Why I love César Aira’s “Artforum”??!

A New Calendar

Today, December 6, I invented a new way of numbering the days, and the result is: today is November 42. This might seem absurd, but it is very well-reasoned, based on my wait for Artforum. I’ll explain how I came up with it. Suppose a new month arrives, Artforum comes out over there, in New York, it is to be assumed that it’s on its way, I’m already waiting for it. Suppose on the twentieth, it hasn’t yet arrived: I’ve spent twenty days waiting for it. Suppose it doesn’t arrive on the twenty-fifth, the thirtieth . . . The month ends. It’s the fifth of the following month: I’ve spent thirty-five days waiting! Or rather, for me, today is the thirty-fifth! The thirty-fifth! Who says a month can’t have thirty-five days? But, just a moment . . . If it’s the fifth, I’ve also spent five days waiting for this month’s Artforum, which also of course hasn’t arrived . . . And the two waits, or “the waits for the two of them,” overlap and are added together. Or rather, today is not only the thirty-fifth, it’s the fortieth!

That’s why I say that today is November 42: the thirty days of November plus the six of December, make thirty-six. Plus, again, those same six days of December, which make up the wait for the December Artforum: forty-two. Today is November 42.

Aira, César. Artforum (p. 37). New Directions. Kindle Edition.

I don’t think it needs any further explanations – .