THE DIARIES OF FRANZ KAFKA (1913-1924) AND A HUMBLE WAY TO APPROACH TO THE MISTERIES OF LIFE

As a boy, I was as innocent of and uninterested in sexual matters (and would have long remained so, if they had not been forcibly thrust on me) as I am today in, say, the theory of relativity.

Another good example of how to use scientific concepts in literature. And the text is also a lesson of modesty on two topics  which people usually tend to brag:  sex and the theory of relativity, as the following about anecdote shows:

In the 1920´s a journalist asked the British astronomer Sir Arthur Eddington if it was true that only three people in the world understood the general theory of relativity , After a moment of hesitation, Eddington is said to have replied:

- I was wondering who the third one might be!

SATIN ISLAND (TOM MCCARTHY), COHERENCE AND SCHRÖDINGER´S CAT

 It’s a well-known problem for the anthropologist, first noted by a man named Landsberger: the tribe under observation are aware they’re being observed, and alter their behaviour in view of this fact, often acting out versions of themselves which they think conform to the ethnographer’s own conceptions of them. The technical term for this phenomenon is the Hawthorne effect; but in college we always called it the Cat-in-a-Box Paradox. Our nickname owed its title to the famous hypothesis devised by Erwin Schrödinger, to illustrate the logical consequences of Einstein’s discoveries about the weird behaviour of atoms (we were, in fact, slightly confusing two separate scientific theorems — the Hawthorne effect doesn’t actually have much to do with Schrödinger’s hypothesis; but, not being quantum physicists, we didn’t know or care). Were you (Schrödinger proposed) to seal a cat inside a box in which a vial of gaseous poison — cyanide, say — would either break, thereby killing the cat, or remain intact, thereby leaving it unharmed, depending on which of two apertures an atom chose to jump through — well, the atom would only choose to have jumped through one hole or the other at the moment when the scientist opened up the box to see which it had already jumped through. In other words, the cat would be neither alive nor dead, or rather, both alive and dead, until the scientist, post hoc, peered in to ascertain its live- or deadness.

If you try very strongly to get away from the cliches, sometimes you omit important facts. Schrödinger´s Cat is a classic. People use and abuse of this concept and, frequently, in a wrong way. As the text says, two physicist conepts are mixed, but it also says that Einstein was the author of quantum theory when he tried to deny it with the famous sentence 'God doesn´t play dice'
We haven´t talked about the Cat in the Box until the post number 155; to compensate it, we offer a scene from Coherence (a good film, by the way) about the topic.

THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTGNESS OF BEING (MILAN KUNDERA) AND THE FACE AS AN INSTRUMENT BOARD

Today, of course, the body is no longer unfamiliar: we know that the beating in our chest is the heart and that the nose is the nozzle of a hose sticking out of the body to "The Unbearable Lightness Of Being" By Milan Kundera 21 take oxygen to the lungs. The face is nothing but an instrument panel registering all the body mechanisms: digestion, sight, hearing, respiration, thought. Ever since man has learned to give each part of the body a name, the body has given him less trouble. He has also learned that the soul is nothing more than the gray matter of the brain in action. The old duality of body and soul has become shrouded in scientific terminology, and we can laugh at it as merely an obsolete prejudice. But just make someone who has fallen in love listen to his stomach rumble, and the unity of body and soul, that lyrical illusion of the age of science, instantly fades away.

I am not no so sure as my friend Milanku about the fact that if you know the inside of your body better, you feel less feeling of unease. Indeed, it is exactly the opposite for a kind of hypochondriac.

What really worries me about the inside of the human body, is that it is totally dark (I think it was Agustin Fernández Mallo who made me notice that) except when you open it. I mean, like a refrigerator. When you see the beatiful Anatomy pictures whit plenty of light, it´s difficult to imagine all that mechanics that we have inside working in complete darkness

NANCY´S THESIS (RAMÓN J.SENDER), THE FIRST GAY-LUSSAC´S LAW AND THE FRACTIONS

- So… If he had promised marriage it would be different, beacuse the gipsy´s illusions spread like gases and who knows how high they get

- Don´t talk about Curro like that

- Why?

- Curro has no more than an eighth of gipsy

- Sorry lady. Curro has eigh eighths of gipsy and one of sonofabitch

Gases expand when they are heated, just like illusions; if in addition, the gas is ideal, its expansion occurs to the infinity. I don´t now if, in the case of illusions, there is also a distinction between ideal and real illusions. Following and forcing the analogy (why not?) when the pressure increases, the gas, instead of expanding, contracts. Do illusions also collapse under pressure?

Regarding the eighths of gipsy and of ‘son of a bitch’, I think the math doesn´t work

(1999-2003) DIARIES (IÑAKI URIARTE)AND HOW SHORTSIGHTED PEOPLE COULD GET BY BEFORE OPTICS DEVELOPED.

It is true that people used to read aloud at that time or, at least, by moving their tongues. And it is also true that the first person known for reading silently was Saint Ambrose. We know that thanks to Saint Augustine in his “ Confessions”. I heard about that many years ago in an article by Borges, and this image was etched in my memory. It seemed wonderful to me that someone had invented silent reading suddenly and so late , especially because it implies something unbelievable: apparently neither Plato nor Seneca, for instance, had never known how to read in low voice. Somehow I did not really believe it. Seneca was said to have read all the books in Rome with a water-filled balloon. Since glasses did not exist, he used that gadget as lens. I do not think that he could even do it by reading aloud.

The first glasses did not seem to appear until around the 13th century . Before that, people used to get by quite well with home-made solutions, like -Seneca´s or the so-called “reading stones” which managed to magnify the size of the letters. In my view, the invention of glasses is, together with that of the toilet, one of the things that make us real civilized human beings.

THE SENSE OF AN ENDING (JULIAN BARNES) AND THE TIDAL BORE

 I don’t want to give the impression that all I did at Bristol was work and see Veronica. But few other memories come back to me. One that does – one single, distinct event – was the night I witnessed the Severn Bore. The local paper used to print a timetable, indicating where best to catch it and when. But the first occasion I tried, the water didn’t seem to be obeying its instructions. Then, one evening at Minsterworth, a group of us waited on the river bank until after midnight and were eventually rewarded. For an hour or two we observed the river flowing gently down to the sea as all good rivers do. The moon’s intermittent lighting was assisted by the occasional explorations of a few powerful torches. Then there was a whisper, and a craning of necks, and all thoughts of damp and cold vanished as the river simply seemed to change its mind, and a wave, two or three feet high, was heading towards us, the water breaking across its whole width, from bank to bank. This heaving swell came level with us, surged past, and curved off into the distance; some of my mates gave chase, shouting and cursing and falling over as it outpaced them; I stayed on the bank by myself. I don’t think I can properly convey the effect that moment had on me. It wasn’t like a tornado or an earthquake (not that I’d witnessed either) – nature being violent and destructive, putting us in our place. It was more unsettling because it looked and felt quietly wrong, as if some small lever of the universe had been pressed, and here, just for these minutes, nature was reversed, and time with it. And to see this phenomenon after dark made it the more mysterious, the more other-worldly.

Sergiomumo

The tidal wave is a curious phenomenon  and very appreciated by surfers, beause it gives a huge a regular wave. I lived for a summer in Bristol but I have never watched one. One day I saw how the Gualdalquivir river did something strange in Coria and also, in another occasion the Tajo river confused me while I was eating in Rana Verde Restaurant, but this the nearest I have been to a tidal wave.

Surfers must be attentive to the wave timetable because if they lose it, the next one will pass twelve hours later.

It´s a pity that in Spain there is no river in which this phenomenon appears, because I would pay money for doing surf under the Triana Bridge in Seville.

THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY (MICHAEL CHABON) AND THE EINSTEIN TWIN PARADOX

His face seemed to have aged less than Sammy´s or than, God knew, her own, and his expression, as he puzzled out the unfamiliar sights and smells of the cozy kitchen of their Penobscott, had something  of the old bemused Joe that she remembered. Rosa had read about the Einsteinian traveler at the speed of light who returned after a trip that had taken a few years of his life to find everyone he knew and loved bent or moldering in the ground. It seemed to her as if Joe had returned like that, from somewhere distant and beautiful and unimaginably bleak

Sergiomumo

It is well explained. The twin paradox is a famous thought experiment (Gedankenexperiment) proposed by Albert Einstein and has been depicted in films like Interstellar. I have always cosidered the concept of 'Thought experiment' to be an oxymoron, but the question is as follows: a twin stays on Earth and the other travels at near light speed into space; the perception of time is different for both brothers. The one who has been on Earth is older than the traveler. It's actually an old problem, perception of time and synchronization of clocks.

THE UNTOUCHABLE (JOHN BANVILLE) AND LOWER INCIDENCE OF CANCER IN PEOPLE WITH PARKINSON'S OR ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE

Perhaps it is the first, shivery sign of the onset of Parkinson´s disease? The bleak comedy of this possibility is not lost on me: nature being conservative, two major ailments simultaneously attacking a single organism would seem  prodigal, to say the least. One would have thought cancer quite enough to be going on with

Reverse comorbidity is the name of the phenomenon that seems to reduces the risk of certain types of cancer in patients with neurodegenerative diseases.

So it is not about the Nature being conservative, as reflects the protagonist of The Untouchable but about this genetic association which has been studied recently and opens new avenues of research in the treatment of both diseases

EXTRACT FROM ALICE´S SCHOOL EXERCISES NOTEBOOK ( JOSÉ FLORENCIO MARTÍNEZ) AND THE INDETERMINATE FORMS.

We hadn´t posted a poem here since last summer, so today we have one by José Florencio Martínez from the book Πoetas, an interesting anthology of Poetry with Maths published by Amargord editorial. It´s about the indeterminate forms, which are studied at High School included in Analysis.

 

( Operations with infinities)

1)- Is it possible to add 17 infinities?

2)- What is the square root of 3 infinities and a half of chocolate boxes?

3)- If we subtract 5 infinities of Gods from 1 infinity of Gods, do we have -4 infinities left?

4)- How many infinities of fleas can run on a horse of light?

5)- Is an infinite butterfly the same as an endless number of butterflies?

6)- If the circumference is an infinite shape, how many infinities cover the two wheels of a bike chasing after Buster Keaton´s lost cow in a field without bounderies?

7)- If infinity costs zero euros, how much does an infinite of zeros cost?

8)- If we assume that the result of the previous problem is zero, was this zero included in the infinity of the infinitude in question?

9)- What is bigger, an infinity of sleeping elephants or an infinity of birds awake?

10)- If the genealogical tree of infinite numbers got autumned , how many autumns would be necessary to lose all its leaves?

11)- Can a giraffe with an infinite neck drink the reflection of the moon in the water of a two-dimensional pond?

12)- The numbers of poetry a) are they round? are they infinitesimal? b) are they cut on the bias of parallels that join in the infinity? c) do they resist the tension of the rose to infinity?

13)- What is the result of the addition of the pain of 10 poor if we divide this number for 5 rational realities and subtract it from their own dreams multiplied by 7 infinities?

14)- How many white mountains can the Queen of Hearts jump with a horse of an infinite whiteness in the innocence of the dawn?

15)- If you make a bread trail for ants with the leftovers of the snack, could its memory lead you to the “ non-place maze” without the White Rabbit unmasking the night over the poetry of infinite numbers? In affirmative case, isolate the unknown and explain the answer.

MY FAMILY AND OTHER ANIMALS (GERALD DURREL) AND THE HETEROGENEOUS LIBRARIES

Thedore would wellcome me in his study, a room that met with my full approval. It was, in my opinion, just what a room should be. The walls were lined with tall bookshelves filled with volumens of freshwater biology, botany, astronomy, medicine, folk-lore, and similar fascinating and sensible subjects. Intersperced with these were selections og ghost and crime stories. Thus Sherlock Holmes rubbd shoulders with Darwin, and Le Fanu with Fabre, in what I consideres to be a thorroughly well-balnaced libarry

Obviously it won't be in this blog where the mix of science and literature will be critized, but you can order you books, it is, together but not scrambled. I didn't know who was Le Fanu, but once I have invesutage I would like to read his books

THE GOLD BUG (EDGAR ALLAN POE) AND THE INVISIBLE INK

When I considered all these particulars, I doubted not for a moment that heat had been the agent in bringing to light, on the parchment, the skull which I saw designed on it. You are well aware that chemical preparations exist, and have existed time out of mind, by means of which it is possible to write on either paper or vellum, so that the characters shall become visible only when subjected to the action of fire. Zaffre, digested in aqua regia, and diluted with four times its weight of water, is sometimes employed; a green tint results. The regulus of cobalt, dissolved in spirit of nitre, gives a red. These colors disappear at longer or shorter intervals after the material written on cools, but again become apparent upon the re-application of heat.

Illustration by Sergiomumo

It´s very common that the invisible ink appears in mystery novels for many and different uses. Zaffre is cobalt oxide but I have some doubts about whether cobalt produces a red colour. It would be more usual, as the first part of the text says, a green colour or a blue one. Aqua regia is very well-known for all Chemistry students. It´s a mixture of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid in proportion 1:3. So, with such a composition, you can easily imagine that it can corrode and dissolve everything in its way.

YOU´RE ALL JUST JEALOUS OF MY JETPACK (TOM GAULD), INTERSTELLAR AND THE LUNAR CONSPIRACY

We have a combined post today. First, a cartoon from a very good book by Tom Gauld. Then, a scene from the film "Interstellar", also highly recommended. There are still people seduced by the idea that humans did not  really reach the moon. But indeed we did it. And we returned several times, all in the range from 1969 to 1972, as illustrated in Tom Gauld´s cartoon. I think this Interstellar´s scene is more a gesture to the film "1984" than a conversation about lunar conspiracy

CITY OF GOD (E.L. DOCTOROW) AND THE ETERNITY OF NUMBERS

I was moved to have philosophical thoughts. Why was the scale of numbers on the Nazi radio recognizable to me, a Jewish boy? Because numbers were immutable. Their order was fixe, universally true. Even Nazis had to comply with them. Well, if numbers were the same for everyone everywhere in the univerese, didn´t that mean they had to have been installed in our brains by God? And if so, why- except to each everyone the nature of truth. It was true, for example, that two plus two of anything was four. No matter what you applied them to, numbers, being fixes and eternally what they were and nothing else, epitomized truth

Illustration Marzala Surface Pattern Design

We don´t like to fall behind current events in this blog. E.L. Doctorow died last 21st July; may this entry serves as a humble tribute and a literary recommendation. In fact, I find the author´s point very convincing. That is the attraction exerted by the study of mathematics on many prone minds and, paradoxically, also the basis for the rejection, repulsion or even fear that it causes in other people 

FORTUNATA AND JACINTA( BENITO PÉREZ GALDÓS) AND THE TEACHING OF SCIENCES

At the beginning of this book, Barbarita, who will be Jacinta´s mother in law, takes part in the education of her Juanito very seriously and she helps him with his homework each day. Nowadays, she would have attended at the meeting with the tutor of Juanito at the beginning of the term and who knows if she would have belonged to the AMPA. She also helped him with Latin. I admit that I don´t understand the thing about the Retiro lion which appears in this text.It´s also remarkable that the first appararition of Fortunata in this novel is eating a raw egg, as Rocky Balboa in his breakfasts.

She also trained his memory, absolving it of useless hodgepodge, and she used to make him  understand elementary arithmetic with the aid of garbanzos or beans—she wasn't very comfortable with those abstractions any other way.To explain natural history, the teacher often resorted to the lion in the Retiro Park. It was only chemistry that left them motionless. They would gaze at each other blankly and she would end up by getting him to memorize the formulae, having observed that only pharmacists understand these things, and that anyway it all boils down to whether you add more or less water ...  

MOBY DICK (HERMAN MELVILLE) AND THE PREGNANCY OF THE WHALES

The sperm whale, as with all other species of the Leviathan, but unlike most other fish, breeds indifferently at all seasons; after a gestation which may propably be set down at nine months, producing but one at a time; though in some few known intances giving birth to an Esau and a Jacob:- a contingency provided for in suckling by two teats, curiously situated, one on each side of the anus; but the breasts themselves extend upwards from that. When by chance these precious parts in a nurisng whale are cut by the hunter´s lance, the mother´s pouring milk and blood rivallingly discolor the sea for rods. The milk is veru sweet and rich; it has been tasted by man; it might do well with strawberries

As a mammal I do not feel at all identified with the whales, I refuse to believe that we are the same kind of animal. It seems that in reality  the pregnancy of the whales lasts a bit longer than nin months. The author finds it strange the appearance of two breasts in the whale, but  his explanation is even stranger to me. With 'Moby Dick' you can learn a lot of things about whales, no doubt. I had to lokk up in Google who Esau and Jacob were

(Reading this entry  is not advisable for women in the final stages of pregnancy who are not comfortable with the changes in their bodies)

THE COMBAT FOR LIGHT (CARLOS MARZAL ) AND THE NATURE OF LIGHT.

At first, I was going to post only the five first lines of this poem, which sound very well, as if it were a prayer. Eventually, I decided to post the whole poem. It is a bit long, but I think it´s worth it. It belongs to the book “Heavy metals” from 2001. I like the line “the straight proportion of that miracle”, because it suggests that the propagation of the light is straight. The topic of light is very common in Literature and we´ll deal with it again in this blog.

For having seen the light so much, we have lost

the straight proportion of that miracle,

which gives the substance its volume,

faithful outline to the world we want

and limit to the cardinal points.

Purely out of habit, we have ended up

believing that we deserve , each day,

that the day rises in brightness

and  limpid to our eyes,

so our look can give it its own order,

different from others and turning it into

our unseen work of art.

There is a consubstantial ingratitude

to the fact of being alive, an intrinsic

power of forgetfulness, and they prevent us

from providing the tribute

that each moment deserves,

because of the absolute magic of being existing

instead of not having existed at all.

With each dubious sunrise,

with every tumultuous sunrise,

light devastates the night kingdom

and starts its combat. In the hazy

magma of darkness, with every dawn

triumphs the accuracy of everything that exists

over the vocation of uncertainty that

tempts reality with its nothingness.

In every early morning, a spell of beginning

is renewed, that formula which

imposed  movement to the first day.

We are witnesses, during the pure dawn,

of the throne where the light raises its kingdom in,

and  gives it intact to any subject.

We should contemplate the light more patiently,

Paying more exciting attention,

the submissive tribute with which a barbarian,

reverent in his adventure, discovers

the land which none has ever seen.

THE PURLOINED LETTER (EDGAR ALLAN POE) AND THE MATHEMATICIANS

In short, I never yet encountered the mere mathematician who could be trusted out of equal roots, or one who did not clandestinely hold it as a point of his faith that x squared + px was absolutely and unconditionally equal to q. Say to one of these gentlemen, by way of experiment, if you please, that you believe occasions may occur where x squared + px is not altogether equal to q, and, having made him understand what you mean, get out of his reach as speedily as convenient, for, beyond doubt, he will endeavor to knock you down.

That´s what Dtective Dupin says, and I apologize for the mathematicians. I woudn´t like  this post will create controversy between mathematicians and detectives, both professions that are represented in this blog  

SODOM AND GOMORRAH (MARCEL PROUST) AND TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENTS

At the end of this text we are told about the relativity theory, aren´t we? But the text also talks about the technology researches from that time, the relationship between technology and society,….

I don´t remember in which part of “Remembrance of Things Past “ Proust talks about his first telephone conversations and how surprised he was about them.

Talking about technological developments is not very popular in books, films or other works of art nowadays . So, we can find little reference to blogs, e-mails, mobile phones,… in current books or films and this is quite remarkable.

We realised this as soon as the vehicle, starting off, covered in one bound twenty paces of an excellent horse. Distances are  only the relation of space to time and vary with that relation. We express the difficulty that we have in getting to a place in a system of miles or kilometres which becomes false as soon as that difficulty decreases. Art is modified by it also, when a village which seemed to be in a different world from some other village becomes its neighbour in a landscape whose dimensions are altered. In any case the information that there may perhaps exist a universe in which two and two make five and the straight line is not the shortest way between two points would have astonished

A TENTH OF SECOND (ANTONIO VEGA) AND PHYSICS.

Rather than ConScienceLiterature, we open a new section which should be called “Music with Science”.

If someone had sung me “ Physics is a pleasure” in the summer of 1995´ I would have  given a hard punch on his mouth. At that time I was studying the subject Mechanics and Thermology for the September exams.

One moment in a diary,

one tenth of a second more.

It flies,  jumping from page to page,

one billion instants to talk about.

A gust of cold wind

makes a mill twist.

It keeps on rolling around its axis

describing one more trajectory.

Nothing better than imagining,

physics is a pleasure.

Nothing better than formulating,

listening and hearing at the same time.

Measure the angle between you and me,

It´s the solution to something very common here.

Now do not stop talking,

we are coordinates of a pair.

Unknown that we still have to isolate.

Look for a book that says “how”,

then another with the tittle “ if”,

a third one named “nothing”,

it is the shape of an endless circle.

Nothing better than stirring

time with coffee.

Nothing better than composing

with no guitar or paper.

Parallels are following me.

Space and time are playing chess.

Now do not stop talking.

We all know that a song is not like a poem, but I like the lines “parallels are following me” and “space and time are playing chess”. There is another cover of this song posted below sung by Miguel Ríos and Antonio Vega. And in this one, Antonio Vega looks very young and healthy, he looks like an apprentice bullfighter.

I like to see pictures of people when they were young and at their best moment before getting ruined. For instance, the rocker Silvio or even Belén Esteban.

There are many other covers of this song, among them, one sung by Bumbury that reminds me of my brother, because my brother sings like Bumbury very well. My brother would also sing like Guns and Roses and Camilo Sesto, and there were some proving that but they have disappeared mysteriously. Once, my brother let me play the harmonica while he was singing and we played an unforgettable blues

BOUVARD AND PÈCUCHET ( GUSTAVE FLAUBERT) AND MULTIPLE PROPORTIONS LAW

In order to understand chemistry they procured Regnault's course of lectures, and were, in the first place, informed that "simple bodies are perhaps compound." They are divided into metalloids and metals--a difference in which, the author observes, there is "nothing absolute." So with acids and bases, "a body being able to behave in the manner of acids or of bases, according to circumstances."

The notation appeared to them irregular. The multiple proportions perplexed Pécuchet.

"Since one molecule of _a_, I suppose, is combined with several particles of _b_, it seems to me that this molecule ought to be divided into as many particles; but, if it is divided, it ceases to be unity, the primordial molecule. In short, I do not understand." 

"No more do I," said Bouvard.

The best thing is the ending.  They seem secondary students when they blurt out “I don’t get it” in class, implying that science, or even the teacher, are to blame for the mistake.  Bouvard and Pècuchet go through the whole novel like this, science after science.

GABRIEL CELAYA AND ELEMENTARY PARTICLES

Last 18th of March was the centenary of Gabriel Celaya´s birth and since this blog is very involved with the present, here we have some lines by him.

And why so neutral, so sure of himself,

Mr Neutron?

One is going round and round with his electric charges

and he, stable, does not even notice

that one, although tiny, as if were a joke,

could make an ungodly scene,

disintegration.

A jump is enough, quantum or tantum

and it’s over, big fish!

When I hear someone mention Celaya, I always remember Atlético Celaya, a Mexican team where Rafa Paz retired, a bloody great footballer who played the World Cup in Italy in 1990.

SNOW WHITE AND PROPERTIES OF WAVES

Either we open a new section of “cinema with science” or you´ll agree with me that Snow White is a tale and therefore, literature.

Without taking into account that the echo just appears when it´s necessary for the chorus of the song and that the prince jumps over the wall from his horse so easily, let´s consider how many physics laws are broken in this video.

From my humble amateur opinion, it would be very difficult for a human sound wave to reach  enough intensity to disturb the water surface. Besides, it would be a spherical wave which would crash several times into the walls of the well and that´s why it wouldn´t be able to make an isolated impact, as if it were a stone. In addition, the well doesn´t seem to be deep enough and finally, the synchronization between the sound and the impact into the water is kind of weird

THE MORPHINE THIEF (MARIO CUENCA SANDOVAL) AND BIOCHEMISTRY

I read this book attracted by a hyperbolical review by Andrés Ibáñez in the cultural magazine of ABC, newspaper published on Saturdays which goes together with the supplement “Today´s Woman´s Heart”. It´s really good, but from my point of view, it´s not a masterpiece. I´ll keep it in mind: you can´t trust Andrés Ibáñez 100%.

The plot takes place in Korea. There is a new trend among many young Spanish writers to do this, I mean, their books do not take place in Spain.  I neither agree nor disagree, but the writer takes certain risks. You can laugh where he does not intend us to do so. As happened to me in the film “Volver a empezar” by José Luis Garci when Antonio Ferrandis (well-known by his role of “Chanquete”) checked in a hotel as a North American citizen. To be honest, this does not happen in this book. Even though “The morphine thief” is a Spanish book about the Korean War, it does not cause laughter, and I think this is one of the best things of this book.

Because all mystery in man is the result of Chemistry. Don’t you agree? Love. Maternal instinct. Or survival instinct. Everything which seems to be bigger than us, everything we are attracted to and make us feel as Gods, is nothing but the product of our pure and simple carnality.

PEDRO SALINAS AND THE BIG BANG THEORY

In the blog http://claratic.wordpress.com/  Chilindron points out that there´s a poem by Pedro Salinas (nobody better than him to link it with the last post) which, although it´s clearly about love, reminds him of the big bang theory. He also talks about the heterosexual side of the generation of Spanish poets of ´27, who, despite their appearance of dull office workers, they were quite flirtatious. And he´s right because the other part, the homosexual one, really seemed more interesting and experienced people.

What a big eve, the world!

Nothing had been made.

Nor matter, nor numbers,

nor stars, nor centuries,… nothing.

The coal wasn´t black,

and nor was the rose tender.

Nothing was still nothing.

 What innocence to believe that

it was the past of others

and in some other time, now

irrevocable, always!

No, the past was ours:

It did not even have a name.

We could call it

to our likeness: star,

hummingbird, theorem,

instead of this, “past”;

take away its poison.

Toward us

a big wind blew mines,

continents, motors.

Mines of what? Empty ones.

They were waiting for

our first wish

to be at once

of copper, of poppies .

Cities, ports

would float over the world

with no place yet:

they were waiting for you

 to tell them: “Here”

to launch the vessels,    

the machines, the parties.

Impatient machines 

without a destiny yet;

because they would make light

if you told them to do so,

or the autumn nights

if you did want them to.

Verbs, indecisive,

looked at your eyes

as  loyal dogs,

trembling. Your command

was to indicate them

their paths, their actions.

To climb? Its ignorant energy

was shaking.

Would  “to climb” mean

going up? And where would “going down”

lead to?

With messages to Antipodeans,

to bright stars, your command

was to give them a sudden awareness

of their own self,

of flying or crawling.

The big empty world,

useless, was in front

 of you: you would give it

its momentum.

And beside you, vacant,

unborn, anxious,

with my eyes closed,

with my body prepared

for the pain and the kiss,

with my blood in its place,

was me, waiting for

-oh, what if you didn´t look at me!-

you to love me

and tell me: “Now”