If you think of a novelthe typical structure of introduction, middle section and end is just as self-evident as the introduction of the characters, the twists and the chapters written in prose. But who says genres are static and canonical? Aren’t they ready to break?
The Novel by Juan Papasidero, “A crazy language”breaks all prejudices about the usual structure of the most widely read genre of literature. Its conception is linked to a young writer and poet who shares the memories of his grandmother suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. However, this happens in an innovative, hybrid format: an ingenious combination between verse and prose, between poetry and novel, a web of memories, philosophical reflections and micro-stories.
The plot, similar to a “Frankenstein” novel or a fragmented orchestra He reconstructs himself with the small pieces of memory that he has evoked from his childhood and that are closely linked to the bond with his grandmother and the fantasies that he believes or thinks are memories of these family moments. Scattered throughout each leaf are compounds characteristic of the disease that occurs in people suffering from this neurodegenerative disease.
“The question of the book is a bit about how I came to write and this question, This story intersects with the story of my grandmother and her illness.. About his Alzheimer’s disease. That’s why the title of the book is “A Demented Language,” explains Juan to this medium.
Furthermore, he specifies that the novel raises two themes: “The theme of the appearance of language, in my case of writing, which accompanies the beginning of the novel I mourn the spiritual passing of my grandmother“.
The title of the book alludes to language as a tool for thinking and communication and its impairment due to Alzheimer’s. Papasidero explains that writing and language intersect with the story of his grandmother and her six-year illness. Therefore, the novel arises from the need to explain the impossibility of complete communication, a reflection of the void left by this mental farewell.
The book is not a traditional novel with a linear plot, but rather a web of fragments, poems, short stories and philosophical reflections. This structure reflects the fragmented nature of memory and recall in Alzheimer’s disease.
The work stages a space in which the language of illness and poetic language intertwine, creating an interesting sensory play for the reader.
“Writing allowed me to explore the chaotic and disordered grief that I experienced with my grandmother,” says Juan, who knows that his first novel is also a way to reconstruct memories, to search for and evoke lost moments and to build a memory damaged by the illness. “I write what I remember and I write to remember”Papasidero sums it up in a few words.
The writing process was a journey of discovery in which the novel took shape from fragments and hybrid texts. The work reflects the creative freedom Juan found by combining the autobiographical with the literary and experimenting with narrative form and structure. The goal seems to be to challenge the reader’s expectations of “what a novel is.”
His work is “a novel that disappoints”; the reader should not expect a classic story with a beginning and an end.but must be open to finding the typical structure of poetry in which disorder reigns.
The form of the text seems to mimic this attempt to communicate with a person suffering from Alzheimer’s, fragmented but presented from the perspective of grief and with a poetic perspective. “It is this coincidence between writing cut into verses and the way of communicating with my grandmother,” anticipates Papasidero, owner of this work, which is an intimate and artistic testimony about memory, loss and writing.
The genesis of the book was marked by Juan sitting down to write poetry for the first time after surviving his grandmother’s spiritual absence. In that moment, writing became a personal trigger, a way to express the grief and confusion that the illness provokes. Because of this, Papasidero began writing clipped, fragmented sentences that mimicked his grandmother’s staccato style of communication.
The book attempts to explain how the author began to write and “shorten verses”, a practice he came to due to the impossibility of communication and the departure of his grandmother, who was about to leave.
Each intensely lived memory that appears in the novel is part of small fragments of memories (and fantasies due to lack of memory) expressed in the form of poetry. He gradually combined and interwoven with the work of “Dr. Frankenstein” until he breathed life into a new type of novel.
The nostalgia of the novel is also evident in the choice of subtitles, which are presented as Names of well-known tangosSo the perfect genre to express melancholy and longing for the past. In summary, each of the pages of “A Demented Language” presents the story with a flavor of “Delirium and playing with things from childhood”.
The author, born in Lomas de Zamora, will present his first novel today at 5:30 p.m. at Musseta, Billinghurst 894, CABA. Ivonne Bordelois and María Malusardi will take part in the presentation. There will be a bandoneon show by Lucía Coggiola.
Juan is also the author of the poetry collections Lapsus Linguae and (La) Poieticosa.
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