“Artforum” by César Aira, Chapter 3: “Subscription”

 

Subscription is the third chapter of a marvelous book!
I know that much.
But not whether it should it be shelved under Autobiography, Collected Essays or Fiction.

Aira is very playful.
In Subscription, for example, the author/protagonist muses on writing the very book we are in the middle of reading and at the end of the chapter, printed here in its entirety by the generosity of New Directions*, is accidentally shot and killed.

So what is it about?
The main characters’ lifelong obsession with getting a hold of copies of Artforum in Buenos Aires.
Obviously.`

—CNQ

PS. Coincidentally happening tonight, May 29, 2020

César Aira’s ARTFORUM: Translators in Conversation 
Katherine Silver, Chris Andrews, and Aaron Schulman

on Green Light Bookstore Zoom 

Artforum can also be purchased there.

 

 

ARTFORUM, copyright © 2014 by César Aira. Translation copyright © 2020 by Katherine Silver. Use by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.