Blow-Up and Other Stories

Once in a while it happens that I vomit up a bunny... it's not reason for one to blush and isolate oneself and to walk around keeping one's mouth shut.

There was a time when I thought a great deal about the axolotls. I went to see them in the aquarium at the Jardin des Plantes and stayed for hours watching them, observing their immobility, their faint movements. Now I am an axolotl.

...la música que se pasea por la piel, se incorpora a la sangre y a la respiración, y después basta, nada de razones profundas.

...que no había más que fijarse un poco, sentirse un poco, callarse un poco, para descubrir los agujeros.

She smells fresh, like the shadow under trees.

-En el pan es de día -murmura Johnny, tapándose la cara-. Y yo me atrevo a tocarlo, a cortarlo en dos, a metérmelo en la boca. No pasa nada, ya se: eso es lo terrible. Te das cuenta de que es terrible que no pase nada? Cortas el pan, le clavas el cuchillo, y todo sigue como antes. Yo no comprendo, Bruno.

Esto del tiempo es complicado, me agarra por todos lados. Me empiezo a dar cuenta poco a poco de que el tiempo no es como una bolsa que se rellena. Quiero decir que aunque cambie el relleno, en la bolsa no cabe más que una cantidad y se acabó.

...eran como el traje que uno no tiene puesto; yo sé que el traje está en el ropero, pero a mi no vas a decirme que en este momento ese traje existe. El traje existe cuando me lo pongo.

The eyes of the axolotls spoke to me of the presence of a different life, of another way of seeing.

I'm going to think only about you, it's the only way I'm conscious of myself...

Habits, Andrea, are concrete forms of rhythm, are that portion of rhythm which helps to keep us alive.

Resim çekilmiş, süre dolmuş, zaman geçmişti; öyle uzaktık ki birbirimizden, o horlayıp hırpalayan eylem yapılmış bitmişti bile hiç kuşkusuz, göz yaşları çoktan akıtılmış...gerisi kestirmeceler ve üzüntüydü yalnızca. Durup dururken olayların akışı tersine dönmüştü, canlanmışlardı, hareket ediyorlardı, gelecekte neler yapacaklarına karar veriyorlardı, vermişlerdi bile. Bense bu yanda başka bir zamanın tutsağı, beşinci kattaki bi odada, onların kim olduklarını bilememek, o kadın, o adam, o çocuk, yalnızca fotoğraf makinamın merceği olarak kalmak, araya girebilme yeteneğinden yoksun, olduğu yerde duran, olduğu yere çakılı bir şey.

I envy Johnny and at the same time I get sore as hell watching him destroy himself, misusing his gifts, and the stupid accumulation of nonsense the pressure of his life requires. I think that if Johnny could straighten out his life, not even sacrificing heroin, if he could pilot that plane better, maybe he’d end up worse, maybe go crazy altogether, or die, but not without having played it to the depth, what he’s looking for in those sad a posteriori monlogues, in his retelling of great, fascinating experiences which, however, stop right there, in the middle of the road. And all this I back up with my own cowardice, and maybe basically I want Johnny to wind up all at once like a nova that explodes into a thousand pieces and turns astronomers into idiots for a whole week, and then one can go off to sleep and tomorrow is another day.

...seguro que atraparía por fin el gesto revelador, la expresión que todo lo resume, la vida que el movimiento acompasa pero que una imagen rígida destruye al seccionar el tiempo, si no elegimos la imperceptible fracción esencial.

One of the many ways of contesting level-zero, and one of the best, is to take photographs, an activity in which one should start becoming an adept very early in life, teach it to children since it requires discipline, aesthetic education, a good eye and steady fingers. I’m not talking about waylaying the lie like any old reporter, snapping the stupid silhouette of the VIP leaving number 10 Downing Street, but in all ways when one is walking about with a camera, one has almost a duty to be attentive, to not lose that abrupt and happy rebound of sun’s rays off an old stone, or the pigtails-flying run of a small girl going home with a loaf of bread or a bottle of milk.