"A MAN AND A DOG" by Luis Fayad AND THE DANGERS OF FICTION.
When Jorge Luis Borges was asked what advice he would give the young writer, he recommended among other things "... try not to write anything I can not honestly imagine. Do not write about the facts just because you seem surprising, but it does on those in which your imagination can think. " These words could be said that besides being a good board, inadvertently contain a kind of universal law of literature.
Proof of this are the countless cases in our imagination, seduced by the world woven into a literary text, not predict, is barred by a black hole that eats away at the foundations of fiction, or if you prefer, for a couple of pieces that make shake the contorted universe revealing its artificiality, to the point of crumbling faith in words.
Yes, sometimes what we looked like a good story with vivid characters and spaces palpable, can become unexpectedly, and as a result of wrong doing of a pen, in a universe far-fetched, graying visible artifacts prevent us, as Borges says, honestly imagine, play God while reading, because it's true, when they break the rules, the game makes us bitter and decided to stop, our imagination resists the text.
However, "A man and a dog" written by Luis Fayad Bogota belonging to the book A mirror later published in 1995 and included in the collection of short stories by Luz Mary Giraldo named New Colombian story 1975 - 1995, seems to me necessary to think about the subject. This story tells us the story of Leonard, a man who by a twist of fate one day, after leaving his office while waiting for the bus, he meets the unwanted company of a stray dog \u200b\u200b"small, lean, yellow "whose hair" has been dropped almost entirely, and his body is covered with sores. " A dog that will haunt your present insurmountable drag this character up to despair.
The story narrated in third person and present tense, the reader effectively manages to convey the anguish of Leoncio dog from harassment from the start. While the frenetic city that environmental narrative, with its crowds of people, busy streets and crowded buses, is the perfect complement to each situation:
"Like all people, walks in a rush in an endless and often futile attempt to get seated. Despite to be thinking only of this, warns his hand, the presence of a dog. But do not take into account and continues making great strides, accelerating all the time. Later the dog feels and he is horrified with the raincoat. The dog stops bowing his head in an act of submission. Leoncio has not slackened pace and does not even remember the dog, when it comes to fate. Is placed in the row and then feel that something touches the pants. The dog looks as if scrutinizing. "
In this way, the story unfolds through a succession of increasingly complex situations to Leoncio, turning slowly to stray into a monster. The problem comes when such situations begin to quarrel with the naturalness of the events that had characterized the story until a certain time, ie when it collides with the same parameters of the fictional world that we had imposed on the story, with the likelihood of history had convinced our imagination that was possible, as is possible by secret artifice Macondo in One Hundred Years of Solitude, men dreamed up by men in "The Circular Ruins" Borges, the correction in "Wild Honey" by Horacio Quiroga and flying carpets in The Thousand and One Nights.
is the case for the prosecution of the dog when Leonard goes on the bus. True, the congested streets make the bus go slow and then guarantees the possibility of the dog running to the beat of the bus, however, is an event so full of obvious artifice which removes impact and credibility to the story. Like that episode where the dog is suddenly endowed with extraordinary agility that allows you, from entering the apartment of Leoncio prevented before it closes the door, to dodge the blows of a broom that he wants out of the house
"to the apartment is still without neglecting the dog a moment, what can not be explained Leonard, manages to sneak in before closing the door. Leoncio reopen it and try to chase it away with his raincoat. At that time a lady down another floor and asks what happens, and he closes without answering. He turns to address the dog again. It is the height, lying on the carpet watching him confidently. Leoncio angrily throws the newspaper, the folder and the overcoat on a chair, goes to the kitchen, get a broom and ready before the dog. This continues with careless eyes and avoids the blows with incredible mastery. "
And then everyone will wonder what if it is likely that someone levitate thanks to chocolate, why not going to be a dog successfully achieved following a bus, enter an apartment owner before your able to close the door, dodging all sorts of bumps and even reluctant to leave the place in exchange for a good piece of meat? The answer is simple, is not credible for the simple fact exceed the limits embodied in the same text from the beginning, to counter that with impeccable realism tells us such extraordinary events in much of the text. Because
missing elements that help this stray dog \u200b\u200band sick to perform the role entrusted to it by its creator without arousing suspicion of the naturalness of their actions, as in the following excerpt: "No matter, you can and kick out like that, but the attempt, the dog has strayed and Leoncio's foot hits the wall "
In sum," A man and a dog " Luis Fayad is one of those stories that allows us to reflect on what Borges said in that interview, on those hazards that are run when tested fiction, because despite being a story worth reading for its virtues and its scriptural plot, leaving the bitter sense of illusion, breaking of fiction, where everything was built with much effort and fades leak unexplained, leaving us puzzled wondering why we can not honestly imagine that event, why we unknowingly slipping into the abyss of fiction where there is no longer worth imaginative light. Damian
Guayara
Details Book:
Fayad, Luis. "A man and a dog." In: New story in Colombia 1975-1995. Fondo de Cultura Economica: Mexico, 1997. P. 142-146
Link: http://poesiaculinaria.blogspot.com/2008/04/un-hombre-y-un-perro-de-luis-fayad.html
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