No Variations (Argentinian Literature Series) by Darren Koolman Luis Chitarroni

reproaching, citing examples of the behavior of characters in the stories, and the suffocating absence of chronology. Their output—in “Early,” “Imitation …,” “Xoch. Diary,” “Out of a Greek …”—has been thanks to a pseudonymity that guarantees the absolute identity of the precursor, the template, distinguishing him from the list of alternative names, which are dropped, as it were, throughout a narrative that makes biography, or the story of a single person, read like a “family romance.” As for the length of that story, it is determined by an almost trance-like focus: a focus on the self that admits no external influence and on events that takes no account of any chain connecting them. Luini, who was consulted for a poll by an even more obscure journal, Jolt , affirmed that Agraphia is “apolitical, glabrous, almost oligo- …” A nice bit of opportunism considering the glabrous and near-oligos were expelled from the platonic republic during those years [Lesiva Víctima: pseudonym of Teodolina Teischer, in Political Readings ]. It’s curious that so many who scornfully renounce their past services to Agraphia , do so in a way that’s characteristic of the journal—with scorn. Rare excursions are sovereign kingdoms [choosing one’s own books, people, situations], small exiles, exclusions …
     
    His first (“anonymous, collective”) task is still only half-accomplished . At the height of preparations for the seventh issue, all the compromises, the petty alliances, the underhandedness that so often stymies progress on “the task,” were once again brought to bear for an obligation Nicasio and the apostles didn’t want to be burdened with: writing an editorial. [They would say later, “We didn’t want an editor or a publisher, but we were forced to be both … So we committed parallel crimes pseudonymously, and came out looking like spotless lambs.”] This explains their cross-purpose rationale of both affirming and denying responsibility for what they do. Nevertheless, having not failed to tell the truth, nor tell a lie, they inadvertently found the median, a word in between deception and honesty (perhaps it was in the first anthology). Of the best stories published, three were written anonymously—“Too Late,” “The Fasting of Lourdes,” “Vienna while in Prague”—three were collaborated on—“The Candles,” “Dominion,” “The Scent of Thunbergias”—and five were anonymous collaborations—“A Double Celebration,” “Houdini and Cravan,” “Supporting Acts,” “The Cold,” “Quodlibet” (although the non plus ultra of such a collaboration, “Out of a Greek Gift,” appears in the latest issue). Their insecurity, impatience, paranoia—said Luini in the aforementioned interview—made them feel obliged to put on “a show of invincibility.” Buenos Aires: a world already dimming by the late sixties due to the influence of psychoanalysis, according to Urlihrt. But, in the profession, there was a stammer, a nervous tick, a hint of uncertainty. Of Urlihrt becoming more assured in the following decades: “After so many years beating about the bush trying to get noticed, we finally began writing with an eye towards posterity, instead of fame or notoriety … and that happened once we exorcised our insecurities, our fears.” The practice of condescension is tied to prophecy: “As we said without really understanding: we do everything by halves . Yes, as we said: it was mainly the programmatic nature of the formulation [or affirmation] that made us take a step backwards, recoil.” In implementing these misdeeds—these “adulterated truths”—there was some fruition; as when Urlihrt used that example from his youth to vindicate “the journal’s ethical principles” … The idea “It’s not what God wants but what God is” that we see in “The Scent of Thunbergias,” and which is distorted and amplified in “Returns,” and seems in both stories to