The works carried out to celebrate a special date tend to generate a bit apprehensive as it seems that the motivations do not arise the concern of the writer faced with a problem that inhabits it, but external constraints, sometimes far from the aesthetic. In this Bicentennial year, for example, is home to the fury of the publication of works on the historical moment: recreations of Bolivar, texts on the lifting of the villagers, academic meetings around the Independence include documents, which become two hundred years ago in our history. In this tangle of proposals, it is essential to read carefully to know which of these books are part of an editorial opportunism and which delve into the issues and the human condition of those who took part in national history. The task is difficult not only by the amount of reading but also for raising blisters.
the first concern I had while reading the cover of the latest novel Flaminio Carlos Rivera, a writer from Lebanon who already has several story books on the market and three novels, the most recent one entitled Tree imagined, and presented in capital letters as a "NOVEL IN COMMEMORATION OF THE BICENTENNIAL OF INDEPENDENCE." For
irreverent voices, the novel begin badly from this announcement, not only because it anticipates that, as I said in the above lines, the motivation is not aesthetics, but because talking about independence from Colombia brings a smile full of irony. These voices speak of a commissioned work, in this landmark case, but perhaps also the commercial, which also has the gall to refer to our Independence, after two hundred years of subjugation and changes masters. In favor of the discussion will try to build my assessment of the novel.
The play recreates the time of the Botanical Expedition, a few years after the lifting of the Communards and some before 20 July. From New Granada, Don Baltazar sent a letter to his cousin Emilio in Spain, in which he claims to have found a plant that will enrich. The information is a lie and Don Emilio travels from Spain laden with hopes and with a package where unwittingly brings the Declaration of Human Rights and a series of erotic works that excite the population.
Arriving in New Granada Emilio discover death and inhospitable roads, overflowing nature and towards the end of the work, the lie that has fallen. In parallel talks Mineimas Indians, ancient inhabitants of Lebanon Tolima and efforts, on several fronts, by José Celestino Mutis and Antonio Nariño, by inserting the Enlightenment in the American colonies.
The novel has a tendency to come looking for the author from works predecessors: the poetic language. In this search there are images of nature and the time travel really significant. Even the narrator leaves that, at times, whole poems which are translated author, on several occasions, it is indiscernible and, in general, refer to the richness of Colombian flora discovered by the Botanical Expedition. That
poetic tone fails to address, however, the fall in tension of the narrative account of the gradual oblivion of the main story. The creative journey from Spain argument made by Emilio with incendiary material, and in which, unbeknownst to him, is involved the destiny of a nation loses strength when added, almost tangentially, the stories and characters Mineimas as Mutis and Nariño. So, like a sturdy tree with a main trunk that little by little scattering in different branches, this novel Flaminio Rivera fails to constantly return on your wise and sometimes gets lost in details that, for purposes of force in the narrative, seem inconsequential. There
captivating moments, as told by Don Emilio in his diary about the customs of the Mineimas, meetings or insurgent in the head of Antonio Nariño, or conversations between Don Emilio and Balthazar, but those parts are not articulated efficiently with the main plot. The drive is not enough given the time, historical data and the troubles of the protagonists of our history, and perhaps much more tissue is needed to articulate all these elements. Sometimes it seems that precisely this distance between side affects deepening the characters and no risk of ambiguity, are outlined characters who we know from the official story that the novel tells us, like Antonio Nariño fighter from the press and the Enlightenment and as a botanist José Celestino Mutis sublime .
Apparently these issues are moving in favor of a poetic language that seeks the richness of the image. The title, for example, is itself a metaphor for what was the hope of independence for New Granada. The tree pictured is one that gives the shadow of freedom and the fruits of independence, the hope is never fulfilled in the plane of reality. In that pre-Columbian indigenous tree converge, ideas of the French Revolution, rare plants and attractive, the Rights of Man, rebellious and clandestine printing.
In that sense, the work itself is a memorial, as presented on the back cover but I doubt that the motivations of the author have been extra-literary (as in some mystery novels I've saved an essential piece for last: I know Flaminio Rivera was preparing the novel for some time). Perhaps not the finding of the first nor the denial of the latter are as important to me. Now I think the work is a leafy tree with many branches and the trunk barely visible at its root. Leonardo Monroy Zuluaga
Book Details:
Rivera, Carlos Flaminio. Pictured Tree. Bogotá: Codex / Library libanenses of Culture, 2010.
0 comments:
Post a Comment