THE AVATAR IN PANAMA - Theses - Flinders University

2.3 Dobles and Duplos: Latin American Perspectives The Avatar in Panamasiguió pensando en la isla, mirándola cuando seacordaba o había una ventanilla cerca, [...]Nada de eso tenía sentido, volar tres veces porsemana a mediodía sobre Xiros era tan irrealcomo soñar tres veces por semana que volabaa mediodía sobre Xiros [...] Todo estabafalseado en la visión inútil y recurrente (119).In the last line that is definitively uttered inside the plane,Marini's projected desire summons a variation in his reality as he gazesdown at the island from the sky: “Marini hubiera jurado que el puntonegro a la izquierda, al borde del mar, era un pescador que debía estarmirando el avión. ‘Kalimera’, pensó absurdamente”. Cortázar thenchanges to the conditional tense, which evokes an unreality andambiguity as to whether the temporal mood in the narration is indicativeor subjunctive. Marini relates that which he would do: “sonrió pensandoque treparía hasta la mancha verde, que entraría desnudo en el mar delas caletas del norte, que pescaría pulpos con los hombres,entendiéndose por señas y por risas”, and in what seems to be a faitaccompli, concludes, “Nada era difícil una vez decidido” (122-123).In “La isla a mediodía” Peter Beardsall argues the double isimagined in order for Marini to escape his individual identity. Thisoccurs so that Marini can perform the actions he is, otherwise, unable toachieve. There is no need to know whether Marini visits or imagines theisland double: both are true. The line of Marini’s life splits into parallellines and becomes a single line at death. 17 His double on the island isdescribed as “[c]errando los ojos se dijo que no miraría el avión, que nose dejaría contaminar por el peor de sí mismo, que una vez más iba apasear sobre la isla” (125). There is a previous connection apparent.After the plane crashes and his body is found “sangrando por unaenorme herida en la garganta”, there is another example of summoning:“era como una boca repugnante que llamaba a Marini, lo arrancaba asu pequeña felicidad de tan pocas horas en la isla, le gritaba entreborbotones algo que él ya no era capaz de oír” (126). Finally, thediscrepancy or fantasy aspect is that Marini himself was the solesurvivor but Klaios and family had been alone “como siempre” (127).Jaramillo Levi’s “El lector” is one of several stories thatincorporate a scenario imagined by a character into the realm of thereal. 18 Found in the “Simultaneidades” section of Duplicaciones, it is17 Julio Cortázar, Siete Cuentos, ed.Peter Beardsall (Manchester: Manchester UP,1994) 38.18Jaramillo Levi, “El lector” 69-77. Other stories featuring this theme in Jaramillo Levi’swork can be found in 3.3 Reinventing the Double 253. This exact conundrum exists inMário de Sá-Carneiro’s contribution to the double, A Confissão de Lúcio in which there121