''Las armas secretas'' (translates to ''The Secret Weapons'' in English) is a book of five

short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest t ...

written by

Julio Cortázar Julio Florencio Cortázar (26 August 1914 – 12 February 1984; ) was an Argentine, nationalized French novelist, short story writer, essayist, and translator. Known as one of the founders of the Latin American Boom, Cortázar influenced an ent ...

. The latter four stories appear in translation in the volume ''

Blow-up and Other Stories ''Blow-Up and Other Stories'' is a collection of short stories, selected from the short fiction of the Argentinian author Julio Cortázar.This article refers to the 1967, 1963 Random House Copyrighted publication of the book by this name, as tran ...

'' (alternatively titled ''The End of the Game and Other Stories''); the first story, "Cartas de Mamá," was published by Sublunary Editions as a stand-alone paperback in English translation by Magdalena Edwards in 2022.

Stories

*"Letters from Mom": a story about an Argentine couple living in exile in Paris where they live under the yoke of a dark story that happened before leaving Buenos Aires. *"Good services" ("At Your Service" in the US translation): a mystery with a strong element of social criticism. *"The Droolings of the Devil" ("Blow-Up" in the US translation): the story that inspired the film ''

Blowup ''Blowup'' (sometimes styled as ''Blow-up'' or ''Blow Up'') is a 1966 mystery drama thriller film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni and produced by Carlo Ponti. It was Antonioni's first entirely English-language film, and stars David Hemming ...

'' by

Michelangelo Antonioni Michelangelo Antonioni (, ; 29 September 1912 – 30 July 2007) was an Italian filmmaker. He is best known for directing his "trilogy on modernity and its discontents"—''L'Avventura'' (1960), ''La Notte'' (1961), and ''L'Eclisse'' (1962 ...

for its digressive execution of metalinguistic narrative and lucid contemplation; ''(its beginning guarantees it, never will you know how it has to be told, if in the first person or in the second, using the third person plural or continually inventing forms that serve no purpose)'' *"The Pursuer": a

homage Homage (Old English) or Hommage (French) may refer to: History *Homage (feudal) /ˈhɒmɪdʒ/, the medieval oath of allegiance *Commendation ceremony, medieval homage ceremony Arts *Homage (arts) /oʊˈmɑʒ/, an allusion or imitation by one arti ...

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

and the creator of

bebop Bebop or bop is a style of jazz developed in the early-to-mid-1940s in the United States. The style features compositions characterized by a fast tempo, complex chord progressions with rapid chord changes and numerous changes of key, instrumen ...

Charlie Parker Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird", was an American jazz saxophonist, band leader and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of bebop, a form ...

, in which Cortázar unfurls countless musical choices, between

allegories As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory th ...

and

metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wit ...

s, that reveal to the reader the author's exquisite passion for music. *"Secret Weapons": a story centering on the conflict between Pierre and Michele, a young couple in Paris after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

References

1959 short story collections Short story collections by Julio Cortázar Postmodern books {{postmodernism-stub