Tag Archives: English

Calima / Haze

Desde ayer toda la península ibérica está cubierta por una calima roja. Yo vivo en una ciudad junto al mar Cantábrico. Aquí el cielo está hecho (al menos ahora) de niebla y arena. Ayer por la noche llovió barro. Las aceras de la ciudad tienen un tono naranja, como de óxido. A veces se secanContinue reading “Calima / Haze”

The Omniscient Narrator

Some weeks ago —how many I cannot tell because I have an awful memory and a peculiar sense of time— I was reading two books, one of them in Spanish, the other one in English. The first was a novel by Benito Pérez Galdós whose title is “Miau” and yes, that’s the onomatopoeic Spanish wordContinue reading “The Omniscient Narrator”

The Ghost’s Walk

(English) Bleak House is a long, long book with several subplots and different sections that can be clearly told apart according to their atmosphere and characters. So much so that, although as a whole it has the features of the XIXth century realistic novel, with its social worries and minutely depicted world, we can findContinue reading “The Ghost’s Walk”

Bacteria and Martians

“God is not an insurance agent!” exclaims the Narrator addressing the curate in H.G. Wells’ Novel The War of the Worlds. The curate’s sanity is compromised by this situation he cannot understand, he cannot endure. The Narrator gets truly annoyed at his shivering impulsiveness. But we must admit that, at least, his ravings are consistentContinue reading “Bacteria and Martians”

Infection

The fear of infection, pollution, contagion is one of the primordial fears. It lives at the root of human nature responding to one of the most insidious traps of Nature. It’s the fear of an invisible, incomprehensible enemy: the disease that passes from one sufferer to another, the evil spirit that works in the darkContinue reading “Infection”

Phantastes

I can’t remember where I found out about Phantastes, that strange, wonderful book written by George MacDonald (1824-1905) at a time when adult fiction was supposed to be realistic and the idea of fantastic literature made people instantly think of children or young readers. One author leads to another, a book to another book inContinue reading “Phantastes”

A Geography of Dreams

A Geography of Dreams is a project of mine which has just begun to develop. I imagine it like a mix of poetry, essay and narrative. It has just begun to take form, but it has been on my mind for a long while. I have read some books written by scientists or by journalistsContinue reading “A Geography of Dreams”