Navigation
- Home
- Philosophy
- Europe
- International
- Peace efforts
- Poets
- Culture
- Conferences
- Newsletter
- Links
- Imprint
Skin exchange by Carlos Fuentes
As this novel ends in Theresienstadt, Carlos Fuentes shows what is to be understood under 'the vision of loneliness'. By contrast, culture is a matter of degree how Mexican, Hippy and Indio culture intermingles. A key thesis is that treason and love go hand in hand.
On this great continent of America, literature has provided quite another kind of orientation. There is, for example, Marquez 'hundred years of loneliness' to show death is brought into the village once the soldiers have arrived.
When reading the novel 'skin exchange' by Carlos Fuentes, various elements emerging out of a mix of European and Mexican elements, it can be realized what Borges said about the culture of America as having originated in the Mediterranean area. It explains what became the dominant features during the times when colonies were created.
Fuentes describes in 'Skin Exchange' four people traveling in a VW through Mexico. They form two couples but half way through the long voyage, they exchange parters. Since already some things are known about the other, each person has to dig deeper to activate the binding power. Through that is revealed that the driver is German, comes from Prague where he left behind his first girlfriend who was Jewish and who dreamt to play the first violin in an orchestra. When he studied in Heidelberg, he went to a carneval party dressed in Hitler's uniform. Later it is revealed that he was the architect of Therasienstadt. More needs to be said about that later.
The novel begins with how Cortez came to conquer and how he seized power. He did so by killing the high priests. Cortez was warned by a woman who had fallen in love with him. She had learned that the priests intended to sacrifice him and his crew during a high ceremonial event. Cortez and his followers accepted the invitation to join the ceremony, but they went with weapons under their cloaks. Before the priests could proceed with the ceremony designed to end with the sacrifice of the newcomers, Cortez and his crew drew their daggers and killed all the priests. Fuentes ends this part with a remark that ever since love stands for treason.
No wonder that America's relationship to Europe has been one of mistrust. Yet a return to the old continent of Europe comes as a surprise in the novel. For suddenly the reader finds himself no longer in Mexico, but in Theresienstadt. It means according to Fuentes the need to confront one prevailing 'vision' which is not a casual one, but a deliberate architectural design to realize 'loneliness'. He made that explicit onhand of the design of Theresienstadt by the architect. Theresienstadt was used to collect Jews prior to taking them to Auschwitz. When walking through the corridors, no one could walk really upright nor could two people walk easily together. The corridors were designed to be so narrow, so as to isolate people. By not letting them walk freely, it reflects a definition of power coined already by Hegel. The philosopher defined power as being able to separate what belongs together. Such power is directed against people holding each other dear.
Katerina Anghelaki Rooke, that great Greek poetess, would say that a German joke is no laughing matter. Fuentes describes what took place in Theresienstadt around that time. Eichmann oversaw the final solution of the Jewish question. He thought it to be a great joke to let the Jewish orchestra play for the last time Verdi's Requiem before being deported the next day to Auschwitz.
In the novel, the architect attends the concert and there he realises that the first violin is being played by his former girlfriend. After the concert the orchester members need to go back to their sleeping quarters. The architect follows her as he wishes to show her that he is here. However, the narrow corridors prevent him from catching up in time. When he enters the large sleeping quarters full of bunker beds, he sees her undressing and this reveals to him that she is pregnant. He turns around without ever greeting her. The next day she is transported with the others to Auschwitz.
It is hard, if not impossible, to imagine what went on in the minds of this architect, never mind of these SS-officiers and of all those who participated in this massive, indeed industrial killing of millions of people.
What Carlos Fuentes describes is one way to make sure literature can retain the role of mediator between life and death, and this without forgetting what shocked so deeply the world once the gates of the concentration camps were opened, the survivors liberated and the full extent of the Holocaust becoming known.
The author is know for a love to develop different forms of narrations. He wishes to use language to unmask lies. A whole variation from magic realism to profound truth makes this novel stand out from others, as it demonstrates the full impact when the expected hits upon the unexpected.
Hatto Fischer
Athens 7.5.2016
Note: Fuentes gave an interview which was commented upon by David Gallagher under the title "Stifled Tiger". Of interest, that 'skin exchange' is interpreted solely in terms of how Fuentes saw the Mexican situation, but not what happens between the two couples. Also no reference is made to Franz, the German architect, although the novel travels through him from Mexico back to Germany. See
A Change of Skin - The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/books/.../fuente-skin.html
« Mann ohne Eigenschaften - Robert Musil | A tribute to Heinrich Heine »