Javier%20Mar%EDas%3A%20modern%20literature%u2019s%20great%20philosopher%20of%20everyday%20absurdity%20%7C%20Books%20%7C%20The%20Guardian

Javier%20Mar%EDas%3A%20modern%20literature%u2019s%20great%20philosopher%20of%20everyday%20absurdity%20%7C%20Books%20%7C%20The%20Guardian: Of%20course%2C%20the%20world%20of%20spies%20was%20not%20his%20only%20interest%3A%20he%20enjoyed%20dissecting%20the%20games%20of%20academia%2C%20the%20tangles%20of%20erotic%20strategies%2C%20the%20gossipy%20realm%20of%20writing%20and%20publishing.%20But%20the%20spy%20story%20above%20all%20allowed%20Mar%EDas%20to%20explore%20the%20consequences%20of%20our%20playing%20games%20with%20each%20other.%20Whatever%20story%20he%20chose%20to%20tell%20was%20for%20him%20merely%20a%20starting%20point%3A%20the%20reader%20had%20to%20do%20the%20rest.%20%u201COnce%20you%u2019ve%20finished%20a%20novel%2C%u201D%20says%20one%20of%20his%20characters%20in%20The%20Infatuations%2C%20%u201Cwhat%20happened%20in%20it%20is%20of%20little%20importance%20and%20soon%20forgotten.%20What%20matters%20are%20the%20possibilities%20and%20ideas%20that%20the%20novel%u2019s%20imaginary%20plot%20communicates%20to%20us%20and%20infuses%20us%20with%2C%20a%20plot%20that%20we%20recall%20far%20more%20vividly%20than%20real%20events%20and%20to%20which%20we%20pay%20far%20more%20attention.%u201D%0A%0AAdvertisement%0A%0AMar%EDas%2C%20who%20died%20this%20week%20shortly%20before%20his%2071st%20birthday%2C%20was%20one%20of%20Spain%u2019s%20major%20novelists%20and%20a%20perennial%20candidate%20for%20the%20Nobel%20prize.%20He%20was%20the%20son%20of%20the%20celebrated%20philosopher%20Juli%E1n%20Mar%EDas%2C%20a%20disciple%20of%20Jos%E9%20Ortega%20y%20Gasset%2C%20founder%20of%20the%20Revista%20de%20Occidente%2C%20a%20magazine%20in%20which%20many%20of%20the%20luminaries%20of%20the%20first%20half%20of%20the%2020th%20century%20published%20much%20of%20their%20work.%20No%20doubt%20the%20philosophical%20atmosphere%20that%20reigned%20at%20home%2C%20and%20his%20father%u2019s%20firm%20opposition%20to%20Franco%u2019s%20regime%2C%20which%20landed%20him%20a%20jail%20sentence%2C%20moulded%20Mar%EDas%u2019s%20childhood%20and%20adolescence.%20Like%20Iris%20Murdoch%2C%20whom%20he%20much%20admired%2C%20he%20believed%20that%20fiction%20must%20find%20its%20starting%20point%20in%20a%20philosophical%20question%2C%20and%20he%20agreed%20with%20her%20that%20%u201Cevery%20book%20is%20the%20wreck%20of%20a%20perfect%20idea%u201D.%0A%0A%u201CLife%20cannot%20be%20narrated%2C%u201D%20Mar%EDas%20wrote%20in%20A%20Heart%20So%20White%2C%20%u201Cand%20it%20is%20extraordinary%20that%20we%20nevertheless%20have%20tried%20throughout%20the%20centuries%20to%20tell%20what%20cannot%20be%20told%2C%20whether%20in%20the%20form%20of%20myth%2C%20epic%20poem%2C%20chronicle%2C%20annals%2C%20minutes%2C%20fable%2C%20legend%20or%20canticle%2C%20blind%20man%u2019s%20ballads%20or%20corridos%2C%20gospel%2C%20hagiography%2C%20history%2C%20biography%2C%20novel%20or%20funeral%20eulogy%2C%20film%2C%20confession%2C%20memoir%2C%20report%2C%20it%20really%20doesn%u2019t%20matter.%u201D%0A%0A