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Tornado Fullbook PDF
Tornado Fullbook PDF
IN A GIVEN SITUATION
FRANCIS ALŸS
F-ALYS-INTERIOR.indd 1 8/26/10 8:37:45 PM
ABANDON
ABSORPTION
ABSURD
ACCIDENT
ACTION
ALEATORY
ANARCHY
ANGER
ANOMIE
Apathy
ARBITRARY
ATROPHY
ATTRACTION
ATTRITION
BARRAGE
CALMNESS
CATASTROPHE
CATHARSIS
CHANCE
CHAOS
COINCIDENCE
Collapse
COMPULSION
CONFUSION
IN A GIVEN SITUATION
Is this the region where the air is the clearest? What have you done 0/1
to my lofty metaphysical valley? Why has it been sullied? Why has
it turned yellow? Whirlwinds of dust zigzag across it like arrogant
fire. Sepia tones envelope everything, eradicating the sense of depth
in the environment and suffusing on a single ghostly plane both
the feeling of distance and nearness, which makes its features and
colors as unreal as a grotesque decal, an old religious illustra-
tion, a prematurely wilted leaf.
While we chew the fine sand with repugnance, the dust accumulates
in our throats, and we breathe covering our faces with our hands.
It wants to asphyxiate and strangle us. Subterranean howling
reaches us surreptitiously through the dust clouds that envelop
and destroy without mercy. Repeated invisible volleys and cunning
attacks are indefensible; deliberate microbial dynamite; atoms in
revolt, defiant against anything that is organized; excess energy of
resentful creation that feels of no use; revenge and more revenge
of the dust, the oldest in the world. The last stage of matter that
was born with the blessing of the waters, and through the sticki-
ness of life, is first reduced to the statutory mineral, only to
explode and disintegrate into the parts of which it is composed.
Microscopy of the elements, road to nothingness, annihilation with-
out glory, the collapse of inertia, entropy, revenge, and revenge
of dust, the lowest part of the world.
Oh, destroyers of lakes, woods, lungs, and magic mirrors! And you
shall see how our own valley will disappear when the mountains come
crashing down in the slow landslide of the circus that shelters us,
like a gulp from the gyrating, black funnel – a whirlwind of refuse.
It flies against the attractive stone flowers, the dwellings and the
streets, the gardens and the towers, the terrible cavalry of Attila,
the agile, savage troops with grayish-yellow hooves. Revenge and
then more revenge of dust. Planet condemned to the desert, the Moor-
ish dust storm threatens to sweep away your faces.
Mexico, 1940
Published in Anthology, translated by Dick Gerdes. Fondo de Cultura
Económica, Mexico, 2009.
México, 1940
Tradução de Josely Vianna Baptista
In the beginning, there was only water and heavens. Everything was 8/9
empty, until Tupanã came down in the midst of the great wind...
According to an Amazonian Tupi-Guarani legend, the deity embodied a
vortex in order to create the universe.
Since then, we are in constant rotation, at astronomical speed.
The more our knowledge of the universe widens, the more this speed
increases, and, paradoxically, our insignificance is confirmed. If one
day we deluded ourselves that we occupied the center of the universe,
today we confront our condition of cosmic dust. But always in a
rotational movement.
While the Earth takes 24 hours to complete a rotation around its
own axis, and one year to revolve around the Sun, the solar system
as a whole takes over 200 million years to revolve around the axis
of the Milky Way. The last time the Sun occupied its present posi-
tion, dinosaurs reigned over our planet.
The speeds of such rotating movements are immense. On Earth, the
rotation speed varies with latitude: rotation speed next to the
Equator is much greater than close to the poles, for the distance to
be covered in order to complete the rotation is greater. Thus, Earth
revolves around its own axis with the equatorial speed of 1,700 km/h,
and around the Sun with much greater velocity, over 100,000 km/h.
In turn, the solar system revolves around our galaxy, the Milky Way,
and this one around... Well, if we added just the figures we know,
and which make of the cosmos a gigantic carousel, we would reach the
incredible speed of 700,000 km/h.
Tupi or not Tupi, the fact is that the rotation movements are
fundamental for us, and they surprise and entertain us. Twisters,
for instance, defy us with their unpredictability and strength.
Besides, they belong to that class of phenomena in which scientific
explanation clashes with our common sense.
In such cause-effect processes, it is common to suppose that
smooth variations in causes also yield smooth variations in the
effects. But it is not quite like that when a twister is born.
No princípio, havia só água e céu. Tudo era vazio, tudo noite funda,
até que Tupanã desceu em meio ao vento grande... Segundo uma len-
da tupi-guarani da Amazônia, a divindade baixou em um vórtice para
criar o universo.
Desde esse acontecimento, estamos em constante rotação, numa ve-
locidade astronômica. Quanto mais cresce o nosso conhecimento sobre
o universo, mais aumenta essa velocidade e, paradoxalmente, confirma-
se a nossa insignificância. Se um dia chegamos a nos iludir de ocupar
o centro do universo, hoje nos confrontamos com a condição de poeira
cósmica. Porém, sempre em movimento rotacional.
Enquanto a Terra leva 24 horas para completar uma rotação em torno
de seu eixo, e um ano para dar uma volta em torno do Sol, o sistema
solar todo leva mais de 200 milhões de anos para girar em torno do
eixo da Via Láctea. Da última vez que o Sol ocupou a posição atual,
em nosso planeta reinavam os dinossauros.
As velocidades desses movimentos rotacionais são imensas. Na Ter-
ra, a velocidade de rotação varia com a latitude: próximo do equador
ela é muito maior do que junto aos polos, pois é maior a distância
a ser percorrida para completar uma rotação. Assim, a Terra gira em
torno de seu eixo com velocidade equatorial de 1 700 quilômetros por
hora e, em torno do Sol, com rapidez bem maior, de mais de 100 mil
quilômetros por hora. O sistema solar, por sua vez, gira em torno da
nossa galáxia, a Via Láctea, e esta em torno de... Bem, se somarmos
apenas os números conhecidos, e que fazem do cosmo um gigantesco
carrossel, chegaríamos à extraordinária velocidade de mais ou menos
700 mil quilômetros por hora.
Tupi or not Tupi, o fato é que os movimentos de rotação são para nós
primordiais e nos divertem e surpreendem. Tornados, por exemplo, nos
desafiam pela imprevisibilidade e força. Além disso, são daqueles fenô-
menos cuja explicação científica entra em disputa com o senso comum.
Em processos de tipo causa-efeito, é comum supor que variações
suaves nas causas provoquem variações também suaves no efeito. Pois
não é bem assim que um tornado nasce.
August 2010
Translated by Gavin Adams
Agosto de 2010
No story here. This time the fable only kicks up a dust of theory. 14/15
On the edge of the megalopolis we find what once was the country.
Hardly a landscape anymore, an expropriated skyline bristling with
houses, water tanks, hi-rises, rods and satellite dishes. In the dry
season the wind scampers among the parched furrows and the cyclops
blindly, playfully, spins. Tornados. Marvels of ecological mischief
and disaster.
Nothing is rehearsed.
Seeking out the flaw.
The production is not documented.
It is produced from the documentation.
Beat the soil with your eyes
enter the opencast mine
prepare the seared lungs.
Repouso e centro.
Vivência-sobre-vivência.
Nada se ensaia.
Procura-se a falha.
Não se documenta a produção.
Produz-se a partir da documentação.
Bater os olhos no chão
entrar nas minas da superfície
preparar os pulmões pretos.
Mexico was here once. The nopales no longer stick their tongues
out at tourists, the magueys are perishing among erections dry of
fermenting juice, the worm has died out. Enough stories: time is
blowing us away. That is the story, and it has no moral.
Understand who may.
Summer 2010
Translated by Lorna Scott Fox
Remoinho de pó e primavera.
Babel invertida.
Cones devorando o céu.
No ar alvoroçado de fuligem tudo é rastro.
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