La Paz: Editorial El Cuervo, 2024. 272 pages.
The body, proximal but inaccessible, known and at the same time monstrous, is central to the works of Maximiliano Barrientos (Santa Cruz, 1979). He carries out what we could call a deep investigation into the body itself in his most recent short story collection, El horizonte del grito (El Cuervo, 2024), entering fully into horror together with a weird narrative. What are the limits of the body? Could expanding or merging it with other elements achieve a more immediate access to meaning? How does one overcome that boundary and what could happen by doing so? El horizonte del grito shows us a different type of fiction, which transcends the clichés of horror and takes them on a different path. It looks at the dissolution of the individual and the world and at obtaining a primordial meaning by breaking down the barriers of the flesh. A mixture of philosophy and terror in an imagined fantasy that exceeds any model of these peripheral genres in our continent. One could even say that this book lays the foundation of a new type of narrative: metaphysical horror, perhaps?
His previous work, the book Miles de ojos (Caja Negra Editora, 2022), in which a cult in Santa Cruz intends to use a sports car as a tool in a ritual to free a mysterious entity capable of transfiguring the world, continues in this new book and expands itself with some stories like “El horizonte del grito,” “Colores monstruosos,” and “Ofrenda.” These are stories that were being cooked up even before the publication of that novel, which was a finalist for the Finestres Prize for Fiction in 2022.
“I wrote three before Miles de ojos: ‘El pozo,’ ‘El Horizonte del grito,’ and ‘Ofrenda.’ The rest I wrote in the following years. I have been working on them since 2020,” confirms the author.
These are stories that do not leave the reader indifferent—they hit the reader, due to the sensation of terror surpassing mere strangeness to show something that not only transforms reality, but rather operates in a state close to prophecy, foretelling a dimension which we may reach: a monstrous future that is on the other side of fear and sacrifice. There are gems which are difficult to stop thinking about, such as “La tercera transformación,” where two childhood friends decide to explore the mansion of an old Nazi (supposedly dead) and discover a type of life that has mutated and expanded beyond all natural limits. In “Colores monstruosos,” a man must travel to a remote village to identify the cadaver of his brother, who disappeared years ago. After recognizing him, someone steals his body from the morgue and starts to send him VHS tapes where they are mutilating it. Contemplating these images, a journey without return to a different and perhaps never-before-imagined state begins. In “La canción del espectro,” a plane disappears in the jungle near Santa Cruz, leaving its two hundred thirty passengers for dead. When hunters and biologists start reporting sightings of children in the jungle a year later, a documentary producer sends a team to investigate, but what they discover brings about disastrous consequences for everyone. The author says:
That is a story in which I wanted to rethink the Marxist tradition from the present time. And especially from that Derridean approach that sees it as a specter, as something that is always lurking and is resistant to disappearing. Marx is necessary now more than ever because his critique of capitalism continues to be the most pertinent. How can we think of a qualitative change? That story works with that anxiety. I wanted to think of the idea of revolution as a sudden interruption, that is always open, but I wanted to think through allegorical images, like the plane crash, and like all the scenes that contribute to body horror.
And then there is the story that gives this collection its title, where some teenagers who are black metal fans and full of rage plan to burn a church as a sign of rebellion, but they discover a different form of worship inside of the premises when they are about to carry out their mischief. This music, which helps to free those hallways from intuition and the flesh, continues in the background, growing louder, as you progress through this collection of stories. Bands like Mayhem, Samael with their Ceremony of Opposites, and Darkthrone with Transilvanian Hunger.
“El horizonte del grito represents a step further in that exploration of the mutation of space, of mental scenes that supersede the boundary of dreams.”
Barrientos also explores topics beyond body horror and the metaphysical with some stories questioning Latin American politics and dictatorships. That is the case of “El pozo,” in which a mayor with a disabling mental illness tries to keep his condition hidden from the public with the help of his entourage, but his behavior becomes increasingly erratic and disturbing. This character is a reflection of Percy Fernández Añez, who was the mayor of his hometown, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, for six terms.
“If every fiction book reflects certain social contradictions of certain historical periods, I believe the non-realist genres do it in a special way. What can they tell us about the weirdness of the violence of capitalism? This is something that has been troubling me for some time,” says Barrientos.
El horizonte del grito represents a step further in that exploration of the mutation of space, of mental scenes that supersede the boundary of dreams and modify reality, and of the body extending itself to become part of a greater entity. It looks at a universe which the Bolivian author plans to continue utilizing.
There are few works that can be compared to this book and, besides the influences of J.G. Ballard, Thomas Ligotti and Jeff VanderMeer, there are few authors who currently write in such a forceful and extreme way and can be likened to Barrientos.
What is the most important thing a story should achieve? The author responds: “It should make you rethink the concept you have of literature. If a book does not do that, making you doubt everything you believed literature was, then that book failed.”
El horizonte del grito makes one rethink many concepts beyond literary ones in a deep way. It is a journey without return.
Translated by Jared Peterson
