Axolotl (short story)
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| "Axolotl" | |
|---|---|
| Short story by Julio Cortázar | |
| Publication | |
| Publisher | Los Presentes, Buenos Aires |
| Publication date | 1956 |
“Axolotl” is a work of short fiction by Cortázar, Julio, first appearing in the Spanish language collection Final del juego (1956), and first in the English language in End of the Game and Other Stories (1963).[1]
“Axolotl” is presented from a first-person singular point-of-view by an unnamed but reliable narrator. The story takes place at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris.
Visiting the zoo, the narrator visits the lions and panther enclosures, but finds them pathetic; he proceeds to the aquarium. There he encounters a number of Axolotl salamanders, members of the genus Ambystoma, and finds them mesmerizing. He develops an obsession, returning day after day to peer through the glass into their “little pink aztec faces.”[2] The security guard is mildly alarmed at his behavior, but declines to interfere. In time, the narrator fearfully perceives that the salamanders are not merely reptiles, but conscious beings who are taking possession of him. A process of "metamorphosis" ensues, and his mind and body is exchanged with one of the amphibians in a process of replacement.[3]
The narrator now reports from his new existence as a salamander living in the tank. He acknowledges to himself that his condition is permanent: “I am an axolotl for good now, and if I think like a man it's only because every axolotl thinks like a man inside his rosy stone semblance.”[4] The narrator is comforted by the thought that the free-living metamorphosed salamander in its human form may write a story about axolotls.[5][6]