Fantomas versus the Multinational Vampires

Resumen del libro

First published in Spanish in 1975 and previously untranslated, Fantomas versus the Multinational Vampires is Julio Cortázars genre-jumping mash-up of his participation in the Second Russell Tribunal on human rights abuses in Latin America and his cameo appearance in issue number 201 of the Mexican comic book series Fantomas: The Elegant Menace. With his characteristic narrative inventiveness, Cortázar offers a quixotic meta-comic/novella that challenges not only the form of the novel but its political weight in contemporary cultural life.

Needing something to read on the train from Brussels (where he had attended the ineffectual tribunal meeting), our hero (Julio Cortázar) picks up the latest issue of the Fantomas comic. He grows increasingly absorbed by the comic books tale of bibliocide (a sinister bibliophobic plot to obliterate every book from the archives of humanity), especially when he sees the character Fantomas embark upon a series of telephone conversations with literary figures, starting with 'The Great Argentine Writer' himself, Julio Cortázar (and also including Octavio Paz and a tough-talking Susan Sontag). Soon, Cortázar begins to erase the thin line between real-life atrocities and fictional mayhem in an attempt to bring attention to the human rights violations taking place with impunity in the country from which he was exiled.

Biografía del autor

x{0026}lt;P Nacido en Bruselas en 1914 durante una estancia temporal de sus padres en esa ciudad, x{0026}lt;B Julio Cortázarx{0026}lt;/B es uno de los escritores argentinos más importantes de todos los tiempos. Realizó estudios de Letras y de Magisterio y trabajó como docente en varias ciudades del interior de Argentina. En 1951 fijó su residencia definitiva en París, desde donde desarrolló una obra literaria única dentro de la lengua castellana. Algunos de suscuentos se encuentran entre los más perfectos del género. x{0026}lt;I Rayuela x{0026}lt;/I conmocionó el panorama cultural de su tiempo y marcó un hito insoslayable dentro de la narrativa contemporánea. Murió en París en 1984.x{0026}lt;/P