Via Ellipsis – Spain
Second Steps (Capítulo 3)
VI
We arrived in Valencia’s Joaquin Sorolla train station early in the morning, so we didn’t find too many people as we exited the sleek AVE (high-speed train). We were amazed by the wide-open spaces inside the station, the ultramodern facilities we passed through, and the pieces of art scattered here and there in the large lounge areas. Everything perspired modernity, technology and sophistication and a little bit of flamboyance too, If I’m allowed to say so.
We rode to the city center, noticing the first signs of something weird before even leaving the bus. We ambled down the wide streets and, as we approached Malvarrosa beach, saw – along the modernist 5 storey buildings – people walking as if in a zombie movie. They didn’t look like they knew what they were doing; they didn’t glance left or right when crossing the streets; their eyes were lost in infinity. Simultaneously, we noticed an intense smell of paella, but, considering that we were in Valencia, we thought little of it.
“Brothers and sisters come together for the service of our great goddess paella.” – “No ham, no tortilla, only paella!” chanted a multitude of lookalike acolytes in response to the first sentence coming out of the megaphone. That mass, on arriving in the main square, began to kneel down before an immense smoking paellera. The surrealism of the scene was somewhere between low key gastronomy and parody.
“The virtual reality they are experiencing is in their local e-brain network which, of course, somebody is controlling for their own benefit,” explained María. “So they behave accordingly, no matter how crazy the message that they are receiving through their terminals is.”
Ideologies, when taken to the extreme, can be a minefield for the regular citizen and apparently we seem to be entering a new period of extremism and ideology a la carte, each of them a paramount example of divisiveness. This whole situation reminded me of the narratives called esperpentos and popularized by the Spanish writer Ramon María del Valle Inclán in the XIX century. They tried to depict the flaws of Spanish society at that time, as well as the living conditions of the poorest strata of society. These stories emphasized the most surreal, tacky, sordid or extreme aspects of life.
We weren’t experiencing the life of most people around us, and precisely that made us capable of leaving the place unnoticed.
It seemed pretty obvious that the ideologies in each region had reached extremes so absurd that they ceased to make sense and gradually were becoming parodies of themselves. However, that didn’t make them less dangerous, because the tight control – through fear and technology – that the local rulers imposed on normal people did force them not only to do the weirdest things but to transform reality in the most terrifying way. Yeah! Pretty much that…. They didn’t seem to be enjoying the parody they were living.
Next, when we exited the AVE at Madrid’s Atocha train station, we saw a diverse bunch of people: beggars, pickpockets, commuters, CEOs of international companies, secret police officers, street artists, tourists – all speaking different languages, some looking good, others bad, one poor, the next rich, a few trendy, most old-fashioned, and so on.
All of them scurried about, but without either stumbling or hitting each other, moving as if guided by an invisible hand, each acting a role in a movie that was being shot 24/7.
We decided to go to the city center to better explore the capital of the country and see the effects that the locally controlled e-brain had had on the people there. Apparently, everything was okay, a bit too much okay, you might say. There was no screaming, no laughing, no running to catch the bus, no begging, no dog poo on the ground, no pickpockets harassing the tourists…. When we arrived in Puerta del Sol next, night fell upon the city all of a sudden and everything turn dark. That definitively made no sense. It was 11:30 AM, we instinctively looked up and saw the Palacio Real, the biggest in Europe, floating over our heads and above the buildings. “Heil to Queen Letizia!” screamed a metallic prerecorded voice on a megaphone, “Empress of the Borbonic Metaverse!” María and I looked at each other, but couldn’t utter a word.
For several days I’ve been trying desperately to talk to Dara, but for some reason I couldn’t do it. Marcial actually was the only one who really knew how to establish a connection with the world of the living, and his behavior had become so erratic lately that I could hardly engage in a short coherent conversation with him. I was trying to figure out what I had done the last few times I managed to communicate with my girl, but my efforts were fruitless.
Without noticing it, I began to wander about that timeless, indeterminate, foggy place I had inhabited for the last… 90 years? I almost stumbled over a blurry figure which appeared out of nowhere.
“I’m sorry,” my self apologized.
“Grandpa!” replied the dark blurry figure, which now pretty much resembled my granddaughter Dara.
“Sweetheart!” I tried to embrace her, but since both of us lacked the compulsory flesh and bones necessary to materialize that hug, we stupidly closed our arms around empty air.
“What are you doing here? I just wanted to talk to you!” explained my self after the initial embarrassment. “I’ve asked María to help me communicate with you, because the last time was through e-brain. For some reason that device allows us to have access to this place, whatever this is.”
“Yes, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about. I think there is a link between this place and the things people think…” I said. “Moreover, I’m not the only one realizing that. Do you remember the man who used to talk to me and gave the messages I passed on to you last time?”
“Of course, grandpa,” replied Dara hesitantly.
“That man, Marcial, is neither an angel nor a person. I’ve recently discovered that he is a product of an old CSIC (High Center for Scientific Research) experiment devised in the 90s…”
“What?” said Dara in awe.
“He’s a very smart piece of hard- and software that those crazy scientists invented to provide machines with a soul of their own. I still don’t know how this software infiltrated Maria’s AI and, since then, wants to control the minds and thoughts of all Spaniards. Although lately it seems to be acting rather randomly…”
“And what can we do, grandpa?”
“I’m not sure, but I have the feeling that if you and I manage to solve this problem, things may change for the better, for everyone.”
(…to be continued…)
Transadaptation Volume 7 – Via Ellipsis – Continuation of Uncertainty, Instability and Extremes Transadapted
January: An Unexpected Trip Down Memory Lane – Sarah-Leah Pimentel (South Africa)
February: Blow-up – Veronika Groke (Austria)
March: Futuros Murguistas – Alejandra Baccino Uberti (Uruguay)
April: The Nomenclature Man – Paulius Limantas (Lithuania)
May: Amanecerá y veremos – Adriana Uribe (Colombia)
June: Finding Light in Yerevan – Armine Asryan (Armenia)
July: The Last Judgement – Nadia Silva Castro (Brazil)
August: Puzzled – a collaged nivola by and of perypatetik authors (International)
September: Second Steps – Jonay Quintero Hernandez (Spain)
October: New Normality – Svetlana Molchanova (Russia)
November: Beyond Comprehension – Rahaf Konbaz (Syria)
December: Who’s Afraid of the Big, Bad Worm? (Parts I and II) – Narantsogt (Natso) Baatarkhuu (Mongolia)
Background – Context
Transadaptation Volume 6: Meaning? – Uncertainty, Instability and Extremes Transadapted, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2025)
Transadaptation Volume 5: Of Flowing Vicissitudes – Life Transadapted, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2024)
Transadaptation Volume 4: Material Dissent – Adulthood Transadapted, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2023)
Transadaptation Volume 3: Evanescent – Young Adulthood Transadapted, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2022)
Transadaptation Volume 2: Conceived – Childhood Transadapted, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2021)
Transadaptation Volume 1: In the Middle – Prelude to a Contemporary Transadaptation, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2020)
Peripatetic Alterity: A Philosophical Treatise on the Spectrum of Being – Romantics and Pragmatists by Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2019)
La Syncrétion of Polarization and Extremes Transposée, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2019)
The Codex of Uncertainty Transposed, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2018)
L’anthologie of Global Instability Transpuesta, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2017)
From Wahnsinnig to the Loony Bin: German and Russian Stories Transposed to Modern-day America, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2013)
Emblems and stories on the international community
Perception by country – Transposing emblems, articles, short stories and reports from around the world
Credits
Background photo: Madrid, Spain – The subway – Diego Alexander (Unsplash)
Peripheral photos (clockwise from bottom left): 1. Taborno, Spain – Tucked away – Erick Morales Oyola (Unsplash); 2. Madrid, Spain – The building – Klaudia Borowiec (Unsplash); 3. Tenerife, Spain – Mountainside – Babi Kacharava (Unsplash); 4. Madrid, Spain – Veining – Klaudia Borowiec (Unsplash); 5. Madrid, Spain – Purple and red – Maria Lopez Jorge (Unsplash); 5. Taborno, Spain – Saffron – Erick Morales Oyola (Unsplash); 6. La Orotava, Spain – The countryside – Erick Morales Oyola (Unsplash); 7. Madrid, Spain – Bathed in light – Robin van der Wal (Unsplash); 8. La Gomera, Spain – Enmountained – Mike Workman (Shutterstock)