La vaca

by Augusto Monterroso

En los textos «pacientemente» reunidos en La vaca, el siempre parco y brillante maestro del relato breve Augusto Monterroso (1921-2003) deja ver sus relaciones con la literatura, los libros y los escritores, desde Tolstói o Virginia Woolf a Jorge Luis Borges o Juan Rulfo, sin olvidar a Cervantes, Onetti, Raymond Carver, Julian Barnes... A caballo entre la nota, la reflexión, el apunte autobiográfico y, huelga decirlo, del propio cuento, transitar por estas breves piezas es como hacerlo por un agradable jardín lleno de curiosidades, agudezas, ironías y brillantes y sugerentes atisbos.

92 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Augusto Monterroso Bonilla (1921-2003) es la máxima figura hispánica del género más breve de la literatura, el microrrelato, y una de las personalidades más entrañables, no sólo por su modestia y sencillez, sino también por su excepcional inteligencia y su exquisita ironía. Autodidacta por excelencia, abandonó sus estudios tempranamente, para dedicarse por completo a la lectura de los clásicos, que amó con pasión, como a Cervantes, cuyo influjo es evidente en su obra. Guatemalteco de adopción y centroamericano por vocación, dedicó una buena parte de su vida a luchar contra la dictadura de su país, antes de darse a conocer internacionalmente con el cuento «El dinosaurio», que, se dice, es el más breve de la literatura en español. Maestro de fábulas, aforismos y palindromías, su papel docente fue de capital importancia en la formación de los más conocidos escritores hispanoamericanos, y de otras latitudes.

Reviews

[Glenn Russell]

Cow (La Vaca) by outstanding Latin American author Augusto Monterroso (1921-2003)

Reading this short-short snapping story (included below) prompts me to share several philosophic reflections revolving around two Joseph Campbell quotes -

"With respect to the development of each individual's psychology, we have such varied sources from which we've come and such varied opportunities in our lives that there is no single mythology that can have it for us. My belief is that within the field of a secular society, which is a sort of neutral frame that allows individuals to develop their own lives, so long as they don't annoy their neighbors too much, each of us has an individual myth that's driving us, which we may or may not know."

If you take a look at Augusto's Cow you will see the author feels a profound connection between himself and the dead cow he has just seen while looking out the window of a train - "no one to bury her or edit her complete works."

The joy Augusto expresses arises from his own myth that drives his life: like the cow who has given of herself "all the streams of foaming milk," he himself is a creator, an artist, a writer who nourishes his fellow humans (and, by extension, all of life) with his unique fable-like fictions.

"Mythological images are the images by which the consciousness is put in touch with the unconscious. That's what they are. When you don't have your mythological images, or when your consciousness rejects them for some reason or other, you are out of touch with your own deepest part. I think that's the purpose of a mythology that we can live by. We have to find the one that we are in fact living by and know what it is so that we can direct our craft with competence."

August knows the mythology he's living by and thus his life is enriched. So the question becomes: what mythology are you living by? What mythological images put your conscious mind in touch with your unconscious? Hint: you might think in terms of the myth of creativity instead of or in addition to the myth of creation. Meanwhile, enjoy Augusto's tale.

COW
While I was traveling on the train the other day, I suddenly stood up, happy on my own two feet, and began to wave my hands with joy and invite everyone to look at the scenery and see the twilight that was really glorious. The women, the children, and some gentlemen who interrupted their conversation all looked at me in surprise and laughed; when I quietly sat down again, there was no way for them to know what I had just seen at the side of the road: a dead, really dead cow moving past slowly with no one to bury her or edit her complete works or deliver a deeply felt and moving speech about how good she had been and all the streams of foaming milk she had given so that life in general and the train in particular could keep on going.

[H (trying to keep up with GR friends) Balikov · Rating 4 out of 5]

COW
“While I was traveling on the train the other day, I suddenly stood up, happy on my own two feet, and began to wave my hands with joy and invite everyone to look at the scenery and see the twilight that was really glorious. The women, the children, and some gentlemen who interrupted their conversation all looked at me in surprise and laughed; when I quietly sat down again, there was no way for them to know what I had just seen at the side of the road: a dead, really dead cow moving past slowly with no one to bury her or edit her complete works or deliver a deeply felt and moving speech about how good she had been and all the streams of foaming milk she had given so that life in general and the train in particular could keep on going.”

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

It’s not often that you find a review longer than the literary effort itself, but my praiseworthy GR friend, Glenn Russell, has shared with us his thoughts on the author and this short work, La Vaca. (see above)

Monterroso has managed to plant the seeds of many interesting discussions in this small paragraph. How does it work for you?

[Pollo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Así como al autor se le considera un exponente clásico del microcuento, tal vez también lo sea de estos microensayos, o simplemente artículos, como los que conforman este excelente volumen bovino, 100% amor por la libros concentrado con un toque autobiográfico.

Delicioso su texto sobre la relación entre La Araucana y El Aleph borgiano (además de otros miembros de esta omnímoda familia en los que se omite, y tal vez se podría agregar los palantir de la archiconocida saga de Tolkien y hasta un cuento erótico de Iwasaki), la entrevista en que le piden que elija sus tres mejores lecturas del año (Queneau, El loro de Flaubert, Calvino, Biblioteca personal y una antología poética), el antecedente de Ejercicios de estilo en un escrito de Erasmo de Rotterdam. Volviendo a Julian Barnes, en la novela cotorresca hay toda una lista de fails célebres de escritores (William Golding, Nabokov) a los que Monterroso agrega el del propio Barnes, ciertas mutaciones de su célebre cuento "El Dinosaurio" (con burla a Vargas Llosa que lo confundió con unicornio (?) y un breve elogio a nuestro eterno Julio Ramón Ribeyro, entre otras anécdotas, comentarios, consejos para escribir y, en resumen, una orgásmica (y como todo orgasmo, breve) explosión diminuta de pura belleza y literatura.