The Invention of Morel

Adolfo Bioy Casares

3 ideas

1. Fugitive falls for Faustine's recorded image

   A Venezuelan fugitive hides on an abandoned island and falls in love with Faustine, a woman who ignores his every approach, until he finds that she and the other visitors are three-dimensional projections from Morel's machine. The machine recorded one week of their lives and replays it endlessly on the island's tides. The recording also killed the people it copied. The fugitive then records himself into the loop, placing his figure beside hers so that a future viewer might think they were together, and he dies as his body decays.

2. The perfect copy that consumes its original

   Morel's machine captures sight, sound, touch and smell so completely that the image can stand in for the person, but the capture process destroys the living body it copies. The book makes immortality through representation a transaction in which the original must die for the image to last forever. Fidelity of the copy and survival of the source are traded against each other.

3. Love aimed at an unresponsive image

   The fugitive's love grows stronger because Faustine cannot respond, which leaves him free to read meaning into her repeated gestures and to build the relationship he wants. Seen this way, desire for a fixed image is one-sided authorship, not a relationship. The other person's inability to reject you is part of the appeal.

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