The Year of Octavio Paz (Part 3)

Octavio Paz: Philosophy & Poetry Interpreted [Part 3]

Last week, we published the first installment of our weekly mini-series about the Mexican writer Octavio Paz on wordfest.com, in honour of the centenary celebrations of his birth. The Nobel Prize-winning poet, writer, essayist and diplomat was born in Mexico City on March 31, 1914, and passed away on April 19, 1998.

“The Street” by Octavio Paz and “Nobody” by Sadie Saunders

http://vimeo.com/77426707

Sadie Saunders is a Boston-based animator and student from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. She recently created the above animation, "Nobody," drawing inspiration from the poem, “The Street,” by Octavio Paz.

Her animation not only translates Paz’s imagery into visual form quite successfully, but also in the process shows how much his philosophical and poetic explorations are often complementary. Consider this passage from Paz’s collection of essays, The Labyrinth of Solitude, which seems to offer clues to why Sadie may have chosen the title, “Nobody.”

It is futile for Nobody to talk, to publish books, to paint pictures, to stand on his head. Nobody is the blankness in our looks, the pauses in our conversations, the reserve in our silences. He is the name we always and inevitably forget, the eternal absentee, the guest we never invite, the emptiness we can never fill. He is an omission, and yet he is forever present. He is our secret, our crime, and our remorse. Thus the person who creates Nobody, by denying Somebody's existence, is also changed into Nobody. And if we are all Nobody, then none of us exists. The circle is closed and the shadow of Nobody spreads out over our land, choking the Gesticulator and covering everything. Silence— the prehistoric silence, stronger than all the pyramids and sacrifices, all the churches and uprisings and popular songs— comes back to rule over Mexico.

—Octavio Paz, The Labyrinth of Solitude, p. 45-46

Paz was known as an artist who often wrote deliberately at the edges of genres. He excelled at carefully balancing philosophical meditations with poetic expression in his writing—all while uncovering truths on subjects ranging from politics to love, and doing so with characteristic lucidity.

Wordfest’s mini-series on Octavio Paz includes the following articles:

– The Year of Octavio Paz [Part 1]
– The Significance of Beginnings [Part 2]
– Octavio Paz: Philosophy & Poetry Interpreted [Part 3]
– Mexican Literature “after Octavio Paz” [Part 4]
– Alberto Ruy Sanchez on Octavio Paz [Part 5]