The latest addition to my website is César Aira‘s Festival (Festival) and El juego de los mundos (Game of the Worlds), both published in one book called Festival
Festival is about a film festival celebrating a Belgian film director who is hailed as an original artist though he seems only to have made B-list science fiction films. He brings his ninety-old mother to the festival and she insists on accompanying him to every event – his retrospective and judging the new films. She is infirm, very slow and very cantankerous, complaining about everything and everyone all the time. Moreover has anyone, Mother included, seen any of his films, apart from the festival director? Young people know him because he sold some of his rights to Playstation. It is very funny as we and they struggle to wonder why he brought his mother along.
El juego de los mundos (Game of the Worlds)is a science fiction novel, set well into the future. Children play a game where they attack and destroy civilisations. The difference from contemporary games is that these are real civilisations. The father of a group of children is critical, fearing that they are committing genocide but they outargue him and he relents. As long as they are happy… However he is concerned as the game may be encouraging them to get used to the idea of a God, who may be making a comeback.