so popular we can select many good texts, however we are left with this one, which seems to us to be a superb delicacy (belongs to chapter 7 of the work):
«I touch your mouth, with a finger I touch the edge of your mouth, I am drawing it as if it were coming out of my hand, as if for the first time your mouth were ajar, and it is enough for me to close my eyes to undo everything and start over, I make birth every time The mouth that I desire, the mouth that my hand chooses and draws on your face, a mouth chosen among all, with sovereign freedom chosen by me to draw it with my hand on your face, and that by a chance that I do not seek to understand coincides exactly with your mouth that smiles below the one that my hand draws you.
You look at me, closely you look at me, more and more closely and then we play the cyclops, we look more and more closely and our eyes widen, come closer to each other, overlap and the cyclops look at each other, breathing confused, their mouths they meet and fight warmly, biting each other with their lips, barely resting their tongue on their teeth, playing in their enclosures where a heavy air comes and goes with an old perfume and a silence. Then my hands seek to sink into your hair, slowly caress the depth of your hair while we kiss as if we had our mouths full of flowers or fish, with lively movements, with a dark fragrance. And if we bite ourselves the pain is sweet, and if we drown in a brief and terrible simultaneous suck of breath, that instant death is beautiful. And there is only one saliva and only one taste of ripe fruit, and I feel you tremble against me like a moon in water.
"Stories of chronopios and famas" (1962)
A work of short stories that awaken the most imaginative mind and surreal of the reader. The following text receives the title of 'Pretend you are at home':
«A hope made a house and put a tile on it that said: Welcome to those who come to this home.
A fame made a house and didn't mostly tile it.
A cronopio made a house for himself and, following custom, put on the porch various tiles that he bought or had made. The tiles were arranged so that they could be read in order. The first said: Welcome those who come to this home. The second said: The house is small, but the heart is big. The third said: The presence of the host is smooth as grass. The fourth said: We are really poor, but not of will. The fifth said: This poster cancels all the previous ones. Rajah, dog ».
"Bestiary" (1951)
It was the beginning of the "storyteller" Cortázar. In this work we can find stories, specifically a total of eight, in which the most everyday events turn into nightmares. The next fragment we analyze is from his story titled "Letter to a young lady in Paris".
“When I feel like I'm going to throw up a bunny, I put two fingers in my mouth like an open clamp, and I wait to feel the warm fluff rising up my throat like an effervescence of fruit salt. Everything is fast and hygienic, it happens in a very brief moment. I take my fingers out of my mouth, and in them I hold a white bunny by the ears. The bunny seems happy, it is a normal and perfect bunny, only very small, small like a chocolate bunny but white and entirely a bunny. I put it in the palm of my hand, I lift the fluff with a caress of my fingers, the bunny seems satisfied to have been born and it boils and sticks its snout against my skin, moving it with that silent and ticklish crushing of a rabbit's snout against the skin of one hand. He looks for something to eat and then I (I'm talking about when this happened in my house on the outskirts) I take it out with me to the balcony and put it in the big pot where the clover that I have purposely planted grows. The bunny raises its ears fully, wraps a tender clover with a swift muzzle pinwheel, and I know that I can leave it and go, continue for a time a life not different from that of so many who buy their rabbits on the farms ».
"Save the twilight" (1984)
It was the last book which Cortázar wrote, and dates from the same year of his death, 1984. Among the chosen ones, this last book of poems could not be missing, in which he dealt with poets, love, Paris and his beloved Buenos Aires, among other subjects.
«If I have to live without you, let it be hard and bloody,
the cold soup, the broken shoes,
Or that in the middle of opulence the withered branch of the
cough,
barking at me your deformed name, the foam vowels,
and the sheets stick to my fingers, and nothing gives me
peace.I will not learn because of that to love you better,
but dislodged from happiness
I will know how much you gave me
just sometimes being close.I think I understand this, but I'm delusional:
it will take the frost of the lintel
so that the sheltered in the portal
understand the dining room light,
the milk tablecloths,
and the aroma of bread
that passes her dark hand through the slit.As far from you as one eye from the other,
from this assumed adversity the look will be born
that finally deserves you ».
How many books have you read by Julio Cortázar? This author, who has devoted himself to so many literary genres, which one do you think was the best? They say that he excelled above all as a storyteller, ... And it may be true. But, doesn't this last poem seem sublimely beautiful to you?
I said it before: Literature, like any other art, is based on subjective opinions ...