Hopscotch is not as widely read today as some similarly brilliant works from the ’60s, but its impact, like the now eroded, obscured craters left behind by comets that collided with the Earth millennia ago, can be easily discerned by those who know what to look for. Cortazar’s idea of including tertiary information in a novel (and sending readers to a special section in back to find it) is reflected today in the zest for footnotes and endnotes in novels. As with Cortazar’s expendable chapters, the endnotes of novels like Infinite Jest contain information that, although arguably tangential, can help unlock a novel and push readers toward finding greater mysteries within it. Although Cortazar was onto it decades ago, the idea that crucial information can be found in the extraneous, where it is just as likely to be ignored, remains potent today.
Too Cortazar’s experiments with typography and with making a page physically embody an idea or feeling are reproduced by many of today’s novelists (some of whom also show an interest in footnoting and endnoting their work). The cute typesetting and novelty pages of today (like those that are blank or filled with such dense type as to be black) harken back to Hopsctoch but, more often than not, show none of Cortazar’s skill or restraint. In this regard many may have followed in his footsteps, but few seem to be interested (as Cortazar was) in subordinating these elements to the task of revealing ideas and feelings that language alone cannot express.
Celebrating Hopscotch’s visionary innovations is one way of arguing that this book holds an unassailable place in literature, but it is better to make the same argument simply by pointing to the universal themes that Cortazar so skillfully engages. In an interview Cortazar explained that he wrote Hopscotch for people of his generation, the aging bohemians who, like Oliveira, were being forced to face difficult facts about their lives. But, he continued, he was surprised to find that the next generation of twentysomethings related to the book even better than his intended audience. Oliveira’s existential angst is something that transcends age, as well as many other categories, and it is something that Cortazar has captured in both the words and the form of his amazing book. Hopscotch is one of those experiences that no bibliophile worthy of the name should be without.
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