Este ensayo también está disponible en español. *Solenoid* is surreal autofiction about the man who failed to become Mircea Cărtărescu. Through the eyes of a disgruntled high school literature teacher, we wander the streets of Bucharest, alternating between his gray, dilapidated city of nightmares and the colorful gradients of his childhood memories. The narrator is an alternate version of the author, the Cărtărescu who did not become Cărtărescu. The whole book is about bifurcation: one life becomes that of a literary icon, another becomes the haunted existence of a disappointed nobody. Stuck and alienated in communist apartment blocks, full of fear, anxiety, and strange visions, the narrator imagines an infinity of possible worlds. Cărtărescu repeatedly asks: Why do we even have the capacity to think these thoughts? Why do we remember this and not that? My high school teacher Gustavo (hopefully less disgruntled than Cărtărescu's narrator) introduced me to surreal literature via…
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