‘Luvina’ by Juan Rulfo

Luvina by Juan Rulfo, 1953

The magic trick:

All myth – no test

You know the trope in a horror movie where one character warns the other character, “Oh, you’re going to that house? You don’t want to go to that house. That house is haunted.” Then they provide the creepy backstory that is the foundation of our fear when the character – not heeding the advice, of course – goes to the house anyway.

Well, “Luvina” is like that trope of establishing the “you shouldn’t go there” myth, except it really never moves to the payoff part of the story where the character actually goes.

This story consists of a local shopkeeper drinking beer after beer and telling our narrator (I think?) about how awful a place Luvina is. Over and over. Beer after beer.

Obviously, that’s a different equation than the setup-payoff horror story formula. But it’s no less effective. The shopkeeper does a very good job of convincing the reader that Luvina is not a place you want to move.

And that’s quite a trick on Rulfo’s part.

The selection:

“The people from there say that when the moon is full they clearly see the figure of the wind sweeping about Luvina’s streets, bearing behind it a black blanket; but what I always managed to see when there was a moon in Luvina was the image of despair – always.”

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