Transcript César Aira Ghosts - Luis Salar Vidal

César Aira
Ghosts
Title: Ghosts
Author: César Aira
Format: Paperback
Language: English
Pages: 139
Publisher: , 0
ISBN: 0811217426
Format: PDF / Kindle / ePub
Size: 9 MB
Download: allowed
Description
"On a building site of a new, luxury apartment building, visitors looked up at the strange,
irregular form of the water tank that crowned the edifice, and the big parabolic dish that would
supply television images to all the floors. On the edge of the dish, a sharp metallic edge on
which no bird would have dared to perch, three completely naked men were sitting, with their
faces turned up to the midday sun; no one saw them, of course." — from Ghosts
Ghosts is about a construction worker's family squatting on a building site. They all see large
and handsome ghosts around their quarters, but the teenage daughter is the most curious. Her
questions about them become more and more heartfelt until the story reaches a critical, chilling
moment when the mother realizes that her daughter's life hangs in the balance.
Insightful reviews
Lenny Wick: Not knowing the author's methods, it might be 15% or 20% through this novela
when you think, "Hey, this guy is kind of making this up as he goes along." Or even, "This is
close to rambling, like there's no plan whatsoever." Or even, "Instead of stream of conscious
from a character's POV, it's like the writer is just doing stream of conscious."
And then you'll find out that's exactly what's up. And you're right.
And it seems Aira gets some ideas together and just writes forward, never reviewing, and then
he's done.
And you'll read this, wondering if this lack of care deserves your attention.
Or if it's liberating and even exciting. And, if you're a writer, if that's something you should try.
But then, look, with strong themes about displacement, or history, or girlish sexuality or
whatever, maybe, just maybe, going back over this a few more times could really make it great?
Hmm.
So, Ghosts is worth a read. Aira is, on a molecular level, an insightful writer open to social
observation and philosophical pronouncements. Even a very good writer -- early, we get a
description of an overflowing supermarket that is strangely riveting.
But expect characters and themes to come up, then never be seen again, to vanish, like... um,
'ghosts'. But not in an intentional way. Expect, too, ham-fisted digressions about the
construction of African nomadic villages. Expect many references to ghosts' penises because,
I'd expect, he didn't remember whether they had been mentioned before. Also expect, if you
didn't before, many blanket statements about how Chileans are different from Argentinians.
Expect, too, most unfortunately, the themes generated to great affect will fail to really congeal in
a satisfactory way.
Hey, it's short. And there is power in brevity, especially when the sum manages to be lesser
than the parts.
karen: like so many things in life, this book is visually beautiful, but once you get into it, it
disappoints.
the problem it suffers from is that it is way too short to try to keep redefining itself. is it a ghost
story? a family story? a class story? the meditation on chilean/argentinian conflict and
integration? a series of philosophical musings? the story of young girl's emotional entree into
sexuality and adulthood? the problem is it tries to do it all. remember when michael jordan
played baseball? yeah, that sucked.
this is less embarrassing, and it has some really nice passages in it; mostly involving food
shopping and some awesome descriptions of fruit. but i was instructed to read "landscaper
painter", and i will give that one a go later. for now i will just gaze at the lone white spot on the
cover and try to hypnotize myself into appreciating it more.
p.s. - in case you were wondering, rohinsky, this applies to your december rules because of a
christmas carol, and the ghosts therein.
Dave-O: A poetic, grand, magic realist story about a New Year's Eve celebration held by a
working-class Chilean family at an Argentinian construction site. Aira is sweeping at first as he
ruminates human behavior as it reflects the everyday concerns of his characters. The tiniest
detail opens up a universe of thought and reflection and often some kind of truth.
The Viñas family lives and works in a haunted condo development. The ever-present nude male
ghosts enter and exit as they please, though they are largely ignored by the family save for the
pre-teen daughter, Patri, who is fascinated by them. The central narrative unravels just a bit
toward the end, other narratives having already been unraveled or cast aside. Characters’
dialogues becoming more absurd, reflecting the slightly drunken and highly festive countdown
to the New Year. The mother and daughter’s unbelievable discussion about the ‘virility’ of
males is central to the daughter’s ultimate and predictable decision. The literalness of their
language is in contrast to the subtleties in previous scenes, with one very important exception:
Patri's dream in which the whole of architecture, including unmade works, is theorized. Aira is
quite clear with his language, if not his vision, and the ghosts hovering over like death cause
mainly ambivalence within the family. What do they represent? Death itself? The unspeakable?
The abstract? Aira’s choice is to allow the ghosts to embody all this and more, without
explanation to the reader, while they remain quite literal as ghosts.
Cosimo: Il sorriso misterioso dei fantasmi“Si potrebbe concepire un'arte nella quale le
limitazioni della realtà fossero minime, nella quale il fatto e il non fatto si confondessero, un'arte
istantaneamente reale e senza fantasmi. Forse esiste, ed è l. a. letteratura”.Non si può restare
indifferenti a questo libro di César Aira, scrittore che, nelle parole di Bolano, sfugge a qualsiasi
classificazione, collocandosi così in una complessità vicina alla grandezza di Macedonio
Fernandez. Felici, disperati, illusi o ingannati, forse. Ma annoiati mai. C'è un suo testo intitolato
“Como me reì”, tipico e consueto commento nelle lettere dei suoi lettori, al quale Aira è solito
rispondere “Non vedo cosa ci fosse da ridere”. Siamo quindi nel territorio delle idee, del
pensiero, in questa favola ibrida, gotica e poetica, ambientata nella calda Buenos Aires e
interpretata da donne. according to quanto oniriche e surreali, le storie di Aira muovono alla
ricerca di un'alterità, un altrove, forse persino un universo sconosciuto, parallelo al nostro, in
qualche modo. E così l'esito logico dei suoi racconti è quello speciale modello di festa a cui
prende parte una sola persona, il sogno. Spesso senza nemmeno curarsi di nascondere il
procedimento, con tanto di metaracconto narrato alla tavola di una fantastica famiglia cilena, in
keeping with l'ultimo dell'anno. I fantasmi qui si presentano sotto forma di pensiero estraneo,
occasione unica, remota illuminazione, aspirazione all'eterno; e quindi trasformano los angeles
scena da sketch in line with bambini in visione allucinata simbolica: l'apertura di un vuoto, nel
quale vola o cade, senza nulla di definitivo che non sia il rispondere al loro canto, l'adolescente
protagonista. l. a. quale è investita della bellezza effimera di quel momento, nel quale si può
ancora decidere di non diventare adulti, di non oltrepassare il confine che separa gli esseri
umani dalle bestie, i ricchi dai poveri, l. a. felicità dall'angoscia. E infine, entra forse in un mondo
alternativo, migliore e più bello di quello presente già solo perché altro, diverso, secondo, fuori
da questo. in keeping with fortuna, scrive Aira, esiste un ancoraggio al nostro mondo, che serve
a non pensare, a riposare nel piacere, ed è leggere romanzi: meravigliosi oggetti che si
sostengono sul vuoto, come tutte le altre cose.“Eppure una festa, pensò, aveva qualcosa di
serio, di importante. period una sospensione della vita, di tutte le serietà della vita, in step with
poter fare qualcosa senza importanza: e questo non period forse importante? Noi siamo abituati
a vedere il pace all'interno del pace stesso, ma quando si trova al di fuori? Con los angeles vita
succede lo stesso: in genere viene vista all'interno del quadro generale della vita stessa;
sembra l. a. cosa più normale, l'unica ammissibile. Ma c'erano altre possibilità, e una di queste
period l. a. festa, l. a. vita fuori della vita”.
jeremy: césar aira, the argentine novelist, has authored over dozen novels, but this is often in
simple terms the 3rd to be translated into english (an episode within the lifetime of a panorama
painter & how i grew to become a nun being the others). ghosts at the start piqued my curiosity
after i spotted it was once a approaching liberate from one of many world's most interesting
publishers, after which simply because i discovered that the past due roberto bolaño was once
an admirer of his work. stylistically i discovered aira's writing enjoyable and his plot intriguing,
but was once left with the experience that it didn't coalesce right into a entire effort. and
whereas i'll definitely search for his different books, ghosts was once now not the miraculous
advent i were hoping for (despite analyzing of his broad acclaim).
Tony: GHOSTS. (1990). Cesar Aira. **.A boy scout troop and their scout chief have been sitting
round a campfire at night. It used to be tale time. The scout chief all started off: “Tonight I’ll let
you know concerning the development of a high-rise apartment in South America. It used to be
New Year’s Eve day. all the proprietors of the condos had come to examine the development of
the building. The contractors have been method at the back of schedule. there have been a lot
of people from varied international locations and their numerous kids. Suddenly, they found a
bunch of ghosts sitting up at the television dish on most sensible of the unit. They have been
white ghosts from all the cement airborne dirt and dust and have been having a great time –
giggling and wearing on. Meanwhile, task under went on as usual; mom and dad chased after
their young ones and workers ate their lunch. no longer every person might see the ghosts, yet
that didn’t matter. every body spotted that the ghosts have been bare – even the youngsters
observed that.” this can be beginning to get scary, one of many scouts said. Don’t worry,
acknowledged the scout master. It doesn’t quite suggest anything. Why don’t you get the tale
published, scoutmaster? I most likely will. There’s a publishing residence referred to as “New
feedback On easy methods to Get There.” This tale matches correct into their alley. They
obtained recognized for the e-book of the story, “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” convinced
enough…
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