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César Aira: El juego de los mundos (Game of the Worlds)

The subtitle of this book is a science fiction novel and while it certainly is a science fiction novel, it is, of course, a César Aira science fiction novel which is not like anyone else’s science fiction novel. The opening sentence sets the tone: At some time In the far distant future there was a very popular game—a total waste of time—that young people loved to play, much to the chagrin and occasional outrage of their parents. It was called Game of the Worlds. Note that though he is referring to the future, he uses the past tense.

The book is narrated by an unnamed man . He is the father of several children. We do not know whether they were produced sexually or not, not least because he later states that he is both the father and mother of the children. Sex does exist as he has a sexual relationship with a much younger woman.

He has had a close relationship with his children (names, sex and numbers unspecified). However now they have discovered the Game of the Worlds, he has been abandoned to himself and the Intelligent Home System. This is clearly some sort of robot. It is, however, very curmudgeonly, always complaining and criticising. AI has clearly taken over as people do not have to think for themselves. ( Intelligent Systems had taken charge of our mental processes, lifting the burden of thought off the exhausted shoulders of humanity.) We also have a Programmer and Deprogrammer which seem to some kind of AI psychiatrist and which Aira also mocks (it is clearly not all plain sailing in the future) when our narrator consults them later in the book.

However the focus is on the Game of the Worlds. His children seem to do most things together (uniformity is a theme of this book; thanks to AI we all think alike) and this game has totally absorbed them and hey spend a lot of time playing it and, at least initially, tell their father about the individual games and justify their playing it.

The game has some similarities with modern video games in that the basic game consists of confronting an alien civilisation, attacking it and destroying it. The basic difference is that these civilisations really exist. It seems that there are many of these civilisations throughout the universe,more than enough for the children of Earth to destroy.

The father argues with them about playing this game which, essentially, seems to be pure and simple genocide. They defend themselves by saying rhat only by playing this game have we learned of the existence of these civilisations. Moreover the civilisations can defend themselves (at least in theory). He still remains horrified but loves his children dearly and if it keeps therm happy, which it does, so be it. (Whenever my kids sat down to dinner after one of their sessions, they were usually elated by their exploits) and at least the children took some interest in the world they were destroying while the adults were seemingly indifferent). The whole issue of age gap is also a key theme.

He will continue arguing with them about genocide (they adamantly denied this. In war, everything’s allowed so all’s fair, even the dirtiest tricks. The enemy was also allowed everything) and eventually concedes that as they are happy it is all right. How would they like it if it happened to them. They reassure their father that it is not going to happen to them.

The father does something that is really odd in those days. He reads a book. This is not like the way we read but nevertheless is a form of reading. In the beginning, at some point, the Earth was inhabited by a race called Science Fiction Writers. These people, the ancestors of current humans, left behind a language record of the entire future of civilization, and of all possible civilizations, including every possible future. As he comments these forecasts were invariably wrong. Few people read.

The other key point is that people seem very isolated, at least as regards close non-digital contact. He later meets a man of his own age and this is considered very unusual. He knows very little about what other people do. My world is my family, and I’m satisfied with the role of the character I have constructed.

However he does eventually have one major concern about the game: it was preparing the minds of the youth for the reintroduction of the idea of God. Making them familiar with the concept of omnipotence would pave the way for a comeback. He is totally opposed to the return of God. It is about this issue that he meets the other man and they share their concerns.
Even by Aira’s standards this is a strange book. The idea of God only comes in at the very end. The focus is on the game and, more or less, how the children are indifferent to the morality of the game, and completely outsmart their father’s arguments. It is an interesting take on what we might become even as Aira mocks the robots and AI, giving them, to a certain extent, human characteristics (grumbling, incompetence, prevarication). As he himself points out, with reference to science fiction writers of our era, they all got it wrong and that will presumably include his own predictions.

Publishing history

First published in 2000 by Ediciones El Broche
First published in English in 2024 by New Directions
Translated by Katherine Silver