Morel’s Invention: A Beautiful Reflection On Immortality

Fear of death, or to die, is one of humanity’s longest existing. On the other hand, the desire for immortality and eternal love is one of our greatest desires. Morel’s invention, written by the Argentine author Adolfo Bioy Casares, combines these, fear and desire. He asks questions of them, reflects on them and suggests new ways of approaching these concepts.

Morel’s invention has inspired films, plays and television series such as: the 1961 film “Last Year in Marienbad”, the popular “Lost” series, and the Argentine film “Man Facing Southeast” from 1986. The short story, which was published in 1940, opened the way for the science fiction genre in Latin America.

Bioy Casares is a very well known author in his home country, Argentina. He was a friend of Borges and related to the Ocampo sisters (he was married to one of them). He surrounded himself with the most outstanding writers of this period, a period in which many literary movements took place in Buenos Aires. Their friendship was of such a nature that in Morel’s invention we can see a prologue written by Borges himself.

Fiction and everyday life in Morel’s invention

We can say that Bioy Casares was ahead of its time. This is reflected in his ability to mix everyday elements with science fiction. In his novels we see very realistic characters in a not so realistic environment.

In Morel’s invention, we meet a main character, the refugee, who lives on a remote and desolate island. This person is fleeing the law, but we do not know his name or what he has done to escape. He is portrayed as a very mundane character, with very real emotions. 

The island the main character lives on has been abandoned for years; the buildings are old and in disrepair. He soon finds that several strange things are happening. Some intruders appear on the scene and they repeat the same actions over and over again. The refugee seems to be invisible to them.

The invaders

Among the  intruders we find Faustine, a young woman whom the refugee eventually falls in love with. He tries to talk to her on several occasions, but it seems as if she cannot see him. It’s like he does not exist. On the other hand, he we Morel, a scientist who also seems to be in love with the young Faustine, and whom the refugee despises.

We soon discover that these invaders are nothing more than images from a past that reflect the people who once resided on the island. Morel developed a machine that could record all these movements and people. He was able to save their essence, their desires, their thoughts and their whole being. In this way, they could live forever in a happy memory that they can not remember. This is something that may resemble Nietzsche’s theory of eternal repetition, but it is only about a week of their entire lives, re-experienced for all eternity.

Fear of death and immortality in fiction

Death is a part of us since the day we are born. Every day, every hour, every minute and every second brings us a little closer to the end. The problem arises when this develops into a fear, and we have trouble accepting it. To overcome this fear, some religions and philosophical movements suggest the idea of ​​”another life”: a promise of a better life after death.

The belief that man is a union of body and soul, says that in order to liberate our immortal soul, we must live our lives in a certain way, as good men and women. In this way, our immortal soul, after death on the physical plane, will be able to live in peace forever.

Other religions, such as Buddhism, suggest immortality based on reincarnation. What these stories related to faith demonstrate is that, since the dawn of time, mankind has been searching for ways to overcome death. These stories have also tried to explain why we die, and in that connection also tried to accept it in the hope of a spiritual life after our physical bodies disappear.

The beginning of virtual reality

When we have tried to portray immortality in the world of fiction, we imagine immortal beings as the elves of the Lord of the Rings or mythological beings, who are somehow divine. In this way we see that the price to pay for immortality or for trying to imitate it is always high. In Morel’s invention, the scientist Morel creates a machine that is capable of giving our soul immortality. But the cost of the deadly body will be very high.

Through cinematography and new technologies of the time, Bioy Casares brings us several different reflections, and even anticipated what we know today as virtual reality. He presents other ways to achieve immortality. The protagonist of Morel’s invention seeks immortality from the very beginning, but in an indirect and unconscious way.

Literature is in a way immortal. We bring an author to life every time we read one of his works. Literature will be a part of posterity, and in that way the work will be immortal. It’s just another form of immortality. The main character explains these things in a kind of diary, with the hope that someone in the future will find it. By registering this in writing , we can say that he is seeking a type of immortality. 

The idealization of love in Morel’s invention

As we mentioned earlier, the intruders cannot see the refugee and ignore his existence. The refugee refuses to believe that they can not see him, he prefers to believe that it is all a kind of plan to capture him and hand him over to those he fled from. He refuses to exist!

But the intruders could not see him, because they were only pictures and memories. The refugee cannot accept that invisibility. In fact, we can say with certainty that no one would accept something like that. To not exist, to be invisible to all, is a kind of death for the particular person. They will not accept it because it is like experiencing death while alive.

On the other hand, the novel also explores love, the idealization of love and how love keeps the refugee alive. It’s his only way to escape, his only wish. The fact is that love is as natural and human as death is, just like the fear of loneliness that the main character expresses. 

Despite what it would mean if he was discovered, he hatches evil plans against them. He thinks they are conspiring to betray him. And yet, in the end, he does not mind that idea. This is because the refugee is afraid of loneliness and these thoughts are also a very common human characteristic. In the same way, there is also a lot of jealousy inside him.

Love and immortality

On the other hand, the refugee understands how illogical his thoughts are, yet he has difficulty mastering them, as everyone else would in a similar situation. In this case, love is related to platonic ideas and also to the literary theme “religio amoris”, where the beloved is shown as unattainable, superior and divine. 

In addition, the love in this novel will be what leads to immortality. It will be the trigger of everything, it will be what awakens the desire to immortalize itself with Faustine in Morel. It is also the trigger for the same desire that the refugee experiences.

Thanks to Bioy Casare’s passion for film and his good storytelling ability, he takes us into a world we can almost visualize. It’s really worthy of a cinematographic manuscript. It introduces us to a character who loses his mind on several occasions, and who nevertheless writes down everything as a permanent overview of everything he experienced on the island. However, he is a very human character, and there are certainly many of us who would act in the same way if we were in the same situation. It is, without a doubt, a work worth reading, and one that truly invites us to reflect.