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Adolfo Bioy Casares (1914–1999)

Autor(a) de The Invention of Morel

130+ Works 6,930 Membros 163 Críticas 10 Favorited

About the Author

Adolfo Bioy Casares has collaborated with Jorge Luis Borges on a number of works. They compiled Anthology of Fantastic Literature (1940), a documentation of the development of Spanish American suprarealism, and Six Problems for Don Isidro Parodi (1981), a playful and inventive variation on the mostrar mais theme of the detective who cannot visit the scene of the crime. Bioy Casares's numerous works are characterized by intelligence and a sense of playful fantasy. The Invention of Morel (1953), concerns a scientist's illusions about immortality. Asleep in the Sun is a bizarre tale written in an epistolary form. Ultimately the recipient of the letter is left to wonder whether, in fact, the puzzle has any solution or whether, like much of Bioy Casares's and Borges's work, it is an inside joke between author and reader. (Bowker Author Biography) mostrar menos
Image credit: Originally uploaded by Daneri, but ended up on the wrong author page. Moved to correct one.

Obras por Adolfo Bioy Casares

The Invention of Morel (1940) 2,576 exemplares
The Book of Fantasy (1940) — Editor — 601 exemplares
Asleep in the Sun (1973) 348 exemplares
Six Problems for Don Isidro Parodi (1942) 312 exemplares
Chronicles of Bustos Domecq (1967) — Autor — 304 exemplares
Dream of Heroes (1954) 276 exemplares
Extraordinary Tales (1955) 272 exemplares
Diary of the War of the Pig (1969) 225 exemplares
A Plan for Escape (1945) 141 exemplares
Where There's Love, There's Hate (1946) 136 exemplares
A Russian Doll: And Other Stories (1991) 113 exemplares
Los mejores cuentos policiales 1& 2 (1982) — Editor — 101 exemplares
Historias de amor (1972) 93 exemplares
Borges (2006) — Contribuidor — 66 exemplares
Libro del cielo y del infierno (1960) 61 exemplares
Historias desaforadas (1986) 61 exemplares
La Invencion y La Trama (1940) 58 exemplares
Nuevos cuentos de Bustos Domecq (1977) — Autor — 50 exemplares
El héroe de las mujeres (1978) 44 exemplares
La trama celeste (1948) 44 exemplares
Un campeón desparejo (1981) 39 exemplares
Selected Stories (1994) 37 exemplares
El lado de la sombra (1984) 31 exemplares
Descanso De Caminantes (2001) 29 exemplares
Mord nach Modell (1983) 27 exemplares
Los mejores cuentos policiales 2 (1983) — Editor — 26 exemplares
Historia prodigiosa (1956) 21 exemplares
Memorias (1994) 21 exemplares
De las cosas maravillosas (1999) 16 exemplares
Zwielicht und Pomp (1994) — Autor — 15 exemplares
Una magia modesta (1997) 14 exemplares
Racconti brevi e straordinari (2020) 14 exemplares
En viaje (1967) (1996) 13 exemplares
Clave para un amor (1999) 12 exemplares
Guirnalda Con Amores (1959) 12 exemplares
Los mejores cuentos policiales 1 — Editor — 11 exemplares
El Perjurio de la Nieve (1944) 11 exemplares
De un mundo a otro (1998) 10 exemplares
La otra aventura (1983) 10 exemplares
Obras Completas, Cuentos I (1997) 9 exemplares
Adolfo Bioy Casares : Romans (2001) 9 exemplares
Ensayistas ingleses (1956) 8 exemplares
Nouvelles fantastiques (2013) 6 exemplares
Un leone nel parco di Palermo (2005) 6 exemplares
Obras Completas - Cuentos II (1998) 5 exemplares
Dos fantasías memorables (1971) 5 exemplares
A Russian Doll [short story] (1991) 4 exemplares
Wilcock (2021) 4 exemplares
Obra completa.III (2012) 3 exemplares
Ceux qui aiment, haïssent (2022) 2 exemplares
Dupa-amiaza unui faun (2008) 2 exemplares
Quem Ama, Odeia (2009) 2 exemplares
Una muñeca rusa 2 exemplares
L'altro labirinto (1988) 2 exemplares
Cuentos completos. Bioy Casares (2014) 2 exemplares
Dos Novelas Memorables (2000) 2 exemplares
Años de mocedad (1998) 1 exemplar
Venetian Masks 1 exemplar
Plano de Evasão 1 exemplar
Gli altri. Film (1974) 1 exemplar
Dintr-o lume în alta (2007) 1 exemplar
Romans 1 exemplar
Morel'in Bulusu (2021) 1 exemplar

Associated Works

Etiquetado

Conhecimento Comum

Membros

Críticas

A man travels to a deserted island and there comes into contact (maybe?) with some people (maybe?) amid some musing on immortality and the soul. It could be science fiction, but Casares published this in 1940 and had a scientific invention present in 1924 that doesn't even exist in 2014. It's South American, praised mightily by Casares's pal Borges, so... call it magical scientism?

Early in the novella the protagonist writes in his diary, "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."

This avenue of chasing immortality is still traveled today, usually with the idea of uploading a person's consciousness into some kind of computer device, leaving the physical body behind. Casares here invents a different attempt at traveling this path.

This then serves as the philosophical backbone of the novella, which adopts the trappings of an adventure story, much to the pleasure of Borges, who in his prologue praises such adventure stories as Kafka's "The Trial" and Henry James's "The Turn of the Screw" in addition to "The Invention of Morel" for their admirable plots, contrasting them favorably with the "chaotic" and "formless" psychological novel so much in vogue, drearily and tediously aiming to be realistic. Borges will have no truck with realistic tedium, and recommends this story to us as its perfect opposite.
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
lelandleslie | 78 outras críticas | Feb 24, 2024 |
I did not like this book. The central concept is interesting and I could imagine a good book around it, but in general it feels stretched out for far too long (even though it's only about 90 pages anyway). I fully admit that I'm likely missing a lot - especially the ending made me think I'd missed some important implications that'd make it more interesting - but personally it didn't really do anything for me, at least not in the mood I'm in.

The narrator is both unlikeable and unrelatable. I get writing a character that's a major creep (in a strange way) but his inner monologue is totally alien and he's also very dense - it takes him ages to work out that the other people can't see or hear him and only then after the book's single plot dump; how does he not realise this after being "spotted" multiple times and ignored and shouting at people and being ignored?. So much of the early book is dedicated to nothing much happening and just having this guy wander around the island and talk a bunch of nonsense. The entire plot, such as it is, is just revealed in one section like 2/3 of the way in, with no extra detail or other explanations. Some stuff brought up near the start never gets explained or talked about again. So everything is left hanging on the "character study", such as it is, but to me it's dull - we see very little of the visitors to the island outside one scene, and the narrator is an obnoxious creep who mostly repeats the same ideas over and over again.

And I guess the key thing is that as a story of unrequited love, it made no sense to me. (big spoilers for the main concept of the story)I don't understand how you can "fall in love" with the recorded, endlessly repeating image of a person or how you can think "the image of me with someone who doesn't love me repeating endlessly on an island which nobody can see is a good substitute for love". Like I'd have thought even an obsession with someone is based on seeing the different things they do as time goes on. I dunno. Maybe I'm totally missing the point. There's maybe something to a feminist reading of what the two main men in the story both think. Both desire to have a certain woman: when she rejects one, he creates the image of a relationship and kills them both. The other creates an image to try and overwrite the image that the other man has created. That's probably the most interesting angle of the story, actually, although it's horrible to read It just totally fell flat, for me.
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
tombomp | 78 outras críticas | Oct 31, 2023 |
Although this novel is very short, it feels increasingly slow and frustrating toward the midpoint. Rather than a fault, this mood shows its success at getting the reader to identify with its stranded fugitive speaker, who is significantly the aspiring author of two books other than the journal which forms the principal text of The Invention of Morel. The later part of the book involves a crucial anagnorisis and the working out of its consequences.

I was more than a little reminded of The Island of the Day Before, and I feel certain Eco must have read Morel. Although in praising it Borges called this book an "adventure story," I am compelled to view it as a parable.

The moral of Morel: The utmost to be hoped for is a benevolent and capable posthumous editor.
… (mais)
1 vote
Assinalado
paradoxosalpha | 78 outras críticas | Sep 16, 2023 |
My oh my. Extremely inventive, fascinating story but one that, in the end, proved just a little too confusing for me. The writing is not the attraction, it’s the story. I’m reading more of his stories, now, from La Trama Celeste and have to say he’s an acquired taste. And I’m not sure how much to my own particular taste he is. (I say this having read the stories in A Russian Doll and enjoyed them a great deal.)
 
Assinalado
Gypsy_Boy | 4 outras críticas | Aug 26, 2023 |

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Lucia Karcai Translator
Nevzat Yılmaz Translator
Lasse Söderberg Translator
Ruth L Simms Translator
Jerzy Skarżyński Illustrator
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Estatísticas

Obras
130
Also by
11
Membros
6,930
Popularidade
#3,528
Avaliação
3.8
Críticas
163
ISBN
528
Línguas
20
Marcado como favorito
10

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