Shibari by Juan José Burzi: A Review
Desire Slaves
Shibari, by Juan José Burzi, is composed of nine tales: a catalog of perverse emotions expressed through the manipulation of bodies in the most varied ways. The story that gives the volume its title is about a group of people. They are passionate about the erotic bondage technique and meet in a dojo in Buenos Aires. Everything seems within the limits of the controlled. That is, until a nawashi, a rope artist, arrives from Japan, ready to take them to a much higher level. In “New Treatise on Mannequins,” the protagonist enjoys inhabiting a certain terrain of ambiguity and indefiniteness. This is reminiscent of the work of Pierre Molinier, but it does not stay there. It is also an essay on automata and other human simulacra. Also related to Molinier is Mayer, the painter of the story “The Work of Fire.” His search goes by other paths, but has same vehicle: the flesh transforms.
“Zombie Chronicles” is an interesting exercise in dystopian imagination that acts as a break in the series. It allows you to catch a breath before re-entering the underground corridors and stale of Burzi’s narrative. These are small vignettes that imagine individual tragedies—minimal, but no less horrifying—on the fringes of the collective apocalypse. Much more played than almost all the works written within the zombie subgenre, this section has its final coda in Tania. This is the story that closes the set, reserving the greatest depravity for dessert. But it is not that what is in the middle is not deprived. There is plenty to go through: the forest, with its scenes of witchcraft and sinister dreams; the disturbing inner transformation in Severo; or Apiel, who mixes pagan fantasy with incest and rape. All are disturbing little jewels in their beauty and darkness.
Shibari by Juan José Burzi: the Author Himself
Cultist of a carefully distilled synthetic prose, Burzi continues an aesthetic search with Shibari. The author has maintained this aesthetic progressively and organically throughout previous titles. This includes his book of essays on Caravaggio, where aesthetic and spiritual cross the spatial-temporal and disciplinary distance. In his ars poetic Burzi explores topics such as the monstrous, perversity, emotional horror, toxic bonds, and immolation. And he does so before he delves into the expression of the beautiful and the sublime.
Despite the dark atmosphere and the lyrical accuracy with which he arranges the words, it would be a mistake to classify Burzi (only) as a horror writer. The reason is he involves and transcends classifications into a larger literature. Plus, he dialogues directly with his teachers: Yunichiro Tanizaki, Ryunosuké Akutagawa, Joris Karl Huysmans, Oscar Wilde, Edgar Allan Poe, Gabrielle Wittkop, Octave Mirbau, Jean Lorrain, Petrus Borel, and Clive Barker. The author of Shibari is heir to a whole tradition of great decadentist writers who have wisely mixed the beautiful and the disgusting as an expression of the human spirit in its most extreme duality.
Final Thoughts on Shibari by Juan José Burzi — And Many Provocations
In the context of the contemporary Argentinian narrative, Shibari is refreshing. This context nurtures by the absence of interesting proposals on the part of the authors—or perhaps by the laziness of the critics who are always reluctant to read things they have not read. We should devote inordinate attention, as press and critical studies, to authors who seem like pale shadow in contrast to what in other times was understood by “transgressive writers”: mere courtiers who seek to win readers among the well-thinking snobbish progress.
Shibari by Juan José Burzi is an oasis of autonomy, both stylistic and thematic, as well as political incorrectness and a universality that remains pristine. This book waiting for new readers to discover it. When the Byzantine discussions between “dull-literature-of-the-me-devoid-plot-but-cool” versus “authors-of-genres-who-copy-Lovecraft-or-Tolkien-not-contributing-more-than-errors-of-syntax” are less than the ashes of a bad memory, Burzi’s work will remain vital and fresh, proud in its simplicity, indifferent to the inclemencies of the canon and the changing fashions of our academic and editorial circles.
Bibliography
Burzi, Juan José. Shibari. Evaristo: 2018.
