THE AVATAR IN PANAMA - Theses - Flinders University

1.1 Double, Double, Toil and Trouble The Avatar in Panamaan alternative self. The profession of writing, however, holds noexclusivity in lending itself to a double existence:It is a curious fact that in civilisation a sort ofspecific insincerity or double-mindedness ispopularly ascribed to the artistic temperament,particularly in the case of actors. As the actor isa double, and plays a part on the stage, so is heregarded in his own character. 59If, as Freud says, there are all those unfulfilled but possiblefutures unintentionally exerting influence over the author, then theportrayal of the double and its potential alternative existence can besaid to epitomise the future not taken or the path not travelled by thecentral character whose perspective the reader shares. At a particularpoint in the character’s life, a decision is taken that forsakes all otheropportunities and it is the enactment of one of these opportunities thatthe double may be representing: an alternative future, a glimpse of whatmight have transpired had another option been pursued.The temporal sphere being portrayed in the fiction of the doublemay not just be that of the future. In The Literature of the Second Self,C.F. Keppler proposes the paradox of two selves simultaneouslydetached in space but remaining constant in their personality, so theyare objectively separate but subjectively continuous. That said, it is alsopossible they may be separate but exist simultaneously in distinct timedimensions. 60 The first self may appear as the present self, while thesecond exists as the past self. Alternatively, there might be two presentselves existing at once in the same time zone perhaps appearing ascontemporaries; the self that might have been given the chance tofollow another route, and as the self that now exists. This difference isoften shown in grammatical terms, by mood, aspect, and by the use ofthe subjunctive in the narrative itself (164-165). 61In another possibility connected with reincarnation, Kepplermentions the “rebirth of a self from the past in the self of the present”. In59 Crawley 858. There are many stories which portray actors as doubles, amongthose: José Saramago’s O Homen Duplicado, Vladimir Nabokov’s “Lik”, and O’Henry’s“The Duplicity of Hargraves”. The idea of doubleness may be set against abackground of classical music as is the case with Jorge A. López Ovejero’s story “Ladoble vida del doctor Beltrán”. Time and again, the presence or emergence of adouble is accompanied by a musical theme; in José Donoso’s “Gaspard de la nuit”, itis a classical piano suite, and in Julio Cortázar’s “Las armas secretas”, a Schumanncomposition. In essence the musical leitmotif is the protagonist of both works.60C.F. Keppler, The Literature of the Second Self (Tucson: U of Arizona P, 1972) 161.61 This is apparent in Cortazar’s “La isla a mediodía”. Elision of verbs facilitatesinconspicuous tense changes from conditional to preterite which blur the borders ofreality and fantasy.31