Why are we reading fan fiction (The book of chameleons)

The book we are reading this week was most definitely chosen as a personal hate crime against me. Are you having a giggle prof. Beasley? are having a little laugh? Im certainly not laughing after reading this book. This book first started with a quote from Borges- that he would perhaps like to be reborn as something/someone else. I didn’t even think much of the quote- I was too terrified by his presence and the prospect of his stench latching onto this book. For those that don’t know, he actually kidnapped my mom drove over my cat beat my grandma up and held me at gunpoint to read his little book known as Labyrinths which felt like eternal damnation in hell. You can fact check this with Alizey- she also had to read this book. And I had to read the entire book assigned to us this week only to find out in the end that all this time I was reading the thoughts of a gecko that was supposed to be Borges reincarnated, hence why I think this book counts as fan fiction since Agualusa is technically just making shit up about a once real person (as opposed to Borges who only made literal SHIT up). Borges sin was not that he didn’t love, it was that he wrote labyrinths and thus had to be subject to being in a geckos body and dies because he got jumped by a scorpion.

I guess my shitty men of the week this week would be Borges I dont care if he’s not actually a character this week ok he technically is. Anyways I’m done being dramatic about Borges now.

There was a quote from this book that I found really fascinating: “do you think life expects us to be compassionate? I don’t believe so. What life expects of us is that we celebrate. Let’s return to the fish: If you were this fish, would you prefer me to be eating you with sadness or with delight?”. It really is a loaded quote with much to think about, obviously because it probes for the purpose of life and all. I feel like different people would have different answers to this question- after all there are a lot of vegans out there.  I honestly would rather the people eating me to eat with delight, so I guess in some ways I also belief that life is about celebration and experiences and feeling everything. Not that there isn’t a place for compassion, I just think that there’s always going to be much pain in the world. And for those that are in pain, you still need to figure out a way to celebrate your own life both in spite and because of it.

This book featured a lot of different themes- deception being the biggest one, especially with the whole name of the book (Chameleon but in reality its a gecko), Backmann (his double deception), Angela with her background, Ventura with his profession, etc. etc. But I think even beyond the characteristics of the people, this book largely deals with dancing between the bounds of reality and falsehood, truth and lies. This is seen repeatedly between the book, especially in instances where we can’t even be really sure what parts are just a dream versus what parts are reality. As the gecko says, “My dreams are almost always more lifelike than reality” (46). This is quite debatable considering the geckos position as well. The main interactions he actually has with Felix (beyond being a voyeur in his life) happens within his dream. In this sense, we can’t really definitively say which one is the gecko’s reality- when things are actually happening, and what actually feels more real to him. The book actually takes this a step even further too. At one point in the novel, Ventura talks about what another writer said: “I lie with joy! Literature is the only chance for a true liar to attain any sort of social acceptance” (68). Isn’t every story at the end of the day just a lie? it’s a tale about things that didn’t actually happen. Some could say that this book itself is a deception- a fictitious tale about a fake man even with a background rooted in culturally relevant events. To me, this sort of runs parallel with Ventura’s job- to change their genealogy, not necessarily the action of the characters. But a beat later, the writer says “truth is a superstition” (68).  The way I take this, if you believe it to be true, then it is real to you- this applies even to the characters in this book, which while obviously are fictional, I find it disingenuous to characterize them as “not real”. They are real, because we believe them to be real, to actually carry something, and that is what a superstition is most the time. The gecko said to Ventura in a dream later on: “You invented him, this strange Jose Buchmann, and now he’s begun to invent himself. Its like a metamorphosis…a reincarnation…Or rather: a possession”. When I read this, I found this quite funny, because the exact same thing can be said about the gecko; Agualusa invented him-its a reincarnation of Borges in Gecko..or more specifically a possession of Borges’ soul in the gecko’s body. But once the reader sees him, believes in this truth of the character, he begins to invent himself- the author no longer holds jurisdiction over who this character is. I guess to me, the lesson at the end of the day is that we all hold our individual truths- and many times, there are a lot of lies, a lot of contradictions within us and honestly, dishonesty with yourself to some extent. But that doesn’t make us any else false or any less real. The chance for reinvention is still there.

My question to you all this week is, if you were the fish, which way would you rather people ate you? With delight or with sadness?