THE AVATAR IN PANAMA - Theses - Flinders University

3.3 Reinventing the Double The Avatar in Panamaterminar el juego él pensara que las cosas eranen realidad de otra manera” (103).Her purpose is to escape her identification as part of a couplewhere appearances are not as they seem to the outside world. Therupture from this matrimonial partnership leads to the freedom ofsingledom or in this case the absence of any identity at all. 35 Thispattern of thought and behaviour is consistent with Cotard’s syndrome,a delusion of misidentification. 36 After the metamorphosis is complete,references are made to time: “El tiempo no ha pasado. Vuelve acomenzar. Sé feliz”, and indication perhaps that “Paseo al lago” hasended on a positive note for the depersonalized woman (103).“El ladrón” and “Evasiones de la muerte” (CB) are similar intheir transformations in that the mutation described is one of manyendless and continuous metamorphoses. “El ladrón” (CB) comprisesone sentence which recounts a career criminal fantastically losing hishand, the complicit body part, in the theft of a music box. 37 Its loss is thecatalyst for his dehumanisation. His metamorphosis is as a result of theprojection of the guilt he feels at his petty thievery. He retains his abilityto think and rationalise however this only makes him realise that thesum of his sins is exposed for everyone to witness: “atrayéndose laatención de multiples ojos y oídos que sin el menor asombro llenan lasaceras viéndole-oyéndolo corer frénetico […] mientras con suspresencias lo acusan” (15-16). The central character is described as achangeling who defies description. This transmutation is a fluid andongoing one like that of “Evasiones de la muerte” which will whimsicallycontinue to merge into any available object.“Evasiones de la muerte” is a series of fragmented experiencesduring which the passage of time and boredom come into play: “Aveces, por pasar el tiempo, trato de hurgar en ese pasado, […] eltiempo no es más que un fantasma que nos empujaimperceptiblemente hacia el retorno a cero en un lento conteo que no35 One of the potential catalysts for this dissociation is the ultimately unbearable andevermore oppressing presence of conflicting social and personal demands orstandards, a double bind situation over which the individual, yet again, wields nopower.36 Cotard’s syndrome: “there is a chronic delusional state of negation in which thepatient, usually a female in the involutional period, expresses massive nihilisticdelusions in which nothing exists, not even herself. Everything has disappeared – herfamily, friends, home, and the entire world of which she was previously aware is nownonexistent. Time also ceases. Even though the patient feels she does not exist at alland has no body or feelings, she can nonetheless think and talk.” Kaplan, Freedman,and Sadock 995.37 In different publications, the titles of these stories change from object to person: “Lacaja de resonancias” is also known as “El ladrón”, and “El lunar” is known as “Elvecino”.237