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Casa tomada [Cuento]
Cuento "Casa tomada" de Julio Cortázar, originalmente incluido en el libro Bestiario en 1951.
Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 1946
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About the author
Julio Cortázar
734 books7,261 followersJulio 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.
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September 4, 2023
House taken Over opens the short story anthology Black Water: The Book of Fantastic Literature curated by Alberto Menguel, a well known Argentinian writer, translator, and editor. Black Water is a collection of Fantastic short stories and occasional novellas, published in 1984 in English. The wonderful group, The Short Story Club will be reading and discussing this book , one story per week. Please join if you are interested.
It is not random that Menguel decided to start with House Taken Over. Julio Cortazar is one of the best known Argentinian writers. He is known for his short story collections and for Hopscoth, a philosophic novel that can be read in two different suggested orders. Pablo Neruda, another famous Argentinian, wrote about the Author: "Anyone who doesn't read Cortazar is doomed". So save yourself and read the author :)
House Taken Over begins with a realistic domestic scene between a brother and a sister. They are living together alone in a big house and the narrator goes through their daily ritual. At one moment, the fantastic (or the magical realism) aspect is introduced. They hear something in another part of the big house and they suddenly lock that part and decide to never go there again. They escape to smaller section, leaving some of the personal belongings behind. Gradually, the unknown "things" which make the strange noises take over the whole house and force the siblings to flee.
The short story should also be read taking in consideration the political climate of the period and the events in the author's life at the time. Cortazar has always spoken up against censorship and the year the story was written he was forced to resign as professor due to his opinions. As such, the story can be seen as an anti-Peronist stance.
It is not random that Menguel decided to start with House Taken Over. Julio Cortazar is one of the best known Argentinian writers. He is known for his short story collections and for Hopscoth, a philosophic novel that can be read in two different suggested orders. Pablo Neruda, another famous Argentinian, wrote about the Author: "Anyone who doesn't read Cortazar is doomed". So save yourself and read the author :)
House Taken Over begins with a realistic domestic scene between a brother and a sister. They are living together alone in a big house and the narrator goes through their daily ritual. At one moment, the fantastic (or the magical realism) aspect is introduced. They hear something in another part of the big house and they suddenly lock that part and decide to never go there again. They escape to smaller section, leaving some of the personal belongings behind. Gradually, the unknown "things" which make the strange noises take over the whole house and force the siblings to flee.
The short story should also be read taking in consideration the political climate of the period and the events in the author's life at the time. Cortazar has always spoken up against censorship and the year the story was written he was forced to resign as professor due to his opinions. As such, the story can be seen as an anti-Peronist stance.
September 28, 2025
Often in our life, we evade things, we avoid any sort of confrontation and avoid these (probable) incidents which we don’t feel to engage in; it may be our survival tactic, in fact, humankind has progressed over the years like that only. As we know, inertia of body keeps it in existing state due to its tendency to do so, perhaps underlining our way of survival. Even though our natural instinct to look for avenues to satisfy our little curiosities but as the logic prevails, we curb our instincts to behave in a way which is required rather that the desired.
Our innate fear that we may find something unexpected forces us to evade the chance encounters with possible mysteries waiting to be unearthed, by burying our innocent inquisitiveness deep down rationale of our reason. We carve our existence out of this great tussle between our inherent fear and natural instinct, and perhaps that’s how we have developed our cultures, religions and civilizations to address the trepidation of our existential angst.
link: source
We see in the story that narrator and his sister Irene live in a big old spacious house which keeps the loving memories of great-grandparents, parents, and their childhood. The great hollow and silent house is their only companion in the humdrum of life, perhaps it is also responsible to keep them from marrying as they graduate into their forties with just having the companionship of each other. Their life is going well riding upon the waves of mundanity as the narrator spends his time reading while Irene is fond of knitting as if it fulfils her existence, gives meaning to her life. One fine day, their life takes a strange turn, the silent and mute house starts reverberating with noises as if something or someone tries to break in the house, the sacred and enigmatic existence they have craved out for themselves might go to nothingness, they have to settle the deal by giving away the back part of the house.
The brother and sister start living the life as we usually do after settling our scores with life and move on, which underlines our natural ability to adapt that helped us braved the existential ordeal over so may years. We try to put in meaning to our newly carved existence so that we may come along by little-by-little stop thinking about the old one(s). But then the entire house gives in to the mysterious force(s) or being(s) and the fear of losing their existences rises again from the dungeon of nothingness and stare in their eyes. What could it be or who could they be? Will they ever come to know or not? And most importantly how do they deal with it as the house appears to be completely over?
link: source
We experience the existential angst protagonist feels over losing his abode. The way we cope up with our existential fears makes us human. The house acts as cocoon- a sort of mini universe- which shields the narrator and his sister from outside world as if their existence depends solely on it. However, the unidentified danger threatens to snatch away their existences to throw little world they have carved out for themselves to nothingness. The possibility of inevitable change in our lives we have to encounter, often shakes us to our core and we always find it hard to accept it.
The story ends with the possibilities of multiple interpretations which are of course left to the readers who may construe it as per their understandings and conveniences. The story is set in the Argentinean world around the Second World War wherein the narrator finds refuge in French literature but has to contend with old books because of war conditions. There may be allusions to the Argentinean political history around and after the Second World War wherein the narrator and Irene may represent the resistance of the rich class to change.
link: source
I guess the story comes as a nice example of psychological exploration of people facing existential crisis or it could be a story with elements of magic realism with the seemingly intruders may be apparitions or perhaps the protagonists too. Whatever way the story may be interpreted, it remains a nice introduction to the word of Julio Cortazar, even if it is not as powerful as some of his other stories are. I read the story while watching the last episode of Cabinet of Curiosities by Guilmero Del Toro, the episode is named as The Murmuring, and the enigmatic and solitary Hitchcockian house of the TV series proved to be the perfect companion to the story.
link: source
March 29, 2022
Lo bonito de los cuentos es que se pueden interpretar de diferentes maneras, por lo que en el fondo, cada interpretación es correcta si se tiene en cuenta el criterio y punto de vista del lector.
Leí este pequeño cuento por culpa de (gracias a) mi sobrina, ya que le asignaron en su colegio la tarea de crear un final alternativo para esta historia. Ella lo leyó, no logró comprender muy bien el contexto, y como sabe que soy su tío polilla, me pidió que le ayudara a entender la historia. Para ser honesto nunca había leído a Cortázar, aunque siempre he tenido el anhelo de buscar algún día el espacio idóneo para leer Rayuela, su obra más representativa, que presenta la característica de poder leerla de dos formas distintas: de la manera tradicional, es decir desde la primera página hasta la última; o, con el estilo de «capítulos brincados», que te permite leer el libro en desorden, o mejor dicho, en un orden diferente que sugiere el mismísimo autor. Pues bien, leí el cuento, fue relativamente rápido finalizarlo, y entonces empecé a debatir con mi sobrina sobre la interpretación de lo que realmente el cuento narraba.
Yo no es que sea profesor, ni tenga estudios relacionados a la enseñanza, pero creo que siempre he tenido ese don de expresarme bien y hacerme entender ante los demás. A veces hablo súper vulgar, uso un montón de metáforas, digo estupideces, pero extrañamente de una forma u otra las personas siempre me han entendido. Desde mi infancia me sucedió, e incluso aquí cuando realizo reseñas me sigue ocurriendo. Pues bien, sin ser profesor de literatura o algo relacionado, comencé a darle una clase impensada sobre cuentos, explicándole prácticamente párrafo tras párrafo, la lectura de su tarea. Así avanzamos, analizamos y llegamos a varias conclusiones, no las voy a escribir todas, pero estas son las más importantes. Les recomiendo primero leer el cuento, que tiene menos de cinco páginas, antes de leer los siguientes párrafos. No es que contengan spoilers, pero quizás puede que sí, por lo que sí están interesados en este cuento, es mejor que se detengan ahora porque no quiero arruinarles su experiencia, ni tampoco alterar su propia concepción de la historia. Estas son nuestras conclusiones, porque sí, fueron pensadas entre mi sobrina, llamada Nicoll, y yo:
Nuestra primera interpretación fue pensar que el libro trataba sobre el miedo. Solemos vivir en nuestra zona de confort, nos acostumbramos a ella, y cuando percibimos una amenaza, real o imaginaria, entonces tomamos uno de los dos caminos: Huir, o enfrentar el miedo. Claramente, en el caso de este cuento, el autor haría referencia a ese primer camino que es el más sencillo, el que nos identifica como seres vivos, y que durante miles de años hemos tomado cada vez que nos sentimos en peligro: Huir sin pensar en las consecuencias. El desarrollo final del cuento apoyaría fielmente esta idea, teniendo en cuenta el comportamiento de los protagonistas.
La segunda interpretación es que las personas que vivían allí, en esa casa, realmente ya estaban muertas. Eso explicaría porque se tomaban con tanta calma la invasión de los seres que aparecían en su casa. Además, los protagonistas casi no hacían ruido, vivían una vida monótona, y al final resultan saliendo de la casa con resignación porque desde el principio ellos eran los invasores de esa casa, solo que ahora de una u otra forma, los nuevos inquilinos resultan expulsándolos para siempre.
Nuestra tercera interpretación es que los protagonistas tenían problemas mentales y por ello sufrían alucinaciones. Nunca se especifica que los asustó, y el comportamiento de los protagonistas no es normal porque nunca intentaron buscar una solución para recuperar el control de su casa. Si hay situaciones ilógicas, eventos sin aclaraciones, y comportamientos anormales de los protagonistas solo podría tener la explicación de que, en la casa hay fantasmas, o los protagonistas realmente sufren de locura.
Sin embargo, después de analizar como siete hipótesis llegamos a una conclusión mucho más lógica. Fue la conclusión con la que mi sobrina resultó realizando su tarea. Esa explicación es que el cuento realmente nos habla sobre la guerra. Los protagonistas se esconden sin ver sus enemigos; hay mucho polvo en el ambiente representando las ruinas de las edificaciones destruidas; Irene, y el narrador, usan mucho tiempo para limpiar frecuentemente su hogar como si pasaran su tiempo recogiendo los cuerpos de los caídos en batalla; ellos intentan distraerse con hobbies pasajeros para «no pensar» en la realidad; se arrinconan en lo más profundo de su hogar sin oponer resistencia como si fueran permanentemente desplazados por la violencia; y al final con resignación huyen de su país porque su vida corre peligro, abandonándolo todo sin tener otra elección. Incluso el título de «Casa tomada» podría hacer referencia a «País invadido». La mejor explicación que se me ocurrió para estos eventos es que, Cortázar, quiso representar el día a día que se ven obligados a vivir quienes participan directa, o indirectamente en una guerra: El rol de los inocentes en la guerra.
De haberlo leído con afán, quizás no me hubiera puesto a pensar tanto en el tema; pero como sí dediqué tiempo a reflexionar profundamente sobre el contexto de la historia, puedo afirmar con claridad que me ha encantado este cuento, por esa capacidad tan impresionante del autor de usar metáforas para escribir sobre algo tan delicado, y que nadie, pero nadie nunca desea, como lo es, una estúpida guerra. Como pueden notar, es un cuento que puede interpretarse de formas distintas, por lo que vale la pena leerlo para obtener nuestras propias conclusiones. En serio que me ha encantado este cuento, tanto así, que de ahora en adelante cuando mi sobrina tenga tareas relacionadas a la literatura, me ofreceré voluntariamente para acompañarla en su proceso lector. Si alguna vez lees esto en el futuro, mi querida Nicochuana, entenderás porque estaba siempre tan pendiente de lo que te enseñaban en tu asignatura de castellano.
Muy buen cuento, muy recomendado.
Leí este pequeño cuento por culpa de (gracias a) mi sobrina, ya que le asignaron en su colegio la tarea de crear un final alternativo para esta historia. Ella lo leyó, no logró comprender muy bien el contexto, y como sabe que soy su tío polilla, me pidió que le ayudara a entender la historia. Para ser honesto nunca había leído a Cortázar, aunque siempre he tenido el anhelo de buscar algún día el espacio idóneo para leer Rayuela, su obra más representativa, que presenta la característica de poder leerla de dos formas distintas: de la manera tradicional, es decir desde la primera página hasta la última; o, con el estilo de «capítulos brincados», que te permite leer el libro en desorden, o mejor dicho, en un orden diferente que sugiere el mismísimo autor. Pues bien, leí el cuento, fue relativamente rápido finalizarlo, y entonces empecé a debatir con mi sobrina sobre la interpretación de lo que realmente el cuento narraba.
Yo no es que sea profesor, ni tenga estudios relacionados a la enseñanza, pero creo que siempre he tenido ese don de expresarme bien y hacerme entender ante los demás. A veces hablo súper vulgar, uso un montón de metáforas, digo estupideces, pero extrañamente de una forma u otra las personas siempre me han entendido. Desde mi infancia me sucedió, e incluso aquí cuando realizo reseñas me sigue ocurriendo. Pues bien, sin ser profesor de literatura o algo relacionado, comencé a darle una clase impensada sobre cuentos, explicándole prácticamente párrafo tras párrafo, la lectura de su tarea. Así avanzamos, analizamos y llegamos a varias conclusiones, no las voy a escribir todas, pero estas son las más importantes. Les recomiendo primero leer el cuento, que tiene menos de cinco páginas, antes de leer los siguientes párrafos. No es que contengan spoilers, pero quizás puede que sí, por lo que sí están interesados en este cuento, es mejor que se detengan ahora porque no quiero arruinarles su experiencia, ni tampoco alterar su propia concepción de la historia. Estas son nuestras conclusiones, porque sí, fueron pensadas entre mi sobrina, llamada Nicoll, y yo:
Nuestra primera interpretación fue pensar que el libro trataba sobre el miedo. Solemos vivir en nuestra zona de confort, nos acostumbramos a ella, y cuando percibimos una amenaza, real o imaginaria, entonces tomamos uno de los dos caminos: Huir, o enfrentar el miedo. Claramente, en el caso de este cuento, el autor haría referencia a ese primer camino que es el más sencillo, el que nos identifica como seres vivos, y que durante miles de años hemos tomado cada vez que nos sentimos en peligro: Huir sin pensar en las consecuencias. El desarrollo final del cuento apoyaría fielmente esta idea, teniendo en cuenta el comportamiento de los protagonistas.
La segunda interpretación es que las personas que vivían allí, en esa casa, realmente ya estaban muertas. Eso explicaría porque se tomaban con tanta calma la invasión de los seres que aparecían en su casa. Además, los protagonistas casi no hacían ruido, vivían una vida monótona, y al final resultan saliendo de la casa con resignación porque desde el principio ellos eran los invasores de esa casa, solo que ahora de una u otra forma, los nuevos inquilinos resultan expulsándolos para siempre.
Nuestra tercera interpretación es que los protagonistas tenían problemas mentales y por ello sufrían alucinaciones. Nunca se especifica que los asustó, y el comportamiento de los protagonistas no es normal porque nunca intentaron buscar una solución para recuperar el control de su casa. Si hay situaciones ilógicas, eventos sin aclaraciones, y comportamientos anormales de los protagonistas solo podría tener la explicación de que, en la casa hay fantasmas, o los protagonistas realmente sufren de locura.
Sin embargo, después de analizar como siete hipótesis llegamos a una conclusión mucho más lógica. Fue la conclusión con la que mi sobrina resultó realizando su tarea. Esa explicación es que el cuento realmente nos habla sobre la guerra. Los protagonistas se esconden sin ver sus enemigos; hay mucho polvo en el ambiente representando las ruinas de las edificaciones destruidas; Irene, y el narrador, usan mucho tiempo para limpiar frecuentemente su hogar como si pasaran su tiempo recogiendo los cuerpos de los caídos en batalla; ellos intentan distraerse con hobbies pasajeros para «no pensar» en la realidad; se arrinconan en lo más profundo de su hogar sin oponer resistencia como si fueran permanentemente desplazados por la violencia; y al final con resignación huyen de su país porque su vida corre peligro, abandonándolo todo sin tener otra elección. Incluso el título de «Casa tomada» podría hacer referencia a «País invadido». La mejor explicación que se me ocurrió para estos eventos es que, Cortázar, quiso representar el día a día que se ven obligados a vivir quienes participan directa, o indirectamente en una guerra: El rol de los inocentes en la guerra.
De haberlo leído con afán, quizás no me hubiera puesto a pensar tanto en el tema; pero como sí dediqué tiempo a reflexionar profundamente sobre el contexto de la historia, puedo afirmar con claridad que me ha encantado este cuento, por esa capacidad tan impresionante del autor de usar metáforas para escribir sobre algo tan delicado, y que nadie, pero nadie nunca desea, como lo es, una estúpida guerra. Como pueden notar, es un cuento que puede interpretarse de formas distintas, por lo que vale la pena leerlo para obtener nuestras propias conclusiones. En serio que me ha encantado este cuento, tanto así, que de ahora en adelante cuando mi sobrina tenga tareas relacionadas a la literatura, me ofreceré voluntariamente para acompañarla en su proceso lector. Si alguna vez lees esto en el futuro, mi querida Nicochuana, entenderás porque estaba siempre tan pendiente de lo que te enseñaban en tu asignatura de castellano.
Muy buen cuento, muy recomendado.
September 23, 2023
“It was eight at night… I went down the corridor… when I heard something in the library… muted and indistinct.”
I enjoyed the subtly escalating unsettling ambiguity of this: is it psychological, magical-realism, ghost/horror, the Sixth Sense, or some combination? Discussion in the Short Story Club about the Argentinian author and the time he was writing suggest a significant layer of political allegory as well.
Image: Black and white photo of wall: but is it a person’s shadow, or just chipped paint? By dodafoto. (Source)
“Little by little we stopped thinking. You can live without thinking.”
The denouement was unexpected without being shocking.
See also
• A brother and sister living in a large creepy house: Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher, which I reviewed HERE.
• The sequence of unease as unnamed entities, "they", feed the quiet fear of being watched and worse: Kay Dick’s They: A Sequence of Unease, which I reviewed HERE.
• The unspecified, slippery sense of things not being quite right, not easily explicable: Virginia Woolf’s A Haunted House, which I reviewed HERE.
• “One can reread a book, but once a pullover is finished you can’t do it over again.”
The frequent mentions of knitting made me think of Mme Defarge in A Tale of Two Cities, though that analogy didn't really fit.
Image: The shadow of a pile of rubbish looks like a woman reading. “The Unglory” by anni.laukka. (Source)
Short story club
I read this in Black Water: The Anthology of Fantastic Literature, by Alberto Manguel, from which I’m reading one story a week with The Short Story Club, starting 4 September 2023.
You can read this story here.
You can join the group here.
I enjoyed the subtly escalating unsettling ambiguity of this: is it psychological, magical-realism, ghost/horror, the Sixth Sense, or some combination? Discussion in the Short Story Club about the Argentinian author and the time he was writing suggest a significant layer of political allegory as well.
Image: Black and white photo of wall: but is it a person’s shadow, or just chipped paint? By dodafoto. (Source)
“Little by little we stopped thinking. You can live without thinking.”
The denouement was unexpected without being shocking.
See also
• A brother and sister living in a large creepy house: Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher, which I reviewed HERE.
• The sequence of unease as unnamed entities, "they", feed the quiet fear of being watched and worse: Kay Dick’s They: A Sequence of Unease, which I reviewed HERE.
• The unspecified, slippery sense of things not being quite right, not easily explicable: Virginia Woolf’s A Haunted House, which I reviewed HERE.
• “One can reread a book, but once a pullover is finished you can’t do it over again.”
The frequent mentions of knitting made me think of Mme Defarge in A Tale of Two Cities, though that analogy didn't really fit.
Image: The shadow of a pile of rubbish looks like a woman reading. “The Unglory” by anni.laukka. (Source)
Short story club
I read this in Black Water: The Anthology of Fantastic Literature, by Alberto Manguel, from which I’m reading one story a week with The Short Story Club, starting 4 September 2023.
You can read this story here.
You can join the group here.
January 9, 2023
Cortázar’s short story about something slowly eating up a brother and sisters space within their house recently appeared on my Goodreads recommendation list. As it was the story that got me hooked on the author many years ago, I just couldn’t resist rereading it. My short description makes it sound like a horror story but it is not that at all. It’s a piece of magical realism that has significance that can be seen on a political, a social or an individual level. Wonderfully constructed with the understated mystery threat placed against the siblings strange response to it. Very short and totally recommended!
It's about 7 pages long and readily available for free all over the internet. There is no reason not to check it out if you have never read Cortázar.
It's about 7 pages long and readily available for free all over the internet. There is no reason not to check it out if you have never read Cortázar.
August 5, 2016
Me lo leyó mi mamá en voz alta (como si fuera un cuento) y las dos lo interpretamos como que la casa es una metáfora, por la relación incestuosa de estos dos hermanos que en esa casa se sienten juzgados por los espiritus de los familiares y se van para dejar atrás todo y empezar en un nuevo lugar, obviamente puede que no sea así pero esto es lo genial de los libros, cada cual lo interpreta distinto y es una lástima que no haya muchas reseñas para ver si nuestra teoria es de malpensadas¿? pero no tengo críticas, la narración es perfecta y no aburre en ningún momento, excelente.
May 20, 2020
If the point of fiction is to stir the imagination, this story is great fiction. I confess that I sat on the edge of my seat waiting for the reveal. The descriptions are marvelous--I felt I was inside the house, I heard the noises--right down to the clicking of Irene’s knitting needles. Well done!
January 22, 2015
"Se puede vivir sin pensar"
September 13, 2023
A brother and sister are living together in an inherited house with a steady farm income. The privileged duo cling to the past, going through the same routine every day with the narrator enjoying French literature and the sister knitting. Noisy unknown intruders scare them, and they eventually feel so threatened that they eventually leave the house. It's a spooky situation since they kept hearing strange noises, and moved into smaller and smaller parts of the home before exiting.
The story can be interpreted in several ways, including a political allegory. Author Julio Cortazar, a Professor of French Literature, was removed from his job at the National University of Cuyo by the Peron administration in Argentina in 1946, the same year that the story was written. A parallel can be drawn to the situation of the narrator, a lover of French literature, fleeing from unknown forces in the house. So while the story could refer to any mysterious intruders who want to remove the middle or upper class occupants, it can be interpreted in political terms. The brother and sister are choosing to avoid the unknown intruders since confrontation would be too dangerous.
Other readers might see the story in a non-political way as a horror story, or psychological fiction about anything fearful. The brother and sister could even be ghosts of upper class people since their days seem so non-productive. It's interesting to see how many different ways you can look at this strange, but intriguing, story from Cortazar.
The Short Story Club is reading this and the other tales in Black Water: The Book of Fantastic Literature.
The story can be interpreted in several ways, including a political allegory. Author Julio Cortazar, a Professor of French Literature, was removed from his job at the National University of Cuyo by the Peron administration in Argentina in 1946, the same year that the story was written. A parallel can be drawn to the situation of the narrator, a lover of French literature, fleeing from unknown forces in the house. So while the story could refer to any mysterious intruders who want to remove the middle or upper class occupants, it can be interpreted in political terms. The brother and sister are choosing to avoid the unknown intruders since confrontation would be too dangerous.
Other readers might see the story in a non-political way as a horror story, or psychological fiction about anything fearful. The brother and sister could even be ghosts of upper class people since their days seem so non-productive. It's interesting to see how many different ways you can look at this strange, but intriguing, story from Cortazar.
The Short Story Club is reading this and the other tales in Black Water: The Book of Fantastic Literature.
December 31, 2023
Shielded wealth turns to chilling loss, as encroaching shadows steal a sibling's haven, leaving them exiled in their memories.
Two siblings, in their inherited house, sheltered by wealth and routine, a sibling's haven, find their comfortable life turns to chilling loss, shattered by unseen intruders, living space reduces, possibilities shrink, throwing away the key of the house as they are completely displaced. Leaving them exiled in their memories.
I first encountered "Casa Tomada" when I was in high school. My teacher asked us to read it without investigating the story's background or author. We were told that it was a work of magical realism, akin to Juan Rulfo's Pedro Páramo or Carlos Fuentes's Aura. However, I didn't think it fit into either of those categories.
My perspectives of the story “Casa Tomada” in original Spanish from my teenage view:
1.- The house was haunted, and the "ghosts" were gradually taking over sections of the house.
2.- Or, some sort of revolutionaries were taking over other people's homes, and the siblings were aware of this ineluctability and were concerned that it would eventually happen to their own house.
3.- Or the siblings had a notion that they were not the legitimate owners of the house and they as a family were aware of this. They also knew that one day the real owners would arrive to take possession of the house and they would have to leave.
I locked the front door up tight and tossed the key down the sewer. It wouldn't do to have some poor devil decide to go in and rob the house, at that hour and the difference with the house taken over.
I recently revisited the tale after perusing the discussions on the Short Story Club. With a touch more background on Cortázar's life and the tale, than I had in my teenage years, I had the following thoughts:
1.- The story "Casa Tomada" could be seen as a political allegory of Peronism, given Cortázar's own experience of the political regime. (Many of you have already expressed this view, giving great insights. Thank you!)
2.- "Casa Tomada" might be interpreted as an allegory for the fear of loss, with the house representing the security and comfort of the familiar, a symbol of the refuge and comfort that fades as we go through life maturing in years, change, or facing personal challenges.
The unfathomable force represents the fear of the unknown. This sense of loss of control and fear of the unknown are universal themes that can be related to and resonate with human experiences in different times and places, with anyone's existential concerns at some point in life.
3.- A Buddhist approach. As Lama Rinchen Gyaltsen would say, "If you don't create karma, karma will create you. Either you take control of your future by cultivating your present being, or the patterns of your past will trap you." The siblings lived comfortably, without the need to work or exert themselves to earn a living. They had the same habits and routines, and their lives were completely predictable. They always did the same thing, without making any effort to learn new things or break any boundaries or limits. They were not even able to put up any resistance when the "visitors" began to take over their home. This fact puzzled me. They didn't create any "karma" thus karma displaced them... As soon as I had finished reading the story “Casa Tomada” this last time, the Buddhist teachings seemed to resonate throughout it.
Below is an extract of the TV interview "A Fondo" Julio Cortázar RTVE.es 20/03/1977
https://www.rtve.es/play/videos/a-fon...
Julio Cortázar:
"No, no, it's absolutely true! (Referring to the fact that the readers of the story alluded to Peronism) -Cortazar proceeds- Yes, and it was a surprise for me to find out that this version existed; it was perhaps the first time that I discovered something very beautiful at heart: the possibility of multiple readings of a text. Thus, to discovered that there are readers who follow me as a writer, who are interested in what I do, and who are reading my stories or novels from a totally different perspective from mine at the time of writing them and that they have a second or third interpretation." ....
(My personal translation to English as the original interview takes place in Spanish)
In essence, Cortázar celebrates the power of a text to generate multiple meanings and to become a dynamic space for exploration and interpretation. He sees this as a source of beauty, engagement, and creative dialogue between the writer and the reader who becomes an active co-creator, able to discover hidden meanings and forge unique connections with the work. This liberates both the author and the reader in a dynamic and ever-evolving dialogue with the text.
Casa Tomada / House Taken Over
by Julio Cortázar
Read with the Short Story Club https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
Week starting 4th Sept. 2023. - Story 1
from Black Water 1 (The Anthology of Fantastic Literature)
Read in Spanish
Two siblings, in their inherited house, sheltered by wealth and routine, a sibling's haven, find their comfortable life turns to chilling loss, shattered by unseen intruders, living space reduces, possibilities shrink, throwing away the key of the house as they are completely displaced. Leaving them exiled in their memories.
I first encountered "Casa Tomada" when I was in high school. My teacher asked us to read it without investigating the story's background or author. We were told that it was a work of magical realism, akin to Juan Rulfo's Pedro Páramo or Carlos Fuentes's Aura. However, I didn't think it fit into either of those categories.
My perspectives of the story “Casa Tomada” in original Spanish from my teenage view:
1.- The house was haunted, and the "ghosts" were gradually taking over sections of the house.
2.- Or, some sort of revolutionaries were taking over other people's homes, and the siblings were aware of this ineluctability and were concerned that it would eventually happen to their own house.
3.- Or the siblings had a notion that they were not the legitimate owners of the house and they as a family were aware of this. They also knew that one day the real owners would arrive to take possession of the house and they would have to leave.
I locked the front door up tight and tossed the key down the sewer. It wouldn't do to have some poor devil decide to go in and rob the house, at that hour and the difference with the house taken over.
I recently revisited the tale after perusing the discussions on the Short Story Club. With a touch more background on Cortázar's life and the tale, than I had in my teenage years, I had the following thoughts:
1.- The story "Casa Tomada" could be seen as a political allegory of Peronism, given Cortázar's own experience of the political regime. (Many of you have already expressed this view, giving great insights. Thank you!)
2.- "Casa Tomada" might be interpreted as an allegory for the fear of loss, with the house representing the security and comfort of the familiar, a symbol of the refuge and comfort that fades as we go through life maturing in years, change, or facing personal challenges.
The unfathomable force represents the fear of the unknown. This sense of loss of control and fear of the unknown are universal themes that can be related to and resonate with human experiences in different times and places, with anyone's existential concerns at some point in life.
3.- A Buddhist approach. As Lama Rinchen Gyaltsen would say, "If you don't create karma, karma will create you. Either you take control of your future by cultivating your present being, or the patterns of your past will trap you." The siblings lived comfortably, without the need to work or exert themselves to earn a living. They had the same habits and routines, and their lives were completely predictable. They always did the same thing, without making any effort to learn new things or break any boundaries or limits. They were not even able to put up any resistance when the "visitors" began to take over their home. This fact puzzled me. They didn't create any "karma" thus karma displaced them... As soon as I had finished reading the story “Casa Tomada” this last time, the Buddhist teachings seemed to resonate throughout it.
Below is an extract of the TV interview "A Fondo" Julio Cortázar RTVE.es 20/03/1977
https://www.rtve.es/play/videos/a-fon...
Julio Cortázar:
"No, no, it's absolutely true! (Referring to the fact that the readers of the story alluded to Peronism) -Cortazar proceeds- Yes, and it was a surprise for me to find out that this version existed; it was perhaps the first time that I discovered something very beautiful at heart: the possibility of multiple readings of a text. Thus, to discovered that there are readers who follow me as a writer, who are interested in what I do, and who are reading my stories or novels from a totally different perspective from mine at the time of writing them and that they have a second or third interpretation." ....
(My personal translation to English as the original interview takes place in Spanish)
In essence, Cortázar celebrates the power of a text to generate multiple meanings and to become a dynamic space for exploration and interpretation. He sees this as a source of beauty, engagement, and creative dialogue between the writer and the reader who becomes an active co-creator, able to discover hidden meanings and forge unique connections with the work. This liberates both the author and the reader in a dynamic and ever-evolving dialogue with the text.
Casa Tomada / House Taken Over
by Julio Cortázar
Read with the Short Story Club https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
Week starting 4th Sept. 2023. - Story 1
from Black Water 1 (The Anthology of Fantastic Literature)
Read in Spanish
August 26, 2023
We were fine, and little by little we stopped thinking. You can live without thinking.
The Maestro delivers in seven pages. There's something uneasy at play, not really disturbing. A brother and sister live in a huge ancestral home. Gradually they are forced to abandon sections of it suddenly but calmly. There's something of menace sharing the house, but why isn't there more fear exhibited by the couple? They occupy themselves with their routines: dusting, meal preparation, knitting, stamp collecting. It is understood that they can't venture to the library or other areas--they accept this and continue with their domestic tedium.
I loved the plot's ambiguity and the detail of the pair's lives.
The Maestro delivers in seven pages. There's something uneasy at play, not really disturbing. A brother and sister live in a huge ancestral home. Gradually they are forced to abandon sections of it suddenly but calmly. There's something of menace sharing the house, but why isn't there more fear exhibited by the couple? They occupy themselves with their routines: dusting, meal preparation, knitting, stamp collecting. It is understood that they can't venture to the library or other areas--they accept this and continue with their domestic tedium.
I loved the plot's ambiguity and the detail of the pair's lives.
Read
December 21, 2024
HOUSE TAKEN OVER (CASA TOMADA)
Eerie Recall: “We liked the house because, apart from its being old and spacious (in a day when old houses go down for a profitable auction of their construction materials), it kept the memories of great-grandparents, our paternal grandfather, our parents and the whole of childhood.” This very short story’s opening line packs so much punch: memories of great-grandparents, a grandfather and parents add the heavy weight of generations; the mention of memories echo the author’s own memories of a childhood spent ill in bed where he recounts a vivid dream of an unseen presence entering his boyhood home and taking over - all told, memories of childhood and older generations as ominous foreshadowing of events that will eventually unfold.
Elvio’s Story: Right at the outset, Elvio (the name I’ve given to our unnamed first-person narrator) provides the backstory: he and his sister Irene are pushing forty and have declined getting married so they can settle in together with “the unvoiced concept that the quiet, simple marriage of sister and brother was the indispensable end to the line established in the house by our grandparents.” Whoa, Elvio, hold on there! Are you sure your grandparents would have approved of you and your sister living as husband and wife? With this statement and others, along with his obsessive-compulsive need to clean house according to clockwork, I think we might be dealing with a less than reliable narrator, not to mention a less than mentally stable one.
Unnerved Narrator: Oddly, Elvio only wants to talk about the house and Irene since he tells us, self-effacingly, that he himself is not very important. Also, he alludes to how he and Irene need not work to earn a living since they are made rich through ownership of a farm.
So what do Irene and Elvio do all day after they spend their mornings cleaning house? Answer: he and his sister engage in those two sedentary pastimes of the idle rich: Irene knits and Elvio reads, usually books of French literature. They do this so as to, as Elvio puts it, 'kill time' (the story takes place prior to television and other in-home entertainment technologies).
And after Elvio explains the layout of the house in detail and how he and Irene usually do not go beyond a certain oak door, he makes a most peculiar observation: there is too much dust in the air in Buenos Aires. Really? Sounds like Elvio is obsessive-compulsive about cleanliness to the point of paranoia, a nasty combination as anyone knows who has ever had the misfortune to be around such a person. Sorry, Elvio, but all this reclusiveness, obsessive-compulsion and paranoia is beginning to sound just a bit creepy.
Turning Point: Halfway through the story there is a dramatic event shifting the entire tone, an event occurring one evening when Elvio decides to fix some mate. Here is how Julio Cortázar describes it: “I went down the corridor as far as the oak door, which was ajar, then turned into the hall toward the kitchen, when I heard something in the library or the dining room. The sound came through muted and indistinct, a chair being knocked over onto the carpet or the muffled buzzing of a conversation. At the same time, or a second later, I heard it as the end of the passage which led from those two rooms toward the door. I hurled myself against the door before it was too late and shut it, leaning on it with the weight of my body; luckily, the key was on our side; moreover, I ran the great bolt into place, just to be safe.”
Aftermath: Elvio informs Irene he had to shut the door to the back part of the house since they have taken over. Irene's reaction is telling: as a sister (and wife) she has joined her brother in his paranoia and fear. Their next days are painful, their daily routines are completely disrupted and brother and sister modify their life to accommodate the unseen presence that now inhabits half of their home.
You will have to read the story yourself to see how events unfold now that they are both living in the grip of fear. Again, Julio has written about the inspiration for his story, one of his earliest, as a fictionalization of one of his childhood nightmares. Julio also spoke about how presences from other dimensions, things like visions, hallucinations, dreams and apparitions would pop up at unexpected times, for example, he was sitting in the balcony of a theater prior to a concert when he saw fantastic creatures, small green globes, floating before his eyes. He subsequently took this specific hallucination and created his cronopios.
Coda: I mentioned I have reread this story many times. There is a good reason. Similar to Julio, I have also had dreams of unseen presences. And similarly, in my own boyhood I had a number of creatures, both large and small, appear as hallucinations. As I’ve come to recognize, what is critical about such experiences is to deal with them creatively rather than giving into fear as brother and sister give into fear in House Taken Over.
March 30, 2015
me gustó bastante el concepto de como la gente se adapta hasta que en algún momento no aguanta más y se rinde
September 3, 2023
A short, simple, unusual story about a brother and sister living in their ancestral home. The house “kept the memories of great‐grandparents, our paternal grandfather, our parents and the whole of childhood.”
They don’t need to work, so after daily housecleaning, the brother reads and the sister knits. But then something happened, “so simply and without a fuss.”
An evocative story, but evocative of what? The author lets you decide. A work that sets your imagination churning.
They don’t need to work, so after daily housecleaning, the brother reads and the sister knits. But then something happened, “so simply and without a fuss.”
An evocative story, but evocative of what? The author lets you decide. A work that sets your imagination churning.
December 28, 2017
Un cuento muy breve pero que ofrece pinceladas de un movimiento que definiría a todo un continente como lo es el Realismo mágico.
¿Mi interpretación del mismo?: es como un test de Rorschach donde cada lector completa el puzzles en bases a sus conocimiento o experiencias.
En mi caso ha sido, como todo eso que conocemos y nos aferramos va desapareciendo hasta no quedar nada más, solo el huir.
¿Mi interpretación del mismo?: es como un test de Rorschach donde cada lector completa el puzzles en bases a sus conocimiento o experiencias.
En mi caso ha sido, como todo eso que conocemos y nos aferramos va desapareciendo hasta no quedar nada más, solo el huir.
September 10, 2023
I did enjoy this the first story in the anthology Black Water The Book Of Fantastic Literature.
However after constructing a lengthy review Goodreads suddenly snatched it and now it’s nowhere to be found.
If I write another one it will be on StoryGraph. I will continue to use goodreads for recommendations and I will still list the books I’ve read with a rating.
However after constructing a lengthy review Goodreads suddenly snatched it and now it’s nowhere to be found.
If I write another one it will be on StoryGraph. I will continue to use goodreads for recommendations and I will still list the books I’ve read with a rating.
June 8, 2021
Maravilloso. Que lindo haberlo podido escuchar leído por el autor.
September 4, 2023
A short story club read… the first in a new series. It did require me to read it twice in order to capture the essence of the story… so much symbolism.
This short story was described as horror and while it may be if you were living it, it is more of, perhaps like magical realism or maybe just metaphorical/symbolic. The brother and sister characters living in the ancestral home, while concerned, they do not seem afraid as the house is “taken over” slowly room by room, each time confining them to a smaller space. The descriptions of the pair’s activities are vivid although the activities themselves are somewhat ordinary or mundane. You get a real sense of acceptance of what is occurring even though they certainly don’t like it.
Much has been written about what the story really means and a political allegory seems to dominate. While I tend to agree, I love the opportunity to consider and expound one’s own theory of the meaning behind many classic stories like this one! Great fodder for discussion!
This was read as part of GR’s The Short Story Club .
This short story was described as horror and while it may be if you were living it, it is more of, perhaps like magical realism or maybe just metaphorical/symbolic. The brother and sister characters living in the ancestral home, while concerned, they do not seem afraid as the house is “taken over” slowly room by room, each time confining them to a smaller space. The descriptions of the pair’s activities are vivid although the activities themselves are somewhat ordinary or mundane. You get a real sense of acceptance of what is occurring even though they certainly don’t like it.
Much has been written about what the story really means and a political allegory seems to dominate. While I tend to agree, I love the opportunity to consider and expound one’s own theory of the meaning behind many classic stories like this one! Great fodder for discussion!
This was read as part of GR’s The Short Story Club .
September 2, 2023
There an atmosphere of creeping menace in this short story, an unexplained force that is taking over the family home. The story is quite short, and leaves much to the imagination.
The spaciousness in the narrative can be seen as a feature, but the allegory, or metaphor — if indeed there is supposed to be one — was a little too obscure for me. I guess sometimes I want to be clobbered over the head!
The spaciousness in the narrative can be seen as a feature, but the allegory, or metaphor — if indeed there is supposed to be one — was a little too obscure for me. I guess sometimes I want to be clobbered over the head!
September 19, 2020
Un relato muy muy breve que se lee en poco más de 5 minutos. Pero a su vez te deja pensando durante horas y días sobre lo sucedido en la breve historia.
¿Qué ha pasado en la casa? ¿Es real lo que nos cuenta el narrador? O ¿era fruto de su imaginación?
Al igual que reza el título del relato mi mente ahora está tomada.
¿Qué ha pasado en la casa? ¿Es real lo que nos cuenta el narrador? O ¿era fruto de su imaginación?
Al igual que reza el título del relato mi mente ahora está tomada.
September 28, 2018
Contrary to what people think, the story is not supposed to have a 'horror' aspect to it. Characters may be dull but they aren't boring and the don't have a lack of interest. This short story is a tale of oppression, war, death, and family. It's filled with aspects of gothic literature and magical realism. Both genres are stuffed with symbolism and picking up what the details in the story symbolize is what makes the story come to life. For example, the house isn't just a house, it's a symbol of comfort and safety. The 'entity' taking the house over isn't an entity, but a representation of war and angry citizens infiltrating their space and safety so therefore, they must flee. If one doesn't understand the story then one shouldn't comment about how it's boring because it's a good read filled with double meanings and details symbolizing something different. I wouldn't describe the story as boring or dull but as interesting and fulfilled. I guarantee that if you read this and realize how it's written, it will no longer be dull.
November 22, 2024
Ring my bell.
Arguably the best and most recognized short story by Julio Cortázar.
Quite a memorable one. Its fame is well deserved imo.
RTC.
-----------------------------------------------
PERSONAL NOTE :
[1946] [5p] [Horror] [Recommendable]
-----------------------------------------------
★★★★☆ Casa Tomada [3.5]
★★☆☆☆ Bestiario <--
-----------------------------------------------
Tocá el Timbre.
Posiblemente el mejor y más reconocido cuento corto de Julio Cortázar.
Uno bastante memorable. Su fama es bien merecida en mi opinión.
RTC.
-----------------------------------------------
NOTA PERSONAL :
[1946] [5p] [Horror] [Recomendable]
-----------------------------------------------
Arguably the best and most recognized short story by Julio Cortázar.
Quite a memorable one. Its fame is well deserved imo.
RTC.
-----------------------------------------------
PERSONAL NOTE :
[1946] [5p] [Horror] [Recommendable]
-----------------------------------------------
★★★★☆ Casa Tomada [3.5]
★★☆☆☆ Bestiario <--
-----------------------------------------------
Tocá el Timbre.
Posiblemente el mejor y más reconocido cuento corto de Julio Cortázar.
Uno bastante memorable. Su fama es bien merecida en mi opinión.
RTC.
-----------------------------------------------
NOTA PERSONAL :
[1946] [5p] [Horror] [Recomendable]
-----------------------------------------------
June 14, 2020
Escucharlo con la voz de Cortázar enriquece la experiencia.
Al principio tomé la historia de manera literal, donde la casa empieza a ser tomada por los espíritus de los familiares que vivieron antes.
Sin embargo, la segunda vez lo interpreté como una metáfora de la muerte y del tiempo, poco a poco todo va acabándose, los ciclos se van cerrando y las cosas van quedando atrás, además de que los hermanos algún día inevitablemente tenían que dejar la casa debido a la llegada de la muerte. ¿Porque qué fue lo que pasó? La llegada fue tan abrupta e intempestiva que no pudieron tomar nada. Así es la vida, no te llevas nada y todo se queda en este plano. El hecho de que Irene teja nos ayuda a ver el paso del tiempo, ese que no cesa hagas lo que hagas.
Muy metafórico el cuento. Me gustó.
Al principio tomé la historia de manera literal, donde la casa empieza a ser tomada por los espíritus de los familiares que vivieron antes.
Sin embargo, la segunda vez lo interpreté como una metáfora de la muerte y del tiempo, poco a poco todo va acabándose, los ciclos se van cerrando y las cosas van quedando atrás, además de que los hermanos algún día inevitablemente tenían que dejar la casa debido a la llegada de la muerte. ¿Porque qué fue lo que pasó? La llegada fue tan abrupta e intempestiva que no pudieron tomar nada. Así es la vida, no te llevas nada y todo se queda en este plano. El hecho de que Irene teja nos ayuda a ver el paso del tiempo, ese que no cesa hagas lo que hagas.
Muy metafórico el cuento. Me gustó.
November 30, 2016
"Se puede vivir sin pensar"
Tomé la casa como metáfora a la vejez —¿o cómo la vida?— cada vez usamos menos cosas que llega un momento —la muerte— en que ya no necesitamos de más nada y es aquí cuando los hermanos dejan la casa.
December 23, 2019
Un cuento cortito sobre una casa que parece estar embrujada.
September 20, 2017
Cifuentes says "This one is really mysterious, really well-written."
Interpretation from my professor: "The problem is that the story both invites interpretation and resists it, so that the reader who is looking for a confortable accommodation of the reading is bound to be frustrated. I would suggest a different tactic, something like: What’s at stake in the story? What is the story actually doing (other than resisting interpretation)? One could answer with a series of concepts: it is all a matter of abandonment, or displacement, or alienation... But that could be said of so many stories... The specificity of Cortazar’s story could be tackled from another angle (and even this could be just a somewhat more satisfactory reading, I think). One could start with the fact that the story is about a home or a house, or, better yet, both (“casa” means both house and home, depending of the context, feeling, etc.). The notion of house and, especially, home is mostly tied to the familiar, the home as the quintessential familiar space (which thinkers like Gaston Bachelard, in Poetics of Space, have tied to the aboriginal cave, the womb, etc.). The plot traces how something (anything, everything, something that does not seem to have or to need a name) takes that familiarity away little by little: de-familiarizes the space that is our most familiar possession, and does it in an irrevocable, un-fightable way. A psychoanalytic interpretation would then read the story as a version of the original, fundamental separation from the mother, which the child feels most deeply but does not understand and can’t name, and leaves a scar for ever in his/her soul...etc. There could be also political, social... etc., interpretations (after all, “tomada” is a primarily military term: one of the armies at war has “tomado” such or such position or enclave of the enemy, for example). I think I would just stop the analysis much earlier, with the notion of de-familiarization, which, by the way, also works for the story itself. Familiar (or confortable) stories give you all the data you need to make “normal” sense of the story; Cortazar often leaves the reader hanging by withdrawing what the conventional reader would consider fundamental information; that is, what the more experienced reader would understand as “the withdrawal of the information may be here more important that the information itself…”. After all, if we had an answer as to who and why is taking the house, the story would be entirely ruined… It is what bad scary movies with monsters or undead people do).
You are also right about how unforgettable the story is: from the day I read it, some 40 years ago, that tiny clink of the house key going down the sewer in the last paragraph gives me chills every time I remember the story."
On his recommendation, read 1) El perseguidor, then 2) Casa tomada, then 3) Alguien anda.
Interpretation from my professor: "The problem is that the story both invites interpretation and resists it, so that the reader who is looking for a confortable accommodation of the reading is bound to be frustrated. I would suggest a different tactic, something like: What’s at stake in the story? What is the story actually doing (other than resisting interpretation)? One could answer with a series of concepts: it is all a matter of abandonment, or displacement, or alienation... But that could be said of so many stories... The specificity of Cortazar’s story could be tackled from another angle (and even this could be just a somewhat more satisfactory reading, I think). One could start with the fact that the story is about a home or a house, or, better yet, both (“casa” means both house and home, depending of the context, feeling, etc.). The notion of house and, especially, home is mostly tied to the familiar, the home as the quintessential familiar space (which thinkers like Gaston Bachelard, in Poetics of Space, have tied to the aboriginal cave, the womb, etc.). The plot traces how something (anything, everything, something that does not seem to have or to need a name) takes that familiarity away little by little: de-familiarizes the space that is our most familiar possession, and does it in an irrevocable, un-fightable way. A psychoanalytic interpretation would then read the story as a version of the original, fundamental separation from the mother, which the child feels most deeply but does not understand and can’t name, and leaves a scar for ever in his/her soul...etc. There could be also political, social... etc., interpretations (after all, “tomada” is a primarily military term: one of the armies at war has “tomado” such or such position or enclave of the enemy, for example). I think I would just stop the analysis much earlier, with the notion of de-familiarization, which, by the way, also works for the story itself. Familiar (or confortable) stories give you all the data you need to make “normal” sense of the story; Cortazar often leaves the reader hanging by withdrawing what the conventional reader would consider fundamental information; that is, what the more experienced reader would understand as “the withdrawal of the information may be here more important that the information itself…”. After all, if we had an answer as to who and why is taking the house, the story would be entirely ruined… It is what bad scary movies with monsters or undead people do).
You are also right about how unforgettable the story is: from the day I read it, some 40 years ago, that tiny clink of the house key going down the sewer in the last paragraph gives me chills every time I remember the story."
On his recommendation, read 1) El perseguidor, then 2) Casa tomada, then 3) Alguien anda.
July 16, 2021
Desde la infinita creatividad de Julio Cortazar, llega esta narración que además de venir en un formato creativo que narra cómo dos hermanos son expulsados de su propia casa familiar a causa de un alfo misterioso que se está apoderando de su hogar, por lo que los hermanos comienzan a ser desplazándolos poco a poco a lo largo de las habitaciones de la casa, hasta la calle.
April 15, 2021
No me parece tan magnífico como todo el mundo dice. Me encanta cómo escribe Cortázar, pero el resto dejó bastante que desear.
August 20, 2024
estoy harta de que lo único que leo sean cosas del colegio AYUDA
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