Lo dado: Tres poemas

by Rodolfo Enrique Fogwill

Spanish

Genres: Poetry

62 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Rodolfo Enrique Fogwill (born in Buenos Aires in 1941), who normally goes by just his surname, Fogwill, was an Argentine sociologist, short story writer, and novelist.

Fogwill was full professor at the University of Buenos Aires< publisher of a legendary poetry book collection, essayist, and specialized columnist in communication subjects, literature and cultural politics. The success of his story "Muchacha punk" (Punk girl), which received the first prize in an important literary contest in 1980, made him leave his job as a businessman, and begin, according to his words, "a plot of misunderstandings and misfortunes" that took him to his present occupation as a writer. Some of his texts have made their way into diverse anthologies published in the United States, Cuba, Mexico, and Spain. He is perhaps particularly notable for his short novel Los pichiciegos (translated as Malvinas Requiem), which was one of the very first narratives to deal with the Falklands War between Argentina and the United Kingdom.

Reviews

[Francisco Barrios · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aquí se reúnen tres plaquettes de Fogwill: Contra el cristal de la pecera de acuario (1999), Lo Dado (1999) y El antes de los monstruito [sic]: acto para voces representadas (1998) que, respectivamente, abrevan en la tradición del poema filosófico que erige a la pecera como símbolo del mundo, hacen eco de Mallarmé (“Ningún lance de dados elimina el azar”) y desembocan en la poesía narrativa, de corte oral, como testimonio y denuncia de la realidad argentina.

Estos rasgos que para muchos constituyen el principal atractivo de la poesía de Fogwill, quien oscila con desparpajo entre el arrebato arrabalero y la reflexión filosófica de altos vuelos, también pueden esgrimirse, al menos en este poemario brevísimo, como una desventaja: la voz local que se regodea en su ininteligibilidad. Sin duda este libro contiene muchas líneas admirables y, al menos, un poema absolutamente arrasador (Transparencias), pero para muchos lectores ajenos al habla o a la realidad argentina del gobierno de Menem, las últimas páginas les dirán muy poco (o casi nada) por cierto.

Un poemario que, para mí y en virtud de lo anterior, carece de unidad y va de más a menos.

[actuallymynamesssantiago · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ignore her she drinks.