During the long process of writing a book, certain external stimuli come to reside in a work, without having been consciously sought. We become magnets, sponges when we write; we attract and absorb stimuli; we centrifugate material in a manner that might be disorganized, perhaps, but never coincidental. Sometimes, these influences are so diluted that it’s impossible to trace them, or they might belong to a personal realm difficult to transmit to someone else—images, memories, feelings. But there are others that are more obvious, and these notes are my attempt to acknowledge this second category:
The book the Headmaster—Señor J.—refers to when recounting the story of the servant Gerasim is, of course, Tolstoy’s wonderful The Death of Ivan Ilyich, one of the best fables about the meaning of life, and death, that I’ve ever read.
The disturbing novel Isidro Bedragare reads out on the bench is The Lime Works by Thomas Bernhard.
Part of Ledesma’s final words to Bedragare are inspired in the scene of the “madman” Domenico’s speech in the Tarkovsky film Nostalghia.
The paradox of the indisposability of one’s own body in relation to suicide that appears in García Medrano’s papers comes from Gabriel Marcel’s Metaphysical Journal.
And also found in García Medrano’s papers, the quote about heroes and mercenaries is from Crowds and Power, by Elias Canetti, and the allusion to the fantastic tale refers to The Door in the Wall by H. G. Wells.
Lastly, the poem at the end of the novel is by Alfred de Musset, chosen for both its lightness and extraordinary capacity to serve as counterpoint to the story told in this book.
Seville, 2012