Wishful Thinking

If I could have one superpower
it would be the ability
to eat my regrets

Romantic Physics

After 24 hours, dis-
entanglement
begins.

Cry for all
that wasted
effort.

you lack sound

went to open up lines
of communication, but all
I get is static.

A Literary Tour of Latin America

From January 2013 to September 2014, I have decided to read one novel from one Latin American country each month. 

I define Latin America as the countries situated in the American continent and region where the official and de facto languages are the Romance languages Spanish and Portuguese.

(UPDATE: I've decided to leave out the Francophone Americas because that works as an independent project in itself.)

The list of countries and novels is as follows. The novels were chosen by recommendation and my own fancy. However, I'm trying to be as contemporary as possible since I'm interested in current literature as opposed to "classics".

Note: I will read all the novels from Spanish-speaking countries in Spanish.

2013
January: Argentina - El fondo del cielo, by Rodrigo Fresán
February: Bolivia - El lugar del cuerpo, by Rodrigo Hasbún
March: Brasil - O livro das Emoções (The Book of Emotions), by João Almino
April: Chile - Locuela, by Carlos Labbé
May: Colombia - Los ejércitos, by Evelio Rosero
June: Costa Rica - El Emperador Tertuliano y la Legión de los Superlimpios, by Rodolfo Arias Formoso
July: Cuba - El hombre que amaba a los perros, by Leonardo Padura
August: Ecuador - La piel del miedo, by Javier Vásconez
September: El Salvador - Tirana memoria, by Horacio Castellano Moya
October: Guatemala - Severina, by Rodrigo Rey Rosa
November: Honduras - Azul maligno, by César Rodríguez Indiano
December: México - Nadie me verá llorar, by Cristina Rivera Garza

2014
January: Nicaragua - La fugitiva, by Sergio Ramírez
February: Panamá - Nostalgia de tu risa loca, by Carlos Oriel Wynter Melo
March: Paraguay - Yo, el Supremo, by Augusto Roa Bastos
May: Perú - Abril rojo, by Santiago Roncagliolo
June: Puerto Rico - Exquisito cadáver, by Rafael Acevedo
July: República Dominicana - Papi, by Rita Indiana
August: Uruguay - El discurso vacío, by Mario Levrero
September: Venezuela - Iniciaciones, by Israel Centeno

Una causa

Reposar la cabeza entre tus muslos
y respirar la vida.

Proun: "the station where one changes from painting to architecture."

Neuer (New Man). 1923. El Lissitzky.

Russian Suprematism and its offshoots, Proun in this case, continue to fascinate me.

From the MoMA website: http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=88312 

At the behest of Marc Chagall, Lissitzky accepted the directorship of the graphic workshop at the Vitebsk Art Institute in 1919. Following Kazimir Malevich's arrival at the school, Lissitzky became greatly influenced by Suprematism and began to work in an abstract style. He invented imagery known as Proun (Project for the Affirmation of the New), which consisted of images of floating architectonic structures that occupied an imagined three-dimensional space through which one might move above, below, and through. The Proun style can be seen in New Man, the name of a character in the groundbreaking 1913 Russian Futurist opera Victory over the Sun. After seeing a 1920 production staged in Vitebsk, Lissitzky adapted the opera for a cast of mechanical puppets. His designs incorporate the geometry and limited color palette of Suprematism and the multidimensionality of the Proun images.

Suprematism

Under Suprematism I understand the primacy of pure feeling in creative art. To the Suprematist, the visual phenomena of the objective world are, in themselves, meaningless; the significant thing is feeling, as such, quite apart from the environment in which it is called forth. - Kazimir Malevich

Suprematist Composition: White on White. 1918. Kazimir Malevich.

Manifesto: http://www.moodbook.com/history/modernism/malevich-suprematism.html

Angélica Font, calle Colima, colonia Condesa, México DF, abril de 1979.

"Me gustaría estar contigo, le dije antes de despedirme. A mí también, dijo su voz de pájaro de otra dimensión. Pocos días después su madre me llamó y me dijo que se había muerto."

Roberto Bolaño, Los detectives salvajes. 

(Nueva York: Vintage Español, 1998) 283.

"Ceci n'est pas une pipe"

Mi primer nombre es Arturo. Mi segundo nombre es Ulises. Ya no llevo apellidos. 
Hay días que me llamo Ulises Arturo. Antes me preocupaba; ahora me da igual. 

El año pasado me preguntaron si era griego. Dos años atrás me preguntaron si era indio. Tres años atrás me preguntaron si era brasileño.
Este año no me han preguntado.

Thievery

There is life inside mirrors.

entre un génesis en el edén

Le mordí un pedazo a la Gran Manzana y me desterraron del paraíso.

Apocalips

Her kiss tasted of nullity. Sweet eyes turned to dust.

Messiah Complex

I want to kiss each of your scars and breathe life into you.

Semiotic revelations revealed!

“It’s all supposed to be so innocent, upwardly mobile snob, designer shades, beret, so desperate to show he’s got good taste, except he’s also dyslexic so he gets ‘good taste’ mixed up with ‘taste good,’ but it’s worse than that! Far, far worse! Charlie really has this, like, obsessive death wish! Yes! he, he wants to be caught, processed, put in a can, not just any can, you dig, it has to be StarKist! suicidal brand loyalty.” - Inherent Vice, Thomas Pynchon

K contra el shit.

O, Porky el cerdito visita Puerto Rico. Sálvese quien pueda.

"S(c)hat(z) me inspira. Voy con traje de la monoestrellada de un azul que raja en negro. Por eso voy sin mascarilla, porque todas las que he visto son azul clarito y obviamente eso no puede ser porque se parece al azul de Albizu. Ya que no puedo ponerme mascarilla, cambié los TicTacs por Tamiflu. Si alguien me besa los mando pal k-rajo del galeón y que me paguen en lingotes de oro la afrenta y así pago las entradas pa' los Centroamericanos y me compro un mono de esos que fomentan la economía del país. Hasta va y me da por adoptar a par de nenes. Creo que la voy a pasar bien. Llevo Purell. Life is good." - K



¡Eso es todo, amigos!