Las Doradas Manzanas De La Ciencia Ficción: Francisco Porrúa, Editor De Minotauro

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Las Doradas Manzanas De La Ciencia Ficción: Francisco Porrúa, Editor De Minotauro Las doradas manzanas de la ciencia ficción: Francisco Porrúa, editor de Minotauro Martín Felipe Castagnet Tesis para la obtención del grado de doctor en Letras Director de tesis: Dr. José Luis de Diego Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación Universidad Nacional de La Plata Septiembre 2017 Introducción Presentación «A los catorce años leí Más que humano y me afilié a una editorial rara que multiplicaba mundos y sensaciones», escribió Marcelo Cohen, traductor y autor del sello, en un artículo de 2003. ¿Por qué Minotauro puede definirse como una editorial rara? ¿Qué mundos, qué sensaciones? ¿Qué clase de catálogo justificaría que un lector se afilie a una editorial? La afirmación es de Cohen, pero podría ser propia; todas las preguntas que vienen a continuación, por tanto, se vuelven personales. Crecí con los libros de Minotauro (casi todo Bradbury, algo de Lovecraft, muy poco Ballard) en la biblioteca paterna. Lo primero que me impresionó fue el color directo de las portadas, que cambiaba con cada libro, y las imágenes ligeramente ominosas en el centro de la cubierta; recién durante esta investigación descubriría que su diseñador fue Rómulo Macció, uno de los artistas más importantes de nuestro país. Eran ejemplares gastados por la lectura, de hojas apenas amarillentas pero siempre en buen estado, una de las razones por la que los ejemplares de la editorial siempre son valorados en las casas de libros usados. De ellos me fascinaba el listado de títulos en la contraportada: una lista prometedora de libros que no había visto en ningún lado; todavía faltaba mucho para la omnisciencia de internet, y para entender que esas listas eran únicamente una porción del catálogo. Apenas empezada la secundaria leímos Fahrenheit 451 y el profesor nos insistió en conseguir la traducción de Minotauro (¿quién era ese tal Francisco Abelenda?) por sobre las versiones españolas, y el mío fue un caso de amor a primera vista: un libro «about a man falling in love with books» (Bradbury 2012: 196). Leí todos los libros de Bradbury con los que me crucé: el faro de Las doradas manzanas del sol, los cohetes de Crónicas marcianas, el traje de helado de crema de Remedio para melancólicos, los áticos de El país de octubre… En la adolescencia llegué a Tolkien y crucé el punto de no retorno en la relación amorosa entre un lector y una editorial: parte de la fascinación se asentaba una vez más en las portadas, de imagen brumosa y bordes dorados; en la 2 epopeya de la traducción (¿quién era ese tal Luis Domènech?); en resumen, en la hechura misma del libro. No se parecían a ningún otro. Esa distinción cambió por la misma época en la que entré a la facultad, cuando el grupo Planeta compró Minotauro a fines del 2001. De a poco, las portadas se lavaron y perdieron su sofisticación; la mayoría de los libros dejaron de reponerse; la renovación de los autores de calidad del catálogo fue casi nula. Gracias al éxito de las adaptaciones fílmicas, Tolkien se transformó en la gallina de los huevos de oro; todo lo demás era prescindible. Eventualmente, la pérdida de Minotauro tal como era y el proceso de concentración editorial terminaron por ser factores de peso para rescatar el valor del proyecto original. Estaba terminando mi licenciatura en Letras cuando cursé un seminario de verano de José Luis de Diego sobre historia de la edición. Me anoté para cumplir los créditos que me faltaban, pero terminé descubriendo el enfoque transversal y multidisciplinario que estaba buscando para mi carrera, en donde forma y contenido, historia y lectura son caras de la misma moneda. Fue durante mi lectura de su ya emblemática compilación Editores y políticas editoriales en Argentina 1880-2000 (2006, reeditada y aumentada en 2014) que nació esta tesis: una oración y una nota al pie eran todo el espacio dedicado a Minotauro. ¿Cómo podía ser que mi editorial favorita cupiera en un cajón tan breve? Investigué: no había nada escrito acerca del sello. A eso dediqué mis siguientes años. Además de las historias editoriales, como parte de este enfoque se estudian fenómenos como las políticas de traducción, los procesos de concentración de capitales y el impacto cultural en el público lector. Los primeros estudios sobre historia del libro datan de la década del cincuenta y sesenta, a partir de L’apparition du livre (1958) de Lucien Febvre y Henri-Jean Martin y el ensayo «Printers of the Mind» (1969) de Donald McKenzie, pero fue a finales de la década del setenta y comienzos del ochenta donde surgió verdaderamente como disciplina (Finkelstein y McCleery 2014). Robert Darnton publicó un emblemático trabajo titulado «What is the History of Books?» (1982), donde daba cuenta de los incipientes estudios sobre el libro y hacía un primer análisis del circuito del libro impreso, del autor al lector, pasando por el editor, el impresor, el librero y el distribuidor. Asimismo, se produjo el surgimiento de centros académicos nacionales dedicados al estudio de la cultura impresa, como el Institut d’Etude du Livre en Paris y el Center for the Book en la Library of Congress de los Estados Unidos, y la aparición de nuevas revistas como Publishing History y The 3 Bibliography Newsletter (Darnton 2010: 120). Más tarde, este surgimiento fue acompañado en las décadas siguientes por una organización profesional como la Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing (SHARP); por la edición de las memorias de varios editores, como Carlos Barral, André Schiffrin, Siegfried Unseld y Esther Tusquets, entre otros; y por el lanzamiento de la colección Libros sobre Libros de Fondo de Cultura Económica a cargo de Tomás Granados Salinas. En Argentina se destacan los trabajos pioneros de Raúl Bottaro (1964), Eustasio García (1965), Domingo Buonocore (1974), Jorge Rivera (1980) y Leandro De Sagastizábal (1995); este abordaje se asienta de modo sistemático recién desde comienzos de la década del 2000, con la aparición de trabajos y colecciones de libros acerca de la edición y la historia de las editoriales, entre los cuales podemos nombrar los trabajos compilados por de Sagastizábal (2002) y de Diego (2006, 2015), los trabajos de Gustavo Sorá (2008, 2010), Hernán Vanoli (2009, 2010), Ezequiel Saferstein (2014) y Daniela Szpilbarg (2014, 2017), entre muchos otros. En lo personal, fue fundamental para mi formación pertenecer a los grupos de investigación dirigidos por de Diego con sede en el Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales (IdIHCS). El primero fue «Editores y políticas editoriales: articulaciones y redes entre Argentina, América Latina y España», dedicado al impacto cultural de varias iniciativas editoriales, más que a las variables cuantitativas de la industria editorial, que ponen de manifiesto la existencia de redes y articulaciones comerciales e intelectuales entre los diferentes centros de edición. A su finalización, la investigación continuó con el proyecto «Políticas editoriales y modernización literaria: géneros, cultura visual, nuevas tecnologías», dedicado a los procesos de modernización literaria, de diseño y tecnológicos, centrado especialmente en el triángulo editorial, intelectual y literario que se constituyó, desde fines de los cincuenta, entre Buenos Aires, México D.F. y Barcelona. En el marco de estos grupos organizamos el Primer Coloquio Argentino de Estudios sobre el Libro y la Edición en la ciudad de La Plata, así como participamos de su segunda edición realizada en 2016 por el grupo de investigación editorial de Córdoba y de la First Regional Conference de la SHARP realizada en Nitéroi en 2013. El planteo del problema fue inmediato: Minotauro era conocida como una editorial de ciencia ficción, pero muchos de sus títulos más conocidos (El Señor de los Anillos, Las doradas manzanas del sol, Las ciudades invisibles) no se ajustaban al género. ¿Cuáles habían sido los parámetros de constitución del catálogo? ¿Dónde podía 4 encontrar un catálogo completo del sello, después de tantos años de publicaciones? ¿En qué se diferenciaban esas portadas que me habían llamado la atención del resto de las editoriales? ¿De qué manera había llegado Borges a prologar el primer título del catálogo? ¿Qué llevó a Cortázar a publicar Historias de cronopios y de famas en un proyecto hasta entonces dedicado a traducciones? ¿A qué se debió la tardía colección de autores rioplatenses? ¿Era una editorial argentina o española? ¿Era una colección de Sudamericana o un sello independiente? En fin: ¿por qué razones Minotauro fue altamente valorada y a la vez postergada por los estudios académicos? Mi trabajo de investigación intenta responder esas preguntas y otras tantas. Las herramientas con las que contamos aquellos que trabajamos en estudios editoriales son las del detective literario: la reconstrucción y el análisis de un catálogo de casi trescientos títulos, la búsqueda de artículos periodísticos de la época y la realización de entrevistas a todos los involucrados, o la recopilación de las portadas existentes. En la etapa inicial de investigación se recopiló todo el material bibliográfico y hemerográfico para su organización temática y su datación. En este proceso se buscó el acopio de todos los ejemplares asequibles de Minotauro así como también de materiales publicitarios. Asimismo, se compilaron reseñas e intervenciones críticas en revistas especializadas, entrevistas al editor y otros artículos periodísticos pertinentes. Si bien Minotauro no ha sido abordada hasta ahora como objeto de estudio por la crítica académica, sí existen trabajos que la mencionan o que estudian por separado alguna de las unidades temáticas de esta investigación: el desarrollo y recepción de la ciencia ficción, por un lado, y la industria editorial argentina, por el otro. Desde uno y otro enfoque aportan datos relevantes cuantitativa y cualitativamente para la reflexión sobre el contexto de emergencia de Minotauro y su posterior asentamiento como una editorial de alto prestigio simbólico, hegemónica dentro de su ámbito de especificidad.
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