The Literary Conference

The Literary Conference by César Aira (2006) Though it’s a short book, it’s an epic adventure, or series of adventures, related by the narrator (same name as the author). The episodes described are not important, except in that they keep you rolling along as he talks about other stuff and gets you thinking. What you take from it has to do with where you are. For example, in the middle part, there’s a production of the man’s play—and he says he’s somewhat attempting a literary version of Escher’s “Belvedere”—which was something I was obsessed at the time I read it—because of my own work—so that especially resonated with me. Since my relationship with Carlos Fuentes is admittedly lukewarm, however, the part where he attempts to clone the author doesn’t have quite the depth it might have—though it is very funny—and even weirder than you’d imagine. The story is set in a coastal Venezuelan town, so that got me exploring geography—because the setting is crucial to the stories. The first episode is about a pirate treasure—and seemed to be to some degree plausible—something I had to look up, online. It struck me, then, a little sad—the ease in which I got to the bottom of that mystery—and how it would have been much more satisfying if I had to ask people about it—or even better, a group of us read the book and discussed it. That line of thinking, then, got me thinking about how search engines are increasingly about monetizing, and we might be back to square one, research-wise, before we know it. And that’s another example of the tangents this book led me on—not entirely related—but it’s all related. It was interesting how the total absurdity of some of the plotlines led me to places that were not absurd, but rational and complex.

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