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Chapter
VI
Cemi's Quest: a Novel within a Novel (Eýjýdisý: Ch. XII)
Before embarking on a detailed study of the meaning of the final meet-
ing between Oppiano Licario and Cemi, I propose to examine the cluster of
apparently minor characters which spring up in a most unexpected fashion
in the twelfth and thirteenth chapters, seemingly as stumbling blocks in
the way of our understanding of the last pages of Paradiso. In fact all
are relevant in their own special ways to Cemi's final journey. Of the
last three chapters of Paradiso CortAzar has remarked: "Hacia el final
...
Lezama intercala un extenso relato que llena todo el capitulo XII y no
tiene nada que ver con el cuerpo de la novela, aunque su atmdsfera y poten-
cias sean las mismas. Incluso los dos capitulos finales
...
tienen
algo
de apdndices, de surplus. "
I
The reader could be forgiven for assuming
this to be the case when Lezama suddenly confronts him with characters hi-
therto undreamt of at such a late stage in the novel. Not only brand new
characters, as in the twelfth chapter but also others of brief acquaintance
from the second, now just barely recognizable on the old bus of the thir-
teenth chapter. We may believe we have a right to feel confused. How-
ever, as is usual in Paradiso, there is logic behind Lezama's structuring
of his novel. As Cortýzar'hints, the contents of the twelfth chapter sha-
re a certain atmosphere with those preceding it; it is the atmosphere of
the quest and the desire to conquer Time. For Ortega, "el capiltulo XII
parece ser una alegoria de la po6tica que Cemf empieza a formular C ...
3
posibles ejercicios literarios del propio Cemi
....
Estas historias parecen