La laberíntica historia del Diablo. Primera recepción de Flusser en México / The Labyrinthine History of the Devil. The First Reception of Flusser in Mexico
In 1960s, Mexico has a period of notable cultural development known as the “Latin American Boom”. This literary movement was pushed by numerous young writers and consolidated by various publishing houses, with prominent figures who played a driving role, such as Efraín Huerta and Octavio Paz. It was within this context that a correspondence between Octavio Paz and Vilém Flusser was established in 1966. Based on this epistolary exchange, we propose a comparative reading of Paz's The Labyrinth of Solitude and Flusser's History of the Devil, with the aim of analyzing the conceptual and biographical convergences that emerge in both works. Emphasis is placed on the shared experience of exile and solitude during both authors' youth, as well as their interest in subjects such as Zen Buddhism. Likewise, the philosophical perspective of their works is highlighted, which we consider to be phenomenological in both authors. The essay offers deliberately reflective guidelines on how the intellectual dialogue between Paz and Flusser might have developed, had that first contact given rise to a successful collaboration. The fundamental aim of this work, therefore, is to establish a link between these two intellectual universes, moving beyond the limitation of their brief epistolary exchange. Finally, we wish to offer readers of Vilém Flusser an entry point into the work of Octavio Paz, and vice versa, as well as to extend an invitation toward a broader and renewed reception of Flusser’s work in Mexico.
„Ich habe gegen Pathos zu kämpfen gehabt […].“ Zur Entstehung und Bedeutung von Vilém Flussers Das Zwanzigste Jahrhundert. Versuch einer subjektiven Synthese
This essay deals with Vilém Flusser’s first finished, but still unpublished book Das Zwanzigste Jahrhundert, which was most probably written in the mid-1950s. The book consists of six chapters linked to each other in an unfolding spiral: politics, society, science, art, philosophy and religion. Flusser’s main aim is to try to synthesize the West with the East: modern Western science with the Indian philosophy of the Vedanta, the contemporary Western concept of art with that of Chinese culture and the Judaic-Christian belief with Hinduism and Buddhism. This synthesis is possible because the West and the East have been slowly evolving in the same direction. The book is remarkable both from a thematic and a stylistic point of view. It is the very origin, and construction site of Flusser’s work to come. Flusser has discarded some of the ideas put forward in Das Zwanzigste Jahrhundert, but retained many others transforming them over the course of the years. Furthermore, Das Zwanzigste Jahrhundert allows a reflection on the origins of Flusser’s writing, and on the development of his style.
