Diez

by Juan Emar

An astonishing collection of short stories by one of the most daring prose experimentalists of the 20th century

A taxidermied parrot, insulted by a stodgy uncle, comes violently alive and batters the poor fool to death with its beak. A terrible tyrant, Zar Palemón, presides over grotesque ritualized sex acts in his court—which is itself contained in a demonic gemstone the size of a fist. And deep in the Andes, in a hidden cave, an unremarkable house cat waits to trap its hapless victim with a Gorgon’s gaze and engage him in a staring contest on which the fate of the cosmos just might depend.

Such are a few of the bizarre adventures found within Juan Emar’s mind-bending collection of short stories, Ten. Allegory? Parody? Horror? Surrealism? Yes to all, and none of the where lesser writers mark their end-point, the unclassifiable Juan Emar jumps off, straight into the deep end. Life is far from still in Emar’s world, where statues come alive, gaseous vampires stalk, and our hopes and fears materialize in a web of shocking interconnections unified by twisted logic and crystalline prose.

Now, Ten is available in English for the first time, deftly translated by Megan McDowell and with an introduction by César Aira, who “Emar has neither precedents nor equals; his echoes and affinities—Lautréamont, Macedonio Fernández, Gombrowicz—flow from his readers’ own inclinations.” Byzantine and vivid, intricate and bizarre, this quiver of shorts by Chile’s most idiosyncratic mad genius of literature will leave readers astounded for decades to come.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Literature, Spanish Literature, 20th Century, Horror

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1937

About the author

Escritor, crítico de arte y pintor chileno, máximo exponente local de la vanguardia literaria de las décadas de 1920 y 1930 en el género narrativo, e integrante del colectivo de artistas plásticos Grupo Montparnasse

Reviews

[Derian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Este libro me desconcertó totalmente. Diez cuentos de imaginación desquiciada, tono distante y finamente irónico. El recurso de la memoria proustiana se lo usa a modo de amarga burla. Hay una sucesión de escenas e imágenes que parecen fluir libremente, sin un motivo en particular, guiadas por la escritura misma. El narrador de "El unicornio" muere, por ejemplo, pero eso no le impide seguir narrando como si nada. Juan Emar es el escritor que hubiera querido ser Breton y no le salió.

[Lucas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me resulta difícil de creer que este libro haya sido editado en 1937... En verdad, me resulta difícil de creer que este libro siquiera haya sido escrito. Una locura total. Emar divaga y divaga, pero su estilo es tal que podría escribir sobre cualquier cosa y me interesaría. En estos cuentos, se dedica a jugar con las convenciones de lo clásico, especialmente de los novelistas franceses como Flaubert y Proust, se burla de todo y todos. En realidad, leyendo este artículo de Enrique Vila-Matas dará una mejor idea sobre este libro que cualquier cosa que yo podría decir...

[Tosh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Highly Surrealistic short stories, and the first story about the Parrot is excellent, but I had difficulties with the other stories. I'm not sure why; it may have something to do with me more than anything else. But I will keep at it if more books are translated into English by this author. For sure, it is worth the journey (read).

[Pablo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Juan Emar escribía para personas de un tiempo que jamás llego.

[Cristian1185 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Escrita por el chileno Juan Emar y publicada en 1937, Diez reune 10 cuentos separados por segmentos temáticos que agrupan relatos similares, titulados estos como cuatro animales, tres mujeres, dos sitios y un vicio. Puestos en el contexto de renovación de las letras chilenas a consecuencia de la importación de las vanguardias europeas de a principio del siglo XX, los cuentos gozan de una interesante apuesta por la creación literaria mediada por la utilización de elementos surreales, oníricos y fantásticos para confeccionar historias hilarantes, críticas y lúdicas, ya sea en cuanto estilo como también en argumento.

Una exploración interesante de las posibilidades del lenguaje conjugadas con la escena literaria chilena de las primeras décadas del XX, que nos permite acceder a historias pensadas desde los recursos que otorga el surrealismo y lo kafkiano, las matemáticas, el ocultismo y lo eminente y tradicionalmente chileno (pensemos en el campo como escenario a flor de piel del cuento Maldito gato). Una apuesta por sintetizar y a la vez expandir lo anterior en expresiones literarias renovadas y frescas acordes a los tiempos de creación y experimentación que marcó tal época del XX.

Mis cuentos preferidos: Maldito gato, El unicornio, Chuchezuma y El hotel McQuice.

Libro leído en el club ;)

[Valentina Salvatierra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Como indica el título, Diez se compone de diez cuentos, aunque agrupados de una forma que dibuja más una pirámide (esotérica quizás, una de esas pirámides illuminati) que una línea recta del 1 al 10: 4 animales, 3 mujeres, 2 sitios, 1 vicio. Publicado, al parecer sin pena ni gloria, en 1937, este librillo de cuentos se lee como una sinfonía terrorífica, desconcertante e hipnotizante, a la que definitivamente tengo que volver en el futuro, de esa literatura que pretende ser atemporal y a mi parecer lo logra.

Trigger warning: Juan Emar tiene un humor negro, frecuentemente cruel. Las ideas terroríficas y surreales son tan intensas que uno llega a sentir que se ha adentrado en el diario de vida de un violador. “Pues todas las muchachas hermosas deberían estar desnudas, de espaldas, atadas con gruesas cadenas, y con los muslos abiertos, totalmente abiertos. Entonces se las podría azotar sin piedad” (169), escribe el narrador de ‘El vicio del alcohol’.

Varios cuentos exploran el deleite decadente de un hombre desocupado y amoral, dedicado a la observación aguda de lo que lo rodea y a poco más, con un narrador que parece la versión chilena de Jean des Esseintes en À rebours. En 'Maldito Gato' son los olores del campo chileno, en 'El Hotel Mac Quice' una paleta surreal de colores, y en casi todos se ve una obsesión de los narradores (o del mismo narrador, que a veces se identifica como Juan Emar y podría ser el mismo siempre) con los números: fechas, distancias, horas. La contemplación estética alcanza su culminación en ‘Papusa’, donde vemos al narrador sentarse en su escritorio a contemplar un ópalo heredado desde los tiempos de “Belcebú”… y perderse en el imperio mítico que parece habitar en su interior, enamorándose de la mujer Papusa, en una narrativa que parece una pesadilla diseñada para ser psicoanalizada.

Es divertido, finalmente, buscar paralelos de temas que otros escritores más conocidos han abordado a su manera. 'Chuchezuma': el latinoamericano vagando por un París bohemio en compañía de una mujer atrevida y misteriosa, que prefigura a Rayuela. 'El Hotel Mac Quice' habla de una ciudad laberíntica y un infinito delirante, cosas que podría haber narrado Jorge Luis Borges perfectamente. Pero la fundación de todo parece ser bastante más tortuosa. Bajo los cuentos subyace el terror de un mundo ilógico e indiferente que hace que parezcan más de terror que fantasía, realismo mágico, o literatura filosófica como la de Borges.

[jeremy · Rating 3 out of 5]

i look into the night and have the following feeling: the vertigo of peril

after stepping down from the dais that fateful january day (some seven and a half horrifyingly long years ago), george w bush was overheard by at least three people to have commented on trump's inauguration: "that was some weird shit." after concluding juan emar's ten (diez), i was reminded of his canny quip.

originally published some eighty-seven years ago (in 1937, two years after his funtastic debut novel, ayer (yesterday)), the pseudonymous chilean author's only story collection is an uneven descent into avant-garde experimentalism. divided into four parts: "four animals," "three women," "two places," and "one vice," emar's short fiction is at times most impressive and, at others, nearly indecipherable. a few characters appear and reappear in several stories (as does the author himself), but there is otherwise no link between the tales, save for emar's idiosyncratic imagination. despite ten's inconsistency, a few of the stories are quite extraordinary: "damned cat" and "the trained dog" stand out, but, most especially "the green bird," the book's first entry and by far its most dastardly entertaining.

"this dread was in turn a deeper and more distant echo. dread born not, like the former, of a sudden instant, but slowly incubated by the stupefying life of the sex within you. dread at the mystery of that sensitivity, that movement, which cannot be fully described as 'i'; which, fearful and disturbed, we call 'it.' terror that—dozing, almost latent—remains by our side in life, making us vaguely ponder a strange duality, at times accepted, at others denied. dread made pact. permanent dread. dread of what our destiny, thus coupled, must be."

*translated from the spanish by megan mcdowell (enríquez, schweblin, zambra, meruane, fonseca, et al.)

**curiously, emar spent the last 25 years of his life composing a 4,000+ page work called umbral (as yet untranslated). more details in this interesting latin american literature today essay.

[Andy Weston · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a rather bizarre set of stories from a Chilean writer that was originally published in 1937, but is appearing for the first time in English translation thanks to New Directions and its translator, Megan McDowell.

When I read stuff like this I can’t help but wonder how it must have gone down at the time it was first published, as even today it feels boldly experimental, though the departure from realism must have seemed more radical then. Much of that is due to the authors who followed him who would quote him as an influence, Leonora Carrington, Alejandro Zambra, Pablo Neruda and my own particular favourite, César Aira, who writes an introduction to this; we sort of know what to expect from such a piece of work these days, though very little could prepare the reader for this..

An altercation with a cat leads to existential questions of balance in the universe, an explanation on the difference of nocturnal habits between werewolves and vampires, or a parrot that takes offence to an insult and attacks its owner’s uncle. Their bizarrity and occasional repulsion is matched by an appropriate dose of humour. I mention repulsion as the stories are not for the squeamish also, as there are explicit descriptions of sex and bondage which may be viewed these days with a sense of aversion now than the hysteria they would have caused at the time.

Emar spent only half of his time in Santiago, and the other half in Paris where many of the stories are set. There is a real sense of Paris in the 1930s also, which is remarkably well captured by the translator, McDowell, in what must have been a real challenge to translate.

[Leonardo · Rating 5 out of 5]

La enigmática obra del escritor chileno Juan Emar establece un puente entre el surrealismo, las vanguardias y la literatura fantástica y ha sido objeto de un merecido rescate desde la década de 1980 y varias reediciones en los últimos diez años. Dueño de una pluma precisa y una imaginación desbordada, los cuentos de Emar sólo acepta la rigurosa lógica ilógica de cada trama. Erudición metaliteraria, intensidad erótica, paisajes cuasi-metafísicos y una prosa precisa exigen (y capturan con éxito) la atención plena de los lectores. Aunque las tramas pueden parecer disparatadas, siempre hay un poderoso hilo conductor que mantiene la nave a flote sobre las aguas turbulentas y apasionantes de los relatos.

[Jonas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unlike anything I've ever read, or anyone has ever read. Rides perfectly the line between meaning and insanity. Completely unpredictable and utterly enjoyable. I wish there were 100

[Jason M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe I’m missing something, maybe it’s actually brilliant, but it was hard to get through. I’ve read a lot of books, but I’m not sure I could tell you what more than two or three of these stories were about.

[Alice Kopp14 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can’t tell if Emar wrote this on crack, the translation was bad or I’m just too stupid to understand the book but I had no clue what was happening the whole time. It was interesting tho

[Nacho Oliva · Rating 3 out of 5]

Con el señor Juan Emar?
A su servicio.

[Bhaskar Thakuria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Frequently bizarre but humorous and surreal at times, while at the same time indecipherable in more than a few instances to the extent that there are times when the stories fail to make sense, Juan Emar is a recent discovery and is the kind of author that the legendary New Directions imprint comes out with now and then. Full credit to this iconic publishing house that comes up with such rarities. The standout stories in this collection are from the first two sections titled 'Four Animals' and 'Three Women'. The latter half and to some extent some parts of the first half were like a blur to me, as I was not able to register any affinity to the characters and the rhythm of the storyline; probably they did not make any sense to me and I was not able to apprehend any awakening to the logic and nuance of the narrative. The author probably wanted his stories to be as bizarre as possible in both the characters and the setting, and in stories (in fact 'oddity' would be a more just title) like 'Lassette' he takes artistic distemper and off-kilter prose to new heights. It is probably worth mentioning in passing that in stories like 'The Green Bird', 'The Damned Cat', and 'Chuchezuma' the author is brilliant and exceptional- they are alone worth the price of admission to this strange and obscure author. Finally, I would like to say that I would like to come back to this volume in the future to glint at what literary obscurity signifies...

[Ian, etc. · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5. “Ten” is a fever dream and it is afraid. It is afraid with a fear of occupation, fear of an indwelling other, moving beneath you, willing and wanting and deciding you against your will. There is an other in you that wants bestially, violently — that wants your destiny and knows it better. A tethering, a webbing to the framework of the world, to the center of your self. Lispector’s nucleus, and what can be done to to root it out, to see and in the same breadth annihilate it.

What a cutthroat addition to the Chilean canon. Bizarre and often incomprehensible, but never wasteful. Associations that could only be borne from disassociations, all the world a fragile balance of objects and so “the tench fava smells of interplanetary distances” and the woman is “a squirrel, deep down she is a kite, in the way she unravels and extends her life.” Desperate universalizing, at times inspiring humor, at others and most often, dread. It is dangerous to grow so large, to so plainly disregard the limits of self and assume a thing unknown. You are freed. You are enlightened. You are a danger. You are afraid.

[CE · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surreal with a capital ‘S’. Not as in ‘oh, it’s a bit weird and there’s a talking animal’, but proper, heady, straight-up Surrealism™. It’s endless, baroque descriptions à la Raymond Roussel: descriptions of the colours of clothes and hotels and ideas; of the smells of fields; of strange plants and animals. It’s the parade of glamorous, enigmatic women who serve no function other than as sexual ciphers. It’s characters with names like ‘Desiderius Longotoma’ and ‘Woldemar Lonquimay’. It’s the fact that the book appears rigorously, mathematically structured and at the same time completely random. It’s sentences like ‘A moment later, all the anthills in the region exploded’—sentences which, in the democracy of Surrealism, have as much apparent weight as sentences like ‘He sat down’.

Despite the onslaught of madness, some of the stories are superb, and very funny—particularly the opening quadtych, as well as the Möbius-like ‘The Hotel Mac Quice’. There is something undeniably irrestible in the myth of Juan Emar.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a strange one, a collection of ten prose pieces that are alternately thrilling and maddening. Emar, it feels like, is really writing prose experiements more than stories, probably informed by dada or surrealism or just a wild hair, and stories meander and digress to a degree that can be hard to take if you need there to be forward movement. But if you don't, there's room for a lot of wit and wild, ornate writing along the way. He loves to write with great specificity about colors, incredible elaborate descriptions that don't seem needed, really. There will be mental games and self-cognition that seems like it reveals the essential shallowness of the speaker, but then, it is so self-regarding I'm not sure what it means. Even for a very slim volume, this took me a week to read; I don't think anyone should attempt to read more than one story at a sitting....

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

The strangest book I’ve read recently is Ten by Juan Emar and translated by Megan McDowell. She told me it was “weird” when I asked her about it and was she ever right. Emar has an absolutely unorthodox approach to narrative. The collection features returning characters, stories within stories. the magick of chance, enumeration as rhetorical device, supernatural occurrences presented in a matter-of-fact manner.

The prose is wonderfully evocative but the stories conclude in a manner that is ambiguous at best. These stories aren’t necessarily satisfying in the traditional sense, but when did we ever care about that? These narrative engines convulse with strange energy making Ten a thrilling read.

[Santiago · Rating 1 out of 5]

Realmente lo intenté, con las ganas suficientes de disfrutarlo y con las expectativas altas, dado lo que me habían transmitido de Juan Emar. Error garrafal.
Este es, por lejos, el libro más malo, aburrido, absurdo y desagradable que me he leído jamás.
Nada tiene sentido, y entiendo, realmente entiendo, que es el estilo del autor. Pero cuando toda la narración, en cada uno de los diez relatos se desenvuelve en una atmósfera ridícula, repleta de listados eternos de detalles completamente inútiles, se vuelve cansino, agotador.
Todo lo sentí estúpido, inverosímil.

Si existieran las 0 estrellas, las tendría más que merecidas.

[Bąütistä · Rating 3 out of 5]

Si hay alguien que merece para bien o para mal el epíteto de modernista en Chile ese es Juan Emar. Diez es tal vez el libro más experimental que se haya producido en el país durante el siglo XX. El más audaz, intrincado, indescifrable y hasta ilegible al que pueda enfrentarse un lector, algo equiparable a las obras producidas por las vanguardias en Europa. Lo cual precisamente me lleva a ponerle esa calificación de tres estrellas, pues como dijo Harold Bloom una vez de Borges, Juan Emar no escribe "cuentos". A veces ejercicios literarios, a veces desvaríos sin cabeza ni cola, sus historias retan al lector a siquiera atreverse a darles un sentido.

[theorionhunter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Difficult but rewarding. There are passages that shine through in so many of these stories, the moment where every labyrinth of thought I had been reading finally all land on a profound meaning. It meanders and distracts until a few lines reward it all.

These are captivating, even as they slow down for pages about color, smell, cats and fleas. What’s hiding underneath these surreal worlds are stories about death and addiction, about the march of time and how scary it can be to feel life moving through you, how fast time slips away as you get older, about how equally bizarre it feels to be in love as it feels to be destroyed by it.

[Temucano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Singular autor chileno de comienzos del siglo XX. Vanguardista como pocos, nos presenta en este libro cuatro animales, tres mujeres, dos sitios y un vicio, los que resultan una gozada, en especial "El pájaro verde", grotesca historia.

La verdad es que Emar juega con las palabras hasta llegar a razonamientos alucinantes, extraños, una mezcla entre Felisberto Hernández, Henry Miller y Boris Vian, pero tampoco se parece a ninguno, muy raro pero a la vez absorbente.

[Zach Werbalowsky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Classic surreal style with a sing songy cadence of doubt and repetition throughout, but in a erudite manner. The narrator convinces you of intelligence and sees odd things happen around him all the while playing the straight man. probably needs a half star more, but one story that was fine was like 1/3 of the book. Strong writing though

[Maur0cio · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Todo puede volver a ser más o menos como antes pero no exactamente como antes. Durante el trecho de haber sido y volver a ser algo ha tenido que ocurrir. Se vuelve a ser lo anterior, más la huella de lo ocurrido."

[K's Bognoter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Chilensk surrealisme for fuld udblæsning – uden filter eller bremse. Originalt, vildt, imponerende fantasifuldt, modigt, sjovt – men også for mærkeligt og for usammenhængende for min smag.
Læs hele min anmeldelse på K’s bognoter: https://bognoter.dk/2024/12/23/juan-e...

[Adam · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first story, The Green Bird, was the most straightforward narrative. It was good, a little Poe-like. Most of the others were a slog for me. Mostly surrealistic digressions, they seldom dazzled and mostly tired.

[Xolrax · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.3

[Carlos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Es genial, pero tanto simbolismo

[Melissa Reddish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weird and wonderful

[Kailee · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of a kind… loved!