Playing in Peoria: The Invention of Morel

Numéro, which bills itself as "the FREE Peoria area complete entertainment guide," is featuring Adolfo Bioy Casares's The Invention of Morel as its August book club selection.

This little book—written by Jorge Louis Borges's some-time collaborator—takes its inspiration from H.G. Wells's Island of Doctor Moreau, mixes it with the author's adoration of the silent-movie star Louise Brooks, and went on to inspire Robbe-Grillet and Resnais' Last Year at Marienbad (and probably countless film-theorists). It should be of interest to anyone fascinated by the ubiquity of media and mediated images in modern daily life, or anyone who likes an impossible love story.

An escapee is marooned on a formerly inhabited island. He believes he's alone until he spots the presence of a group of vacationers, dressed in resort clothing from another time. But try as he might, they just won't take notice of him. Here is his first description of "the intruders":

From the marshlands with their churning waters I can see the top of the hill, and the people who have taken up residence in the museum. I suppose someone might attribute their mysterious appearance to the effect of last night’s heat on my brain. But there are no hallucinations or imaginings here: I know these people are real—at least as real as I am.

The fact that their clothes are from another era indicates that they are a group of eccentrics; but I have known many people who use such devices to capture the magic of the past.

I watch them unwaveringly, constantly, with the eyes of a man who has been condemned to death. They are dancing on the grassy hillside as I write, unmindful of the snakes at their feet. They are my unconscious enemies who, as they corner me against the sea in the disease-infested marshes, deprive me of everything I need, everything I must have if I am to go on living. The sound of their very loud phonograph—“Tea for Two” and “Valencia” are their favorite records—seems now to be permanently superimposed on the wind and the sea.

Perhaps watching them is a dangerous pastime: like every group of civilized men they no doubt have a network of consular establishments and a file of fingerprints that can send me, after the necessary ceremonies or conferences have been held, to jail.

The Invention of Morel was Marina Warner's recommendation for the program A Good Read on BBC Radio 4, and Alberto Manguel discusses it in his Reading Diary.

You can download the Reading Group Guide here and read Suzanne Jill Levine's introduction to the book here.
 

Comments

[thomas gladysz]

Incidentally, a few years ago, the NYRB edition caught the eye of the English writer Toby Litt. In the 12/26/2004 edition of the British newspaper "The Independent," this acclaimed contemporary author wrote:

"The New York Review's reissues series has been impeccable. I'd never heard of Adolfo Bioy-Casares' The Invention of Morel. Initially attracted to it by the beautiful cover photo of silent film actress Louise Brooks, I found it to be an equally beautiful novel of unrequited love and parallel worlds."

Toby Litt's review of the book can be found at http://www.hamishhamilton.co.uk/nf/shared/WebDisplay/0,,214516_9_1,00.html

[sara k.]

thanks Thomas. Good to hear from you, by the way! Anyone interested in Louise Brooks should definitely check out www.pandorasbox.com.

[thomas gladysz]

Indeed, Adolfo Bioy Casares - who once wrote "I want to wait for the end of the world on the seat of a movie theater" - was smitten with Louise Brooks. In his memoirs, Bioy Casares spoke of his "disillusionment over the decline of the screen career of one of his favorite actresses, Louise Brooks."

A few years later, Bioy Casares was asked about Brooks in an interview published in July, 1995 in "Film," an Argentinian magazine.

QUESTION: You said that the inspiration for La invención de Morel came to you, at least partially, from the vanishing of Louise Brooks from the movies. What happened with you and Louise Brooks?

ADOLFO BIOY CASARES: I was deeply in love with her. I didn't have any luck, because she disappeared quickly. She went to Europe, she made a film with Pabst, and then I didn't like her so much as when she was in Hollywood. And then, she vanished too early from the movies.

QUESTION: Could she be seen as one of the characters in La invención de Morel?

ADOLFO BIOY CASARES: Yes, she would be Faustine.

QUESTION: It's funny, because everybody falls in love with Louise Brooks through her German films.

ADOLFO BIOY CASARES: Well, I didn't.