The Conversations (New Directions Paperbook) by César Aira Read Free Book Online Page A

fact have nothing in common with Russian. The language barrier was that much more impenetrable because she, like everyone else, spoke English, this being a North American production. Even so, they understood each other. Or, at least, she understood a few practical details, the main one being that they would be isolated in the mountains for a predictably long time because below them the mountain passes were covered in ice and snow, which made their descent impossible until the spring melt. There in the highlands, a tectonic combustion of the coal inside the mountains created an ideal temperate microclimate for the wintering of the goats. This explained, by the way, the goatherd’s isolation.
    He, in his superstitious ignorance, believed that the beautiful stranger was Señorita Wild Savage, a legendary character from the mountains of Ukraine. This traditional yarn was not ancient, though it had been around for many years, sixty or seventy at least; it dated from the beginning of the Bolshevik beauty contests, which became a popular craze and were encouraged by Moscow as a means for channeling national identity and encouraging Communist eugenics. According to the legend, the first of these contests to be held in Ukraine in the 1920s had two finalists — Miss Wild Savage and Miss Civilized — after representatives from the provinces and various ethnic groups in the country had been excluded. In the highly contested final vote, Miss Civilized won, and Miss Wild Savage, driven to despair, fled into the mountains, where she lived from that time on, alone and untamed. (The change from “Miss” to “Señorita” was a result of the movie being dubbed so it could be shown on television in Argentina.) Of course, nobody with a minimum of sophistication gave any credence to this fable, which could be explained as a nationalist metaphor: the eternal confrontation, which took place at the birth of every national entity, between Civilization and Barbarism. Th e triumph of Civilization was inevitable, even if the people were not at all optimistic; even when optimism was maximized, Barbarism remained latent, whether in a state of fiction or possibility.
    Then followed some scenes that portrayed the daily life of these two young people in the mountains, an accidental idyll, a necessary lull in the plot but also an excuse for a photographic display of the magnificent landscape under a variety of lighting conditions. Th ose vague sequences with aesthetic content, enhanced by the musical score, gave the audience time to reflect (wisely prompted by certain details in the shots) on the great distance the erotic bridge had to span. Th ese two could not possibly have come from more distant worlds — he, from wild nature; she, from the culture of global corporations and high technology. The inversion in reality of these attributes added an extra zing to this contrast, for he was being played by a Hollywood star and she by a novice Ukrainian actress.
    Aria was attracted to the goatherd’s self-reliance, his simplicity, his primitive vigor, qualities that shined in an even more favorable light when compared to those of the men she had known at work and in her social interactions — egotistical, ambitious, and superficial — not to mention that the goatherd was much better-looking. Deep down, she must have suspected that this nascent love had no future: she could not renounce her career as a secretary in exchange for goats and crags, and he could never adapt to urban life. No matter, she let herself be swept off her feet. Or, feelings were stronger than reason; or, Aria anticipated the sweet sadness of separation, which showed that the frivolity of her past life ran very deep. In the meantime, she learned to milk the goats, was enraptured by the night sky, and discovered the secrets of the mountains.
    For his part, he continued to believe that he had found the Señorita Wild Savage of the stories, and he was overjoyed. It was the fulfillment of