The Modern West Belongs to Valle-Inclán’s Esperpento, Not Nolan’s Odyssey
“Classical heroes reflected in concave mirrors produce the Esperpento,” declares Max Estrella, the tragicomic, impoverished poet of Bohemian Lights (Luces de Bohemia), the play by Spanish author Valle-Inclán which initiated the artistic movement ‘esperpento’. Roughly translated as ‘grotesque farce’ or ‘degenerate tragedy’, it is a more appropriate lens than Nolan’s Odyssey through which to look…
