Cesar Aira on Cecil Taylor

[Joe]

Still making my way through this short story, but Aira is among the more important living South American (Argentine) writers, and one of the few fiction writers I can think of who has ever incorporated improvisation as part of his writing practice.

http://bombmagazine.org/article/5992210/cecil-taylor

"He played a note with his left hand, a deep B flat, which reverberated with slow submarine convulsions ... And that was all, because the lady of the house was standing beside him, closing the lid over the keys with a movement so smooth and effective it seemed to have been rehearsed."

[Simon8]

Thanks for the heads up. There something with Argentinian writers and jazz (see Cortazar's "The Pursuer", based on Charlie Parker)! Aira's "An Episode in the LIfe of a Landscape Painter" was a fascinating read.

[Joe]

Yes, I am reading this as a kind of double tribute: Taylor and Cortazar.

My favorite Aira thus far has been VARAMO, which, among other things, offers a deftly satirical treatment of how the canons of literary Modernism have been constructed in and for Latin America.

[paul secor]

Thanks for posting that, Joe. Didn't know of Aira's work before this.

Edited February 28, 2015 by paul secor