dunja

Divertimento, the first novel of Julio Cortazar.

When we were still playing life… that’s what Divertimento is about. This playing of life which comes to the point of “growing up”, growing out, the life awaits, and the games should be left behind. But the notion of game is ambiguous here… Playing because of playing, playing because one needs to remain detached from reality bares a risky path to the vanity. Not a vanity towards reality (reality – one of the most abused words ever) or “real life”… no, not that. This is a vanity which comes from isolating art from everything. (I’d say a vanity of trying to be a-political, in the broadest sense of this word… but I won’t go into that now).
The story is circular, almost like in this great movie Doni Darko. It’s the search for knots only in order to have something to unknot, creating them even there where there are no knots, just to prolong the game, while the game prolongs itself towards its end, as the string has an end, even when it’s rolled in a ball… I guess some of us love to search for the knots… it’s the feeling of complexity of reality, of its details and beauty (-> knitted scarf) But they were creating them so that they could search for them, leading themselves to the realization of this fact, painting a sword, which will cut the string… Pity noone realized that sword-fight could be a game too…