Alternating Current

The majority of the texts in this book were first published in Hispano-American and French periodicals under the general title Corriente Altema. They date from two periods: 1959 to 1961, and 1965 to March 1967. Rather than presenting these reflections on life in our time in the order in which they were written and published, I have decided to group them in three sections: the first deals with literature and art; the second with certain contemporary subjects (drugs, forms of atheism); the third with ethical and political problems. I hope that the contra- puntal unity of these pieces will be apparent despite their fragmentary nature. I believe the fragment to be the form that best reflects the ever-changing reality that We live and are. The fragment is not so much a seed as a stray atom that can be defined only by situating it relative to other atoms: it is nothing more nor less than a relation. This book is a tissue of relations.

Octavio Paz (1914-1998) was born in Mexico City. He wrote many volumes of poetry, as well as a prolific body of remarkable works of nonfiction on subjects as varied as poetics, literary and art criticism, politics, culture, and Mexican history. He was awarded the Jerusalem Prize in 1977, the Cervantes Prize in 1981, and the Neustadt Prize in 1982. He received the German Peace Prize for his political work, and finally, the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1990.