THE AVATAR IN PANAMA - Theses - Flinders University

2.3 Dobles and Duplos: Latin American Perspectives The Avatar in Panamasimilar topics discussed in “El otro”. Each believes himself to bedreaming the other and the elder attempts to convince the other that“somos dos y somos el mismo” (377). Although nearing death, theeighty-four year old complains “sigo soñando con el doble. El fatigadotema que me dieron los espejos y Stevenson”. Both are aware they arefacing their doubles and they are doing so in the face of death, one is inthe process of dying and one is about to commit suicide: the youngerclaims “[s]entí que esa sonrisa reflejaba, de algún modo, la mía” (378);the other “[m]is palabras, que ahora son el presente, serán apenas lamemoria de un sueño” (379). The two Borges do not touch physicallyfor fear they will converge. Of the actual conversation they have, theelder assures the younger that he will have no memory: “Cuando lovuelvas a soñar, serás el que soy y tú serás mi sueño”: however, whenhe writes it down years ahead, he will think he is creating a tale of thefantastic, not recording a lived experience (380).Jaramillo Levi’s “Otra vez lo mismo” (ASE) recalls both Borges’sstories. Its title indicates cycles, repetition compulsion, andtimelessness. In this instance the two characters, a young and anelderly man, are seated on a park bench rather than in a square. LikeBorges’s “El otro”, the young man is described as barely twenty; andthe elderly man is a septuagenarian. 37 This story does not have thecharacters dreaming but the young man does belong to another world;he is a ghost who returns and, “gesticulando como un energúmeno, diorienda suelta a toda la amargura y frustración que lo había asfixiadodurante parte considerable de su vida” (25). An angry tirade follows andthen he begins to take leave before the old man has the opportunity torespond:mejor regreso, allá no hay situaciones quecambiar por intolerables, todo es amporfo ytranquilo, la abstracción pura y sinconsecuencias. Y paulatinamente se fuetransparentando ante los ojos incrédulos que nohabían dejado de mirarlo, hasta desaparecerpor completo.His self becomes decentred until he disappears: “como si pocoa poco entrara a otra dimensión” (27). The youth is portrayed asegotistical: “Sus meditaciones anteriores lo habían tenido tanensimismado minutos antes, que no habían percibido la presencia deeste anciano parlanchín que ahora lo miraba…” and as being unable totolerate others’ views (25). “Otra vez lo mismo” contrasts the aspirationsof a radical young man with the conformism of an elderly complacent37 Jaramillo Levi, “Otra vez lo mismo”, Ahora que soy él, (San José: Editorial CostaRica, 1985) 23-27. 23.130