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Antebi. A Tiger in The Tank
Antebi. A Tiger in The Tank
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A TIGER IN THE TANK: A LITERARY GENETICS
OF THE MEXICAN AXOLOTL
SUSAN ANTEBI
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, RIVERSIDE
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76 Latin American Literary Review
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A Literary Genetics of the Mexican Axolotl 77
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78 Latin American Literary Review
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A Literary Genetics of the Mexican Axolotl 79
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80 Latin American Literary Review
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A Literary Genetics of the Mexican Axolotl 81
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82 Latin American Literary Review
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A Literary Genetics of the Mexican Axolotl 83
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84 Latin American Literary Review
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A Literary Genetics of the Mexican Axolotl 85
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86 Latin American Literary Review
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A Literary Genetics of the Mexican Axolotl 87
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88 Latin American Literary Review
that the centrality of X?lotl precedes that of his brother, and that only
later did Quetzalc?atl come to occupy the principal position in the
N?huatl pantheon ( 164).
Insistence here on the role of transformation, as key to the link
between the god and the amphibian within a single etymological
encoding, derives from references to the series of transformations
which X?lotl undergoes, according to various transcribed versions
of N?huatl mythology. In Bernardino de Sahag?n, X?lotl, seeking
to avoid death, transforms himself into a "pie de ma?z que tiene dos
ca?as," a maguey, and finally, an ax?lotl (Moreno 165).14 Yet in ad
dition, this exclusive emphasis on transformation as the axolotVs
primary characteristic elides the problem of neotenia, and that of the
difference between species, the fact that tigrinum animals do undergo
metamorphosis while pure members of the mexicanum species do
not. In other words, if the god X?lotl is difficult to classify, as is the
axolotl, what links the two is more than an apparent transformative
capacity. The connection in fact indicates a slippery area where sci
entific observation and textual interpretation merge in self-replicating
ambivalence. The lack of distinction between transformative and
neotenic species in the text, along with the repetition of an error from
nineteenth century biology, serves in this case to highlight the double
structure of the ajolote problem, notwithstanding the author's inten
tions in this regard. The explicit ambivalence inherent in the duality
Quetzalc?atl-X?lotl, as revealed here, points once again towards the
literally hybrid locus of the mexicanum and tigrinum genomes. What
stands out amongst the various texts and references Moreno cites is
not so much a definition of the characteristics of a "real" or mytho
logical axolotl, nor an answer to the enigma of the animal's name.
Instead one glimpses an opening through which the conjugation of
observations and "erroneous" conclusions shows that multiple texts
and species of ambystoma continue to participate in the redefinition
of the axolotl as object of study.
The ajolote of Elizondo's text, and its place in a literary history
marked, in particular, by the legacy of Georges Bataille, also suggests
another kind of metamorphosis. Both the dedication of "Ambystoma
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A Literary Genetics of the Mexican Axolotl 89
Trigrinum," to Severo Sarduy, and the title of the book in which the
text appears, El graf?grafo, point towards the ensemble of texts in
which this representation of the ajolote participates. This graphocentric
dialogue initially emerges, according to Emir Rodriguez Monegal,
from a series of photographs of Chinese torture, which appears in
Georges Dumas' Trait? de psychologie. It re-emerges in Bataille's
Les larmes d'Eros, and later tranforms itself into the theme of a
chapter of Cort?zar 's Rayuela, eventually becoming the central, and
visual axis of Elizondo's Farabeuf. Sarduy once again takes up the
transformative thread of this scene of torture, both in his "Del yin al
yang" (from "Escrito sobre un cuerpo") and in his novel, Cobra. The
endless game of sign and image as continuous metamorphosis?cen
tral to Sarduy's notion of the Baroque?suggests the familiar reading
of a saturated text as pure surface. What seems to unite the texts in
this series is not so much their common theme of the photography
of torture, but rather the way in which they continuously elaborate
on the problem of the empty space of visual and written representa
tion, suspended in a spatial-temporal aporia. It is thus with a playful
gesture, a mimicry and redoubling of the endless textual surface, that
Rodriguez Monegal concludes his exploration of Cobra, and affirms
that "no he citado a Derrida ni una sola vez" (1750).
The pleasure that this articulation produces seems, predictably,
to prolong the non-place of writing, or the impropriety of the Der
ridean proper name. It is a pleasure that at the same time allows the
reader to continue to insist, at least for the moment, upon the tired
logic of the bottomless sign. The empty trace, as gesture and theme
that is recognizable in the writing of Elizondo, and that of Sarduy,
indicates the literary trajectory of a graphocentrism in which both
authors participate. Yet the particular relationship that emerges, be
tween "Ambystoma Trigrinum" and "Del yin al yang" also makes
possible a rereading of the problem of the body in the text, in which
this empty trace does not necessarily have the last word.
One may arrive at the figure of the ajolote in Elizondo via multiple
pathways. As mentioned above, Elizondo dedicates his "Ambystoma
Trigrinum," or tiger salamander, from the 1972 book El graf?grafo,
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90 Latin American Literary Review
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A Literary Genetics of the Mexican Axolotl 91
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92 Latin American Literary Review
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A Literary Genetics of the Mexican Axolotl 93
play of signs releases into an even more severe literality. And at least
for an instant, it becomes painfully clear who is looking at whom.
How is one to interpret the narrator's apparently troubled bewil
derment? Does it suggest the limit to graphocentric activity, where
the pure trace of writing, as privileged site of violence, gives way to
a corpse that can no longer move, and whose name will change no
further? In Elizondo's terms, uLa salamandra yace muerta; ahogada"
(31, my emphasis). Or might it simply indicate one of the poles of
a binary of fluidity and fixity, insistent in its continuous oscillation?
As the same narrator concludes, "El cad?ver fl?cido y verguiforme
es la figura de esa metamorfosis" (31). A conventional interpretation
of graphocentrism in this case would highlight the transcendence of
the fluidity of the written sign. And yet, something remains, between
bewilderment and revenge, even in the most graphocentric moments
of the text. This remainder emerges in part because of the problem of
a literalized vengeance, but above all because of links, as described
here, between Elizondo's story, references to the scientific study of
the axolotl, and N?huatl mythology. Thus theories and stories of
graphocentrism, scientific anecdotes on the problem of metamorphosis
in the axolotl, and the roles of X?lotl and the axolotl in prehispanic
and colonial texts, all begin to merge until reaching crucial instances
of overlap, in which the body-object of study begins to function in
place of a theoretical frame that purported to represent it. X?lotl's
ambivalence and Elizondo's hovering duality of grapheme and
referent both represent and give way to the uncertain and errone
ously documented simultaneity of A. Mexicanum and A. Tigrinum.
Therefore, rather than an endless standoff between fluid and rigid
versions of the axolotl, it is the points of contact and overlap between
the seductive vortex of the graphocentric textual tradition, and the
insistent gesture of scientific taxonomy, that most effectively situate
this literary and fleshly amphibian at the crux of a Latin American
discursive conundrum.
The effect of the juxtaposition ressembles a scenario described by
Derrida, Rodr?guez Monegal's above-cited quip notwithstanding:
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94 Latin American Literary Review
The figure of the ajolote "limps" to the extent that its very tactile,
tangible corporeality participates in its curious literary function, or
in the sense that the ajolote exemplifies, with excessive precision, a
theoretical framework which in any case could not exist if it weren't
for the extra-textual ajolote, always present somewhere. By the same
token, the limp of the Latin American ajolote exemplifies its uncertain
division between, on one hand, the ambivalence of the graphocentric
trace, circulating between Bataille, Cort?zar, Sarduy, Elizondo (and
even Derrida), and on the other, the taxonomical history of the first
axolotl immigrants to France, and that of their descendants.
Insistence on the combined corporeality and graphocentrism of
the ajolote at once suggests the uncertainty described by Sarduy in his
reading of the "return of the body" as Baroque, transvestite, tatooed,
and painted: "una pura apariencia, una mimesis" (1303).
For Sarduy, the efficacy of the corporeal gesture remains unre
solved:
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A Literary Genetics of the Mexican Axolotl 95
NOTES
11 would like to thank John Ochoa for his helpful comments on an earlier
version of this article.
1 use the term 'ajolote,' to reflect common usage in Mexico; 'axolotl' is the
scientific name which is used internationally to refer to ambystoma mexicanum\ the
accented 'ax?lotl' comes from N?huatl, and appears in the transcribed versions of
some codices. I have attempted to remain faithful to the terms used by each author
cited here, despite inevitable interchanges between the uses of the three words.
2 Victorio Ag?era analyzes the notion of graphocentrism in his article on El
graf?grafo.
3 For Bartra, the rupture of this dialectic occurs when Mexicans abandon the
figure of the axolote, refusing both the "larval primitivism" of a mythic national
past, and a metamorphosis that would project them into modernity: "Sin haber
sido modernos, ahora son desmodernos; ya no se parecen al axolote, son otros,
son diferentes" (242).
4 As Brett Levinson has written, in reference to Cort?zar's story, "Latin America
does not forfeit its original, genuine being when its indigenous or axolotl world
meets the West during the colonial period. Rather, convergence is the birth, origin,
and essence which the Latin American never ceases both to be and to inherit, but
over which he never succeeds in taking ownership" (18).
51 refer here for example to Emir Rodriguez Monegal's reading of the last
three pages of One hundred years of solitude. Although in this case the text is not,
technically speaking, a fantastic one, the structure proposed by the critic highlights
the role of ethics with respect to the apparent dead-end of textual limits; the same
dilemma is relevant in reading Elizondo's text.
6 The correct term seems to be 'tigrinum,' rather than 'trigrinum,' according
to most of the scientific literature consulted.
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96 Latin American Literary Review
7 As Gustavo Casas Andreu et al. insist: "In Mexico the ajolote is so forgot
ten that, while internationally the term axolotl has been assigned exclusively to
the ajolote of Xochimilco (Ambystoma mexicanum), here in our country we call
any representative of the Ambystoma genre 'ajolote.' Ronald Brandon (1989) the
researcher who assigned the name, even textually emphasizes the following: 'It
may seem pedantic-even futile- to attempt to control the use of a common name, but
in this instance the benefit would be great"' (306). ("En M?xico hemos tenido tan
olvidados a los ajolotes, que internacionalmente el t?rmino axolotl se ha asignado
en forma exclusiva al ajolote de Xochimilco (Ambystoma mexicanum), cuando aqu?
en nuestro pa?s se le llama 'ajolote' a cualquier representante del g?nero Ambys
toma. Ronald Brandon (1989) el investigador que hace la asignaci?n del nombre,
inclusive se?ala textualmente lo siguiente...).
8 The axolotls were sent by General Forey, a French military officer who was
in Mexico as part of the preparation for the regency of the emperor Maximiliano
(Casas G. et. Al. 305).
9 "Another experiment remained in order to successfully modify respiratory
function. This consisted of destroying the branchia, in order to see whether, on
forcibly becoming lung-breathing animals, the axolotls would undergo the modi
fications described above." ("Une autre exp?rience restait ? faire pour parvenir ?
modifier la fonction de la respiration. Elle consistait ? d?truire les branchies, afin
de constater si, devenus forc?ment animaux ? respiration pulmonaire, les Axolotls
subiraient l'ensemble des modifications d?crites plus haut" (Dumeril 248).
10 "Les Axolotls de la M?nagerie devraient donc ?tre consid?r?s comme des
t?tards d'Amblystome" (253). Note that "Amblystoma" is an archaic form of the
current Ambystoma.
11 Bartra includes discussion of Dum?ril's work in his book, but does not
specifically pursue the question of why some of the second generation of axolotls
metamorphosed while the first did not.
12 Note that both writers substitute "tigrinum" with "trigrinum."
13 At another point in his text, Moreno cites Eduard Seier, who uses the term
"amblystoma mexicanum" to refer to the axolotl (170) but the taxonomical differ
ence between the species is not emphasized.
14 For further discussion of X?lotl and the legend of the fifth sun, see Bartra,
97-105.
15 Sarduy also cites this reference in "La simulaci?n" (1270).
16 "Que se passe-t-il quand des actes ou des performances (discours ou ?cri
ture, analyse ou description, etc.) font partie des objets qu'ils d?signent? Quand ils
peuvent se donner en exemple de cela m?me dont ils parlent ou ?crivent? On n'y
gagne certainement pas une transparence auto-r?flexive, au contraire. Le compte
n'est plus possible, ni le compte-rendu, et les bords de l'ensemble ne sont alors
ni ferm?s ni ouverts. Leur trait se divise et des entrelacs ne se d?font plus (...) Sa
d?marche est l'un de ses objets, d'o? l'allure, et c'est pourquoi ?a ne peut pas aller
tr?s bien ni marcher tout seul (...) Alors ?a boite et ?a ferme mal" (417-418). The
English version of the text is cited by David Wills in Prosthesis.
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A Literary Genetics of the Mexican Axolotl 97
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