The nightmare of house taken over

House taken over is the first short story written by Julio Cortazar in 1946. It was reprinted for “Bestiary” along with seven fantastic short stories that reflected Cortazar’s psychology; he said that writing was the most effective way of getting rid of his fears, nightmares and hallucinations.

“We
 liked
the
house
because,
 apart
from
 its
being
old
 and
spacious
(in
 a
day
when
old
houses
 go
down
for
 a
 profitable
 auction
 of
 their
 construction
 materials),
 it
 kept
 the
 memories
 of
 great‐grandparents,
 our
 paternal
 grandfather,
our
parents
and
the
whole
of
childhood.”

In this particular short story, the writer is describing a nightmare he once had and decided to write it down adding some more details based in his own house in Argentina. During the nightmare he was chased by some mysterious being, this represents the climax of the given story.

The main characters are only used as narrators, in fact, we only have a few lines inside the story to know them:

“Irene
never
bothered
anyone.
Once
the
morning
housework
was
finished,
she
spent
the
rest
of
the
day
on
the
 sofa
in
her
bedroom,
knitting.
”

Irene’s knitting might be a reference to Homer’s epic poem “Odysseus” regarding Penelope’s need to knit as a symbol of hope; the idea of the author using references from “Odysseus” comes from the fact that he also uses the name of the sorceress “Circe” for another story in the same compilation.

“
I
took
advantage
of
these
trips
to
make
the
rounds
of
the
bookstores,
uselessly
asking
if
they
had
 anything
new
in
French
literature.
Nothing
worthwhile
had
arrived
in
Argentina
since 1939.”

Here we find some information regarding the timeline of the story (world war two) and we can have a better picture of the house described in the story.

After reading a deep description of the old house and the way the brothers maintained it we get to the climax, the arriving of the inexplicable sounds that disturbs the protagonists’ daily basis.    

“The
sound
came
through
muted
and
indistinct,
a
chair
being
knocked
over
onto
the
 carpet
or
the
muffled
buzzing
of
a
conversation.
At
the
same
time,
or
a
second
later,
I
heard
it
at
the
end
of
the
 passage
which
led
from
those
two
rooms
toward
the
door.”

Julio Cortazar said that he was terrified after his dream, nevertheless Inés and her brother never showed fear for the situation, in fact, they took the events as something natural and inevitable, even though through the story the brothers showed themselves quite attached to the house

"She
let
her
knitting
fall
and
looked
at
me
with
her
tired,
serious
eyes.

"You're
sure?" I
nodded. "In
that
case,"
she
said, picking
up
her
knitting
again, "we'll
have
to
live
on
this
side."

House taken over is the source material of many studies made around the meaning of it.  The most popular one is a political analysis that involves the beginning of a political party called “Peronismo” wich Cortazar deeply disliked; the analysis states that the house might be the traditional and steady Argentina disturbed by the Peronismo (the mysterious sounds).

What do you think about this story? What does it mean to you? In the next post we will be talking a little more about Cortazar’s biography and open the pools for the next author selection. I apologize for the inconvenience regarding the hangouts, but this activity will be suspended for some time, so please, If you have any suggestions for the next short story post it in the comments