The Colombian writer builds a story about everyday life and the difficulties in relationships in her story “Ellos dos.” “It’s a story about love,” she says.
[“Ellos dos” can be downloaded for free from Bajalibros by clicking here]
Can humans communicate deeply with animals? What if you only live with chickens, sheep and a dog and they are your only confidants? Can you talk to animals? What is language? How do the everyday and the dreamlike intertwine in a space where interactions seem like silent rituals? everyday It shows different layers, where the usual is tinged with mystery, the unusual becomes the norm.
On these topics he goes deeper Both of them, the story written by Carolina Sanín and published by Leamos - the digital publishing house of Infobae– published for free download.
Born in Bogotá in 1973, Sanín is a multifaceted figure in contemporary literature and thought. With her novels Everything elsewhere, ChildrenYour cross in the desert sky, and the trials The eye of the house y We are abysmal lights, among other titles, combines philosophical reflection and personal chronicle to explore the human condition.
Sanín also holds a PhD in Hispanic Literature from Yale University and was a professor at various universities, in addition to actively participating in the cultural debate with columns in media such as El Espectador y Arcadia.
In 2022, the writer was the protagonist of a controversy when she denounced that the Mexican publishing house Almadía had cancelled the contract already signed to publish her books. According to Sanin, this was due to her “questions regarding gender dogma and her pronouncements on the erasure of women.” The decision to cancel the Mexican editions of We are abysmal lights y Your light in the desert sky Almadía's announcement came after the publication of her latest monologue in the Colombian media Cambio, entitled "Identity, Women and the World to Come", in which Sanin “reflects on gender, the transactivism, self-perception, freedom to doubt, humanism and the end of sex".
The story
Originally published in the book Ponqué and other stories (2010) Both of them It tells the story of a woman who tries to decipher her own story while living with chickens, sheep, dog or with a pato, in an environment where human interactions seem like a silent choreography.
The plot unfolds in a unique building, where the protagonist lives with animals in a space that seems a cross between a farm and a home. There, animals They live alongside her, and are silent witnesses of her daily life, filled with acts as simple as collecting eggs or walking around the building. Animals are company as well as confidants.
The appearance of Maruna, an unexpected neighbour, alters the dynamics of the relationship between the protagonist and a Spanish teacher. Jealousy and confusion dominate the scene. Gestures and language become ambiguous, sometimes a bridge and other times a barrier, and a series of encounters that, although seemingly trivial, reveal deep and complex connections, in a surreal context.
Meanwhile, the protagonist ends up as a witness to the relationships of others, as if emotions eluded her in that mass of cement, “a building in which animals occupy apartments and people pass by like shadows,” says the narrator. A sense of displacement and isolation, grows at the same pace as the relationship between the professor and Murana prospers. Between reality and dream, the protagonist does not intervene.
Sanín manages to create a tension between what is said and what is not said, between what is shown and what is hidden, both in the relationships that are built in the story and in the language.
En Both of themSanín uses precise and evocative writing to explore the subtleties of coexistence and the way in which relationships are woven in the simplest gestures, and reveals a background where the true protagonists seem to be the animals, constant witnesses of what happens.
Four questions
Carolina Sanin, the author of Both of them, responds about his story:
-En Both of them, the protagonist's relationship with nature and animals is unusual: she lives with them, they are in the building, she tells them stories, she addresses them as equals. What were you interested in exploring in this fusion between the human and animal world, and how do you think it affects the way the protagonist relates to her environment?
―The story takes place in a dreamlike space, or in a reality that is clearly not daytime. I believe that alongside the daytime world there is another one in which humans and other animals can communicate in a less frustrating way than in this plane of reality.
-The protagonist's isolation seems to have layers: physical, emotional, and even psychological. How did you build such deep isolation in this story that was published several years before the pandemic? What was the trigger?
―I thought about what a house is, about one's relationship with a limited, interior space where unlimited thought takes shelter.
-The space of the building and the farm are intertwined in an almost surreal way. How does the architectural space influence the psychology of the characters, and what were you trying to convey with this interplay of floors and skylights?
―He spoke of superpositions, journeys and simultaneities. Perhaps, of the textual dimension of everyday life.
-How would you define the story? Both of them?
―It is a story about love and learning a language, about jealousy, about the arrangement of a condominium and about the possibility of talking to animals. It asks how the last theme is manifested in the reflection on the previous ones.
Source: INFOBAE