Talk:Julio Cortázar

Born the same year as William Burroughs?
Why is this little factoid included in the first paragraph of this article? Its unnecessary, irrelevant, and distracting. 24.22.19.126 05:35, 12 November 2007 (UTC)
 * What about american people who don't know anything about Julio Cortázar, at least we have to show them something. Some sort of connection. (Evendeeper 11:58, 14 November 2007 (UTC))
 * Wikipedia is about Educating the Next Generation; both William Burroughs and Julio Cortázar were two of the best writers of a key generation. I think the factoid really helps. (Soap Bar II (talk) 21:24, 17 November 2007 (UTC))
 * Probably a dead issue, but lots of things happened in 1914 and it's not a given that every American knows who William Burroughs was. If people really want to find more info on 1914, they can go to the relevant Wiki article. Vince In Milan (talk) 03:25, 19 October 2008 (UTC)

Aurora Bernárdez, Ugné Karvelis and Carol Dunlop
We need more information about these three girls in regards to Julio Cortázar and their life accomplishments as writers, translators and human rights activists. (Evendeeper 11:52, 14 November 2007 (UTC))
 * Also his relationship with European and North American artists (film directors, painters, musicians) will be great! (Soap Bar II (talk) 21:33, 17 November 2007 (UTC))

Clear Cuts and One Pointers (First Stage)
First, let me begin by clear stating some facts about Julio Cortázar:
 * The reported causes and rumors about his demise are no longer relevant to this article
 * It's negative, unsubstantial, awfully distorted, abusive, non-verifiable, entirely notional and a possible urban myth
 * The whole dispute is about indirect advertising to several writers who think they might know the real truth


 * Blow-up and Other Stories was originally published as End of the Game and Other Stories
 * The title was changed to tie it to the Michelangelo Antonioni film Blowup which in fact was inspired by Julio Cortázar


 * Cortázar left Argentina in 1951 because he got a fellowship from the French government and he wanted to pursue his literary/artistic career in Paris
 * He also felt discontent with the social / political / cultural situation of Latin America as a whole, not only Perón
 * As an artist you always have two options: its either Paris or New York (no matter where you come from)
 * "Cortázar was a man under no nation, only humans."


 * Cortázar was highly influenced by Surrealism, Jules Verne, Dada, the Avant-garde and Downtown music
 * He was very attached to artists, paintors, writers, musicians and directors living in Paris at the time
 * He was inspired by the Nouveau Réalisme and La Nouvelle Vague and he inspired them back
 * He influenced many artists in New York during the 1960s


 * His relationship with Gregory Rabassa was predetermined with the objective of reproducing his work into English
 * To translate, in majestic fashion, his contribution to postmodern literature, not only spanish writing


 * Cortázar worked in UNESCO, he was Pro-Human Rights and Anti-Military/Political/Economic/Media Intervention
 * He only believed in Love, Equality, Diplomacy, Art, Humanity and Educating the New Generation
 * Yes, he went to Nicaragua, to help stop the holocaust, it had happened before, yes, with the Jews and Japanese during WWII and then Vietnam
 * (Webb Traverse 13:27, 14 November 2007 (UTC))

Clear Cuts and One Pointers (Response)
Response STARTS here (Webb Traverse 13:34, 14 November 2007 (UTC))
 * What about the gossip about him passing away in Nicaragua and then having his body translated to Paris to be burried next to Carol. I also heard she had contracted aids from a blood transfusion while doing activist work in Nicaragua and then passed it on to Julio who was very concerned about North American Intervention in other countries and their new use of biological weapons as a method of counter-attacking third world nations. The same thing happened in Vietnam with Agent Orange as part of the U.S. warefare program during the war. (Evendeeper 14:02, 14 November 2007 (UTC))
 * If this is true then, he indeed love Carol very much. Man, just drop the subject here. I truly believe you are in the need of some visual aids. Again, the reported causes and rumors about his demise are no longer relevant to this article, it's negative, unsubstantial, abusive, non-verifiable and entirely notional. (Webb Traverse 14:14, 14 November 2007 (UTC))
 * Okay then, I dig you. These are very good clear cuts and one pointers. Peace (Evendeeper 14:25, 14 November 2007 (UTC))
 * Julio also influenced several directors to write and produce movies, Jean-Luc Godard and Michelangelo Antonioni. (Soap Bar II (talk) 21:27, 17 November 2007 (UTC))
 * One minor point about End of the Game / Blow-Up: It's correct that the paperback version of the book was retitled to tie-in with the Antonioni film, but even in the first edition American hardcover the story itself is called "Blow-Up." Since that is not a translation of the original title ("Las babas del diablo"), it's likely that the publisher and translator chose to use Antonioni's title for that story to tie-in to the movie, which had been released the previous year. At least one subsequent US reprint of the book (Harper Colophon, 1978) reverted to the original hardcover title of the collection.Chris k (talk) 00:27, 28 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Cortazar published several stories with the help of Jorge Luis Borges.Onlooker86 (talk) 08:38, 21 April 2010 (UTC)

Official Julio Cortázar Wiki!!!
I heard rumors about the future plan of building a Wiki project for Julio. Is it true? Anyways, I went to www.JulioCortazarWiki.com and it seems it might be true. (Evendeeper (talk) 07:12, 18 November 2007 (UTC))

Fair use rationale for Image:Unoderayuela.jpg
Image:Unoderayuela.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot (talk) 20:13, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

End of the Game first US edition date
There is some confusion about the date of the US hardcover edition of End of the Game. The article says 1963, but the copy of the book that I have examined, which says "first printing," says "copyright, 1967, 1963 by Random House, Inc." and has a code on the dust jacket indicating that it was published in June 1967. I suspect that 1967 is in fact correct and that 1963 was a copyright date for some portion of the contents published in advance of the actual book -- but I'm not sure.Chris k (talk) 00:38, 28 November 2007 (UTC)

Further digging indicates that the above is correct -- the book was not published until 1967. See Cartas, tomo II, letters to Sara and paul Blackburn, p. 1081, 1143 etc.Chris k (talk) 01:48, 28 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Interesting, thanks Chris! Anyways... do you have info on Julio's relationship with film directors during the 60s (Webb Traverse (talk) 23:37, 4 December 2007 (UTC))

Fair use rationale for Image:Dosderayuela.jpg
Image:Dosderayuela.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot (talk) 06:16, 29 November 2007 (UTC)

Stop Vandalism on the Julio Cortázar Page
I will start to report every user who keeps vandalizing this page for non-sense reasons, thanks (Webb Traverse (talk) 23:35, 4 December 2007 (UTC))


 * Is it me, or has the link to the 'official Julio Cortazar wiki' been vandalised at a point during the past? At the moment it links to the Wikipedia article on UNESCO. Paul20070 (talk) 21:06, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

Blow-up the movie was after the cortazar story, not vice versa
It is unclear, in the article, which was made first. It does not clearly explain that Cortzar changed the name of the English version after the movie came out. This article is a mess and needs to be re-written. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.133.44.92 (talk) 21:37, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

I'm not sure if this problem still exists in the current version, but for the record Cortázar never changed the title of his story in Spanish, which was always "Las babas del diablo," but he did approve Pantheon's request to call the story "Blow-Up" in its English-language translation, in order to benefit from publicity for the movie (which was released before the translation). 850 C (talk) 17:38, 11 February 2014 (UTC)

Legacy
This sentence seems very awkward: "The novel has an open-ended structure that invites the reader to choose between a linear and a non-linear mode of reading that inspired the work of Puerto Rican writer Giannina Braschi who named a chapter of her novel "Yo-Yo Boing!" after Cortázar's "Blow-Up"." Is the chief interest of the novel's structure that it influenced a writer whose work is far less well-known then Hopscotch is? Is there any reason not to terminate this sentence after "mode of reading?"Chris k (talk) 11:01, 24 June 2008 (UTC)

Magic realism?
The infobox claims he's a magic realist; the categories claim he's a magic realist. But nothing in the article confirms this. What am I missing? Aristophanes68 (talk) 09:51, 4 August 2010 (UTC)

That should be removed, he can't be connected to magical realism in any real way. (Sph274 (talk) 15:13, 13 May 2011 (UTC))

Looping link
The link to Cortazar's first wife (Aurora_Bernárdez) comes right back to the Cortazar page. The link should either be to a real page for her, or a page which indicates there is no specific entry to her. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Perm Dude (talk • contribs) 19:19, 21 March 2013 (UTC)

Parents' "divorce"
According to Miguel Herráez, author of the most recent comprehensive bio of Cortázar, there was no "divorce"; Cortázar's family simply left the family, who never heard from him again. When the father died, in the 1950s, Cortázar's mother was legally entitled to inherit his estate, "como no había mediado separación entre los cónyuges"; however the family refused to accept it. Cortázar's mother did remarry in the meantime, so it's possible that some kind of legal dissolution of the marriage was obtained, but it wouldn't be correct to simply say that his parents "divorced." 850 C (talk) 17:27, 11 February 2014 (UTC)

Individual pages for works
The existing pages for Cortázar's individual works that this article links to are pretty much a total disaster. I've made changes to a few of them to at least eliminate some of the worst of what was already there, and will do more when I can, but there's a huge amount to be done and it really needs multiple (competent) hands. It's a pretty sad state of affairs. 850 C (talk) 19:39, 11 February 2014 (UTC)

Estate
I've clarified (I hope) that Cortázar always intended for Aurora to inherit at least a portion of the rights to his work, even after they were divorced. To be specific, he wrote in 1982 that he had always intended a half-share of his rights to go to Aurora, but that with the death of Carol Dunlop (who was presumably intended to receive the other half) all of the rights would now go entirely to her. (Thus no implication should be drawn that Cortázar left Aurora the rights because she tended him in his final illness.) See the reference I've added. 850 C (talk) 00:51, 12 February 2014 (UTC)

Work as translator
I have moved the sentence describing Cortázar's translations. The placement of the older version implied that the translation projects were connected with UNESCO, which is definitely not the case with Poe and Defoe and may not be the case with Yourcenar as well. The Defoe was published in 1945, years before Cortázar set foot in Europe or worked for UNESCO, and the Poe was commissioned by the University of Puerto Rico. The sentence now appears further down, where there was already a mention of his translation of Arthur Gordon Pym. 850 C (talk) 20:08, 14 February 2014 (UTC)

Reasons for leaving Argentina
I'm leaving it alone for now, but I think the sentence (in "Years in France") that implies that Cortázar left Argentina because of his opposition to Perón needs further research. My recollection is that Cortázar made statements to the effect that he left Argentina because he wanted to live in France. His opposition to Perón may have been a contributing factor, but it was not necessarily decisive.


 * I'm now deleting it, as it's virtually a non sequitur. From the Paris Review interview:

''INTERVIEWER

What about Paris? What gave you the courage to pick up and move off to Paris when you did, more than thirty years ago?

CORTÁZAR

Courage? No, it didn’t take much courage. I simply had to accept the idea that coming to Paris, and cutting the bridges with Argentina at that time meant being very poor and having problems making a living. But that didn’t worry me. I knew in one way or another I was going to manage. I came to Paris primarily because Paris, French culture on the whole, held a strong attraction for me. I had read French literature with a passion in Argentina, so I wanted to be here and get to know the streets and the places one finds in the books, in the novels. To go through the streets of Balzac or of Baudelaire. . . it was a very romantic voyage.'' 850 C (talk) 16:41, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

Also, the statement here about the influence of Jarry and Lautréamont needs to be investigated, not because it is untrue but because its placement in that section implies that he was unfamiliar with their work before coming to France, which may or may not have been the case. 850 C (talk) 20:22, 14 February 2014 (UTC)

And I now find a 1940 letter from C. to Mercedes Arias in which he specifically refers to Lautréamont, so I'm deleting that sentence. It might be restorable if it can be re-contextualized. 850 C (talk) 20:38, 14 February 2014 (UTC)

Main influences
...his main influences were Surrealism, the French Nouveau roman, and the improvisatory aesthetic of jazz.

I've added a reference re Surrealism, and added another "citation needed" on the Noveau roman. The influence of jazz should be easily documentable, but I've left it as "citation needed" for now. I'm somewhat skeptical of how much C. was influenced by the Nouvean roman, but perhaps there's evidence somewhere. 850 C (talk) 01:26, 15 February 2014 (UTC)


 * I've now documented the influence of jazz, with a reference to an interview with Cortázar himself. The influence of the noveau roman remains unproven. 850 C (talk) 18:51, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

Possible deletions
Below are a few sentences that might be considered for deletion from this article, or for modification:

1) Cortázar also mentions Lawrence Durrell's The Alexandria Quartet several times in Hopscotch.[25] Cortázar's first wife, Aurora Bernárdez, translated Durrell into Spanish while Cortázar was writing the novel. -- Unless there's some particular reason to think that Durrell, more than any of the other authors Cortázar "mentions," had a decisive influence, this probably counts as trivia.

2) Duke University Press formerly published a literary journal called Hopscotch: A Cultural Review, named after Cortázar's novel. Puerto Rican novelist Giannina Braschi used Cortázar's story "Las babas del diablo" as a springboard for the chapter called "Blow-up" in her bilingual novel Yo-Yo Boing! (1998), which features scenes with Cortázar's characters La Maga and Rocamadour.[26] -- There's nothing per se wrong with including these two facts in the article, but do they deserve space in preference to other potentially more significant cases of C.'s influence?

3) Cortázar is mentioned and spoken highly of in Rabih Alameddine's novel, Koolaids: The Art of War, which was published in 1998. -- Ditto.

4) Cortázar was also mentioned in Daniel Levin Becker's Many Subtle Channels as one of the few people to have declined an invitation to the Oulipo.[28] -- This is an interesting fact but it seems out of place here in terms of being part of his "legacy." Given that the article as a whole is only medium-length perhaps it could be dispensed with if a better place in the text can't be found for it. 850 C (talk) 15:31, 17 February 2014 (UTC)


 * I agree. These are 'passing mentions'. Thanks for all the waork you are doing on the article. Best wishes Span (talk) 16:34, 17 February 2014 (UTC)


 * Okay, I'm making most of those changes, and creating a separate section for Influence etc. I think Bolaño is important enough to go first, but I left the other authors in. No doubt there are other influences that can be added. The sentence about the institutions named after him isn't deeply significant, but I think it adds a nice touch to the end of the article. 850 C (talk) 17:02, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

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