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mattdube 's review for:
The Literary Conference
by César Aira
I want to say that this is formally interesting, and I want to be pretentious for a minute and compare it to Goya's Capprichios (I think that's how you spell it)-- in the sense that Goya's weird drawings and this novel feel like a doodle, a sketch that is pursued as long as its interesting, which only a slight interest in the overall design.
At least this novella feels like it has that kind of improvisational feel. It's a personalized fantasy about the power of the imagination-- translator, occasional writer, and behind-the-scenes mad scientist Cesar here has mastered the art of cloning, which seems like a pretty good metaphor for what at least translators, and maybe writers do. When he wins a fortune, he has the chance to follow his dream and clone admired writer Carlos Fuentes. Only it goes badly, and the result is more horrible than artistic....
Honestly, I enjoyed this well enough, but it's also the kind of thing I don't want to think about too hard-- I feel like there're good ideas here, but some of them aren't actually developed in interesting ways. But I think asking for that is to miss the point of the exercise, to write as Goya draws, as long as its interesting but not longer. Aira accomplishes that one goal, even if the result is more a sketch than a masterpiece.
At least this novella feels like it has that kind of improvisational feel. It's a personalized fantasy about the power of the imagination-- translator, occasional writer, and behind-the-scenes mad scientist Cesar here has mastered the art of cloning, which seems like a pretty good metaphor for what at least translators, and maybe writers do. When he wins a fortune, he has the chance to follow his dream and clone admired writer Carlos Fuentes. Only it goes badly, and the result is more horrible than artistic....
Honestly, I enjoyed this well enough, but it's also the kind of thing I don't want to think about too hard-- I feel like there're good ideas here, but some of them aren't actually developed in interesting ways. But I think asking for that is to miss the point of the exercise, to write as Goya draws, as long as its interesting but not longer. Aira accomplishes that one goal, even if the result is more a sketch than a masterpiece.