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Kalpa Imperial #1-2
Kalpa Imperial: The Greatest Empire That Never Was
This is the first of Argentinean writer Angelica Gorodischer's nineteen award-winning books to be translated into English. In eleven chapters, "Kalpa Imperial"'s multiple storytellers relate the story of a fabled nameless empire which has risen and fallen innumerable times. Fairy tales, oral histories and political commentaries are all woven tapestry-style into Kalpa Imperial: beggars become emperors, democracies become dictatorships, and history becomes legends and stories.
But this is much more than a simple political allegory or fable. It is also a celebration of the power of storytelling. Gorodischer and translator Ursula K. Le Guin are a well-matched, sly and delightful team of magician-storytellers. Rarely have author and translator been such an effortless pairing. "Kalpa Imperial" is a powerful introduction to the writing of Angelica Gorodischer, a novel which will enthrall readers already familiar with the worlds of Le Guin.
But this is much more than a simple political allegory or fable. It is also a celebration of the power of storytelling. Gorodischer and translator Ursula K. Le Guin are a well-matched, sly and delightful team of magician-storytellers. Rarely have author and translator been such an effortless pairing. "Kalpa Imperial" is a powerful introduction to the writing of Angelica Gorodischer, a novel which will enthrall readers already familiar with the worlds of Le Guin.
246 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1983
About the author
Angélica Gorodischer
98 books126 followersAngélica Beatriz del Rosario Arcal de Gorodischer es una multipremiada autora argentina reconocida como una de las figuras femeninas más importantes dentro de la Ciencia-Ficción y Fantasía iberoamericana, aunque ha trabajado otros géneros.
Traducida al alemán y al inglés (en este idioma la traductora fue Ursula K. Le Guin), es autora de una docena de novelas y multitud de relatos.
Traducida al alemán y al inglés (en este idioma la traductora fue Ursula K. Le Guin), es autora de una docena de novelas y multitud de relatos.
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May 18, 2015
Of course, I read this because it was translated by Ursula K. LeGuin.
I can see why she liked it - the book touches on many of the themes that LeGuin deals with in her own work.
As usual (actually, without a known exception) LeGuin will not steer you wrong. (I've started buying any book that I see LeGuin has blurbed, and they are ALL good.)
However, although the book is very good, it's not as good as LeGuin.
The book is a series of stories all set in an imaginary (but rather realistic) ancient empire. It felt slightly Eastern European to me, but others may see it differently. The Empire is thousands of years old, and dynasties have come and gone, so Gorodischer has given herself a wide canvas to work on. The portrayals of the nature of human society, which this book focuses on, are similarly broad and deep. (My one criticism is that while the social and political situations were vivid and dramatic, the characters themselves, to me, were not so memorable.)
The Empire has been ruled by men and women wise and foolish, cruel and just. Those they ruled have also been venal or honest, have succeeded or failed...
The stories are all told as if they were oral narratives, folk stories told by a storyteller in a village square or around a campfire...as such, they have a feeling of mythology, and also create a commentary about how a society is defined by the stories it tells about itself.
I can see why she liked it - the book touches on many of the themes that LeGuin deals with in her own work.
As usual (actually, without a known exception) LeGuin will not steer you wrong. (I've started buying any book that I see LeGuin has blurbed, and they are ALL good.)
However, although the book is very good, it's not as good as LeGuin.
The book is a series of stories all set in an imaginary (but rather realistic) ancient empire. It felt slightly Eastern European to me, but others may see it differently. The Empire is thousands of years old, and dynasties have come and gone, so Gorodischer has given herself a wide canvas to work on. The portrayals of the nature of human society, which this book focuses on, are similarly broad and deep. (My one criticism is that while the social and political situations were vivid and dramatic, the characters themselves, to me, were not so memorable.)
The Empire has been ruled by men and women wise and foolish, cruel and just. Those they ruled have also been venal or honest, have succeeded or failed...
The stories are all told as if they were oral narratives, folk stories told by a storyteller in a village square or around a campfire...as such, they have a feeling of mythology, and also create a commentary about how a society is defined by the stories it tells about itself.
August 29, 2020
Este libro está perrísimo, léanlooooooooooo. LO AMÉ. NO MANCHEN, es lo mejor del mundo. Que buena manera de contar historias. Me recordó muchísimo a Las Mil y Una Noches.
http://www.neapoulain.com/2020/08/kal...
Quiero empezar esta reseña hablándoles un poco de #ALImaginaria (si ya siguen a la maravillosa colectiva Librosb4tipos seguro saben de que hablo). Este año nuestra dinámica de lectura aborda toda la literatura de la imaginación (fantasía, ciencia ficción, etc) centrada en AMÉRICA LATINA. He repetido ya varias veces en este blog que América Latina tiene muchísimas cosas que ofrecer en cuestión de libros y autoras por conocer y justo esta dinámica ha sido de mis favoritas de lectura precisamente por ello. (Además que por ahí en entradas pasadas hemos discutido que al parecer lo único que nos une como América Latina es que España insiste en saber cómo funcionamos o que Estados Unidos quiera cagarse nuestros gobiernos). Hemos leído a Elena Garro, a Liliaba Bodoc, a Sol Ceh Moo, a Liliana Colanzi, vamos, autoras que han visto ya en este blog. Este mes toca Angélica Gorosdischer y esta reseña busca animarlos a que se unan a la lectura conjunta del mes. ¡Est��n a tiempo; el libro no es muy largo!
Algo que todavía me arde cuando veo muchas reseñas de cosas del continente (dígamos: México para abajo) es que a veces me encuentro con las frasesitas "no es exactamente ciencia ficción de verdad", "no es fantasía de verdad". Si lo estoy mencionando, pueden asumir que por supuesto que me pasó con Kalpa Imperial. Obviamente la ciencia ficción y la fantasía tienen sus categorías, subgéneros, muchísima gente ha intentado hacer distinciones a la hora de hacer análisis literario o simplemente vender (el alta vs baja fantasía, la épica vs la urbana, la ciencia ficción dura vs la ciencia ficción blanda), pero pasa mucho que de repente hay un desprecio hacia ciertas obras de los géneros. Pasa mucho con autoras y muchísimo con autoras de este continente.
[Llegado a este punto hice una pausa de dos días en la reseña porque nunca escribo de corrido, doy muchas vueltas y a veces eso causa un caos en mi cabeza]. Hablando de lo que estaba hablando arriba. Géneros, subgéneros. ¿Saben algo que me vuelve loca? La necesidad del mercado de etiquetar a la perfección una obra como un producto. Entiendo que las editoriales lo hacen porque son empresas (que luego se nos olvida que lo que quieren es vender y aunque detrás de ellas haya sueños románticos de publicar libros tienen que vender para sobrevivir al capitalismo que hizo de todo el arte un producto). Me deja dando vueltas como esto que hacen las editoriales de meter los libros en una demografía es algo que hacen los escritores después: conciben la escritura como una mercancía desde antes que haya letras en la página. Entiendo que lo hacen porque el sistema editorial (tan basado en los monopolios) ha convencido al mundo de que son unos cuando elegidos los que merecen publicar que la gente lo ve como un fin y no como un medio. ¿A qué va tanta vuelta? (perdón, ojalá poder hablar de todos los temas que tengo en la cabeza todo el tiempo). Pues a que toda esa sobre categorización de repente nos detiene cuando nos encontramos con cosas como ¡Kalpa Imperial!
Meter a Kalpa Imperial en una cajita que nos dijeron que tiene unas características equis es imposible. A mí me parece que es una obra enorme. ¡Enorme! Le doy tantas vueltas que no sé como explicarles lo magnífica que me pareció en una sola reseña. Podría estar aquí horas, dar mil vueltas sobre mi misma y no acabaría nunca.
Primero, quiero resaltar que la narración me transportó al mundo de Las Mil y Una Noches (un día acabaré de leer sus 3000 y tantas páginas, pero voy lento y de repente me acuerdo que lo estoy leyendo y vuelvo a esos relatos orales tan magníficos) y en general a las tradición oral. A veces no lo tenemos muy presente (por toda este elitismo, por todo este culto al libro como objeto, que deja a la historia en segundo plano), pero hay muchas maneras de contar historias. Se cuentan historias con elementos gráficos (todavía tengo pesadillas con papás que, viendo libros para niños me decían: "es que tiene muchos dibujitos"), se cuentan historias con la palabra y la voz. Los cuentos clásicos que conocemos hoy (recopilados por Perrault o los Grimm, por ejemplo) fueron todos contados en la tradición oral. Nuestros mitos y leyendas. El lore que nos rodea. Todo. Y Kalpa Imperial rescata esto con sus narradores. Los contadores de cuentos, los archivistas. Incluso la misma Angélica, que se reserva el tomar la voz ella misma hasta el final (el único cuento narrado desde la vista de lo que diríamos un narrador omnisciente es el último: la voz de la misma autora). Aparecen las reflexiones de un contador de historias en medio de la historia, las interrupciones propias de la oralidad, los saltos. ¡Eso me maravilló!
Kalpa Imperial, a través de varios cuentos, rescata la historia del Imperio Más Vasto. Nos presenta guerras, dinastías, emperadores, simples habitantes, profetas, el norte, el selvático sur, algunos rituales. Y a pesar de ser enmarcada como eso, la historia de un imperio, es un cúmulo de cuentos sobre lo humano. Tiene partes que me maravillaron. Sobre formas de entender el mundo, la Historia (esa que escribimos con mayúsculas). Como dice uno de los subtítulos de la edición que tengo (la original, argentina, publicada en dos tomos): "... el imperio más vasto y poderoso que ha conocido el hombre: un imperio atemporal y ubicuo, y por lo tanto inmediato y actual". Es la mejor manera de describir estas historias. En las páginas de Kalpa Imperial y ese imperio ficticio encontramos
En la prosa de Gorodischer me encontré una agudeza que llevaba tiempo sin ver en algún libro. Ya me había sorprendido de buena manera con su cuenta Una mujer notable que me encontré en Insólitas (y resultó ser de mis favoritos en esa antología), pero esto me voló el cerebro. ¿Ven ese emoji con una explosión en la cabeza? Eso era yo a cada cuento. Tengo mis favoritos (el de la emperatriz, el de los hurones, el último, el del sur) por motivos totalmente biased, pero realmente es que me parece que todos todos los cuentos tienen cosas muy especiales y que son una excelente colección. Cuentan una historia muy redonda que te abre la curiosidad de una manera increíble. Admiro los libros que hacen eso y despiertan tu creatividad: lo único que yo quería hacer cuando acabé Kalpa Imperial era sentarme a escribir porque mi cerebro no se quedaba en paz (no dejaba de gritar el maldito).
En fin, los invito a leerlo y a participar en la lectura de Librosb4tipos. Nosotras, como colectiva, defendemos que la lectura no tiene por qué ser solitaria, leer en comunidad es muy muy interesante y luego sentarnos a discutir los libros es algo super interesante. La transmisión en vivo será el 30 de agosto a las 5PM en el canal de Hitzuji Books, hora central de México. Los espero por allí.
http://www.neapoulain.com/2020/08/kal...
Quiero empezar esta reseña hablándoles un poco de #ALImaginaria (si ya siguen a la maravillosa colectiva Librosb4tipos seguro saben de que hablo). Este año nuestra dinámica de lectura aborda toda la literatura de la imaginación (fantasía, ciencia ficción, etc) centrada en AMÉRICA LATINA. He repetido ya varias veces en este blog que América Latina tiene muchísimas cosas que ofrecer en cuestión de libros y autoras por conocer y justo esta dinámica ha sido de mis favoritas de lectura precisamente por ello. (Además que por ahí en entradas pasadas hemos discutido que al parecer lo único que nos une como América Latina es que España insiste en saber cómo funcionamos o que Estados Unidos quiera cagarse nuestros gobiernos). Hemos leído a Elena Garro, a Liliaba Bodoc, a Sol Ceh Moo, a Liliana Colanzi, vamos, autoras que han visto ya en este blog. Este mes toca Angélica Gorosdischer y esta reseña busca animarlos a que se unan a la lectura conjunta del mes. ¡Est��n a tiempo; el libro no es muy largo!
Algo que todavía me arde cuando veo muchas reseñas de cosas del continente (dígamos: México para abajo) es que a veces me encuentro con las frasesitas "no es exactamente ciencia ficción de verdad", "no es fantasía de verdad". Si lo estoy mencionando, pueden asumir que por supuesto que me pasó con Kalpa Imperial. Obviamente la ciencia ficción y la fantasía tienen sus categorías, subgéneros, muchísima gente ha intentado hacer distinciones a la hora de hacer análisis literario o simplemente vender (el alta vs baja fantasía, la épica vs la urbana, la ciencia ficción dura vs la ciencia ficción blanda), pero pasa mucho que de repente hay un desprecio hacia ciertas obras de los géneros. Pasa mucho con autoras y muchísimo con autoras de este continente.
[Llegado a este punto hice una pausa de dos días en la reseña porque nunca escribo de corrido, doy muchas vueltas y a veces eso causa un caos en mi cabeza]. Hablando de lo que estaba hablando arriba. Géneros, subgéneros. ¿Saben algo que me vuelve loca? La necesidad del mercado de etiquetar a la perfección una obra como un producto. Entiendo que las editoriales lo hacen porque son empresas (que luego se nos olvida que lo que quieren es vender y aunque detrás de ellas haya sueños románticos de publicar libros tienen que vender para sobrevivir al capitalismo que hizo de todo el arte un producto). Me deja dando vueltas como esto que hacen las editoriales de meter los libros en una demografía es algo que hacen los escritores después: conciben la escritura como una mercancía desde antes que haya letras en la página. Entiendo que lo hacen porque el sistema editorial (tan basado en los monopolios) ha convencido al mundo de que son unos cuando elegidos los que merecen publicar que la gente lo ve como un fin y no como un medio. ¿A qué va tanta vuelta? (perdón, ojalá poder hablar de todos los temas que tengo en la cabeza todo el tiempo). Pues a que toda esa sobre categorización de repente nos detiene cuando nos encontramos con cosas como ¡Kalpa Imperial!
Meter a Kalpa Imperial en una cajita que nos dijeron que tiene unas características equis es imposible. A mí me parece que es una obra enorme. ¡Enorme! Le doy tantas vueltas que no sé como explicarles lo magnífica que me pareció en una sola reseña. Podría estar aquí horas, dar mil vueltas sobre mi misma y no acabaría nunca.
Primero, quiero resaltar que la narración me transportó al mundo de Las Mil y Una Noches (un día acabaré de leer sus 3000 y tantas páginas, pero voy lento y de repente me acuerdo que lo estoy leyendo y vuelvo a esos relatos orales tan magníficos) y en general a las tradición oral. A veces no lo tenemos muy presente (por toda este elitismo, por todo este culto al libro como objeto, que deja a la historia en segundo plano), pero hay muchas maneras de contar historias. Se cuentan historias con elementos gráficos (todavía tengo pesadillas con papás que, viendo libros para niños me decían: "es que tiene muchos dibujitos"), se cuentan historias con la palabra y la voz. Los cuentos clásicos que conocemos hoy (recopilados por Perrault o los Grimm, por ejemplo) fueron todos contados en la tradición oral. Nuestros mitos y leyendas. El lore que nos rodea. Todo. Y Kalpa Imperial rescata esto con sus narradores. Los contadores de cuentos, los archivistas. Incluso la misma Angélica, que se reserva el tomar la voz ella misma hasta el final (el único cuento narrado desde la vista de lo que diríamos un narrador omnisciente es el último: la voz de la misma autora). Aparecen las reflexiones de un contador de historias en medio de la historia, las interrupciones propias de la oralidad, los saltos. ¡Eso me maravilló!
Kalpa Imperial, a través de varios cuentos, rescata la historia del Imperio Más Vasto. Nos presenta guerras, dinastías, emperadores, simples habitantes, profetas, el norte, el selvático sur, algunos rituales. Y a pesar de ser enmarcada como eso, la historia de un imperio, es un cúmulo de cuentos sobre lo humano. Tiene partes que me maravillaron. Sobre formas de entender el mundo, la Historia (esa que escribimos con mayúsculas). Como dice uno de los subtítulos de la edición que tengo (la original, argentina, publicada en dos tomos): "... el imperio más vasto y poderoso que ha conocido el hombre: un imperio atemporal y ubicuo, y por lo tanto inmediato y actual". Es la mejor manera de describir estas historias. En las páginas de Kalpa Imperial y ese imperio ficticio encontramos
Y esas invenciones, desgraciadamente, se asentaron en crónicas que se escribieron en libros a los que todo el mundo respetó y por lo tanto creyó, solamente porque eran gruesos, difíciles de manejar, aburridos y viejos. También figuraron en leyendas que son esos recitados en los que todo el mundo dice que no cree porque son poco serios y en los que todo el mundo cree precisamente porque son poco serios.
[...]
Yo soy el que les va a contar cómo sucedieron las cosas, porque es a los contadores de cuentos a quienes toca decir la verdad aunque la verdad no tenga el libro de lo inventado, sino otra belleza, a la que los tontos califican de miserable o mezquina.
En la prosa de Gorodischer me encontré una agudeza que llevaba tiempo sin ver en algún libro. Ya me había sorprendido de buena manera con su cuenta Una mujer notable que me encontré en Insólitas (y resultó ser de mis favoritos en esa antología), pero esto me voló el cerebro. ¿Ven ese emoji con una explosión en la cabeza? Eso era yo a cada cuento. Tengo mis favoritos (el de la emperatriz, el de los hurones, el último, el del sur) por motivos totalmente biased, pero realmente es que me parece que todos todos los cuentos tienen cosas muy especiales y que son una excelente colección. Cuentan una historia muy redonda que te abre la curiosidad de una manera increíble. Admiro los libros que hacen eso y despiertan tu creatividad: lo único que yo quería hacer cuando acabé Kalpa Imperial era sentarme a escribir porque mi cerebro no se quedaba en paz (no dejaba de gritar el maldito).
En fin, los invito a leerlo y a participar en la lectura de Librosb4tipos. Nosotras, como colectiva, defendemos que la lectura no tiene por qué ser solitaria, leer en comunidad es muy muy interesante y luego sentarnos a discutir los libros es algo super interesante. La transmisión en vivo será el 30 de agosto a las 5PM en el canal de Hitzuji Books, hora central de México. Los espero por allí.
También sabía que los hombres no piensan. No, no te rías, no piensan. De vez en cuando alguno piensa, es cierto, y lo dice o lo escribe, y eso es tan extraordinario que nadie lo olvida.
January 29, 2019
"Why are there so many sick people?"
"Because it's easier to get sick than to look for one's right place in the world."
"Explain, explain."
"Yes," said the doctor. "We keep adding needless things, false things to ourselves, till we can't see ourselves and forget what our true shape is. And if we've forgotten what shape we are, how can we find the right place to be? And who dares pull away the falsities that are stuck to his eyelids, his fingernails, his heels? So then something goes wrong in the house and in the world, and we get sick."
This book has the bones and muscle of something good. It lionizes stories and story telling; it tells the history of a fantasy empire through the performances of various story tellers through time. But there's something sick and sad in its soul, and I just can't get past it.
On the one hand, this book was originally published in 1983. On the other hand, we knew it was wrong to blame sick people for their own illnesses in 1983. (At least, some of us did.) We knew better than to blame freedom for delinquency, divorce, and insanity. (Well, again, some of us did.) Mind you, I can understand why an Argentine writer would see some stability in government and succession as better than the upheaval and revolution, and I have no idea how I would feel about power and authority if I had lived through the junta, but I generally think both trend toward abuse now, and I can't imagine that experience would have made me think better. So I'm a little at a loss about the reactionary underpinnings of the book. I feel like I must have missed something, somehow. (It is of course dicey to attribute author voice to any one character in a book about overlapping story made of overlapping stories, but I would note that neither the Great Empress nor the wise doctor are contradicted, and both are presented in a rather heroic light, are really the main characters who are so presented.)
The other issue with the book is that there was much blather, but only one magnificent moment. The final story reached for some lovely intertextual transcendence, revealing the Empire to be and that was fun. But it was one sparkling moment that absolutely depended on the 240 page slog that preceded it, and frankly it wasn't that sparkling. Italo Calvino died in 1985, after all. Jorge Luis Borges died in 1986. You would be better served spending your time with their works. Or, if you really want a history of a great empire that never was (as I did), do yourself a favor and curl up with City of Saints and Madmen instead.
"Because it's easier to get sick than to look for one's right place in the world."
"Explain, explain."
"Yes," said the doctor. "We keep adding needless things, false things to ourselves, till we can't see ourselves and forget what our true shape is. And if we've forgotten what shape we are, how can we find the right place to be? And who dares pull away the falsities that are stuck to his eyelids, his fingernails, his heels? So then something goes wrong in the house and in the world, and we get sick."
This book has the bones and muscle of something good. It lionizes stories and story telling; it tells the history of a fantasy empire through the performances of various story tellers through time. But there's something sick and sad in its soul, and I just can't get past it.
On the one hand, this book was originally published in 1983. On the other hand, we knew it was wrong to blame sick people for their own illnesses in 1983. (At least, some of us did.) We knew better than to blame freedom for delinquency, divorce, and insanity. (Well, again, some of us did.) Mind you, I can understand why an Argentine writer would see some stability in government and succession as better than the upheaval and revolution, and I have no idea how I would feel about power and authority if I had lived through the junta, but I generally think both trend toward abuse now, and I can't imagine that experience would have made me think better. So I'm a little at a loss about the reactionary underpinnings of the book. I feel like I must have missed something, somehow. (It is of course dicey to attribute author voice to any one character in a book about overlapping story made of overlapping stories, but I would note that neither the Great Empress nor the wise doctor are contradicted, and both are presented in a rather heroic light, are really the main characters who are so presented.)
The other issue with the book is that there was much blather, but only one magnificent moment. The final story reached for some lovely intertextual transcendence, revealing the Empire to be and that was fun. But it was one sparkling moment that absolutely depended on the 240 page slog that preceded it, and frankly it wasn't that sparkling. Italo Calvino died in 1985, after all. Jorge Luis Borges died in 1986. You would be better served spending your time with their works. Or, if you really want a history of a great empire that never was (as I did), do yourself a favor and curl up with City of Saints and Madmen instead.
March 4, 2022
This is a collection of SFF stories, set in the same universe. I read it as a part of monthly reading for January-February 2022 at Speculative Fiction in Translation group.
A note about the author and translator. Angélica Gorodischern was born in 1929 in Buenos Aires and has lived most of her life in Rosario, Argentina. She passed away earlier this year. The translator was a famous SFF writer Ursula K. Le Guin, one of the most famous SFF authors of the 20th century. Earlier this year I’ve read and reviewed here collection of blog posts No Time to Spare: Thinking about What Matters, which in greater detail is described here.
All the stories in the book are written emulating traditions of oral storytellers, up to their interaction with listeners, like “Long is the history of the Empire, very long, so long that a whole life dedicated to study and research isn’t enough to know it wholly. There are names, events, years, centuries that remain dark, that are recorded in some folio of some archive waiting for some memory to rescue them or some storyteller bring them back to life, in a tent like this, for people like you, who’ll go back home thinking about what you heard and look at your children with pride and a little sadness.”
The chosen style means that there are long paragraphs with the story wondering around, jumping from topic to topic and with a minimum of dialogue or action. It is very poetic, but at least I’m unused to the style and despite the beauty of the prose, it bores me if I try in my usual manner to “gulp” the book. There are stories about kings and queens, both born to the throne or getting it by force or guile, of cities, their growth and decline, or healers, rebels, merchants, whores, warriors, laborers, dancers and collectors of rarities, among many others. There are allusions to Greek mythos ad epics, for example, Iliad is written as (a small excerpt):
“The second house was called the charge of the light brigade,” said the old man, “and it had a lot of rooms too, but it had a lot of men and women in them. But none as beautiful as the woman in the house called saloon was. She was so beautiful that the men of the house called the charge of the light brigade saw her once and never could stop thinking of her and dreamed of her night and day. But there was one of them who was so deeply in love with the beautiful woman that he wanted to abduct her. This man was called Kirdaglass and since he didn’t know what the woman’s real name was he called her Marillín. Kirdaglass built a ship and sailed through the air and went after the woman he called Marillín and carried her off and brought her back to his house with him.
There is a very nice story about multiple cycles a town can pass – from the frontier to capital to resort and back again - Concerning the Unchecked Growth of Cities.
This is not a book for everyone – it is a thing apart, even fantasy and SF elements are often secondary to the story.
A note about the author and translator. Angélica Gorodischern was born in 1929 in Buenos Aires and has lived most of her life in Rosario, Argentina. She passed away earlier this year. The translator was a famous SFF writer Ursula K. Le Guin, one of the most famous SFF authors of the 20th century. Earlier this year I’ve read and reviewed here collection of blog posts No Time to Spare: Thinking about What Matters, which in greater detail is described here.
All the stories in the book are written emulating traditions of oral storytellers, up to their interaction with listeners, like “Long is the history of the Empire, very long, so long that a whole life dedicated to study and research isn’t enough to know it wholly. There are names, events, years, centuries that remain dark, that are recorded in some folio of some archive waiting for some memory to rescue them or some storyteller bring them back to life, in a tent like this, for people like you, who’ll go back home thinking about what you heard and look at your children with pride and a little sadness.”
The chosen style means that there are long paragraphs with the story wondering around, jumping from topic to topic and with a minimum of dialogue or action. It is very poetic, but at least I’m unused to the style and despite the beauty of the prose, it bores me if I try in my usual manner to “gulp” the book. There are stories about kings and queens, both born to the throne or getting it by force or guile, of cities, their growth and decline, or healers, rebels, merchants, whores, warriors, laborers, dancers and collectors of rarities, among many others. There are allusions to Greek mythos ad epics, for example, Iliad is written as (a small excerpt):
“The second house was called the charge of the light brigade,” said the old man, “and it had a lot of rooms too, but it had a lot of men and women in them. But none as beautiful as the woman in the house called saloon was. She was so beautiful that the men of the house called the charge of the light brigade saw her once and never could stop thinking of her and dreamed of her night and day. But there was one of them who was so deeply in love with the beautiful woman that he wanted to abduct her. This man was called Kirdaglass and since he didn’t know what the woman’s real name was he called her Marillín. Kirdaglass built a ship and sailed through the air and went after the woman he called Marillín and carried her off and brought her back to his house with him.
There is a very nice story about multiple cycles a town can pass – from the frontier to capital to resort and back again - Concerning the Unchecked Growth of Cities.
This is not a book for everyone – it is a thing apart, even fantasy and SF elements are often secondary to the story.
June 30, 2017
This set of short stories didn't wow me, but I did like a few of them quite a lot. There was only one story that I had a lot of trouble staying engaged in. I did really enjoy the Storyteller's voice as he relates a story about different rulers in the Empire. There was constant strife and violence in the Empire, but I particularly liked that Angelica Gorodischer did not focus on that, rather she focused on character. My favourite stories from this book were: "The Two Hands", "The End of a Dynasty, or the Natural History of Ferrets", "Portrait of an Empress", "The Pool", "'Down There in the South'" and "The Old Incense Road".
August 28, 2020
Real Rating: 3.75* of five
Review up tomorrow on my blog: Expendable Mudge Muses Aloud. It's a long one.
Review up tomorrow on my blog: Expendable Mudge Muses Aloud. It's a long one.
October 6, 2022
3.5 stars
An accomplished work, though not one I enjoyed a great deal. This is a collection of stories from the history of a mythical empire, and I read it in the original Spanish, and the combination of short stories and my second language definitely slowed me down, but it’s also not a collection focused on building the reader’s emotional investment. It’s not about plot or characters. It’s about the sweep of history, about people stepping onto the stage for a brief moment, about power and absurdity and ambiance. I can absolutely see why Ursula Le Guin was a fan, and I mean that as a compliment. It’s meaty with themes about society and human nature and governance. But it’s not your typical fantasy—in fact, aside from the empire being fictional, there are almost no fantastical elements at all—and some of the stories are very straightforwardly about places rather than people, while for those with a protagonist, it’s a toss-up whether they’ll be at all sympathetic.
Probably my favorites were “El fin de una dinastía, o Historia natural de los hurones” and “Retrato de la Emperatriz”—both largely for the mysterious-parentage deductions that the book never makes explicit, but leaves readers to arrive at for ourselves—plus the final story, “La vieja ruta del incienso,” which is one of the book’s most traditional tales and probably the most fun of the collection (though I’m sure I missed half of the references in the hilariously weird stories-within-the-story). I do wish the stories had connected to each other a little more; unless I missed something, there is no chronology to them and even dynasties featured in one story are almost never mentioned again.
Definitely worth checking out if you are interested in thoughtful, theme-oriented speculative fiction. It’s well-written and I’m glad I read it. But it didn’t inspire much enthusiasm in me.
An accomplished work, though not one I enjoyed a great deal. This is a collection of stories from the history of a mythical empire, and I read it in the original Spanish, and the combination of short stories and my second language definitely slowed me down, but it’s also not a collection focused on building the reader’s emotional investment. It’s not about plot or characters. It’s about the sweep of history, about people stepping onto the stage for a brief moment, about power and absurdity and ambiance. I can absolutely see why Ursula Le Guin was a fan, and I mean that as a compliment. It’s meaty with themes about society and human nature and governance. But it’s not your typical fantasy—in fact, aside from the empire being fictional, there are almost no fantastical elements at all—and some of the stories are very straightforwardly about places rather than people, while for those with a protagonist, it’s a toss-up whether they’ll be at all sympathetic.
Probably my favorites were “El fin de una dinastía, o Historia natural de los hurones” and “Retrato de la Emperatriz”—both largely for the mysterious-parentage deductions that the book never makes explicit, but leaves readers to arrive at for ourselves—plus the final story, “La vieja ruta del incienso,” which is one of the book’s most traditional tales and probably the most fun of the collection (though I’m sure I missed half of the references in the hilariously weird stories-within-the-story). I do wish the stories had connected to each other a little more; unless I missed something, there is no chronology to them and even dynasties featured in one story are almost never mentioned again.
Definitely worth checking out if you are interested in thoughtful, theme-oriented speculative fiction. It’s well-written and I’m glad I read it. But it didn’t inspire much enthusiasm in me.
October 1, 2012
If you like Ursula Le Guin's work, it's worth trying Kalpa Imperial, even though Le Guin isn't the author, only the translator. She was obviously the ideal choice of translator for Gorodischer's style; there's no sense of distance from the story, or rather stories, that you often get with translations.
It's a bit of a strange book, a collection of connected stories that don't follow on from each other -- often the only link is in the common setting of the Empire That Never Was. Consequently, there is little character development (though the narrative voices are to some extent characters in themselves), and each story is just a window on a world that doesn't exist, with very little context and very little pausing to explain. If you want to know everything about everything, this will prove more frustrating than anything, I think.
But I think it was well done, anyway, with the mythic tone and the air of half-remembered history. Some of the stories are more fascinating than others, but I enjoyed all of them.
It's a bit of a strange book, a collection of connected stories that don't follow on from each other -- often the only link is in the common setting of the Empire That Never Was. Consequently, there is little character development (though the narrative voices are to some extent characters in themselves), and each story is just a window on a world that doesn't exist, with very little context and very little pausing to explain. If you want to know everything about everything, this will prove more frustrating than anything, I think.
But I think it was well done, anyway, with the mythic tone and the air of half-remembered history. Some of the stories are more fascinating than others, but I enjoyed all of them.
January 21, 2022
3.5/5 - A collection of strange stories from the history of an imaginary empire, as if narrated by a storyteller. It's beautifully written and I have always had a weakness for the weird and unusual, but even so, I struggled with it a bit because I am not really a fan of short stories and I expected them to be connected. Which they weren't really.
Even so, if you like strange, literary fantasy short stories, this might be a good fit for you.
Enjoyment: 3/5
Execution: 4/5
Content warning: sexual violence
More reviews on my blog, To Other Worlds.
Even so, if you like strange, literary fantasy short stories, this might be a good fit for you.
Enjoyment: 3/5
Execution: 4/5
Content warning: sexual violence
More reviews on my blog, To Other Worlds.
September 17, 2017
In some ways interesting, and with some clever writing. I'm simply not the right audience for a series of what are essentially unrelated descriptive works, often with little in the way of plot or character.
May 4, 2021
Kalpa Imperial
A través de 11 cuentos tenemos un ejercicio de ficción especulativa, bastante interesante, donde se nos narra la historia de un imperio ficticio, que ha existido de siempre y existirá por siempre, que se destruye, renace, se reinventa, cambia, pero al mismo tiempo permanece. Y al mostrarlo de una forma así tan anónima lo vuelve a la vez universal, humano, y es fácil ver símiles de momentos actuales, pasados y quizá futuros de países, gobiernos, dictaduras, personas, ciudades, imperios. Por no hablar de referencias a otros cuentos, otras historias, otros autores. Una maravilla de libro.
Los que más me gustaron
Retrato de una Emperatriz : Quizá por que el que se siente mas cercano a los personajes, más del lado humano, quizá porque en este, el narrador se entremezcla en el cuentacuentos, quizá porque la emperatriz es la idea soñada del gobernante que surge desde abajo y no busca el poder por el poder.
Acerca de ciudades que crecen descontroladamente: En este el protagonista es una ciudad a través del tiempo. Retratos del paso del tiempo, de ciudades que se reinventan, que se deconstruyen, que terminan siendo un ente en si mismas, asimiladas, devoradas, renacidas.
La vieja ruta del incienso, por que rompe con la estructura que llevaba, pero al mismo tiempo te reafirma la estructura global, un cuento con cuentos, y el personaje de “el Gato” es agradable. Aparte las referencias.
Así es el sur, vaya critica al colonialismo.
El estanque, de esos que en una frase , te lleva a la reflexión por horas.
4.5 stars
A través de 11 cuentos tenemos un ejercicio de ficción especulativa, bastante interesante, donde se nos narra la historia de un imperio ficticio, que ha existido de siempre y existirá por siempre, que se destruye, renace, se reinventa, cambia, pero al mismo tiempo permanece. Y al mostrarlo de una forma así tan anónima lo vuelve a la vez universal, humano, y es fácil ver símiles de momentos actuales, pasados y quizá futuros de países, gobiernos, dictaduras, personas, ciudades, imperios. Por no hablar de referencias a otros cuentos, otras historias, otros autores. Una maravilla de libro.
Los que más me gustaron
Retrato de una Emperatriz : Quizá por que el que se siente mas cercano a los personajes, más del lado humano, quizá porque en este, el narrador se entremezcla en el cuentacuentos, quizá porque la emperatriz es la idea soñada del gobernante que surge desde abajo y no busca el poder por el poder.
Acerca de ciudades que crecen descontroladamente: En este el protagonista es una ciudad a través del tiempo. Retratos del paso del tiempo, de ciudades que se reinventan, que se deconstruyen, que terminan siendo un ente en si mismas, asimiladas, devoradas, renacidas.
La vieja ruta del incienso, por que rompe con la estructura que llevaba, pero al mismo tiempo te reafirma la estructura global, un cuento con cuentos, y el personaje de “el Gato” es agradable. Aparte las referencias.
Así es el sur, vaya critica al colonialismo.
El estanque, de esos que en una frase , te lleva a la reflexión por horas.
4.5 stars
December 11, 2021
Creo que ya perdí la cuenta de la cantidad de veces que la gente me ha regañado en público por no leer La Saga de los Confines. Desde fruncirme el ceño hasta menear el índice, la peña ha dicho en repetidas ocasiones que hay altas cumbres de la fantasía latinoamericana que yo desconozco y que hago mal en no hablar de ellas. Bueno, mi posición hasta el momento había sido: pues la fantasía latinoamericana es el Realismo Mágico, no? (añadamos Borges en la Ciencia Ficción) Esa vertiente de la baja fantasía tan querida y tan reconocida en esta malhadada región era para mí lo suficiente, así que nunca me di a la tarea de leer a la fallecida Bodoc.
Pero esta reseña no se trata de la fallecida Bodoc, sino de otra escritora Argentina de cuya existencia yo desconocía hasta que me salió en una recomendación de un blog en inglés. Aún viva, amada y vitoreada por la gran LeGuin, traducida (y hoy tristemente descatalogada), escribió esta colección de cuentos sobre un imperio que siempre ha existido y siempre existirá. Sobre todos sus altivos, engañados, veleidosos, pícaros o ensoñadores emperadores y sobre una cantidad de habitantes que viven y sueñan y existen en este imperio. De prosa generosa y con una gran habilidad para establecer el enorme tapiz de la civilización "kalpeña". Un solo cuento posee elementos sobrenaturales y el último contiene una divertida narración meta donde la mitología de Kalpa es una mezcla de la Ilíada, la Odisea y la Orestíada con actores de cine, políticos y ejecutivos de Hollywood como protagonistas.
Me llamó la atención leer reseñas que mencionan que estos cuentos no se parecen en nada a la fantasía que hemos visto y temo que he de desentonar y estar en desacuerdo. Las influencias de Gorodischer se notan muchísimo. Lo cual está super bien, pero no digamos que es infinitamente revolucionaria. Ese mensaje eterno de tránsito y devenir de civilizaciones y la estructura del libro da ecos de la Fundación. Algunos personajes parecen pertenecer a esa venerable tradición de hacer homenajes a Fafhrd y el Ratonero Gris, otros bien pudieren en un futuro caber en la antología de "Canallas" al grado de compartir tono y tipo de granujas. Lo que sí me fascinó fue el cuento de la historia de una ciudad, que empató mi interés por el urbanismo con la historia y con cómo los ecos del pasado y las decisiones y las acciones fortuitas de mucha gente construyen la vida urbana.
Pese a que la prosa de Gorodischer es excelente, creo que peca un poco de ser excesiva. Una parte de toda esta expansión puede dibujar brillantemente el cuadro, pero por otro lado puede distraer. Varios cuentos los leí con la enorme tentación de distraerme haciendo otra cosa y uno (el del retrato de una Emperatriz) me hizo cabecear de sueño. Es más contra mí que tuve una semana en la que puede no haber sido muy óptimo leer este libro, pero sí me pareció un libro tremendamente escrito y un buen testamento latinoamericano de fantasía más mainstream.
Pero esta reseña no se trata de la fallecida Bodoc, sino de otra escritora Argentina de cuya existencia yo desconocía hasta que me salió en una recomendación de un blog en inglés. Aún viva, amada y vitoreada por la gran LeGuin, traducida (y hoy tristemente descatalogada), escribió esta colección de cuentos sobre un imperio que siempre ha existido y siempre existirá. Sobre todos sus altivos, engañados, veleidosos, pícaros o ensoñadores emperadores y sobre una cantidad de habitantes que viven y sueñan y existen en este imperio. De prosa generosa y con una gran habilidad para establecer el enorme tapiz de la civilización "kalpeña". Un solo cuento posee elementos sobrenaturales y el último contiene una divertida narración meta donde la mitología de Kalpa es una mezcla de la Ilíada, la Odisea y la Orestíada con actores de cine, políticos y ejecutivos de Hollywood como protagonistas.
Me llamó la atención leer reseñas que mencionan que estos cuentos no se parecen en nada a la fantasía que hemos visto y temo que he de desentonar y estar en desacuerdo. Las influencias de Gorodischer se notan muchísimo. Lo cual está super bien, pero no digamos que es infinitamente revolucionaria. Ese mensaje eterno de tránsito y devenir de civilizaciones y la estructura del libro da ecos de la Fundación. Algunos personajes parecen pertenecer a esa venerable tradición de hacer homenajes a Fafhrd y el Ratonero Gris, otros bien pudieren en un futuro caber en la antología de "Canallas" al grado de compartir tono y tipo de granujas. Lo que sí me fascinó fue el cuento de la historia de una ciudad, que empató mi interés por el urbanismo con la historia y con cómo los ecos del pasado y las decisiones y las acciones fortuitas de mucha gente construyen la vida urbana.
Pese a que la prosa de Gorodischer es excelente, creo que peca un poco de ser excesiva. Una parte de toda esta expansión puede dibujar brillantemente el cuadro, pero por otro lado puede distraer. Varios cuentos los leí con la enorme tentación de distraerme haciendo otra cosa y uno (el del retrato de una Emperatriz) me hizo cabecear de sueño. Es más contra mí que tuve una semana en la que puede no haber sido muy óptimo leer este libro, pero sí me pareció un libro tremendamente escrito y un buen testamento latinoamericano de fantasía más mainstream.
June 26, 2017
Kalpa Imperial gathers 11 stories, each a piece of the history of the Greatest Empire That Never Was. The narrator, who seems to resemble the typical Medieval storyteller, narrates that the empire was destroyed and reconstructed several times. There were several imperial dynasties, good and bad emperors, and, what I liked the most: empresses.
I normally have issues with short stories because I tend to drift to other books that take more of my time. That didn’t happen with this book. There are so many different places: north, south; people: crazy, good, bad, despicable, ambitious; stories that somehow connect to each other and, not only that, they connect to our world. The characteristics of the people, how they act, are exact descriptions that can be apply to any of our current world leaders or situations: dictatorships, corruption, restitution of democracy.
There are many hidden metaphors, there is some magical realism and a lot of details that help you picture this empire as if you would have seen it. There is even some poetry in her writing style.
From the 11 stories, there was only one that I didn’t like but maybe I didn’t pay attention and missed the hidden message. For sure, each story has a message, or a similarity to an actual event or situation. It is not the typical fantasy best seller, for which I am grateful.
In general, what I liked the more about the whole book is
1) the storyteller as it shows the art and power of words.
2) All stories showed a lot of diversity and how it affects the relations between the towns: north - only white people / south - dark skinned people; people from the north are good thinkers / people from the south are filled with rage and tiredness; the north is the empire and the south is nature
I normally have issues with short stories because I tend to drift to other books that take more of my time. That didn’t happen with this book. There are so many different places: north, south; people: crazy, good, bad, despicable, ambitious; stories that somehow connect to each other and, not only that, they connect to our world. The characteristics of the people, how they act, are exact descriptions that can be apply to any of our current world leaders or situations: dictatorships, corruption, restitution of democracy.
There are many hidden metaphors, there is some magical realism and a lot of details that help you picture this empire as if you would have seen it. There is even some poetry in her writing style.
From the 11 stories, there was only one that I didn’t like but maybe I didn’t pay attention and missed the hidden message. For sure, each story has a message, or a similarity to an actual event or situation. It is not the typical fantasy best seller, for which I am grateful.
In general, what I liked the more about the whole book is
1) the storyteller as it shows the art and power of words.
2) All stories showed a lot of diversity and how it affects the relations between the towns: north - only white people / south - dark skinned people; people from the north are good thinkers / people from the south are filled with rage and tiredness; the north is the empire and the south is nature
February 7, 2021
Disappointing. Reminiscent of Japanese Tales from Times Past with its folktales but lacking in anything that I'll remember next week.
September 12, 2012
Originally published in Spanish in Argentina in the early 1980s, Kalpa Imperial presents a cycle of tales set in a long-running fantasy empire. Ursula Le Guin's 2003 translation into English flows beautifully. In a 2004 interview (http://www.fantasticmetropolis.com/i/...), the author welcomes comparisons to Italo Calvino, Jorge Luis Borges, and Franz Kafka; and discourages association of her work with magic realism. Indeed, the sprawling history of the empire's (current) capital, 'Concerning the Unchecked Growth of Cities', recalls the lush, baroque descriptions of Calvino's Invisible Cities. For example, here's a passage exploring one of the city's incarnations, 'Mother of the Arts': "The city ascended and twisted yet again: it gained not elegance but a certain eccentric, unexpected beauty. Windowed galleries were built, which you reached by stairways that took off from anywhere, from the middle of a street, from the second floor balcony of a house, even from other stairways; circular houses were built, labyrinthine houses, underground houses, tiny studios, huge music halls, chamber theaters, concert stadiums." [79]
On the other hand, some of the quirkiness of Gorodischer's writing feels like magic realism: an exotic dancer who triggers a fatal obsession in anyone who watches him; a brave and handsome general who is a hermaphrodite, "to the extent it's said that at twenty he impregnated himself and bore a child as androgynous as himself." [68]
Several of the stories are wonderful, including the history of the city mentioned above, and the "portrait of the Empress". At their best, the stories suggest a meta-commentary about the act of story-telling and its relationship to truth and power: "I had to explain to [the Empress] that a storyteller is something more than a man who recounts things for the pleasure and instruction of the crowd. I had to tell her that a storyteller obeys certain rules and accepts certain ways of living that aren't laid out in any treatise but that are as important or more important than the words he uses to make his sentences. And I told her that no storyteller ever bows down to power,and I would not." [111]. One of the most important and delightful details of this story (not to be spoiled here) is left implicit, underlining the role of reticence as one of the storyteller's rules.
The transience of power is a major theme of these stories. One technique that wears thin is the sardonic reversal of expectations - good fortune turns out to be bad; a girl of humble origins becomes mighty; a prince of violent inclinations, a benign historical force. This kind of irony tastes like wisdom in small quantities, but cynicism in bulk. The constant negation, and the bitter distrust of those who wield power, becomes easier to understand given the time the stories were written -- the 1970s through the early 1980s, the worst of Argentina's Dirty War, when the government 'disappeared' thousands of citizens. As Gorodischer explained in a 1990 interview (http://bombsite.com/issues/32/article...), "I thought I was writing a Western version of The Thousand and One Nights. But in 1983 when the initial volume was published, I realized it was all about terror. The fictions brought me round to reality." For a work germinated in such a dark time, Kalpa Imperial is richer with beauty and compassion than one might expect.
On the other hand, some of the quirkiness of Gorodischer's writing feels like magic realism: an exotic dancer who triggers a fatal obsession in anyone who watches him; a brave and handsome general who is a hermaphrodite, "to the extent it's said that at twenty he impregnated himself and bore a child as androgynous as himself." [68]
Several of the stories are wonderful, including the history of the city mentioned above, and the "portrait of the Empress". At their best, the stories suggest a meta-commentary about the act of story-telling and its relationship to truth and power: "I had to explain to [the Empress] that a storyteller is something more than a man who recounts things for the pleasure and instruction of the crowd. I had to tell her that a storyteller obeys certain rules and accepts certain ways of living that aren't laid out in any treatise but that are as important or more important than the words he uses to make his sentences. And I told her that no storyteller ever bows down to power,and I would not." [111]. One of the most important and delightful details of this story (not to be spoiled here) is left implicit, underlining the role of reticence as one of the storyteller's rules.
The transience of power is a major theme of these stories. One technique that wears thin is the sardonic reversal of expectations - good fortune turns out to be bad; a girl of humble origins becomes mighty; a prince of violent inclinations, a benign historical force. This kind of irony tastes like wisdom in small quantities, but cynicism in bulk. The constant negation, and the bitter distrust of those who wield power, becomes easier to understand given the time the stories were written -- the 1970s through the early 1980s, the worst of Argentina's Dirty War, when the government 'disappeared' thousands of citizens. As Gorodischer explained in a 1990 interview (http://bombsite.com/issues/32/article...), "I thought I was writing a Western version of The Thousand and One Nights. But in 1983 when the initial volume was published, I realized it was all about terror. The fictions brought me round to reality." For a work germinated in such a dark time, Kalpa Imperial is richer with beauty and compassion than one might expect.
November 13, 2013
Bueno, un chasco.
Después de tantos años oyendo hablar de Kalpa Imperial y con las ganas que le tenía no me ha convencido en absoluto. En parte porque es un tipo de literatura que no me llega, posiblemente no sea el mejor lector para este libro. No me gusta el tono... ¿profético? y propone una lírica que no me interesa. He oído hablar mucho de su importancia y no sé si estaes real o es una ilusión generada por los defensores del libro. Para mí es, sobre todo, aburrido. Ojo, no es que esté mal escrito. De hecho está muy bien escrito y se nota que Gorodischer domina el lenguaje y ha conseguido exactamente el registro que buscaba (oral, de cuento, etc), pero en este caso no entro en él. Solo hay dos o tres cuentos que me hayan interesado. El más famoso creo que es "Así es el sur", que no está mal, pero personalmente me quedo con el último, "La vieja ruta del incienso". Divertido y original, me parece un cuento redondo.
A lo mejor es que tengo la sensibilidad de un tocón de madera. En la reseña trataré explicarme mejor.
Después de tantos años oyendo hablar de Kalpa Imperial y con las ganas que le tenía no me ha convencido en absoluto. En parte porque es un tipo de literatura que no me llega, posiblemente no sea el mejor lector para este libro. No me gusta el tono... ¿profético? y propone una lírica que no me interesa. He oído hablar mucho de su importancia y no sé si estaes real o es una ilusión generada por los defensores del libro. Para mí es, sobre todo, aburrido. Ojo, no es que esté mal escrito. De hecho está muy bien escrito y se nota que Gorodischer domina el lenguaje y ha conseguido exactamente el registro que buscaba (oral, de cuento, etc), pero en este caso no entro en él. Solo hay dos o tres cuentos que me hayan interesado. El más famoso creo que es "Así es el sur", que no está mal, pero personalmente me quedo con el último, "La vieja ruta del incienso". Divertido y original, me parece un cuento redondo.
A lo mejor es que tengo la sensibilidad de un tocón de madera. En la reseña trataré explicarme mejor.
March 26, 2022
Kalpa imperial es un cuentario, donde se reúnen 11 relatos, casi siempre narrados por un cuentacuentos que nos contará algo sobre el Imperio más vasto que jamás existió. Angélica Gorodischer con este libro nos muestra como es que la mitopoieis debe estar por encima de todo, que las palabras tienen el poder de construir imperios, dinastías y ciudades. Una lectura muy recomendable.
February 14, 2022
I enjoyed the style, which feels 'poetic'. But it feels repetitive even over a short page count. We watch the rise and fall of rulers and cities in an imaginary empire. Because of the long time-span involved, there are many characters, but we don't get to know many of them very well.
This was originally published as two separate books, and I've decided to stop, at least for now, after book 1.
I'm still curious to try other work of this author, who died last week.
This was originally published as two separate books, and I've decided to stop, at least for now, after book 1.
I'm still curious to try other work of this author, who died last week.
January 18, 2016
Definitely not a typical fantasy. More alike to a collection of origin myths,fables and historical recollection mostly made up by an eccentric story teller on the spot.
We get nothing more than snippets of the vast history of this great empire.
The delivery is very tongue in cheek, with a nice arrogant turn from the narrator, some of the historical facts border on laugh out loud while still being marginally believable.
So much becomes a comment on general history and culture.
The ending is a bit of a curve ball making you reevaluate what the empire actually is adding a touch of something very different to it all.
Definitely odd but still brilliant in many ways. The language is always wonderful , not sure wether this is down to the original or the translation but still worth it for that alone.
A hidden gem unearthed either way
We get nothing more than snippets of the vast history of this great empire.
The delivery is very tongue in cheek, with a nice arrogant turn from the narrator, some of the historical facts border on laugh out loud while still being marginally believable.
So much becomes a comment on general history and culture.
The ending is a bit of a curve ball making you reevaluate what the empire actually is adding a touch of something very different to it all.
Definitely odd but still brilliant in many ways. The language is always wonderful , not sure wether this is down to the original or the translation but still worth it for that alone.
A hidden gem unearthed either way
March 10, 2017
Alternately fantastical and weird, kind of a short story collection but all tied together... I adored the writing even when the subject matter wasn't to my taste. This is just a great book to pick up if you're tired of the usual same-old same-old fantasy fare in American bookstores.
May 15, 2014
-Haciendo género de una manera muy especial, rebosando sensibilidad y señalando verdades universales.-
Género. Ciencia-Ficción (y no Narrativa Fantástica a pesar de que lo pueda parecer e incluso siga algunos de sus caminos, al menos en mi humilde opinión, aunque sea de un tipo un tanto especial y el hecho se le pueda pasar por alto a algún lector. Pero en realidad ni siquiera importa).
Lo que nos cuenta. Un anónimo narrador comparte con el lector 11 relatos sobre eventos ocurridos en algún momento de la historia del Imperio Más Vasto que Nunca Existió, protagonizados por diferentes personajes más o menos famosos tanto en los registros imperiales como en la memoria de muchos habitantes del imperio y que suelen mostrar gram cantidad (y profundos) aspectos de la naturaleza humana, los buenos y los malos.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...
Género. Ciencia-Ficción (y no Narrativa Fantástica a pesar de que lo pueda parecer e incluso siga algunos de sus caminos, al menos en mi humilde opinión, aunque sea de un tipo un tanto especial y el hecho se le pueda pasar por alto a algún lector. Pero en realidad ni siquiera importa).
Lo que nos cuenta. Un anónimo narrador comparte con el lector 11 relatos sobre eventos ocurridos en algún momento de la historia del Imperio Más Vasto que Nunca Existió, protagonizados por diferentes personajes más o menos famosos tanto en los registros imperiales como en la memoria de muchos habitantes del imperio y que suelen mostrar gram cantidad (y profundos) aspectos de la naturaleza humana, los buenos y los malos.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...
September 2, 2021
4 1/2 estrellas.
Sublime.
Sublime.
February 23, 2023
Kalpa Imperial is an imaginative work of fantasy from an Argentinian writer, translated into English by the Queen Herself, Ursula K. Le Guin. The stories are a multifaceted journey through the Eternal Imperium, a vast polity centered around a Golden Throne, and the succession of good and bad rulers. Each tale is told by a nameless storyteller, a popular historian.
The heart of the book is the chapter "Portrait of the Empress", which reveals how a girl who came from nothing claimed the imperial throne by truly thinking, seeing the world as it is, and not just gluing bits of others men thoughts together to make a world as we wish it to be, as most people live. That chapter is a shining gem, and many others have gorgeous dream like quality.
But the individual pieces don't quite cohere to the level of mythos, getting lost in a forest of symbols and signifiers. Maybe there's a thesis about history, power, domination, and the lure of the center in this book and I'm too inert to pick it up, or maybe it's just a metatextual game. Either way, this is very good and worth expanding my horizons for, but didn't quite hit home.
The heart of the book is the chapter "Portrait of the Empress", which reveals how a girl who came from nothing claimed the imperial throne by truly thinking, seeing the world as it is, and not just gluing bits of others men thoughts together to make a world as we wish it to be, as most people live. That chapter is a shining gem, and many others have gorgeous dream like quality.
But the individual pieces don't quite cohere to the level of mythos, getting lost in a forest of symbols and signifiers. Maybe there's a thesis about history, power, domination, and the lure of the center in this book and I'm too inert to pick it up, or maybe it's just a metatextual game. Either way, this is very good and worth expanding my horizons for, but didn't quite hit home.
January 9, 2019
De adolescente me encantaban Tolkien, Eddings, R. A. Salvatore y tantos otros autores de literatura fantástica, y creo que si entonces hubiera leído Kalpa imperial, no me habría gustado. Habría preferido personajes menos ambivalentes, finales menos vagos (y probablemente más felices), más del clásico enfrentamiento del Bien contra el Mal, menos corrupción y decadencia y más guerras heroicas, definitivamente más magia y criaturas fantásticas, y (quisquilloso y purista en lo irrelevante) no habría tolerado la intrusión de referencias al mundo real como ocurre en el cuento "La vieja ruta del incienso". Me habrían molestado algunos cuentos a los que no les habría encontrado el sentido y creo que por alguna razón habría preferido más descripciones físicas de los personajes. Quizás no habría podido con algunos aspectos líricos de su escritura. Además, aunque me joda admitirlo y aunque ya había rechazado el evangelismo fanático que mi madre trató de inculcarme, seguía contaminado por su particular moral religiosa: me habría sentido algo frustrado con ciertos personajes femeninos poderosos que a pesar de ser de los "buenos" son amorales o inmorales (cómo se atreven) y algo incómodo con ciertos elementos sexuales de la narración.
Qué bueno que lo leí ahora, entonces. Ahora lo leo y me quedo deslumbrado con el mundo gigantesco, espacial y temporalmente, que esboza Gorodischer. Disfruto con las salidas a veces imprevisibles de sus historias y con el desfile multicolor de sus personajes.
Me gusta que aunque Gorodischer juega con las proporciones desmesuradas de su imperio infinito y la pequeñez de sus habitantes, el comportamiento humano suele ser el centro y motor de sus narraciones (igual, en mi cuento favorito la protagonista es una ciudad). Otro juego recurrente es el del narrador poco fiable: estos no son registros históricos de cronistas y archivistas, son narraciones transmitidas oralmente, interpretadas por los cuentacuentos. Son relaciones míticas, no crónicas históricas, y a veces son diálogos entre varios narradores que cuentan la misma historia desde distintos puntos de vista.
Descubrí otro de mis libros favoritos.
Intertextualidad
Menciones directas:
* Pensées (1662) de Blaise Pascal (cita, epígrafe) ("Las dos manos").
* Poema "El imperio milenario" en El imperio milenario (1974) de Alfredo Veiravé (cita, epígrafe) ("Acerca de ciudades que crecen descontroladamente").
* Mención al personaje de Trafalgar Medrano, de Trafalgar (1979) de Angélica Gorodischer (epígrafe).
* Mención a alguna de las tres películas The Charge of the Light Brigade (1912, 1936, 1968), las tres basadas en la carga de la Brigada ligera durante la batalla de Balaclava (1854) en la Guerra de Crimea, de acuerdo a como la cuenta el poema "The Charge of the Light Brigade" (1854) de Alfred Tennyson ("La vieja ruta del incienso").
* Mención a la película 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), basada en el cuento "El centinela" (1948) de Arthur C. Clarke y cuyo guión fue escrito paralelamente a la novela 2001: Una odisea espacial (1968).
* Mención a la película Quai des brumes (El muelle de las brumas) (1938), basada en la novela Quai des brumes (1927) de Pierre Mac Orlan ("La vieja ruta del incienso").
* Mención a la película Rashōmon (1950), basada en el cuento "Rashōmon" (1915) de Ryūnosuke Akutagawa ("La vieja ruta del incienso").
* Mención a la película Porte des Lilas (Puerta de lilas) (1957), basada en la novela La Grande Ceinture (1956) de René Fallet ("La vieja ruta del incienso").
* Mención a la película L'Année dernière à Marienbad (El año pasado en Marienbad) (1961), cuyo guión fue escrito por el escritor Alain Robbe-Grillet, influenciado por la novela La invención de Morel (1940) de Adolfo Bioy Casares ("La vieja ruta del incienso").
* Mención a la película Gone with the Wind (1939), basada en la novela Lo que el viento se llevó (1936) de Margaret Mitchell ("La vieja ruta del incienso").
* Mención a los autores:
-Hans Christian Andersen (Dinamarca, s. XIX) (agradecimientos).
-J. R. R. Tolkien (Reino Unido, s. XX) (agradecimientos).
-Italo Calvino (Italia, s. XX) (agradecimientos).
-Hugo Padeletti (Argentina, s. XX-XXI) (dedicatoria de "El estanque").
-Orson Welles (EEUU, s. XX) ("La vieja ruta del incienso").
-Jean-Paul Sartre (Francia, s. XX) ("La vieja ruta del incienso").
Indirecta:
* Las dos historias que cuenta el guía Z'Ydagg en el cuento "La vieja ruta del incienso" son reelaboraciones (en clave de cosmogonía y con guiños humorísticos al mundo cinematográfico) de los clásicos grecolatinos de la Ilíada y la Odisea (ambas ca. s. VIII a. C.), ambas de Homero, así como parte de la trilogía trágica de la Orestíada (458 a. C.) de Esquilo, especialmente las dos primeras obras: Agamenón y Coéforos (ambas 458 a. C.). Aquí Marilyn Monroe es Helena de Troya, Kirk Douglas es Paris, James Bond es Agamenón, Margaret Thatcher es Clitemnestra, Sartre es Orestes, Clark Gable es Odiseo, Walt Disney es Polifemo, la Gioconda es Circe, etc. Y las sirenas son reemplazadas por los ringostárs.
* Mención al personaje de Emma Bovary, de Madame Bovary (1856) de Gustave Flaubert.
* Mención al personaje de James Bond, agente del servicio secreto de inteligencia británico, cuya primera mención registrada está en Casino Royale (1953) de Ian Fleming.
Qué bueno que lo leí ahora, entonces. Ahora lo leo y me quedo deslumbrado con el mundo gigantesco, espacial y temporalmente, que esboza Gorodischer. Disfruto con las salidas a veces imprevisibles de sus historias y con el desfile multicolor de sus personajes.
Me gusta que aunque Gorodischer juega con las proporciones desmesuradas de su imperio infinito y la pequeñez de sus habitantes, el comportamiento humano suele ser el centro y motor de sus narraciones (igual, en mi cuento favorito la protagonista es una ciudad). Otro juego recurrente es el del narrador poco fiable: estos no son registros históricos de cronistas y archivistas, son narraciones transmitidas oralmente, interpretadas por los cuentacuentos. Son relaciones míticas, no crónicas históricas, y a veces son diálogos entre varios narradores que cuentan la misma historia desde distintos puntos de vista.
Descubrí otro de mis libros favoritos.
Intertextualidad
Menciones directas:
* Pensées (1662) de Blaise Pascal (cita, epígrafe) ("Las dos manos").
* Poema "El imperio milenario" en El imperio milenario (1974) de Alfredo Veiravé (cita, epígrafe) ("Acerca de ciudades que crecen descontroladamente").
* Mención al personaje de Trafalgar Medrano, de Trafalgar (1979) de Angélica Gorodischer (epígrafe).
* Mención a alguna de las tres películas The Charge of the Light Brigade (1912, 1936, 1968), las tres basadas en la carga de la Brigada ligera durante la batalla de Balaclava (1854) en la Guerra de Crimea, de acuerdo a como la cuenta el poema "The Charge of the Light Brigade" (1854) de Alfred Tennyson ("La vieja ruta del incienso").
* Mención a la película 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), basada en el cuento "El centinela" (1948) de Arthur C. Clarke y cuyo guión fue escrito paralelamente a la novela 2001: Una odisea espacial (1968).
* Mención a la película Quai des brumes (El muelle de las brumas) (1938), basada en la novela Quai des brumes (1927) de Pierre Mac Orlan ("La vieja ruta del incienso").
* Mención a la película Rashōmon (1950), basada en el cuento "Rashōmon" (1915) de Ryūnosuke Akutagawa ("La vieja ruta del incienso").
* Mención a la película Porte des Lilas (Puerta de lilas) (1957), basada en la novela La Grande Ceinture (1956) de René Fallet ("La vieja ruta del incienso").
* Mención a la película L'Année dernière à Marienbad (El año pasado en Marienbad) (1961), cuyo guión fue escrito por el escritor Alain Robbe-Grillet, influenciado por la novela La invención de Morel (1940) de Adolfo Bioy Casares ("La vieja ruta del incienso").
* Mención a la película Gone with the Wind (1939), basada en la novela Lo que el viento se llevó (1936) de Margaret Mitchell ("La vieja ruta del incienso").
* Mención a los autores:
-Hans Christian Andersen (Dinamarca, s. XIX) (agradecimientos).
-J. R. R. Tolkien (Reino Unido, s. XX) (agradecimientos).
-Italo Calvino (Italia, s. XX) (agradecimientos).
-Hugo Padeletti (Argentina, s. XX-XXI) (dedicatoria de "El estanque").
-Orson Welles (EEUU, s. XX) ("La vieja ruta del incienso").
-Jean-Paul Sartre (Francia, s. XX) ("La vieja ruta del incienso").
Indirecta:
* Las dos historias que cuenta el guía Z'Ydagg en el cuento "La vieja ruta del incienso" son reelaboraciones (en clave de cosmogonía y con guiños humorísticos al mundo cinematográfico) de los clásicos grecolatinos de la Ilíada y la Odisea (ambas ca. s. VIII a. C.), ambas de Homero, así como parte de la trilogía trágica de la Orestíada (458 a. C.) de Esquilo, especialmente las dos primeras obras: Agamenón y Coéforos (ambas 458 a. C.). Aquí Marilyn Monroe es Helena de Troya, Kirk Douglas es Paris, James Bond es Agamenón, Margaret Thatcher es Clitemnestra, Sartre es Orestes, Clark Gable es Odiseo, Walt Disney es Polifemo, la Gioconda es Circe, etc. Y las sirenas son reemplazadas por los ringostárs.
* Mención al personaje de Emma Bovary, de Madame Bovary (1856) de Gustave Flaubert.
* Mención al personaje de James Bond, agente del servicio secreto de inteligencia británico, cuya primera mención registrada está en Casino Royale (1953) de Ian Fleming.
February 4, 2019
This mysterious Argentinian fantasy novel reminded me of Sylvia Townsend Warner’s Kingdoms of Elfin, Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast, M. John Harrison's Viriconium, and, inevitably, the stories of Borges. Angelica Gorodischer tells a series of tales from the long history of an Empire, full of allegories for colonialism, dictatorships, and other political developments. If I knew more about the history of Argentina, perhaps I’d be able to pinpoint them more precisely. Yet my instinct is that the allegories are oblique rather than direct. The stories occur in apparently non-linear sequence and deal with the rise and fall of dynasties. This is a not a fantasy world of magic, although at one point a dragon briefly appears. The fantastical element is the seeming lack of technological development driving political events. Despite mentions of buses, guns, and suchlike, in most of the stories the setting appears pre-industrial (or perhaps post-apocalyptic?) and inclined to absolute hereditary rule. Most of the stories centre on emperors and empresses, but take a similarly impersonal, timeless approach to Kingdoms of Elfin. Centuries appear to pass in a few paragraphs and characters who are introduced with seeming importance vanish, as the narrative moves on to their great-grandchildren.
Like Severance, ‘Kalpa Imperial’ is concerned with life in cities. My second favourite of the stories is titled ‘Concerning the Unchecked Growth of Cities’ and follows the development of a city from bandit hideout to artistic centre to oppressed victim and beyond. Throughout the book, the reader is made very aware of the storyteller’s voice and their determination to tell the stories in a particular way. This narrative conceit is especially notable in my favourite story, ‘Portrait of the Empress’, as the storyteller himself is a main character. I liked it best, though, because of the Empress and her policy of banning nearly all wheeled transport. Since I would strictly control car ownership if I happened to be an empress, this was delightful to come upon:
The Great Empress is a wonderful role model. She is the most vivid character in the book, as cities and dynasties largely obscure individuals. ‘Kalpa Imperial’ contains some strange, irreverent, and thought-provoking fairytales. While these are entertaining in their own right, they also invite the reader to contemplate historiography and the formation of myths.
Like Severance, ‘Kalpa Imperial’ is concerned with life in cities. My second favourite of the stories is titled ‘Concerning the Unchecked Growth of Cities’ and follows the development of a city from bandit hideout to artistic centre to oppressed victim and beyond. Throughout the book, the reader is made very aware of the storyteller’s voice and their determination to tell the stories in a particular way. This narrative conceit is especially notable in my favourite story, ‘Portrait of the Empress’, as the storyteller himself is a main character. I liked it best, though, because of the Empress and her policy of banning nearly all wheeled transport. Since I would strictly control car ownership if I happened to be an empress, this was delightful to come upon:
When the Great Empress prohibited all private transportation by wheeled vehicles, many people said she was crazy. Even I, who knew her well by then, looked at her in astonishment and asked her what could be the use of so absurd a measure.
“They increase delinquency,” she answered, “they’ve increased divorces and confinements for mental instability.”
“I confess I don’t understand you, ma’am,” I said. “What have wheeled vehicles got to do with all that? What you ought to do, surely, is institute measures against delinquency, divorces, and insanity.”
“And increase the size of the police force and extend their powers?” said she. “Make it even harder for people to get a divorce? Encourage doctors to study and treat the mad? How stupid. You wouldn’t be a good ruler, my dear friend, although I hope my sons will be. All we’d get by that would be more policemen full of pride and brutality, more lawyers full of red tape, more doctors full of fatuity, and hence more criminal assaults, more divorces, and more nut cases.”
“And by prohibiting private transportation-?” I enquired.
“We’ll see,” she told me.
She was right, of course. Cars and private planes disappeared. Only those who absolutely had to travel more than twenty kilometres were allowed to use public transportation on wheels. Most people walked, or rode donkeys, or, if they were wealthy, had themselves carried in litters. Life slowed down. People didn’t get anxious, because it wasn’t any use. The big centres of buying and selling and banking and industry disappeared, where everybody used to crowd in and push each other and get cross and curse each other out, and small shops opened, little places in every neighbourhood where every merchant and banker and businessman knew his customers and their families.
[...]
And the Great Empress smiled in satisifaction and I admitted to her she’d been right and told her the history of Sderemir the Borenid.
“Yes,” she said, “I know a lot of people say the world is complicated. The ones who say so are the ones who are kept anxious all the time by their work or their family, by a move or an illness, a storm, anything unexpected, anything at all; and then they make bad choices and when things turn out badly they blame it on the world for being complicated and not on their own low and imperfect standards. Why don’t they go further? Why say ‘the world is complicated’ and stop there? I say the world is complicated but not incomprehensible. Only you have to look at it steadily.”
The Great Empress is a wonderful role model. She is the most vivid character in the book, as cities and dynasties largely obscure individuals. ‘Kalpa Imperial’ contains some strange, irreverent, and thought-provoking fairytales. While these are entertaining in their own right, they also invite the reader to contemplate historiography and the formation of myths.
July 17, 2021
"...all power can do is silence people, keep them from singing, arguing, dancing, talking, brawling, making speeches and composing music. That's all. That's a lot, you may say, but I tell you it's not enough. For what power can keep the earth from speaking to people? What weapons can keep water from running and stones from rolling? What artillery can keep a storm from crouching on the horizon, ready to burst?"
I'm nowhere near being a history buff or anything but I really like reading history and historical accounts. It's like inspecting a gigantic mural on a wall. Up close you see countless little details. When you take a few steps back, however, you realise how those little things intertwine and create the big picture. I liken the history of Kalpa Imperial to the mural on the wall and these stories we read to those little details. This is a story book about an empire that mingles history and mythology.
Storytellers telling stories is another technique I enjoy in books. The tone and the voice in these stories vary because we have multiple storytellers here and they engage with the reader often. They ask rhetorical questions or make funny remarks which helps break the monotony and allows us room to breathe. The humorous bits were also spot on.
Writing style fits the concept and the narrative perfectly. While I admit that it was a bit hard to follow at times because sentences are often very long, I still found the writing in this book beautiful and evocative. No idea how much of it comes from the original but Le Guin's translation is truly stellar in my opinion.
The stories are completely unrelated to each other, focusing on different periods of time and people which underlines just how old and vast the empire is. They also touch upon some important themes using the empire as a frame, such as pros and cons of putting so much power in the hands of one person/group/family, effects of power and money, inequality, class struggle, exploitation, struggles of common folk, revolts and rebellions, relationship between man and nature, so on and so forth. One thing I liked about the narrative is that it never becomes didactic at any point telling us "this is the moral of the story" or "this is good and this is bad". It simply tells us what leads to these events, how they unfold, what the results are, and leaves the interpretation to us.
One thing that amazes me about this empire is that there isn't a clear-cut royalty here. Even commoners and usurpers can take the throne and become emperors. I find this really interesting because there was no way it could have happened in the empire in my country's past as it was strictly tied to the bloodline passing from father to son.
Another confusing thing in relation to this aspect is that how is it possible for this empire to rise and fall so many times, to be ruled by so many different dynasties and families, and still be the same empire? The link should have been broken somewhere along the way, if that makes sense. We're told that this is the oldest, the greatest, and the most powerful empire known to man, so a little suspension of disbelief is required, but it's just mind boggling when you think about it. In our online book club discussion, a fellow reader pointed out that it's not actually the same empire but rather it keeps restarting as something different in the same place, hence the part That Never Was in the title, which I think makes perfect sense.
I disliked a couple of stories, though not enough to taint my judgement. My highlights are Concerning the Unchecked Growth of Cities; The End of a Dynasty, Or The Natural History of Ferrets; "Down There in the South".
A peculiar book indeed, certainly not for everyone. For those who enjoy this sort of narrative though, it's well worth the read.
January 10, 2022
This is a collection of eleven short stories, that aren't really connected, but all share the same setting (if you can call it that): the Empire, the greatest empire that ever existed, that is so vast you can't cross it in one lifetime, that is so old it's almost as if it's always existed. Each story except the last is told by a storyteller, which gives the book sort of Arabian Nights -like feel. Although the storytellers always stress that they tell the complete and true story, unlike some other charlatans, you can't help but wonder if the story we hear is, indeed, complete and/or true.
The stories are mostly about the Emperors and the Empresses, but they are also often about more common people: there are commoners who become Emperors, in a true storybook fashion. Some rulers are just, others are wicked, some are weak and others are tyrannical.
The setting is very intentionally left rather blank. You imagine some sort of pseudo-European middle ages sort of generic setting... except one story mentions off-hand "cars and private planes". Another mentions people "shooting" bandits, although in other stories there has been mainly talk of swords as weapons. There is the rebellious "South" and the core "North", but they aren't really described in any detail. The reader can fill in the blanks.
This was originally two very short books, and I feel like that's the ideal way of reading these stories: first Book One, then a hiatus of a couple of weeks or more, and only then continuing with Book Two. I read it all in one go, and I have to admit the stories started kind of blurring together at one point.
The stories are mostly about the Emperors and the Empresses, but they are also often about more common people: there are commoners who become Emperors, in a true storybook fashion. Some rulers are just, others are wicked, some are weak and others are tyrannical.
The setting is very intentionally left rather blank. You imagine some sort of pseudo-European middle ages sort of generic setting... except one story mentions off-hand "cars and private planes". Another mentions people "shooting" bandits, although in other stories there has been mainly talk of swords as weapons. There is the rebellious "South" and the core "North", but they aren't really described in any detail. The reader can fill in the blanks.
This was originally two very short books, and I feel like that's the ideal way of reading these stories: first Book One, then a hiatus of a couple of weeks or more, and only then continuing with Book Two. I read it all in one go, and I have to admit the stories started kind of blurring together at one point.
January 4, 2011
Now, is this voice Gorodischer, or Le Guin? Presumably Gorodischer, but the style is so very much that of a female sff fan/writer of a certain era that I wonder. I mean, I guess since it's a translation quite a lot of Le Guin had to get into it.
I liked this one less than I thought I would. Some parts of it are good -- I liked the Empress Abderjhalda and the last story with the princess and the twentier (some kind of desert guide) who tells her stories based on the Iliad and Odyssey, peopled with characters named after old movie stars. And it's definitely got the folktale/mythic quality, which is presumably what it's going for. But it's the kind of book where I'm just not going to remember much of it. It's the changing cast of characters, and the fact that it's meant to be like folktales. I suppose unless you're using a true folktale, told many many times and purified by the telling, it's very hard to come up with that quality of timelessness in a story you made up yourself. And if you don't have that quality, and you don't have the characterisation you'd get in a more ordinary sort of story -- the kind of story that couldn't be anything but itself -- then you just aren't going to be that memorable.
I liked this one less than I thought I would. Some parts of it are good -- I liked the Empress Abderjhalda and the last story with the princess and the twentier (some kind of desert guide) who tells her stories based on the Iliad and Odyssey, peopled with characters named after old movie stars. And it's definitely got the folktale/mythic quality, which is presumably what it's going for. But it's the kind of book where I'm just not going to remember much of it. It's the changing cast of characters, and the fact that it's meant to be like folktales. I suppose unless you're using a true folktale, told many many times and purified by the telling, it's very hard to come up with that quality of timelessness in a story you made up yourself. And if you don't have that quality, and you don't have the characterisation you'd get in a more ordinary sort of story -- the kind of story that couldn't be anything but itself -- then you just aren't going to be that memorable.
December 12, 2016
I'm uncertain how to review this, because I feel like I read it at the wrong time. I'm hurriedly grading papers right now, so when I sit down to read a book, I need something that immediately sweeps me away. This is not that kind of book. Kalpa Imperial is a history of a fictional empire as told by a storyteller. The storyteller takes different periods of history and moves from broad descriptions to personal histories. Each chapter takes up an entirely different period of history.
Certainly, a unique way of telling a story, but typically characters are what keep me engaged in a book, and the second I finally became engrossed in a character's story, it was a new chapter and a whole new part of the empire's history. I never sank into the reading. But I also see that's the whole point of the novel. How the individual stories intersect into the broader history of the empire, and how it's made up of many singular identities, and each identity contributes to the character that is the empire. Maybe if I'd read this when I wasn't so busy I would've enjoyed it more.
Certainly, a unique way of telling a story, but typically characters are what keep me engaged in a book, and the second I finally became engrossed in a character's story, it was a new chapter and a whole new part of the empire's history. I never sank into the reading. But I also see that's the whole point of the novel. How the individual stories intersect into the broader history of the empire, and how it's made up of many singular identities, and each identity contributes to the character that is the empire. Maybe if I'd read this when I wasn't so busy I would've enjoyed it more.
May 15, 2014
-Haciendo género de una manera muy especial, rebosando sensibilidad y señalando verdades universales.-
Género. Ciencia-Ficción (y no Narrativa Fantástica a pesar de que lo pueda parecer e incluso siga algunos de sus caminos, al menos en mi humilde opinión, aunque sea de un tipo un tanto especial y el hecho se le pueda pasar por alto a algún lector. Pero en realidad ni siquiera importa).
Lo que nos cuenta. Un anónimo narrador comparte con el lector 11 relatos sobre eventos ocurridos en algún momento de la historia del Imperio Más Vasto que Nunca Existió, protagonizados por diferentes personajes más o menos famosos tanto en los registros imperiales como en la memoria de muchos habitantes del imperio y que suelen mostrar gram cantidad (y profundos) aspectos de la naturaleza humana, los buenos y los malos.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...
Género. Ciencia-Ficción (y no Narrativa Fantástica a pesar de que lo pueda parecer e incluso siga algunos de sus caminos, al menos en mi humilde opinión, aunque sea de un tipo un tanto especial y el hecho se le pueda pasar por alto a algún lector. Pero en realidad ni siquiera importa).
Lo que nos cuenta. Un anónimo narrador comparte con el lector 11 relatos sobre eventos ocurridos en algún momento de la historia del Imperio Más Vasto que Nunca Existió, protagonizados por diferentes personajes más o menos famosos tanto en los registros imperiales como en la memoria de muchos habitantes del imperio y que suelen mostrar gram cantidad (y profundos) aspectos de la naturaleza humana, los buenos y los malos.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...
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