J. Rodolfo Wilcock (1919–1978)

Erudición y un sentido del humor agudísimo y casi cruel. Eso es lo que hace falta para escribir un libro así. Como Schwob, Bioy, Borges y Bolaño, Wilcock nos regala un mundo paralelo; absurdo, sí, pero inmensamente más divertido que este.

Un centauro que pinta naturalezas muertas oníricas, un oráculo que recorre la ciudad en camioneta, una sociedad de escritores encerrados en un armario y una gallina editora son algunos de los seres que pueblan este volumen y que fortalecen (y debilitan) nuestra conciencia actual de la cultura... "El estereoscopio de los solitarios", de 1972, era presentado por su autor como "una novela con setenta personajes principales que no se encuentran jamás".

Buy it. Steal it. Read It. (“Roberto Bolano - The Last Interview”)

Saying “Nazi Literature In The Americas” is a series of fictional biographies of Latin American Literary figures & Football Hooligans is a bit like saying Don Quixote is a story about a man and a donkey. When I found out it was inspired by Juan Rodolfo Wilcock’s “The Temple Of Iconoclasts” ordering a copy was a no-brainer. (Shamefully, I’m too bourgeois to comply with the alternative injunction). Unlike show more Bolano’s NLITA “The Temple Of Iconoclasts” is a mix of real biographies with fictional ones. Whimsical, bizarre and satirical by turns the triumph is that the invention is almost impossible to spot.

They include

 Catalan Director Llorenz Riber ,who believed he was a rabbit, and his stage adaptation of Wittgenstein’s “Philosophical Investigations”
 Belgian Academic Henry Bucher who at fifty-nine was only forty-two (I said almost impossible!)
 Telepathic Hypnotist Jose Valdes y Prom’s sabotage of a 1878 Scientific & Theological Conference
 Roger Babson’s foundation dedicated to isolation of the Gravity Atom
 John Cleves Symmes’ advocacy of Hollow Earth theory
 Jesus Pica Planas’ invention of the accident proof rubber automobile

And so on through something like 35 entries

The kicker is that it too is inspired by a similar collection – Martin Gardner’s “Fads And Fallacies In The Name Of Science”. I’ve not investigated further but maybe “it’s turtles all the way down….” and there’s a limit even to my book buying! show less