Tantalia: Two Stories

           Alejandro Zambra’s novel, Bonsai, although short, was written in a format different from other stories that use both the past and present as a way to convey its story. The future is always apparent for the reader is told the ending at the beginning of the story. It also focuses heavily on language, and Zambra also uses the format of writing a story within another story giving this very personal feeling between both the story and writer but also with the reader. Comparing both the film and novel, it is apparent that they are similar. However, there seem to be more differences. In this essay, I plan on graphing out their differences in scene, character, and creativity and discovering whether or not anything is lost in the retelling of Bonsai.

           Language in this novel is essential. It was written in Spanish, and because it has been translated, certain meanings get lost in translation. On the first page, the introduction ends with, “The rest is literature.” In the film, it is translated as, “The rest is fiction.” While reading this, it makes much more sense as the rest is history; it is also a sort of cliché line. It’s only natural for a reader to assume the words that follow ‘the rest’…with history. The rest is fiction has this way of setting up the story. Using the word literature has this sort of meaning that implies the book itself. ‘The rest is literature’ has this way of not only forming an interesting way of looking at the novel, but I feel as though Zambra had meant it to be translated in that way, as the writer. Literature can be many types of writing; although both can be creative fiction can only be fiction. In an interview, Zambra mentioned how, when writing he envisions book rather than a novel. The difference between the book and a novel is that a book can be anything. And Zambra wanted Bonsai, in this case, to be able to fill any list versus being confined to a novel’s requirements. Others often say how Zambra’s writing is like poetry, after reading Bonsai; one can see how that might be true.

The characters are important, like in any story. They are what the plot moves around, and they help the reader to relate or take an interest in the story. In the book, it balances between its characters. Primarily focusing on either Emilia or Julio, however in the film version some minor characters have had their names change, and the film focuses more on Julio and his point of view whereas, in the book, his is just one side of the story. The book allows you to see the parts they do not allow you to see in the film. As if it was cut out or placed behind a curtain and you’ve only paid to see Julio’s side of things and the way he sees them. In films, there always has to be the main protagonist. It revolves around him and his life, and therefore, the viewer must see it happening from his side. The book allows its readers to discover something unknown about the story and see it from multiple sides. I also found that the relationship between the characters was different in the film than in the book. In an interview with the director of the film, Cristián Jiménez, he mentions:

At first, I didn’t really see a film in the book. It doesn’t have much in the way of visual material; it’s a very literal book in a way. It’s about literature and about language, but I thought there was something in the book which I knew well, and I also wanted to be a writer when I was twenty. We were pretty much the first generation of Chileans who became adults after the dictatorship, and I think that feeling is captured in a really subtle way (Nikolaidis).

The fact that he says, he didn’t see a film in the book strikes me as interesting. Films that portray books are usually another person’s interpretation of a book. That interpretation becomes a different story in itself. Characters had to be changed, but the primary story is somewhat still intact. Both Anita and Maria were characters that appeared close to Emilia and Julio. In the film, they were changed to Barbara and Blanca. Their roles were still the same; however, there are several differences. Maria is portrayed as this woman with white hair, who may or may not be a lesbian. She is his neighbor same in the film; she does appear to be older than him; however, not old enough to have white hair. In the book, Julio seems to be writing his version of Bonsai for her. He intends to give it to her before she leaves. It is the same in the film; however it seemed as though he began writing his version as an excuse to write. He was transcribing it for Gazmuri, and it was a job. He might have also been embarrassed to tell Maria that Gazmuri had found someone else to work for him.

Both the book and film consist of chapters, but each has its own. The book consists of five chapters entitled. I. Mass. II.Tantalia. III. Loans. IV. Spares. V. Two drawings. The film has six and goes by: 1. Proust. 2. Sangre (blood). 3. Bulto (Bulk). 4. Sobras (Leftovers). 5. Tantalia. 6. Maceta (pot). Each of the titles named in the novel represented something in that chapter, and this was a really creative way to tie those things in with the story. Chapter one, Mass, was used to describe our protagonists. “At least during that time, Julio and Emilia managed to merge into a single kind of mass” (Zambra). Both versions share the title Tantalia, a story about lovers who buy a plant, “and keep it as a symbol of the love that unites them. They realize too late that if the plant dies, the love that unites them will die with it” (Zambra). In the film version, Julio and Emilia become obsessed with this story after Julio gives Emilia a plant for her birthday. They become so obsessed with it that they end up ignoring the plant. Chapter 3, Loans, was represented as an action. It was used to explain how close the characters Anita and Emilia were. In the novel, they would loan each other clothes, music, toys and eventually husband. Chapter four, Spares, mentioned several times in different instances. It becomes the actual title of Gazmuri’s novel, but he also says the line, “Perhaps the only thing you’ve got to spare, now that I’m getting a good look at you, is blood” (Zambra). The fact that the word spares becomes the title of not only the chapter but of Gazmuri’s novel sort of encompasses this superior attitude Gazmuri had for Julio. That might have been another reason Julio decided to continue writing his own version of Gazmuri’s novel. Chapter five, Two Drawings, this had Julio comparing both Emilia and Maria and could have been translated to two women:

On a certain particularly long afternoon, Julio decides to start two drawings. In the first one a woman appears who is Maria but who is Emilia: the dark, almost black eyes of Emilia and Marias white hair; Maria’s ass, Emilia’s thighs, Maria’s feet; the back of a daughter of a right-wing intellectual; Emilia’s torso and diminutive breasts; the pubis of Emilia (Zambra).

He combined them both, even though it was primarily Emilia’s features. This one of the biggest creative features in the novel, it presented the title of the book aside from the actual tree and even brought the drawing element into the book’s pages and didn’t just rely on the text to describe it. In the film version, Julio draws one, and like the book, he uses the drawing as a model for how he hopes his bonsai turns out, but the bonsai is Zambra using bonsai to symbolize women in general. But it might also be a symbol for Julio as well. Also mentioned in chapter five is how the living tree and the container, “must be in harmony and the selection of the appropriate pot for a tree is almost an art form in itself” (Zambra). Even though he thought of the women while drawing it, it could represent himself and his own novel that the character wrote within the novel. Among all the relationships mentioned in the story, the one he has with himself lacks the most synchrony.

The relationship between Anita and Emilia is lessened in the novel. Emilia sort of ignores Barbara (Anita) throughout the film; their relationship does not have the same connection the one Zambra created in his novel. However, the scene where Anita questions Julio about changing Emilia is somewhat the same, but the novel version offers the line, “What’s the purpose of being with someone if they don’t change your life?” (Zambra) In the novel, Emilia stands up for Julio, in the film, Emilia did not even seem part of that scene even though she sat in the middle. Anita’s character in the film, Barbara, had more of a relationship with Julio than with Emilia. There is a scene that is not included in the book where the two of them going jogging. They discuss the plant and his concerns, as though it is apparent their relationship is doomed to die like the plant is. He searches for another perspective and turns to her for guidance. Another scene involving them that differs is how they run into each other 8 years later. In the book, they do see each other until the end; in the novel, he sees her with her family and asks about Emilia. She then gives him Emilia’s number and tells him he should give her a call. The film allows present Emilia and present Julio a moment in which they could interact with each other. He calls her and hears her voice, but something tells him to hang up without saying anything. The book does not allow that. Emilia is dead before Julio and Anita are reunited. In the book, his thoughts are obviously about Emilia, which is what his book is about, his relationship with her. That is what the film makes apparent.

           Both of the stories begin and end with death. But another huge difference between these two scenes in both versions is how Emilia’s death is announced and by whom. In the book, Anita is not able to tell Julio of Emilia’s demise. Her husband is the one who tells him. In the book, Barbara (Anita) meets up with him towards the end of the film and tells him. The news of Emilia’s death and how it was delivered was not the only difference made to this scene. Throughout the film, you are aware of the time. You were either eight years earlier or 8 years later, but in the book, time was not as obvious. Julio often referred to time as when he was either in the beginning or end of his relationship with Emilia. Also concerning time, the beginning of the novel focused more on Emilia’s side; they mentioned her childhood, which was completely omitted, aside from her hate for her mother, from the film. Both mention suicide yet in the book, Anita’s husband said that she had jumped in front of a metro. This also had more of a connection between Maria and Emilia:

It’s a woman, a young woman. That’s all Maria manages to know about Emilia. The dead person is a dead woman, a young woman, someone says at her back. A young woman has thrown herself in front of the metro at Anton Martin. For a moment Maria thinks of approaching the place where it occurred, but she immediately represses the impulse. She exits the metro thinking about the alleged face of that young woman who just committed suicide (Zambra).

Aside from being involved sexually with Julio, these women had no other connection. By adding this scene, Zambra has connected the women even though they never actually met. In the film, when Julio runs into Barbara (Anita) he asks about Emilia and Blanca (Maria) is present to hear her name. She later asks who Emilia is, and he just brushes her off as someone he went to school with. That scene, in both versions, is the only time past and present collide. The rest of the story is told in either the past or present.

Moving on to the death scene in the film, Emilia had apparently jumped off a building from the 7th floor. After Julio’s failed attempt at contacting her he tried again towards the end of the film, only he was too late. In this version, Barbara tells him herself instead of her husband. In the movie they had established these two characters being able to sit and have a conversation. But again in the novel, the two of them do not have that relationship. Returning to the subject of time, in Zambra’s version he did not have Julio discover her death until a year had already passed. In the film version, only four months have passed since Emilia’s death. Each version had the same outcome, Julio ended up spending money on a cab ride with no destination. It was a great way to end the story and said a lot without having the narrator actually saying anything at all. Yet, the film was not exactly the story Zambra had originally wrote. It was more like Jiménez embodied is inner Julio and took an idea and wrote his own version. Like Julio did with the Gazmuri’s, only there were more apparent similarities. Although both the film and novel were interesting stories, and I found the film to be an interesting and enjoyable interpretation, I viewed it as a separate story overall.

-KMV-

Bonsai. Dir. Cristián Jimenez. By Alejandro Zambra. N.P., n.d. Web. 01 May 2013.

“No Longer Secondary Characters: CP Heiser in Conversation with Alejandro Zambra.” Molossus. N.P., Mar.-Apr. 2013. Web. 09 May 2013.

Nikolaidis, Leo. “Interview with Cristián Jimenez.” Sounds and Colours. N.P., n.d. Web. 09 May 2013.

Zambra, Alejandro, and Robertis Carolina. De. Bonsai. Brooklyn, NY: Melville House, 2008.