COLOMBIA
"Opio en las Nubes’s Liquid World: Colombia’s Generation X Reads without a Net" "What if Sex Pistols musician Sid Vicious had been ordered to direct an episode of Sesame Street? What if Sid Vicious knew he was going to die young, not because of an overdose—like he did—but because his own body rebelled against him? What if Sid Vicious had not been born in England but in Colombia, and what if he were not a punk rocker but a writer? You would of course be right to say this is not Sid Vicious anymore. However, this exercise helps us bring together a constellation of distinct imaginaries—a punk way of seeing the world, children’s television, a person knowing he would not live for long, and a country that is not identifiable as having a proper punk scene. Such a constellation will be needed to understand Rafael Chaparro’s (1963–-1995) novel Opio en las nubes (Opium in the Clouds, 1992) and what it says about the young reading community that has continuously grown around it in Colombia: a generation of people who have partially shared certain characteristics with the X Generation understood in a North American/British context, but who have also had to deal with a particular social and political reality that the “standard” Generation X did not share. In order to map the global moving youth that is the X Generation, I believe a remapping of our own image of the global is needed. Reading this novel will give us a glimpse of a parallel dystopian-like present, because instead of the image of the world that today portrays globalization—the global as a net (or network of networks) organized by transoceanic commerce, fluid communication, and access to information—Chaparro’s novel and its readers share a conceit of the world in which floods, immersions, and liquids are the prime figures. Perceiving this world image will allow us to understand the choices Chaparro made and the success the novel has had with young adults in Colombia: it will help us understand why Opio en las nubes presents such an important contribution to a worldwide remapping of Generation X as a whole." ~ Juan Manuel Espinosa, Excerpt from Generation X Goes Global Juan Manuel Espinosa. Visiting Assistant Professor of Spanish at the University of Rochester. His main area of research is the Caribbean and transatlantic literary and intellectual histories. He has worked as an editor and translator for Spanish and US academic presses. He is currently writing about acoustic and sensorial history. |
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Opio en las nubes by Chaparro gone viral:
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For an example of Colombian oral storytelling techniques, watch Nicolás Buenaventura’s videos in Youtube. In this video he tells the Wayú myth of how Fear and Power were created
~ Juan Manuel Espinosa
~ Juan Manuel Espinosa
For Further Reading:
Arocha, Jaime, and Gonzalo Sánchez. Colombia, violencia y democracia: informe presentado al Ministerio de Gobierno. Bogotá: Centro Editorial Universidad Nacional de Colombia, 1987. Print.
Caja Negra Producciones. “Opio en las nubes.” N. d. Web. 31 Aug. 2011. <http://www.cajanegra-producciones.com/>
Caracol TV. “Crimen de Jaime Garzón fue favor de las AUC a oficiales del Ejército.” 5 October 2009. Web. 27 August 2011. <http://www.caracoltv.com/articulo154710-crimen-de-jaime-garzon-fue-favor-de-auc-a-oficiales-del-ejercito>
Chaparro Madiedo, Rafael. Opio en las nubes. Bogotá, Colcultura, 1992. Print.
—. Zoológicos urbanos. Historias mutantes de Rafael Chaparro Madiedo. Comp. Alejandro González Ochoa. Medellín, Editorial Universidad de Antioquia, 2009. Print.
Huertas, Andrés. “Cuidados intensivos.” La brújula mágica. Productora Audiovisuales. 1994. Colombia TV. Web. 29 August 2011. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=799NVY6KM6U>
Jaramillo Morales, Alejandra. “La simbolización de la ciudad en Opio en las nubes y Ese último paseo.” Literatura y cultura: Narrativa colombiana del siglo XX. Ed. M.M. Jaramillo et al. Diseminación, cambios, desplazamientos. Bogotá, Colombia: Ministerio de Cultura, 2000. 301-318. Print.
Caja Negra Producciones. “Opio en las nubes.” N. d. Web. 31 Aug. 2011. <http://www.cajanegra-producciones.com/>
Caracol TV. “Crimen de Jaime Garzón fue favor de las AUC a oficiales del Ejército.” 5 October 2009. Web. 27 August 2011. <http://www.caracoltv.com/articulo154710-crimen-de-jaime-garzon-fue-favor-de-auc-a-oficiales-del-ejercito>
Chaparro Madiedo, Rafael. Opio en las nubes. Bogotá, Colcultura, 1992. Print.
—. Zoológicos urbanos. Historias mutantes de Rafael Chaparro Madiedo. Comp. Alejandro González Ochoa. Medellín, Editorial Universidad de Antioquia, 2009. Print.
Huertas, Andrés. “Cuidados intensivos.” La brújula mágica. Productora Audiovisuales. 1994. Colombia TV. Web. 29 August 2011. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=799NVY6KM6U>
Jaramillo Morales, Alejandra. “La simbolización de la ciudad en Opio en las nubes y Ese último paseo.” Literatura y cultura: Narrativa colombiana del siglo XX. Ed. M.M. Jaramillo et al. Diseminación, cambios, desplazamientos. Bogotá, Colombia: Ministerio de Cultura, 2000. 301-318. Print.