Egocides: Macedonio Fernández and the Destruction of the Self

Diego Vecchio

ESSAY. BEATRIZ VITERBO, 2003. 128 PAGES.

Macedonio Fernández believed that literature is an encounter between a reader who doesn't read with an author who doesn't write. I.e: a misunderstanding in which author and reader end up coming to an agreement. That is why his papers are dominated by a single theme: the destruction of the self. To bring an end once and for all to his Majesty, the Ego. As Robert Musil said: ‘The Self isn't what it was: a sovereign issuing proclamations.' Like Pessoa and Wittgenstein, Michaux and Beckett, Freud, Cindy Sherman and many others, Macedonio formed part of what I shall call the I.E. (International Egocide). And also the L.L. (League of Lectorcides), one of the most radical factions of the I.E. Members of the L.L. believe that there's no point criticizing the ego if you're not also going to criticize the notion of reading along with it. A popular opinion has it that reading is a relationship between a reader and a text but the members of the L.L. stubbornly deny that reading involves any relationship at all.

PUBLISHED BY: Spanish Argentina BEATRIZ VITERBO

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