The Walking Discourse

Abstract

Artistic discourse is a wandering pilgrim that surges forward and retreats, trying out strange shortcuts and ending up in dead-end alleys bordering ghostly labyrinths... suddenly, amidst such a grueling voyage through the intertextual *mare magnum*, this Discourse—forever plagued by dissatisfaction—pauses to catch a breath of fresh air and partially acclimatize; it might play dead for a moment, but turning into an eternal mummy? Never! In this endless journey, a host of hefty texts—freshly translated and wildly diverse—appeared in Bogotá refrigerators, Cali stoves, and *paisa* roadside inns... works of the absurd, like Ionesco’s rhinoceros and his cohort of kindred spirits: Arrabal on a tricycle, Tardieu, and the red-headed Irishman Beckett, hoping to find Godot in Colombia. From American vessels descended Uncle Sam’s northern offspring: one named Albee, with his tale and his zoo; Jack Gelber, offering an appetizing apple that turned out to be pure poison; another with an English flavor, Don Wesker—Arnold, in Spanish—convinced the world operates like a vast kitchen... naturally, there was no shortage of Russian revolutionaries—like Vladimir Mayakovsky, a man who brought his own bath and was related to none other than the Bolshevik leader Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. His compatriot Chekhov, by contrast, surprised us with a calm demeanor filled with long pauses, bringing with him the seagull of peace.