New Mexico Quarterly Volume 36 | Issue 2 Article 3 1966 Julio Cortazar or The lS ap in the Face Luis Harss Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/nmq Recommended Citation Harss, Luis. "Julio Cortazar or The lS ap in the Face." New Mexico Quarterly 36, 2 (1966). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/nmq/ vol36/iss2/3 This Contents is brought to you for free and open access by the University of New Mexico Press at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in New Mexico Quarterly by an authorized editor of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Harss: Julio Cortazar or The Slap in the Face 105 JuIio Cortazar or The Slap in the Face BY LUIS HARSS with the collaboration of BARBARA DOHMANN THE YEARS have shown, in our part of the world, as elsewhere, that those who live at odds with their land are often the ones that understand it best. Perhaps only they are in a position to hit the nail hard enough to drive it home. If, in our novel, feelings of br~therhood are giving way to open provocations th~t occasionally end in assault and battery, it is because it needed a bit of effrontery to make it live more vibrantly. World War II was something of a dividing line for us. It brought a drastic century to our doorstep at a time when we had already begun to part company with ourselves. This was particu larly true of Argentina, a land of fallen idols.