Tuesday 25 December 2018

sudden death [álvaro enrigue, tr. natasha wimmer]

Sudden Death: An Unfinished Rally

Sudden Death is a novel about tennis and its origins.
No it’s not. It’s a novel about Caravaggio and the invention of modern painting.
On the other hand, it’s a novel about the fall of the Aztec empire.
And the birth of the Spanish empire.
The moment that the pursuit of civilisation passed from the Western hemisphere to the European.
Foot fault surely, at what point was the Western hemisphere more advanced than the European? And what exactly is the Western Hemisphere anyway?
The Aztecs and the Inca and the Sioux and the Navajo and all the other civilisations that got destroyed by the barbarian hordes from across the seas. 
Barbarian hordes? What kind of a trick shot is that?
Read the book. Which also describes the primitive state of pre-Renaissance Europe. 
So what’s his beef, Enrigue? Whose side is he on?
No-one’s. He just wants to recalibrate the historical balance. 
He must have a team.
Maybe it’s Mexico. A country that continues to negotiate the clash between American and European civilisations.
Didn’t someone else make a film about this recently?
You mean the ironically titled Roma, by Alfonso Cuaron. A title Enrigue would be proud of.
Why?
Most of his novel is set in Rome.
I thought you said it took place in Mexico?
Mexico is the glory which Rome inherited.
What does that mean?
Follow the money. Or in those days, the gold. And behold the wonder of the Michoacan feather workers, who made a mitre for the Pope which changed the way Caravaggio saw colour which changed the way the world perceived the world. The European world. 
The Michoacan feather workers??
It’s a long story.
That’s a curve ball.
Or an ace.
What’s the score?
Deuce, advantage Patzcuaro
Patzcuaro?
The lost Utopia, the one true marriage between Renaissance Europe and pre-Colomban America.
I’m not sure I follow the rules of this particular game of tennis.
It’s Mornington Crescent, via Sudden Death.
Which is the name of the novel.
Indeed it is.

So who wins?

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