Read and subsequently commented upon as part of a film theory course; a prior warning however that it does contains plot 'spoilers'. Deals with concepts of time, reality and creation.
An early and masterful example of science fiction writing from the Argentinian author Adolfo Bioy Casares.
Initially the plot is seemingly based upon a Robinson Crusoe style narrative with a single, unnamed narrator who we establish is on the run as a fugitive choosing eventually to abscond to a remote, seemingly abandoned island apparently afflicted by a disease similar to radiation poisoning.
Upon first impressions the novel appears to be expressed through a basic struggle and survival strategy against purely natural odds, we imagine that the protagonist will start to lose his mental capacity due to loneliness or perhaps he will psychological ‘devolve’ into something less human.
These assumptions of mental struggles appear to be correct when a mysterious group of visitors arrive on the island and inhabit the group of existing buildings previously assumed to be abandoned.
Curiously the fugitive is unable to communicate with these visitors and as a result the reader naturally therefore starts to try and explain the situation, attempting to decipher whether the fugitive is perhaps dead and existing as a ghost, perhaps suffering from hallucination from the alleged illness or maybe imagining or recreating life on the island when he is in fact alone.
The influence of surrealism then starts to manifest itself as the fugitive begins to interact with the apparitions and becomes infatuated with a female member of the visitors known as Faustine, attempting to win her affection despite the fact that she is either ignoring or cannot see him, a love story element is therefore injected along side the survival narrative.
It is not until the second half of the book that it is in fact discovered that the visitors are in fact immortal, mechanically projected versions of their former selves, which then allows the book to transcend into the realms of a science fiction work rather than being based purely on psychological issues. An ethical issue is also raised when it transpires the inventor of the device, Morel, had engaged the visitors on false pretences. Whilst on the one hand he condemned them to death and denied their spiritual immortality he was on the other bestowing upon them the gift of physical immortality. The figures and their actions exist within sheets of captured time fused together as a collective, circular entity constantly reoccurring and continuing due to a series of mechanical devices powered by a naturally occurring, renewable energy.
The description of the main building on the island as a museum also becomes apparent, whilst to all intents and purposes it is really a hotel or guesthouse; it was designed by Morel ultimately to act as a container to showcase the resulting artefact of his experiment. In a performance sense it could also have been referred to a theatre or possibly a cinema; although this last description would have been possibly too literal. Furthermore a performance venue usually accommodates changing, constantly updating artifacts, they exist for maybe a few hours and then cease; in theory they may never exist again. Museums, in contrast, contain artifacts indefinately in a preserved state and thus the building type suits the immortal and constantly repeating creation of Morel.
The book therefore, despite first appearances, addresses multiple issues, which include immortality, love and a desire for an infinite mortality.
One of the principle questions to arise from the novel however is the question of what can be classed as a reality. In this apparently faux reality Faustine is an idealised and untouchable form; existing in a detached, God like state. She is mechanically generated as part of an automaton on the one hand and yet despite this the fugitive develops real feelings for her based upon the person she was during the period she was filmed, rather than her current untouchable, copied status. It could therefore be proposed that if the feelings themselves are genuine then perhaps the relationship itself be classed as a reality, even in its artificial state?
Faustine, the lead female character, is supposedly based upon the silent film actress Louise Brooks and the demise of her movie career. In her copied and projected state Brooks will ‘live’ indefinitely as a machine generated entity. She is still admired and people fall in love with her captured and projected self. How far can we define cinema as a reality? If what we were seeing was reality and we can emotively connect to it now, does that mean it is still fundamentally real in the present?
Interestingly the book was also supposedly the inspiration behind the film ‘A year in Marinbad’; although this assumption has been contested. Similarities can be drawn regarding the application of indefinite circular and thus continuous time; comprising of often disconnected and fragmented sheets and moments of occurrence. The difference is that whilst the novel offers a solution to the problem through science fiction, Marinbad offers no definitive explanation and thus ultimately retains a sense of the supernatural through its irresolution, although underlying this there is a shared sense of a repetitive, rigid and controlling presence that indicates the possible involvement of a mechanical authority.
