5.11.09

Instrucciones para dar cuerda a un reloj

Julio Cortázar's Instrucciones para dar cuerda a un reloj (Instructions for Winding a Watch) begins with a satirical "preamble" about what receiving a watch as a gift really means. For the narrator, a watch is a haunting responsibility to keep the watch precisely on time by checking jewelry store windows, calling the phone services that gives the time and checking the radio. Having a watch is fearing that you will lose it or that it will break or that it is not as nice as somebody else's watch. The narrator then goes on to give directions for winding the watch. I really enjoy the preamble to the actual directions. The way that Cortázar writes about the watch and makes the connection between somebody giving you a watch actually making you a gift for the watch and a slave to its needs.

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