Fantomas Versus the Multinational Vampires: An Attainable Utopia (Semiotext

by Julio Cortázar, David Kurnick (Translator)

Octavio Paz: "If you love art, do something, Fantomas!"Fantomas: "I will, you can depend on it."

First published in Spanish in 1975 and previously untranslated, "Fantomas versus the Multinational Vampires" is Julio Cortazar's genre-jumping mash-up of his participation in the Second Russell Tribunal on human rights abuses in Latin America and his cameo appearance in issue number 201 of the Mexican comic book series "Fantomas: The Elegant Menace." With his characteristic narrative inventiveness, Cortazar offers a quixotic meta-comic/novella that challenges not only the form of the novel but its political weight in contemporary cultural life. Needing something to read on the train from Brussels (where he had attended the ineffectual tribunal meeting), our hero (Julio Cortazar) picks up the latest issue of the "Fantomas" comic. He grows increasingly absorbed by the comic book's tale of bibliocide (a sinister bibliophobic plot to obliterate every book from the archives of humanity), especially when he sees the character Fantomas embark upon a series of telephone conversations with literary figures, starting with "The Great Argentine Writer" himself, Julio Cortazar (and also including Octavio Paz and a tough-talking Susan Sontag). Soon, Cortazar begins to erase the thin line between real-life atrocities and fictional mayhem in an attempt to bring attention to the human rights violations taking place with impunity in the country from which he was exiled."

Genres: Fiction, Graphic Novels, Politics, Spanish Literature, Art, Novels, Comics

87 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1975

About the author

Julio Cortázar, born Julio Florencio Cortázar Descotte, was an Argentine author of novels and short stories. He influenced an entire generation of Latin American writers from Mexico to Argentina, and most of his best-known work was written in France, where he established himself in 1951.

Reviews

[Luís · Rating 3 out of 5]

This Fantomas has everything from the text to the charge, but the story ends on a note of hope. The volume contains the indictment of the Tribunal Russell II as an appendix. The novella is subtitled in its recent English translation: “An attainable utopia.” Not sure that we find utopia in Latin America, but at the very least, dictatorships and juntas have fallen one after the other. (We will be surprised by the late, even very late, translations of this novella: 1991 in French, but 2014 only in English.)
In form, Fantomas is like a collage. Narrative text, fragments of comics (drawn especially for the occasion, it seems), engravings, and photographs happily intertwine simultaneously as the Fantomas comics gradually infiltrate the narrator’s reality. Which narrator also appears in the comics.

[Moshtagh hosein · Rating 4 out of 5]

عجب عجب عجب عجب!
یک کمیک بوک با قهرمانی کورتاثار و سوزان سانتاگ و با حضور آلبرتو موراویا،کالوینو،پاز،مارکز،هاینریش بل و ....
اثری آینده‌نگر که پدیده جهانی شدن رو پیش‌بینی کرده.

[Fábio Martins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Desassombro, mordaz e politicamente relevante, este manifesto de esquerda travesti do de comics, traz - nos um Cortázar (ainda) mais livre, solto e sem hesitar usar uma valente dose de humor ácido.

[Teresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nesta história — misto de conto e banda desenhada, escrita de forma despretensiosa e divertida — O narrador, de regresso a casa, após uma reunião do Tribunal Russell II (*), ao ter conhecimento de incêndios em várias bibliotecas de todo o mundo, que visam destruir a Literatura, apela ao super-herói Fantomas para desvendar a origem dos atentados.


(*) O Tribunal Russell I foi um evento criado, em 1966, por iniciativa de Bertrand Russell para investigar os crimes cometidos pelos norte-americanos no Vietname. Posteriormente, nos anos 70, foi constituído um prolongamento — Tribunal Russell II — que se dedicou à investigação da violação dos direitos humanos nos países latino-americanos. Os membros destes Tribunais, entre os quais Julio Cortázar, representavam diversos países e tinham as mais variadas profissões: advogados, cientistas, políticos, escritores, historiadores, etc.

[Jeff Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part repurposing of a superhero comic, part political polemic, and part melancholy whatsit - I'm thrilled this rare Cortazar title has finally been translated into English. It goes down easy, but it's probably best appreciated by Cortazar completists. And why wouldn't you want to become a Cortazar completist?!

[jeremy · Rating 5 out of 5]

"what are books compared to those who read them, julio? what are whole libraries worth if they're only available to a few? this is a trap for us intellectuals, too. we get more upset about the loss of a single book than about hunger in ethiopia - it's logical and understandable and monstrous at the same time."

in the argentine master's fantomas versus the multinational vampires: an attainable utopia (fantomas contra los vampiros multinacionales), literary superfriends (cortázar, sontag, paz, and moravia) battle the forces of capitalist excess and international bibliocide. inspired by his participation in the second russell tribunal (1975, brussels), as well as his inclusion in an issue of the mexican comic book series, fantomas, la amenaza elegante (#201, "la inteligencia en llamas"), cortázar published this self-referential, metafictional novella to help spread the word about the tribunal's report (on human rights violations in latin america).

with numerous cameos by other prominent writers of the era (mailer, galeano, fuentes, lima, et al.), fantomas versus the multinational vampires retains the original comic drawings from the mexican series in which they first appeared. crafting a fictional narrative around the graphic story and his work with the tribunal, cortázar takes aim at the various exploits of multinational corporations and the rapacious effects they've had (and continue to have) on human rights, environmental well-being, creative culture, and national sovereignty. while very slim in length, fantomas cleverly combines comedy, politics, literature, and an unsettling reality into a single remarkable work.

while fantomas versus the multinational vampires does not, of course, set out to solve the centuries-old corrupting influences of american corporate interventionism, it does, however, (further) demonstrate cortázar's seemingly limitless creativity. rather than composing an editorial screed, cortázar instead allowed the brilliance of his storytelling (and the comic book illustrations) to succinctly convey the grave threats that still endure after many decades. fantomas versus the multinational vampires is fun, fresh, fantastical, and an absolute delight to behold.

"yes, julio, but reality makes itself known in other ways, too - it makes itself known in work or the lack of work, in the price of potatoes, in the boy shot down on the corner, in the way the filthy rich drive past the miserable slums (that's a metaphor, because they take care never to get anywhere near the goddamn slums). it makes itself known even in the singing of birds, in children's laughter, in the moment of making love. these things are known, julio, a miner or a teacher or a bicyclist knows them, deep down everyone knows them, but we're lazy or we shuffle along in bewilderment, or we've been brainwashed and we think that things aren't so bad simply because they're not flattening our houses or kicking us to death..."

*translated from the spanish (with a short, but indispensable afterword) by david kurnick

[Oriana · Rating 3 out of 5]

WHAT HOLY SHIT OMG

[Jimmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Imagine you are a "Great Argentine Writer, Contemporary" and you've just branched outside of literature into the real world of effects by attending the Second Russell Tribunal in Brussells. The purpose of the tribunal is to investigate human rights violations in Latin America. You're a bit depressed after hearing all the testimony, and you're doubly depressed because the conclusions of the Tribunal are purely symbolic and will not likely lead to any real changes. On top of that, most people will never hear of the Tribunal or read its crushing indictments.

When you get home, you stumble across a popular comic strip starring the masked superhero Fantomas. You've read other comics in this series before, but you decide to open it anyway and to your surprise you find yourself in its pages! And many other cameos by writers as well: Susan Sontag, Alberto Moravia, Octavio Paz, etc. Here you are, thinking what you did didn't matter, and yet you are in a popular comic strip. Well, what a better way to publicize the results of the Tribunal than to include it in a mad romp starring yourself or a version of yourself as seen through the Fantomas comic strip?

That's what Cortázar did. It's meta-meta-meta and fun-fun-fun and laugh out loud funny. There are parts that read a little like If on a Winter's Night a Traveler. And other parts that feel process oriented like César Aira. For a very short book (I read it in a day), it's pretty good at pulling together a bunch of disparate elements and still keeping things interesting, thought provoking, and unpredictable.

[Tosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Julio Cortåzar's great take on world leftist concerns in 1975 (that still exist) and having a figure like Fantomas, fighting for the left. Of course, Fantomas is just one man, and he is not even sure who the enemy is. Nevertheless this sort-of-graphic novel is a superb entertainment, that actually has traces of sadness. What's sad is the almost impossible means of fighting against multinational companies (vampires), even if you do have a super-hero on your side. Very witty, and a fascinating document by the left-wing during a time of great uprise and defeat. Essential book for those who see culture as an essential tool to educate, and be creative at the same time. There is also a touch of the Situationist wit as well. Also great book design work from Semiotext(e)'s Hedi El Kholti.

[João Moura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Capitalismo, conspirações, realidade, escritores, super heróis, povo, empresas, organizações internacionais...tudo se mistura em mais um exercício criativo exemplar de Julio Cortázar, desta feita acompanhado de imagens.

[ZaRi]

اشتباه این است که همه چیز عین روز روشن و مثل واقعیت های روزمره جلوی رویمان باشد و با این وجود مطابق معمول همچنان منتظر بمانیم که یک نفر دیگر اولین فریاد را سر بدهد...!

[M. Pierce Joyce · Rating 4 out of 5]

The "Madvillainy" of Argentine metafiction.

[Jeppe Lauridsen]

Litterære superhelte slås mod multinationale kapitalister! Tegneserietelefonsamtaler mellem Julio Cortazar og Susan Sontag! Det kan jeg simpelthen ikke stå for! Og så er det samtidig en virkelig fin bog om den anden Russell Tribunal i 1975 - på mange måder er hele fortællingen en måde at sprede det budskab, Cortazar ville have ud efter nævnet (som han selv deltog i): At CIA, ITT og andre firmaer, den amerikanske regering, sydamerikanske diktatorer, m.fl. forårsagede bevidste brud på menneskerettigheder og folkets ret til selvbestemmelse i de latinamerikanske lande. Alt sammen pakket ind i en underholdende og sprudlende (semio)tekst over den mexicanske tegneserie "Fantomas".

[Péter · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a pretty interesting idea to package a political pamphlet into a metafictional short story playing with the traditional form of prose and comics, it is also a sad reminder that Kissinger is still alive and not in The Hague where he should be

[Martin Albertus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Para mi, hablar de Cortázar es similar a hablar sobre Spinetta, sobre los asados de mi abuelo, sobre el River Campeón de mi infancia. La objetividad desaparece y es el corazón el que toma las riendas. Pero haciendo un pequeño esfuerzo por superar ese escollo inicial y tratando, ahora si, de ser lo más justo posible con el libro, puedo decir que me gustó mucho esta faceta de Julio.
La primera parte, donde aparece la figura de "Fantomas", intercala elementos conocidos del universo usualmente navegado por el autor, con duras críticas a los gobiernos de facto que azotaron Latinoamérica durante la década de los 70'. Lo hace desde la ironía, la insinuación, la metáfora e incluso desde el sentido del humor; mechando algunas viñetas de un cómic que contribuye al desarrollo de la historia (y que, al mismo tiempo, la cuenta y la constituye).
La segunda parte, la de los "otros textos políticos", deja de lado todo tipo de recurso literario para condimentar el relato y se vuelve directa, concreta. Es lisa y llanamente Julio Cortázar plantando bandera frente a la realidad, eligiendo una vereda y poniéndole nombre y apellido a sus enemigos, los enemigos de América Latina, los enemigos de la humanidad. Es reconfortante verlo en ese lugar. Obviamente, no por ser directo dejar de ser elaborado y preciso en su lenguaje, y a lo largo de la transcripción de sus varias ponencias, cartas, discursos y apariciones públicas, deja de regalo párrafos memorables.

Un ejemplo (en referencia a los desaparecidos):
"Y si toda muerte humana entraña una ausencia irrevocable, ¿qué decir de esta ausencia que se sigue dando como presencia abstracta, como la obstinada negación de la ausencia final?. Ese círculo faltaba en el infierno dantesco, y los supuestos gobernantes de mi país, entre otros, se han encargado de la siniestra tarea de crearlo, y de poblarlo."

[Rick Metal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interessantíssimo trabalho em que Cortázar, inspirado pelo facto de ter sido incluído como personagem numa banda desenhada, cria uma obra formalmente inovadora, descontraída, divertida, mesmo um pouco surrealista, mas abordando grandes e sérios temas. Se a versão da editora Planeta Destino, fonte da portuguesa, estava aparentemente já cheia de erros, a tradução da Teorema é um desastre. Tive de desistir e recorrer a um pdf em espanhol para ler a obra adquadamente. Cortázar não merecia este tratamento.

[Paula Vergara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Debo decir que encontré este libro divertido, me reí mucho y con un sentido de humor que no había visto antes en Cortázar; El libro ademas se engrandece al conocer que el sentido de hacer este libro fue difundir un tema tan horrible como el atropello de los derechos humanos en Latinoámerica en los 70 y, por lo mismo, Cortazar renunció a los derechos de autor para donarlo a organizaciones que luchaban por el respeto de los DDHH. Recomendable 100%

[Cody · Rating 4 out of 5]

Calling something a graphic novel doesn't change anything: it's still a comic book.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Um Cortázar que não conhecia, um pouco datado, mas actual. Infelizmente, o texto desta edição , apesar de breve, está pejado de gralhas.

[Txema Corp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Al igual que la corriente musical de cantautores querían llevar la crítica social a las masas mediante sus canciones, Julio Cortázar usó un cómic de Fantomas en el que él mismo aparecía para intentar llevar la sentencia del tribunal Russell 2 (electric bugaloo) al gran público de América Latina. La idea es graciosa y sale una marcianada curiosa de leer, pero el resultado tal vez hubiera sido mejor y hubiera llegado más a la gente si se tratara de un cómic al uso, y no de un híbrido entre relato corto y las páginas originales del cómic de Fantomas.

[uxía · Rating 4 out of 5]

que bueno es el hijo d puta

[Tonymess · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here is one thing I can assure you of, if it wasn’t for the Best Translated Book Award I would have never in my lifetime have picked up this book, it is quite possible I would never have known of its existence without the award longlist announcement. An overseas publisher, sixty-nine pages of text blended with comic book and pop art is not something I would have been searching for, even if I’d read Julio Cortazar’s works beforehand.

In January 1975 the “Second Russell Tribunal” was held in Brussels. Created by British thinker Bertrand Russell, initially to investigate crimes by US troops in Vietnam a “second” tribunal was “dedicated to investigate the current situation in various Latin American countries” and investigate “multiple violations of the human rights of the people of Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Bolivia, Paraguay, and other countries of the continent.” Julio Cortazar participated in the tribunal, along with eleven other panel members, a President and four Vice-Presidents, including Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Also in 1975 Cortazar was gifted edition 201 of the Mexican comic book series Fantomas, la amenaza elegante (‘Fantomas: The Elegant Menace’) and so our story of “Fantomas Versus the Multinational Vampires” was born.

For my full review go to http://messybooker.blogspot.com.au/

[Maria Silva · Rating 3 out of 5]

O protagonista é o narrador. O narrador segue o percurso do narrador da história; por exemplo a observação da cidade e das pessoas sem fazer nada, a troca de conversa com a vendedora de jornais, as pessoas no comboio. No texto o autor Insere banda desenhada o que ajuda a seguir o desaparecimento de 400 livros na biblioteca de Londres.
Entretanto a conversas entre os passageiros decorre paralelamente à história da banda desenhada.
O papel dos fantomas é investigar tudo. Trata-se, então, de uma crítica sócio-política do capitalismo e as suas consequências na sociedade. Uma denúncia em forma de história fantástica onde o autor mistura o real com o (um)previsível.

[Meg Powers]

I didn't actually finish this...I'm just not sure where it is.

This was recommended to me by a dear friend whose opinions I trust, but most of what I read in this seemed to be in-jokes about his fellow writer friends. But I didn't finish it, so what can I say.

[giul's · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cortázar literalmente dijo "así que tomaron mi nombre e imagen para incluirla en un cómic sin consultarme? bueno, entonces voy a escribir un relato gráfico incluyendo partes DE ESE MISMO COMIC" the real goat

[Kurt Fox · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a hard book to shelve. The main part is fiction, but the appendix is not. The main part is experimental, like a meta-comic, or meta-graphic novel, in which the text has embedded images, in which several are one to four panels of comic/graphic novel. It broke the fourth wall, telling us about the villain and we could jump ahead and read the appendix, or not.

At the heart of the book is an important summary of a tribunal, which is succinctly printed in its entirety in the appendix. To include it in a book in a work of fiction would be difficult without monologuing, and bloating this 87-page book, which is short, accessible, to-the-point and more apt to be read, to a 300+ page book which is not short and will have a smaller audience than this one.

This book includes nods to lots of authors, contemporary and historic.

Q: why does the Fantomas comic book cover have a Pepsi-cola logo on the cover? Is it a sponsorship? Is it implicated as one of these multinational companies?

[Lily · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dark yet somehow humorous look at the "multinational vampires" in the form of political and economic corporations who gut Latin America for profit. There is a heavy use of metafiction and comics as a form which give the reader much to think about, forces of pop culture, the role of authors and leftists in creating real and meaningful change, and how to confront injustice and brutal torture. It is simultaneously hopeful and bleak. What is the role of art in all the horrors of the world, past and present?

"what are books compared to those who read them, julio? what are whole libraries worth if they're only available to a few? this is a trap for us intellectuals, too. we get more upset about the loss of a single book than about hunger in ethiopia - it's logical and understandable and monstrous at the same time."

[J. D. Román · Rating 3 out of 5]

Este libro cortito es una peculiaridad dentro de la obra de Julio Cortázar, pero a la vez contiene algunos elementos típicos en los relatos del autor argentino: los escritores, la vida bohemia y la cultura pop representada en el héroe Fantomas.

Cortázar aprovecha el formato cómic para mezclarlo con narrativa y contar una extraña conspiración en la cual están desapareciendo libros clásicos y amenazando de muerte a escritores contemporáneos como Alberto Moravia, Susan Sontag o el propio Cortázar, razón por la que Fantomas interviene para salvar al mundo... literario.

Es interesante la perspectiva de Cortázar sobre las conexiones entre escritores de todo el mundo, como si de verdad fuesen víctimas de una conspiración y tuvieran que unirse contra los gobiernos mundiales. Más allá de ello, me parece que al final la historia flojea y no tiene una clara conclusión.

[Inti Mariani · Rating 4 out of 5]

–Susan, nuestros pueblos están alienados, mal informados, torcidamente
informados, mutilados de esa realidad que sólo unos pocos conocen.
–Sí, Julio, pero todo eso se sabe también de otras maneras, se sabe por el trabajo
o la falta de trabajo, por el precio de las papas, por el muchacho que balearon en la
esquina, por los ricachos que pasan en sus autos delante de las villas miseria (es una
metáfora porque tienen buen cuidado de no pasar en su puta vida). Eso se sabe hasta en el
canto de los pájaros, en la risa de los chicos, en el momento de hacer el amor. Esas cosas
se saben, Julio, las sabe un minero o un maestro o un ciclista, en el fondo todo el mundo
las sabe, pero somos flojos o andamos desconcertados, o nos han lavado el cerebro y
creemos que tan mal no nos va simplemente porque no nos allanan la casa o nos matan a
patadas...

[Charlie Kruse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really fun. Read some of Cortazar's short stories and they confounded me, not really making me feel good or bad, but like a puzzle that I wanted to figure out that I couldn't. I've also felt that way starting Hopscotch. This text is concise and clear, but does not take itself to seriously, and for a theory geek like me it's funny to see the narrator (a stand in for Cortazar) talk to both serious writers like Susan Sontag and masked marauders like Fantomas. Interspersed with actual comic strips and newspaper clippings, this is almost a primer for neoliberal globalization for the pulp reader. Keep on fightin the good fight Fantomas. But he also can't do it alone.