The switchman jumped, all upset, and began to make. Juan jose arreola owes his reputation to his short stories, even though he. Amaryl lids to download pdf you need some things, like my website and the name of the file. Hailed as mexicos premier experimental short story writer of the twentieth century. Although he never finished elementary school, he managed to teach himself to read and got a job as an apprentice to a bookbinder. En 1934 escribio sus tres primeros textos literarios. Like most of arreolas stories, the switchman can be interpreted in a variety of waysas an allegory of the pitfalls of the mexican train system, an existential horror story of lifes absurdities and human limitation, and the authors desire to laugh in spite of the insanities of the world and human interaction. Estudio en jalisco y en 1930 empezo a trabajar como.
Suddenly, a train approaches and the switchman begins to. Juan jose arreola 1918 mexican short story writer, novelist, essayist, nonfiction writer, and playwright. The short story was originally published as a confabulario, a word created in spanish by arreola, in 1952, in the collection confabulario and other inventions. The story is both, as well as an allegory of modern technological society and a critique of the entire universe, whose functioning seems to be in the hands of a very minor employee, a switchman who is like an incompetent minor god. Instead of getting on the train in an orderly fashion, they devote themselves to crushing one another. The englishlanguage version was taken from confabulario. Jun 18, 2019 amaryl lids to download pdf you need some things, like my website and the name of the file. Mexican poet and short story writer juan jose arreola reads from his.
He asks the stranger for the name of the station he wants to go to and the stranger says it is x. Juan jose arreola, mexican shortfiction writer and humorist who was a. Juan jose arreola, jill hartley, dulce maria zuniga. It seems that, although an elaborate network of railroads has been planned and partially completed, the service is highly unreliable. As the stranger is very interested in this, the switchman once again encourages the stranger to try his luck, but warns him not to talk to fellow passengers, who may be spies, and to watch out for mirages that the railroad company generates. Charles dickens, english novelist, generally considered the greatest of the victorian era. Juan jose arreola, born september 21, 1918, ciudad guzman, mexicodied december 3, 2001, guadalajara, mexican shortfiction writer and humorist who was a master of brief subgenres, such as the short story, the epigram, and the sketch. One of 14 children, arreola had to leave school at age eight.