THE AVATAR IN PANAMA - Theses - Flinders University

2.3 Dobles and Duplos: Latin American Perspectives The Avatar in Panamaél terminaría comprobándolo” (75). It then becomes clear why Vicenteis reading the book, why Verónica has written it, and what theexpectations are:Día y día pienso y pienso. Construyo mi vidasobre planes que voy haciendo, y mis planessobre la paciente monotonía de mi vida. Parano olvidar nada, para que nada deje derealizarse, escribo todo a máquina, en estashojas que algún día prensaré en un solo fajopara que sean como un librito único. Y cadahombre que acuda a mí tendrá que hacersuyas, mediante la lectura, las cosas que hedescrito… El que se anime a llegar hasta laúltima línea se habrá encontrado con el destinoque primero fue sólo una vaga idea en mi mente(75-76).Just as Vicente almost devours the book: “[é]l, descubriendominuto a minuto escenas que jamás hubiera imaginado, no aparta losojos del libro que se le entregara horas antes” (69), so is the timeconsumed in “El lector”, so much so that he has forgotten to ask aboutremuneration for his services: “No sé por qué cuando se conoce lo queha de suceder, los minutos adquieren una pastosidad irritante,agobiadora. […] todo lo que ocurre en este mundo es un capricho delTiempo” (72).In the final scene, the alternating use of the present perfecttense conveys the connection between what he has just experiencedand what is now happening as he continues reading and comes acrossthe very same scene that has just occurred: “se ha sentado, […] laescena que ha presenciado, […] lo que ha vivido, […] el cuchillo que hapenetrado”. The following paragraph reads “se oye un grito”, andindeed a cry is not only heard but also felt as the utterance is deliveredby Vicente himself and presumably results in his fatal wounding afterbeing stabbed (77). He has articulated the description of his ownmurder like Cortázar’s protagonist in “Continuidad de los parques”. Thecrossing of planes that merges the two levels of story are similar toMarini’s parallel lives, which intersect at the end of “La isla a mediodía”and result in his death.Simultaneous and alternating realities are the themes ofCortázar’s “La noche boca arriba”, in which an apparent dreambecomes real and its dreamer becomes the centre of a tribal sacrifice.However, there are two realities, two stories unfolding simultaneously.The first reality of an accident victim in a hospital is replaced by thesecond reality of the protagonist as the offering in an Aztec sacrifice.123