Fantomas Versus the Multinational Vampires

An Attainable Utopia

Julio Cortázar, David Kurnick, David Kurnick

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Paperback

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English

Semiotext (E)
01 August 2014

Comic book & cartoon art

Series: Semiotext(e) / Native Agents

The first translation of Julio Cortazar's genre-jumping meta-comic/novella, featuring Cortazar himself, Susan Sontag, and Octavio Paz in a race to prevent international bibliocide.

Octavio Paz- ""If you love art, do something, Fantomas!"" Fantomas- ""I will, you can depend on it.""

First published in Spanish in 1975 and previously untranslated, Fantomas versus the Multinational Vampires is Julio Cortazar's genre-jumping mash-up of his participation in the Second Russell Tribunal on human rights abuses in Latin America and his cameo appearance in issue number 201 of the Mexican comic book series Fantomas- The Elegant Menace. With his characteristic narrative inventiveness, Cortazar offers a quixotic meta-comic/novella that challenges not only the form of the novel but its political weight in contemporary cultural life.

Needing something to read on the train from Brussels (where he had attended the ineffectual tribunal meeting), our hero (Julio Cortazar) picks up the latest issue of the Fantomas comic. He grows increasingly absorbed by the comic book's tale of bibliocide (a sinister bibliophobic plot to obliterate every book from the archives of humanity), especially when he sees the character Fantomas embark upon a series of telephone conversations with literary figures, starting with ""The Great Argentine Writer"" himself, Julio Cortazar (and also including Octavio Paz and a tough-talking Susan Sontag). Soon, Cortazar begins to erase the thin line between real-life atrocities and fictional mayhem in an attempt to bring attention to the human rights violations taking place with impunity in the country from which he was exiled.

By: Julio Cortázar
Afterword by: David Kurnick
Translated by: David Kurnick
Imprint: Semiotext (E)
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 203mm, Width: 140mm, Spine: 6mm
Weight: 168g
ISBN: 9781584351344
ISBN 10: 1584351349
Series: Semiotext(e) / Native Agents
Pages: 88
Publication Date: 01 August 2014
Recommended Age: From 18
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

One of the most influential literary figures to emerge from Argentina in the twentieth century, Julio Cortazar is best remembered for his experimental 1963 counter-novel Hopscotch (Rayuela) and for his short story ""Blow-up,"" on which the 1966 film by Michelangelo Antonioni was based. Cortazar was officially exiled by the Argentine junta in the 1970s and spent the rest of his life in France, where he died in 1984.

Reviews for Fantomas Versus the Multinational Vampires: An Attainable Utopia

Simultaneously funny and damning -- Cortazar makes sure to include the Russell Tribunal's full report as an appendix -- the novella is a quick, engaging read, sure to please the author's many fans. Publishers Weekly