5 quotes to make you read: The invention of Morel by Bioy Casares
It was the seventh book published by Bioy Casares, but for him only after “The invention of Morel” his literary career started. In this book a fugitive hide himself in a deserted island where there’s an old museum until the day when the island receive unexpected guests. It’s from this simple premise that Casares create constant distortions between sanity and folly, real a imaginary.
1
“I examined the shelves in vain, hoping to find some books that would be useful for a research project I began before the trial. (I believe we lose immortality because we have not conquered our opposition to death; we keep insisting on the primary, rudimentary idea: that the whole body should be kept alive. We should seek to preserve only the part that has to do with consciousness.)”
2
“Perhaps my “no hope” therapy is a little ridiculous; never hope, to avoid disappointment; consider myself dead, to keep from dying. Suddenly I see this feeling as a frightening, disconcerting apathy. I must overcome it.”
3
“I am in a bad state of mind. It seems that for a long time I have known that everything I do is wrong, and yet I have kept on the same way, stupidly, obstinately. I might have acted this way in a dream, or if I were insane— When I slept this afternoon, I had this dream, like a symbolic and premature commentary on my life: as I was playing a game of croquet, I learned that my part in the game was killing a man. Then, suddenly, I knew I was that man.”
4
“The habits of our lives make us presume that things will happen in a certain foreseeable way, that there will be a vague coherence in the world. Now reality appears to be changed, unreal. When a man awakens, or dies, he is slow to free himself from the terrors of the dream, from the worries and manias of life.”
5
“A recluse can make machines or invest his visions with reality only imperfectly, by writing about them or depicting them to others who are more fortunate than he.”
Reference: The Invention of Morel. Adolfo Bioy Casares. Translation: Ruth L. C. Simms. New York Review of books.
Felipe V. Almeida