Julio Cortázar and his short stories are an important part of magical realism. The three stories that I read were mind bending and often confusing on first read. The most confusing story out of the three though was “The Continuity of Parks”. It just seemed to weave back and forth between real and fiction. The most interesting story for me was “Axolotl” and the narrator’s seemingly profound love for the little creatures he is viewing.
None of these stories truly relate completely to my own life. I would say that “Axolotl” does relate the most because I can understand completely where the narrator is coming from. I love animals and sometimes feel like I can understand them, which is probably just my own fantasy world going on, but it gives me comfort to think that I am comforting an animal. Unlike in “Axolotl” however, I do not see myself turning into an animal that I love. Also, as much as I would like to think that animals can think on the same level as humans, I know that in general they cannot. However, some of them are very intelligent creatures in their own right.
The most drama-filled story that I read was “Our Demeanor at Wakes”. I find it fascinating the various ways that different cultures grieve. Some of it was a bit much though. I am still not sure if I completely understand if they were in competition for who could grieve in the most profound, over the top manner. I can relate to grieving for a stranger. I have cried at family funerals when I barely knew the person. I have cried when celebrities like Heath Ledger and Michael Jackson died and I have cried when tragic events have happened killing a lot of people. I did not know them but I still felt grief and I felt weird for crying for those people until I read this story and it made me feel much more normal. I truly feel that “Our Demeanor at Wakes” would make an excellent soap opera or Lifetime movie.
Julio Cortázar writes stories that need to be read more than once and since they are short it is easy to do this. I was confused and trying to figure out where reality and fiction intertwined in “The Continuity of Parks” the most but it seemed to be this way for all three of the stories. These stories are personal in that some parts of them could really happen and they are distant because of the fantasy aspect. They are good and interesting stories and are also good introductory stories to magical realism and what it has to offer in the literary world.
I like how you relate the stories to your personal experience. Your observations about "Wakes" is really interesting: I think you are right that because we can imagine people we have never met, we can feel real grief for their passing.
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