Axolotl!: Fun Facts About the World's Coolest Salamander - An Info-Picturebook for Kids (Funny Fauna)

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The horror began—I learned in the same moment —of believing myself prisoner in the body of an axolotl, metamorphosed into him with my human mind intact, buried alive in an axolotl, condemned to move lucidly among unconscious creatures. We hear the cry of soul of the narrator trapped inside the body of an axolotl, the narrator cries from the depth of his being as if he is being thrown in to this hell of nothingness wherein he can’t express himself as if his entire existence is shred to nothingness, just like the vermin Gregor Samsa of Franz Kafka turns into, in The Metamorphosis. The readers find the consciousness of the narrator being confined to the body of an axolotl, severed from the entire world as if the world turns deaf to him, he watches with soul stirring horror that he is reflecting upon his own being through glass of aquarium, it marks the intense loneliness of human life which he can’t escape even after the transformation. However, the treatment here is more optimistic and humane since the narrator soon realizes that axolotls are human like consciousness beings who are trapped in their bodies so as to say condemned to exist, contemplating upon their doomed reality without realizing their true existence. Petranka, James W. " Salamanders of the United States and Canada", 1998, Smithsonian Institute Press. The book shows Linda Bondestam’s mastery by the use and enrichment of the picture book’s entire range.” Axolotl” es un cuento escrito por Julio Cortázar en 1956 por la editorial mexicana “Los Presentes”. Julio Cortázar nació en Ixelles, Belgica el 26 de agosto de 1914 y falleció en Paris, Francia el 12 de febrero en 1984. El era un escritor y traductor argentino que durante su vida hizo muchos cuentos entre los cuales se encuentra del que hablaremos.

I think that at the beginning I was capable of returning to him in a certain way—ah, only in a certain way—and of keeping awake his desire to know us better. I am an axolotl for good now, and if I think like a man it's only because every axolotl thinks like a man inside his rosy stone semblance. There are numerous references in the story to Aztecs and various phases of the Argentine history, the intentional usage of foreign words by the author perhaps underlines the invasion by foreigners who silence the local voices. The golden eyes of axolotls, their peculiar heads allude to the history of the country of the author. The author portrays the secluded, shifting and puzzling behavior of the axolotl to underline humanity’s loneliness and solitude of existence as we often struggle to fit into the world we live in, feeling as if we are trapped here and condemned to live. The quiet nature of axolotl may also be interpreted as humanity being an unintentional accomplice to the unfair things in life by mutely spectating them. The author ends the story the way he starts it by subverting the narrative through the infusion of metafictional element to its epilogue for giving a final but decisive twist to the story so as to create an art which might voice to those trapped in the hell of nothingness; but even then, as expected from Cortazar, the end of the story is left to multiple interpretations- the possible realities which may lie in a possibility. El cuento nos muestra a un narrador que se queda horas mirando a los axolotls en el jardín de plantas solamente observando su inmovilidad, hasta que se transforma en uno. Como empieza a ir todos los días al acuario se obsesiona con estos anfibios, por sus miradas y sus facciones. Él cree que ellos les piden ayuda y siente algo de humanidad en estos ajolotes. De igual manera él sentía temor, no dejaba de pensar en estas criaturas, era algo agobiante pero lindo a la vez, puesto que nunca había sentido una conexión tan grande con otro animal, quería saber absolutamente todo de cómo vivían y pensaban. Hasta que se transforma en uno y por fin puede sentir esa perspectiva. Estaba inmóvil, incapaz de expresarse, él solo con sus pensamientos. Condenado a moverse entre criaturas insensibles. As we do deep down analysis to further explore our naïve curiosity, we find another dilemma waiting for us to rob us from the comforts and truths we might have devised for ourselves, and the mystifying dilemma is what should we read, or rather which authors should we devote our time to. Borges would say that everyone is writing the same thing then how does it matter who we should read or who not. Though all of us may be writing about the same thing (to quest the innate desire for peace and curb our existential angst) but perhaps it is the way we write which differentiates some exclusive ones from others. It may be that one would never undertake such a thing if one is not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand as Orwell maintained; but, I guess, an author may have an obligation, which is to not to freeze language, or to pretend it is a dead thing that must be revered, but to use it as a living thing, that flows, that borrows words, that allows meanings and pronunciations to change with time. Perhaps, that’s how the different art movements have graduated over the years and probably that’s why we have seen a plethora of authors, and we are still witnessing it, and perhaps would be seeing it in the future too. And in the same stream we find authors such as Julio Cortazar who experimented with the prose in a way to extend the supposedly boundaries of the literature and transformed the way it is being written.Bishop, Sherman C. " Handbook of Salamanders: the Salamanders of the United States, of Canada and of Mexico", 1943, 1994, Cornell University Press.

Indiviglio, Frank, " Newts and Salamanders: a Complete Pet Owner's Manual", 1997, Barron's Educational Series. Before I begin: I'm not a fan of Dukaj's newspeak - I find it hard and exhausting to follow. 1/3rd of this edition consist of footnotes explaining the wording used throughout the book. On positive side at least I'm understanding what I'm reading (which I couldn't say about "Król Bólu" - another book of this author). On negative one, it's a very lazy way of introducing a reader to a presented universe at best. But as the world gets hotter and hotter, the water gets murkier. Friends become harder to find, and the lonesome axolotl grows even lonelier. Until one day when, out of the blue, a colossal wave carries the axolotl into a surprising new future…. Overall plot idea is VERY interesting, but there are some inconsistencies / oversimplifications that could have been avoided or walked around (I think) Pred kraj romana pojavljuje se i srazmerno neočekivani momenat koji možda najviše podseća na Lema i njegov nihilizam:

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Manualul de instrucțiuni” viața e ca un fluid vîscos în care ne mișcăm și răzbim cu încetinitorul. Viziunile sînt „wow”, din fericire mai curînd ludice, surprinzătoare decît înspăimîntătoare.

A stílusról Rajaniemi ugrott be, csakúgy mint az Extensa olvasásakor. De a finn ecset valahogy vastagabban, színesebben fogott, nekem ez a Dukaj-verzió túlságosan be volt zárva egy fémtojásba, egyetlen robot fejébe - aki hát valljuk be nem a legvagányabb indián a poszthumanista klubban.Sînt și povestiri pe care nu le-am înțeles, sau care mi-au rămas obscure, dar cele la care am răzbit, în felul meu, m-au aruncat în tăriile cerului de unde n-aș fi vrut să mă mai întorc. himself as an expatriate from Latin America (Argentina)? the metamorphosis of a writer? or something else?

This is my first reading of his writing and it's not enough of a sample for me to form an opinion. I will search out a bit more of his work before deciding if he is a good fit for me. I felt the tender squeeze of a wooden robot/ethereal presence's hand, a smile that carries 'the sincere promise of happiness'. Raffaëlli, Jean " Les Urodèles du Monde", 2007 (possibly originally 2006?), Penclen Edition (Author Self-Published).

Inventive book design and shifting perspectives add cozy surprises to this bedtime snoozer…. In Hasan-Rokem’s translation from the Swedish, the text is poetic, sly, and funny…. Along with adding sly anthropomorphic touches to the rest of the cast, [Bondestam] caps the nighttime scenes with one final one of a comically frazzled family of owls barely getting through a sunrise supper of croissants and hot chocolate before collapsing. Parents of younger children will definitely relate. A droll and imaginative addition to the crepuscular corpus.” Animals around the world are headed to bed in this beautifully illustrated book, which adds an odd twist of quirkiness to make it an intriguing read…. The animals are depicted in a wonderful artistic manner, which adds a dash of sophistication. In other words, these are simply well done and beautiful in their style and flair.”