I thought that the ending of Cortazar’s “Axolotl” toyed with consciousness and reality in really interesting ways. If we read the story literally, then the narrator’s consciousness becomes trapped in the body of an axolotl. But what becomes of his human body? The story implies that the mind of the axolotl was switched with his, Freaky Friday style. However, his body seems to function fairly normally, returning to the aquarium a few times before losing interest. Do the axolotls have the complex consciousnesses that the narrator ascribed to them, such that one could make a seamless transition into living a human life? Or is the axolotl’s mind in his body at all? Perhaps his consciousness split off into two parts, one inhabiting his body and the other inhabiting an axolotl. Or maybe the perspective flip at the end doesn’t actually come with an exchange of consciousnesses between the two bodies at all. Maybe it’s the axolotl that’s inhabiting a virtual reality, believing itself to have once been this man. There’s also the last sentence about the man writing a story about this, thinking it’s a work of fiction, which implies that the whole story is written by the man, or whatever is inhabiting the man’s body.
Either way, the story raises a lot of interesting questions, and in my opinion, the ambiguity of the ending really adds to the story.
This post really made me think about what it is that we can attribute to consciousness within the lens of virtual reality. What is it that is changing exactly when we switch to a virtual reality? Is it our consciousness? Our selves? Whatever it is, how much are those things affected by their circumstances. You mentioned how the human body appears to act normally even though the mind of the axolotl (if we are to take that perspective) has taken over. If that is the case, then we have to conclude that switching realities has a profound impact on our selves, not just on our experience.
I like what you said about his consciousness splitting- I hadn’t thought of that, but I think that makes the most sense. I had the feeling that the axolotls somehow transcended any single identity, as if they were a collage of consciousnesses. I think that the narrator left a little piece of himself behind in the tank and will forever take a piece of the axolotls with him as well. Am getting this image of a regular amphibian in a human’s body trying to function in real life. I agree with you that the ambiguous ending really adds to the overall effect. Although we may not no what exactly happened, I think that the axolotls had a permanent effect upon him.
This post intrigued me, especially when you suggest that it might be the axolotl that inhabits a Virtual Reality and believes that it used to be a man. After looking back at the last paragraph, I think something like this might be the case. I believe that the narrator is the axolotl that tried to escape the aquarium by taking over the body of a man. I’m not saying that this is actually possible (nor am I saying that it’s not) but I imagine that it’s a fantasy that the axolotl amuses himself with. The narrator in his pure axolotl form admits that it was he that kept the connection with the human going in order to”keep awake his desire to know us better” (9) and return to him. In the middle of the story the narrator describes the axolotls as “slaves of their bodies” (7) and says that they ask him to save them. Thus it makes sense that an axolotl would want to escape his prison by trying to take over a human’s body. Furthermore, the majority of the story describes the parts of the man’s life that takes place within the aquarium. These are things that the axolotl in the tank would be able to observe and weave into a story. The extra details at the beginning about the lions and the bike are details that the axolotl could easily make up. I think that this is a pretty compelling angle for the narration of this story.