Read Online The Miracle Cures of Dr. Aira by César Aira - Free Book Online Page B

regard. Just because there had
not yet been any miracles, however, didn’t mean they couldn’t happen;
superstition, ignorance, gullibility all led one to think that miracles could
happen just like that, naturally. On the other hand, it was possible to produce
one, create one as an artifact, or better yet, as a work of art. For this, one
only needed to introduce the dimension of human time, which was not difficult
because time participated, by its very heft, in all human activities, and even
more so in those activities that entailed almost superhuman efforts and
difficulties. In practical, everyday terms, time is constantly producing a
mutation of the world. After one minute, even a hundredth of a second, the world
is already different, though not different in the catalogue of possible worlds
but rather a different possible-real one, which is the same, because it has the
same degree of reality. And “the same” is equivalent to “the only.” It was
within this transformational One, otherwise known as “the real,” that Dr. Aira’s
idea for the production of miracles functioned.
    Under these conditions, a miracle was simply impossible.
But it could be created indirectly, through negation, by excluding from the
world everything that was incongruent with it occurring. If one wanted a dog to
fly, all one had to do was separate out each and every fact, without exception,
that was incompatible with a flying dog. However, which facts were these? Here
was the key to the whole thing: to make a correct and exhaustive selection. A
wide field had to be covered: nothing less than the totality of the Universe.
There were no pre-established or thematic or formal limits; the reach of the
“compatible” was, precisely, total. The most far-flung fact or quality — or
constellation of the two — could form part of the great figuration within which
Miracles could or could not take place. Nor were levels a factor, for the line
might run up and down (or to the sides) through all of them. The trick was to
put into play the greatest of all Encyclopedias and to compile the relevant list
from that. Who could do that? The customary response, the one that had been
offered since oldest antiquity was: God. And to remain with that meant Miracles
would have stayed within his jurisdiction. Dr. Aira’s originality was in
postulating that man could do it, too. It had occurred to him once while
listening to the casual reflections of his friend Alfredo Prior, the painter.
Speaking about paintings (perhaps Picasso’s or Rembrandt’s), Alfredito had said,
“No masterpiece is completely perfect, there’s always a slipup, an error,
something sloppy.” This might have been a factual observation, but it was also a
profound truth that Dr. Aira treasured. Human acts not only contained
imperfections but required them as the starting point in their search for
efficacy. Discouragement in the matter of Miracles came from not recognizing
this. If, on the other hand, this deficiency were accepted, creating a miracle
would be as easy (and as difficult) as creating an artistic masterpiece. One
simply had to give oneself time. God could revise the entire Encyclopedia and
make all the right selections in an instant; man needed time (let’s say, an
hour), and he needed to allow himself a margin of error in the selections,
trusting that they would not be critical errors. After all, that mechanism had
an antecedent in the daily functioning of individuals: attention, which also
compartmentalized the world, but which, in spite of frequent errors, achieved a
level of efficacy necessary for its bearer to survive, and even prosper.
    That’s as far as the idea had come, and it was enough. The
entire deduction of the reality of Miracles was there. Still pending was the
elaboration of the historical aspect of the question (but this would be left for
the installments), that is to say, why, in light of these discoveries, certain
periods of history and modes of production