The symbolism of numbers forms connective links with several visual images used throughout the text that echo, amplify, and fuse the relationship between meaning and structure over the course of the Antagonía. The drawings of the Ideal City found in Los verdes and Teoría, the four emblematic paintings by Velázquez, each corresponding to one part of the novel (Las Meninas in Recuento, Las Hilanderas in Los verdes, Las Lanzas in La cólera, and Esopo in Teoría), and mirror images, whether concrete or abstract, are elements of composition that frame the exploration of knowledge-as-process in several irnportant ways. First, they create temporal and spatial reference points and paradigms. They also provide raw material that is rnolded thematically to the text's immediate situational needs as well as to the more inclusive thematic and symbolic systems of Antagonía as a whole.

In this narrative tour de force which underscores the power as well as the limitations of the written word, the visual images pro vide structural and thematic counterpoints to language. In short, because they contain "the potentiality of instant encounter and appea!" which engages the spectator on aH levels of perception, they facilitate the reader' s task by providing touchstones that, at the most basic leve!, serve as a mnemonic tool (Fraser 402-403). There is a lot to remem­ber in this novel. At the same time, they guide the reader by stimulating the process of creating connections between the diverse elements of the text. Finally, they unite the novel' s various parts through their repetitions and underscore its central themes through the complexity of their interrelationships. Even though they are pre­sented in narrative form, the visual images in Antagonía retain their ability to immediately activate the perceptions and connections revealed within the text in terms of their effects on the characters and, beyond it, on the reader's experience.

Goytisolo has indicated that the Ideal City in Antagonía "nos da una imagen emblemática de lo que la propia obra es" (Ortega 145). The image of this city is another in a long list of references to the myths, philosophical concepts, and intellectual paradigms from ancient Greek thought upon which westem civilization' s formulation of knowledge has been built. Randolph Pope, in his article "The Different Architectures of Metafiction in Juan and Luis Goytisolo," compares the use of architecture in the two authors and finds that:

( ... ) one of these architects offers a house full of traps, guarantees nothing, except he will labor to irritate and unsettle you. His foreman is Lawrence, his hired hands are Arabs, heretic priests, and homosexuals. The other promises to build a luminous and reasonable house, where every activity will find its proper place, a house built to lasto His foreman is Nemo, and wrule one of rus men is a blind Greek, all the rest look as ads for the Corte Inglés. Both claim to be arcrutects. One has his office in Fez, the other in Ideal City. One eats his meat raw, the other cooked. (150)

In his comparison of the use of architecture in the two brothers' work, Pope sees Juan' s architect as being a trickster whose work is disconcerting, and Luis' as forming part of the Platonic tradition of desiring to bring order out of chaos (146-147). Discussing the appearance of the descriptions of the city in Los verdes and in Teoría, Pope comments on the intertexual referenees of the image (the Bible, Plato, Soleri, Campanella) and states that it: "represents the desire of the mind to impose its order over the sprawling nature of the city, but also more: the subordination of the irrational to the rational, of the masses to the ruler, of time to eternity" (148).

While it is cIear that Luis Goytisolo posits as a starting point for his reflection on knowledge the fact that westem civilization is grounded in large part on the Greek tradition, it is also clear that he does this in order to be able to criticize that our present understanding of knowledge seems to ignore the early Greek thinkers, the presocra­ties, with their emphasis on emotion, intuition, and connectivity, in favor of the later ones whose rational, "logical," approach to knowledge led to the Cartesian view which came to dominate the European tradition of religious, social, and philosophical thought. Throughout Antagonía, the author presents the established norms and paradigms of contemporary westem thought in order to invert and subvert them so as to demonstrate their inhibiting effects on human consciousness. So I would challenge Pope' s conclusions and suggest that we investigate further the possible meanings behind Luis Goytisolo' s use of architecture, beginning with the Ideal City.

The first mention of the drawing appears early in Los verdes de mayo hasta el mar in a section significantly entitled "Lunasol." In addition to other brief references, a different description will appear in Teoría. On each occasion, the drawing is attributed to an anonyrnous artist, "un loco, muy probablemente" (I 635). The fact that it is attributed to a crazy person should cause the reader to question the "rational" nature of this detailed and symmetrical drawing and open his/her eyes to other, less obvious, interpretations of it. In Los verdes, the narrator explains that Aurea (wife of Carlos) had found the drawing "en los Encantes" and that it seemed to fascinate Carlos as well as the narrator. What follows is a clase paraphrasing of its first description in the text:

The India ink drawing was probably done at the beginning of the century. It was highlighted at certain points by different colors and was characteristic of primitive art. It was a mixture of a map and a panoramic view of the city like those engravings which were so in vogue before the use of photography and, like them, dotted with notes and numbers which, at the bottom of the page, offer adequate explanations of each detail. The only difference: no human figure, no one that, even though only to serve as a contrast, would animate the whole, as is usual in such engravings.

The drawing depicts a walled city surrounded by a river, whether natural or channeled. In the center, there is a Fortress, separated from the rest by another source of water, also colored blue. A concentric urban structure: one regular dodecahedron inside another one, progressively and proportionally smaller, limited by seven streets or "Paseos de Ronda", as the note states: nine in all, counting that one that is formed by the exterior wall, as well as the one that borders the moat of the like-wise walled Fortress. Access to the city can be gained by two bridges or doors, it isn't clear in the note which of the two words is used: The Bridge or the Door of Shipwreck and the Bridge or the Door of Salvation. The wall has a total of twelve crenelated towers.1 Four transverse streets or avenues in the form of an X unite between them the nine Paseos de Ronda, forming a plaza in each intersection, thirty-six aH together, each with its name, also the avenues, Avenue of Creation, Avenue of Dreams, etc. In the meeting of the extreme of each bisection of each angle of the X formed by the transverse streets or avenues with the perimeter of the wall, that is, on the stretches of road numbered 12, 3, 6, and 9, four palaces or residences are drawn facing the exterior of the city, which coincide exactly with the cardinal points indicated in the upper right hand of the drawing, that of Winter with the north, Spring with the east, Surnmer with the south, and Fall with the west, each colored respectively in white-that is to say, not colored-green, orange, and violeto The Fortress, called the Solar Fortress, is drawn around a building with golden cupolas called the Temple of Law; its four principIe towers, independent at their base, unite in a lone prism, finally reaching a circle, of a very superior height in relation to the others. The corresponding note points out, without other details, that the shadow of said tower, on projecting itself-in an inverse sense to the trajectory of the sun, just as in the hands of the clock-on each one of the twelve concentric perimeters constituted by the nine Paseos de Ronda, plus the two sources of water and, at the foot of the vertical, the boundary of the Fortress, indicates exactly the hours during the course of the day. In the center of the Temple, surrounded by the cupolas, one finds a silver colored lake caBed the Lake of the Moon. And, a curious note, there don't seem to be any access bridges to the Fortress. (1 636-637)

The most obvious detail of this drawing is that it reflects the external structure of Antagonía already outlined. There are thiry-six plazas in the city corresponding to the book' s thirty-six chapters. Although the city is walled (the theme of circularity again), it does have points of access in the form of bridges named Shipwreck and Salvation, a leít motif of Los verdes. In part, these names refer back to Raúl' s incarceration and liberation, coinciding with his extreme depression and then the rediscovery of his passion for writing as seen in Chapter IX of Recuento. In Los verdes, these elements are incorpo­rated into the plot and the symbolic structure, particularly in the final section of the book, "Periplo."

The four castles can be interpreted as representing the four volumes of the novel, each with its corresponding season (a reference to cyclical time) and color (all blended, not primary), and direction. It is interesting that they face outward, toward the walls of the city rather than toward its center. This detail underscores their importance as outward projections of the central meaning of the overall text. Their location in the city, rather than in the fortress, also means they are accessible, even though it may only be by means of a shipwreck or salvation, both of which imply existential concepts-the loss or survival of life and the soul-concepts echoed in the theme of construction/destruction and being/nonbeing in the text. The central island, the Solar Fortress, is surrounded by a moat and, at this point, it appears to be inaccessible (although, if the "periplo" is understood as a symbolic attempt to breach the island, we should note that the characters eventually go under that moat in order to reach, finally, the lake). The Temple of Law, with its towers and prism, is the system of regulation for the city, marking the passage of time with its shadows on the perimeters of the outer walls, and, through the prism, simultaneously bringing together and breaking apart the light representing consciousness and rationality into all its myriad parts.

In this interpretation, the spatial and temporal references in the text are set out in terms of the cardinal points of direction (NSEW), the allusions to the movement of the sun (cyclical time) and the projection of the tower on the streets which mark the man-made system of hours (though no specific time is mentioned), and in the numbers, which, as we have seen, carry their own symbolic weight. There are also clues to the symbolism in the drawing when considered as a map in the footnotes; for example, these notes are called "llamadas" ("calls"), allowing the author to play with the meaning of the word. At one point in the description, the following phrase is used: "un dodecágono regular dentro de otro, progresiva y propor­cionalmente menores, delimitados por siete calles o Paseos de Ronda, como rezaba la llamada" (I 636), emphasis is mine). This traditional phrase hearkens back to the time of the creation of this drawing when lamp lighters went out on their rounds ("rondas") and called out the hour as they lit the lamps.

The image is still incomplete as a guide, however, because of the moat which does not allow access to the Fortress from the rest of the city, as well as the explicit omission of the "human figure" who must create those connections between the center of the drawing, the sym­bolic analogy to the text we are reading, its meaning or message, and the elements that form its composition. These omissions represent problems to be solved. Also, there are other details to be resolved. Are we talking about doors or bridges? Certainly there is a difference between opening and closing a door and crossing (or perhaps burning) a bridge.

Rather than the consummate symbol of order, this image contains elements that challenge the ability of the rational to control or struc­ture the chaos, the materia prima of life and reality. What is not evident in the drawing is just as important as what is. By reading the image as the narrator' s cornmentary on himself, rather than as a projection or structural prefiguration of the work he is writing, the city can be said to depict a "mandala," "the ritual or magic circle used in Lamaism and also in Tantric yoga as a yantra or aid to contem­plation" (Jung, Dreams 169).

A mandala is a mental image built by the power of the imagination and is different for each person. Generally, such an image is created by an individual in a state of crisis or imbalance for the purpose of conceptualizing and seeking answers to his spiritual problems. It exists as a protected, sacred space.2 Understood as Raúl's projection of his personal situation, the drawing can be understood as one that is based on the archetype of the squared circle already mentioned that represents man's search for unity (the overall circular shape) in the balance of the four elements (the square, the intersecting avenues, the castles, the directions, etc.). The lamaic mandala has the form of a building which is reminiscent of Goytisolo' s Ideal City. It is generally depicted as an "inner, walled-in space"(Jung, Dreams 201-202).

In this case, Raúl/Ricardo's city certainly reflects the influence of westem philosophical thought. The silver lake is like a mirror which, in the mandala, is the symbol of the intellect that guides man. In this particular image, however, the lake is associated with the moon, associated with emotion, the occult, and intuition, all characteristic of the primordial feminine that represents chaos and the Dionysian. The lake is guarded by the towers of the Temple of Law within the Solar Fortress. It is hidden from external view, a fact that speaks to the difficulty of the task awaiting the individual who has created the image. Somehow, he must find access to the Solar Fortress (symbolic of the Apollonian) and get past the towers of the Temple of Law (which might be interpreted as those systems regulating westem society) in order to begin to approach the lake with all its mysteries hidden beneath the mirrored reflection of its surface.

Los verdes exists in opposition to Recuento in that it represents an exploration of the unconscious and the unseen rather than the conscious, visible forms of knowledge. In Los verdes, intellect must surrender to instinct, reason to emotion, and the sun to the moon, if the individual is to break through form to reveal the underlying substance of reality and the keys to its continual transformations.

The twelve towers of the exterior walls are reminiscent of the Gnostic image of the Monad, the single indivisible unit symbolic of the "Mother-City" which contains all good things.3 It is within this walled, protected space that the author will perhaps find the oppor­tunity to resolve some of his questions. The center of the image, with its four towers that converge to become one taller, prismatic tower, represents on one level the unification of the four texts of Antagonía into one. On another level, again borrowing from the symbolism of the Monad, it symbolizes the process of bringing "all the divine force s together, whether creative or destructive" (Flew 123). In addition, from a Jungian point of view, the center also refers to the psychic center of the greater Self which is separate from the ego, the here and now of the individual. It is beyond the laws of time and space, representing the integration of man with the cosmos. Note that in this drawing, the center is called the "Temple of Law," reflecting the westem emphasis on order and structure as self-evident truths. Given the context Los verdes provides, this emphasis on man-made laws and systems could be interpreted as an obstacle to the individual who is, by the nature of his search, attempting to go beyond the limits of those systems in order to plumb the depths of that lake hidden from view by the towers at the heart of the image. The very image of a temple, for Pythagoras, represented an attempt to link man and the greater cosmos (Knapp ix). The need to connect the laws of man and those of the cosmos is a prevailing theme, not only of this image, but of the entire novel.

In the drawing the separation is represented through the uncrossable chasm that divides the city from its central island with its Citadel and Temple of Law. While the overall image reflects the desire for the Apollonian ideal, the Ideal City in Los verdes does not represent a perfect consummation of the ideal. In this drawing the Apollonian has been irrevocably severed from human instincts and the Dionysian mysteries of chaos. There is no connection between the two at this point. Although the author' s desire may be to represent the chaos with form, to use language and its structure to create a balance with the disconcerting effects of his insight into the chaotic void, up to this point he has not found a way to do so. The alienation or schism from himself and from the reality he experienced in Recuento still has not been bridged. He has gotten as far as the outer parts of the city-he can give them form and color-but the Fortress is still a mystery to him. This mystery is intimately correlated to the limited access he has to the kind of knowledge needed to feed his creative urges and allow him to communicate his vision to others. At this stage, knowledge is still understood as an object or commodity to be acquired and used, rather than as a vital process, a never-ending approach to understanding that always raises more questions than it ever resolves.

The emphasis on defensive building s and the relation of the temple to the Law demonstrate the feeling of fear and vulnerability of the characters related to this image (both Carlos and Ricardo/Raúl). Rules, law, and order mitigate fear through the creation of the illusion that a rational, logical progression of events exists. Facing the chaos and surrendering that illusory control is the challenge facing the indi­vidual. The Ideal City depicted is pure form with only the slightest hint of chaos lurking below the surface, waiting to rise up and swallow its creator into its unstructured depths unless he can leam to deal with it by facing his fears and the dark sides of himself.

As the narrator notes, there are no human figures in this drawing, perhaps because they would represent change. The ideal is static and eternal; but humans live in an environment in which all that we do perpetually transforms us and everything around us. The trans­formation process is often chaotic, illogical, and messy. As the process, symbolized in Antagonía by the writing of the novel, goes forward, the author is often forced to alter his plans to the point that his work, his life, and his very identity sometimes become unrecog­nizable to him. Overall, the projected, outer form may not actually change much, but the details reflect all the modifications that reality demands. At the end of Los verdes, as Raúl/Ricardo looks back over his time in Rosas and the work he has produced, he realizes the effects of process on his novel:

( ... ) una obra que, como esa ciudad tan minuciosamente diseñada y descrita una y otra vez en el curso de la historia, de acuerdo con las necesidades del momento, en la creencia, por lo general, de que ninguna de ellas puede ya ser alterada, proyectos que si alguna vez han comenzado a ponerse en práctica nunca han sido terminados, y al fin resulta que las modificaciones impuestas por la realidad y sus visitudes son tantas que ni su arquitecto original sería capaz de reconocerla, así como esa ciudad, la obra, toda obra en elaboración, respecto a su concepción primera ( ... ). (II 110)

Over and over again the author must reevaluate the original "plan" of the novel in terms of the changes that the writing of the project effects within him, thus changing it in significant ways. The ambiguity inherent in the tension created by many basic antagonies of this sort underlies every single image and metaphor in this novel, revealing the swirling chaos, the "horror" which the author strives to represent, beneath every attempt at structure and control:

( ... ) ahora, con los años, el problema está en cómo ir tirando hasta haber escrito todo el horror, amarrar, fijar el horror en todo su horror, incapaz ya de leer novelas como de interesarse por cualquier otra cosa ajena a esa tarea de fijar el horror, todo el horror del mundo. (I 643)

Embracing that horror and seeing that its relation to the "law" is not one of good versus evil, right or wrong, but of complementary, intertwined, and energy producing tensions will resolve many of the writer' s doubts and conflicts while also creating many others. There are other brief references to the drawing scattered throughout the volume. In Chapter III of Los verdes, Raúl makes notes for himself about his future narrative. One of his directions is: "Trasponer descripción detallada Ciudad Ideal" (I 705). In Chapter IV, in a section entitled "Diálogo del Lunasol," there is a reference to the drawing as a map visible from outside the house through the living room window if one looks past the thermometer and barometer that are hung on the porch (II 17). In Chapter V, in the section "Seis días," the importance of the image to the structuring process of his narrative is reiterated as Raúl reviews what he still needs to do:

Estructurar las notas tomadas sobre todo eso, articularlas en un conjunto. Como sobre los recuerdos, como sobre los sueños, incluido el de anoche. Y los fondos marinos que se abren a los ojos del buceador. Y la Ciudad Ideal. Y Poppy, y, sobre todo, la excursión al Cabo. (II 71)

When placed in relation to the concepts of memory, dreams, the ocean depths, the trip to the Cape with the old sailor, El Grec, as his guide, and the dog, Poppy (the stray dog who sickens and must be destroyed by El Grec), the "Ideal City" becomes part of a web of interrelated images aH of which build upon one another. The structuring is done, seemingly, in units which will then be juxtaposed throughout the text. This juxtaposition seeks to recreate the simultaneity and connectivity inherent in the ways that we perceive and experience life-as a random jumble of events, feelings, thoughts, etc.-to which we give order through the associations and interpretations we ascribe to them. That order reflects the sum total of our memories, whether conscious or not, our experiences, our environment, and our mental constructs of what life should look or be like. In other words, our "Ideal Cities" are always influencing what we think it is that we have done or experienced, thus creating a confluence in the present moment that integrates the past, the present, and the future. This creation of an "eternal present" is an important aspect of Antagonía's theory of knowledge. The idea is summed up in the words of the old man in Teoría:

Un pájaro quieto no es sólo un pájaro quieto: es un instante irrepetible. y el presente no es sólo un instante irrepetiple; el presente es la visión del tiempo en desarollo, una visión que incluye simultáneamente una interpretación del pasado y una esperanza o temor del futuro, no menos incierto aquél que éste, uno y otro implícitos en la imagen en movimiento de ese hongo atómico que crece y crece hacia lo que no es hongo. (II 579)

The next reference to the City is included in the "Periplo" section. As the characters on a yacht discuss the Ages of man, sexuality, dreams, and psychoanalysis, the narrator brings up the subject of ambiguous word associations, including the fact that, usually, the association of "father" is made with nations and homelands, "padre y patria-suelo patrio, paterno," and that of mothers with cities, "madre y ciudad, su ciudad-hijo de la muy bella, ilustre y abominable ciudad de Barcelona-" (II 85). Nevertheless, the characters note, there are always problems with neatly structured symbolic systems: "( ... ) la opción molesta, la pejiguera de siempre, al caer en la cuenta de que es convencionalmente materna la tierra natal, la madre patria, y el orden ejemplar y riguroso de la Ciudad Ideal de los utopistas, viril proyección de la fecundidad del padre" (II 85). Though they might try, humans are often at a loss to explain through rational structures the complexities of the associations of the mind.

The narrator suggests that the connections made during childhood, "la Edad de Plata," are the most important for under­standing because they point to the mysteries of: "( ... ) qué hay detrás del símbolo de los símbolos" (II 85). The inaccessible memories are buried in the Golden Age which precedes even our earliest childhood memories, in a kind of collective memory, layers upon layers of asso­ciative connections passed, consciously or unconsciously, from one generation to the next.

One of the characters, Blanca, describes the ages of man in this way:

La Edad de Plata, que corresponde a nuestra infancia, se halla situada entre la de Oro -la nostalgia de lo que no se recuerda, de lo que tal vez nunca existió- y la de Bronce, el tiempo del adulto desde la perspectiva de los primeros años. En lo que a la Edad de Hierro respecta, baste decir que no es otra cosa que el tiempo cronológico. (II 83)

In symbolic terms, according to Cirlot, an age corresponds to a con­cept or a phase. Whether they are related to the phases of the moon or the ages of man, generally four stages are outlined, repeating the pattern of the four cardinal points. Classical authors associated the ages of man with the symbolism of metals used in the description given above:

The same symbolic pattem -which in itself is an interpretation- is found in the famous dream of Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel ii) as well as in the figure of the "Old Man of Crete" in Dante's Commedia (Inferno, XIV, 11. 94-120) (60) (27). Progress from the purest metal to the most malleable -from gold to iron- implies involution ( ... ).
 

So that progress in life -in an individual's existence- is tantamount to a gradual surrender of the golden values of childhood, up to the point in which the process of growing old is terminated by death. (Cirlot 5)

Cirlot goes on to refer to the symbolism of the golden age of childhood in Jungian terms as the age of unconsciousness, before an awareness of the problems of existence and death make themselves felt. Surrealism of the sort seen in the "Periplo" chapter in Los verdes have the purpose of "reintegrating, as far as practicable, this state of emotional irrationality characteristic of primigenial peoples" (Cirlot 5-6). It breaks apart the conventional limitations of rational thought and allows suppressed emotions and primal thought patterns to emerge. This interpretation becomes more convincing given that, while the characters carry on this vaguely philosophical conversation, they are incongruously participating in a variety of sexual acts that represent those primal thoughts and behaviors associated with the Dionysian rites.

Finally, the characters agree that symbols may have certain collectively understood meanings, but that they are always personal as well and correspond to the particular context of the individual using them; therefore, it is impossible to reduce them to a specific function. Rather than denigrating such symbols because they are inexplicable in rational terms, the author uses this conversation and others in Los verdes to open them up to further exploration. In a sense, he is validating a phenomenlogical, essentialist approach to knowledge long rejected by scientific, pragmatic, rational paradigms. This does not preclude the idea that at sorne future moment what humans "sense " to be true may be proved by scientific means; indeed, we seem to be closer than ever to such a point in time. Until then, however, the fact that there is no definitive explanation for the workings of the cosmos underscores the need for symbolism. The symbolism inherent in the "Ideal City," the Ages of Man, Wolfman, dreams, or sexuality pro­duces a creative tension that leads to the free play of associations, sorne of which are traditional and grounded in culture, and others that yield new perspectives and interpretations of reality -in other words, to new approaches to know ledge.

The guidelines for dealing with symbols in Antagonía are specified in this conversation. On the one hand, symbols do have the power to engender meaning and create unexpected connections and insights. On the other, pat or superficial interpretations might spark an exploration of their meaning but will rarely yield anything approaching a full understanding of their significance, even within the limitations of the context surrounding them. Jung's definition of symbols is particularly applicable in Goytisolo' s work in which words and images generally imply "something more than (their) obvious and immediate meaning" (Man and his Symbols 4). They go beyond what can be logically understood through reason to touch and activate the subconscious, intuitive aspects of being.

Violet Laszlo, in her introduction to Psyche and Symbol, further clarifies Jung's definition by stating: "Since the symbol is the most complete expression of that which in any epoch is as yet unknown-and cannot be rep1aced by any other statement at that time-it must proceed from the most complex and subtle strata of the contemporary psychological atmosphere" (xxi). So it is that symbols connect all the layers of past meanings and incorporate them into present conditions that already anticipate future ones, thereby creating new transformations reaching into and prefiguring the future.

At the end of Los verdes, the focus is still on the effects of this process on the work as it evolves and on its creator as the work in progress is simultaneously changing him. The effort that it takes to begin and follow through on the metaphorical joumey that may 1ead to a novel, or to the psychological survival of a challenging life, is described in graphic detail as the "periplo" comes to an end with the destruction of the boat and the loss of all the passengers except for one, our author. Far from being an omnipotent god creating worlds in his own image in arder to bolster his ego, this character is but a humble survivor. He has saved himself by keeping afloat after the wreck, by being swallowed by a fish through whose digestive track he has to feel his way until, finally, he is expulsed from that body in a flow of diarrhea. He is compared to a dead weight to be eliminated in a purgative phase (for both the fish and for himself, if in different ways):

( ... ) condición previa, inexcusable, de todo proceso ascensional o de uno de esos viajes tan despreocupadamente emprendidos --como la puesta en marcha de un mundo por su creador- y que tan trágicamente acaban, con el eco de una flauta, entre las costas esquinadas, terminantes, del Cabo de Orfeo, salvándose uno de las olas como sólo puede salvarse un dios que ha desencadenado la tempestad o como acostumbra a salvarse su protegido, un niño, en ocasiones. (II 109)

In this quotation, the dangers and trials of the creative process are clearly expressed. The narrator goes on to describe the castaway climbing up onto the shore where he finds "huesos anaranjados," like the ones that the old man finds at the altar of the sacrificed virgen mentioned in the first section of Teoría (I 599). The bones are symbolic of the regenerative powers that can recreate life after death; therefore, they are a treasured relic (Walker 114-115).

Slowly, the survivor regains his strength and comes out of the dream-like state which confuses present and past until he finally gets his bearings on the shore. As the newly born narrator, Ricardo, reviews the six days he has spent with his wife, Rosa, in Rosas, a period of time he equates with that of the creation of the world (II 110), he speculates on the relation between what he has experienced and the plan with which he began:

( ... ) de aquellos días pasados trabajando en las líneas maestras de la obra, una obra que, como esa ciudad tan minuciosamente diseñada y descrita una y otra vez en el curso de la historia, de acuerdo con las necesidades del momento, en la creencia, por lo general, de que ninguna de ellas puede ya ser alterada, proyectos que si alguna vez han comenzado a ponerse en práctica nunca han sido terminados, y al fin resulta que las modificaciones impuestas por la realidad y sus vicisitudes son tantas que ni su arquitecto original sería ahora capaz de reconocerla, así, como esa ciudad, la obra, toda obra en elaboración, respecto a su concepción primera, toda vez que, al cambio impuesto por el propio desarrollo de los elementos que componen dicha obra, hay que añadir los cambios que paralelamente experimenta el autor. (I 110)

This description of the writer' s work emphasizes the messy aspects of the creative act. A cycle of transformation is in operation in which the work and its creator mutually change one another. The events of his life outside the project invariably have an impact on it and the work being done on the project changes his perspective on all aspects of his existence. This process results in constant changes in the original plan, symbolized by the drawing of the Ideal City. Still, because it is a symbolic rendering, it engenders and inspires many of the possibilities that the author may then choose to follow; in other words, it is a flexible model. Its ability to hold up fairly well under the process of change indicated aboye is demonstrated by the fact that the "final" image, presented in Teoría, coincides with it in many details, even if its focus has been altered significantly.

As we move to the depiction of the Ideal City in Teoría del conocimiento, the effects of context on the possible symbolic interpretations of the drawing become more palpable, particularly in light of the reader' s experience with the image in Los verdes. The description is given in Ricardo Echave' s narration in the second part of Teoría. His narrative reflects an intense desire, long abandoned by the demands of his professional and family life, to explore aH the shadowy inner regions of his personality. He first records his notes on tape and then transcribes them. His thoughts constantly return to the subject of the mysterious and sudden death of his friend, former lover, and cousin, Margarita. When she dies in an automobile accident, her purse contains a photograph of her room in her family' s country house in an envelope with his name on it (although the writing is blurred). This detail takes on greater importance when, in a Ouija session, her sister Magda (a character very similar to Matilde Moret) receives a message indicating that Ricardo should look for something; but what it is, no one knows. Ricardo assumes that the message has to do with the photograph and this association leads him to review his past with Margarita and her family. These memories, he feels, willlead him toward a greater understanding of his present situation and o f himself as an individual.

The intratextuality of Teoría within its various parts, as well as with the rest of Antagonía, is demonstrated by the inelusion of Carlos, Sr. and Carlos-hijo (both from Los verdes and the first section of Teoría) in Ricardo' s narration. Carlos, Sr. has found his son' s diary and wants an opinion from Ricardo concerning its authenticity. Does it reflect his son's real activities or is it "just" fiction? Based on structural clues in the text, Ricardo reassures Carlos that it is fiction. After all, it even ineludes stylistic elements that make it easy to identify sorne of young Carlos' literary influences: "( ... ) no es difícil descubrir la huella de Luis Goytisolo: esas largas series de períodos, por ejemplo, esas comparaciones que comienzan con un homérico así como, para acabar empalmando con un así ( ... ) (II 462).

Just as Margarita's death creates a fIood of memories and connectivities in Ricardo's mind, so Carlos' presence stirs up many images that find their way into his thoughts and dreams. As he notes:

Hay obras, un texto, un cuadro, un ámbito arquitectónico, que generan material onírico, que se integran en nuestros sueños, en función de valores totalmente distintos de los que les son propios, producto, se diría, de las manipulaciones de un ilusionista. (II 464)

One such image comes to him in a dream after reading Carlos-hijo' s diary. At fust, the city he dreams of appears to be Guayaquil, but that image fades into one of a city called Ecuador (a movement from the specific to the more generalized). In his dream, he is arguing with other architects, heatedly defending colonial architecture (a more distant past), even though he knows on the conscious level that Ecuador really resembles a more industrial town like Manchester (closer to the present). Someone in the dream says: "Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita" (II 464). He wakes up, wonders why the city was called Ecuador, and finally relates it to the quote from Dante about the crisis which carne to him in the middle of his life, as it has also come to Ricardo. That realization makes him forget the rest of that dream, but then he remembers another one he had early in his career as an architect. The memory of that dream has reduced itself to a series of fixed images that remind him of other dreams until, finally, he remembers the drawing of the Ideal City he had seen at Carlos, Sr. ' s house.

This time, the drawing is again by an anonymous "probablemente la obra de un loco" (II 466). What follows translation of the description:

 ( ... ) it is a mixture of a map and a panoramic view of the city, done in India ink and illuminated with different colors in the manner of the etchings of cities done before the invention of photography and like them dotted with numbers which, at the foot of the page, teH about the character and nomenclature of the designated urban elements. The city, of nineteenth century profiles judging by the peculiar baroque style of certain buildings, sketched with all the detail characteristic of primitive art, offers a concentric urban structure: a walled enclosure in the form of a regular dodecahedron, with nine circular walkways inscribed one inside the other in decreasing proportion, and four intersecting avenues which flow together at the geometric center of the perimeter. In that center, circular in nature, surrounded by a moat, (is) the citadel, a group of palaces and temples dominated by an enormous main tower called the Tower of Time; one of the notes at the bottom of the page specifies that the shadow that tower projects, as it swings from west to east in the course of the day over different sections of the walkways-from left to right on the map-marks the hours in the manner of a gigantic sundial at which the zenith coincides with the tower itself, so that the totality of the city is divided into areas of light and are as of shadow, areas reached by the shadow of the tower and are as not reached, with the particularity that it is the areas of shadow which correspond to the passing of time and the ones of light escape its passing. The colors used to illumínate certain points are aH blended-green, mauve, orange-although over the city, in the background, like a vertical projection of the passage of time, extends a broad rainbow in which are noted the seven colors of the spectrum, the Tower of Time pointing at i ts middle like the hand of a dock striking twelve. (II 466)

The differences and similarities between the two versions of the image speak to the particular context within which each is presented and to the network of connections built by the transformation of symbols in the texto In Los verdes, the narrative voice which becomes Ricardo in Teoría exists in an embryonic state. At that point, he is little more than a prefiguration of the character he will become. Raúl pattems him on himself, giving him the profession, first of a writer, and then of an architect-tumed-writer after a life-changing crisis of conscience. Ricardo shares Raúl' s fears, insecurities, character flaws, and sense of isolation, as well as his need to write as a means of understanding himself and the world around him.

The drawing which Ricardo sees and describes in Los verdes hangs in Carlos and Aurea' s house. In Teoría, it will also be associated with this couple, but it will spark Ricardo' s imagination because it occurs to him in a dream which is part of a series. Only after consideration of the possible meanings of the dreams does he recall that the "real" drawing belongs to Carlos, Sr. (II 466). In Los verdes, therefore, the referent leads to a consideration of its possible symbolism, whereas in Teoría, the process is reversed. The search back through an associative pattern eventually uncovers the referent in keeping with Ricardo' s search through his past to explain his presento The search for the present through the past may be related to the reference in the description of the drawing that the light passes from west to east and movement is marked from left to right, both of which are inversions of the normal patterns. The description in Los verdes is longer and focuses, as we have seen, on the question of the law and the illusory defense it provides against an unseen and terrifying chaos. The fact that the lake of the Moon is mirror-like, reflecting back the image of the one who looks into it rather than revealing its depths, is significant. In a cause and effect, logical world, order begets order to the point of attempting to deny the existence of the chaos underlying it. A purely rational mentality fears the formless and tumultuous chaos, blind to the fact that it provides the substance which infuses form with life. So, the inability to see into the depths of the lake represents a serious imbalance in the mentality of its creator. It indicates the direction in which its creator needs to move, psychologically or spiritually, to correct the imbalance. In this sense, the "periplo" voyage can be interpreted as an attempt to "plumb the depths" below the surface of the lake in order to give the individual a more comprehensive understanding of the forces at work within him.4

In Teoría, the central question revealed by the mandala image shifts to that of time. In this "Ideal City," areas of light and shadow are correlated to the passing of different types of time. The areas close to the tower are those which are subject to its shadow while those beyond its reach constitute the lighted areas one might expect to correspond to a soft of eternal daytime, an ordered or Apollonian structure, or an enlightened consciousness. The shadowed areas fall closer to the Tower and may be interpreted as the psychic center of the self. In Ricardo' s image, however, the Tower is like a hand of a clock that points to the center of a rainbow which is like a "vertical projection of the passage of time," marking, as it were, twelve o' dock (II 466).

We most often think of time as being "horizontal." The time line moves from a point in the past forward toward the future and events may be marked on it in a before and after sequence. Vertical time, however, is expressed in Antagonía through several other images besides this rainbow. The "layering" of history as it is seen in the archeological digs in Barcelona (I 193-195) or the construction sites of Las Rosas in Los verdes (I 644) reveals the superimposition of one culture upon another as the foundations of cathedrals or other building s are utilized to build a new structure.

When any character such as Raúl, Ricardo, Matilde, or the voyagers in Los verdes descends into a cenar or goes under an island or climbs up into an attic, s/he generally makes significant discoveries related to matters of memory or the connection between important ideas, events, or images (even though, in Matilde' s case, her interpretations and connections are often not very astute). Often these upward or downward movements come from dreams, the source of many symbols which relate to the life of the individual. In the first image of the Ideal City in Los verdes, a particular hour is not designated, but the movement of time is chronological in nature. In the second image, time is related more to the concept of a collective as well as a personal memory; it represents a symbolic past that accumu­lates and continues to influence present as well as future generations.

In Chapter II of this study, the symbolic meanings of the number 4 and the concept of the squared circle were explained. In this image, the fact that the Tower points to the midpoint of the rainbow to mark one of the two midpoints of daily time is significant. Jolande Jacobi, in Complex, Archetype, Symbol, notes that: "( ... ) fundamentally all squareness strives toward a midpoint. For the Four achieves its ultimate fulfillment only in the manifestation of the One" (170). The midpoint marked by the Tower of Time can be interpreted as an expression of the need for this type of fulfillment which was sought by the medieval a1chemists in the form of the quinta essencia, perfected fonn and matter:

The mathematieal riddle of the "squaring of the circle" which busied so many minds for centuries is eoneemed with achieving the mystical union of the four elements. The point in the center, the quinta essentia, is the mediator, or expressed in a1chemical language, the pelicanus noster (our Pelican). Of this mediator it is said that it is he who brings about the squaring of the circle, and who therefore symbolizes the seeret and at the same time its solution. (Jung, in Jaeobi 171)

The description of the author in Los verdes as "no tanto centro emisor de algo cuanto agente transmisor de algún impreciso y antiguo principio creativo" coincides with that of such a mediator (II 56). Jocobi goes on to explain that the 5, the quaternity united in the quintessence: "( ... ) is not a derivative, however, but an independent whole that is more than the sum of its parts. It is the superessential that transcends all the rest" (Jacobi 171). In the broad scheme of Antagonía, the author is symbolic of any individual who feels compelled to look beyond the concepts of self and reality relayed to him by his immediate environment in search of a more comprehensive, vital perspective on the life experience. His/her text becomes life itself, a life that hopefully is, as a whole, more than the sum of its various parts.

In Teoría, which focuses on theme and meaning, the Ideal City perfonns an associative rather than a schematic purpose. The symbols foregrounded within it have rnythic functions that speak to the forces beyond the control of the rational mind. This "Ideal City," more than just a map of the novel, suggests the workings of the subconscious by removing time from the lighted, surface area of life and channeling it through the darkened areas of the mysteries of the self and the eternal cycles of youth, middle, and old age as echoed in the text' s three narrators. Ricardo, finds himself at the middle point of that flowing spectrum, at the 12:00 hour. This hour indicates that he is at the zenith of his life, but also at the point at which he is beginning or ending a cycle. Within the context of the narrative, it even foreshadows his death.

In the final two references to the city, Ricardo mentions that the title of his novel will be "La Ciudad Ideal" because the drawing made such an impression on him. He wants his novel, like that drawing, to be: "susceptible de despertar en el lector, sea o no consciente de lo que sucede, las sugestiones más recónditas" (II 511). Finally, his book should be: "Una prueba que es también un objetivo: La Ciudad Ideal, la obra en proyecto" (II 516). In these two quotes we see that the Ideal City, whatever correspondence there may be between its structure and that of the novel, is meant to be a point of access, an approach to an idea. The goal is the surprising association, the awakening of the thought process, the work in progress.

In the broadest sense, the Ideal City does indicate the desire for control expressed through form; likewise, it presents an emblema tic configuration of the limitations and barriers encountered when form meets the complexities of matter and experience. Like narrative, this architectural image must be examined as much for what it hides as for what it shows. In Archetype, Architecture, and the Writer, Bettina Knapp speaks to the connectivity such images generate:

Architecture as a spatial creation is the outer garment of a secretive and vital system; it is a nonverbal manifestation of a preconscious condition. A completed and relatively fixed architectural structure is nevertheless a dynamic and organic entity, a system of coordinates that relates inner and outer spheres and in so doing creates a complex of new harmonies and tensions. (vi)

Ricardo, the author/architect of Los verdes and Teoría, appears to understand, if not always the meaning of the images he creates, the effects of the process on him as an individual as he communicates them to others:

( ... ) el autor suele proyectarse sobre las formas por él creadas no tanto para darles un soplo de vida cuanto, ante todo, para explicarse a sí mismo, para realizarse, por ejemplo a través de sus personajes o de lo que a esos personajes atribuye, y ocultándose o creyendo hacerlo, mejor revelarse. (II 105)

As we have seen, the image speaks to the state of mind of the one who produces it, both revealing and hiding his conscious and subconscious thoughts, feelings, and desires. It undergoes continual transformation as does the individual as he leams about himself and his relation to the world.

In this chapter, we have examined the ways in which the intratextual author uses a construct of his own imagination (even if it bears traces of a similar image used by other writers, both real and fictional) to embody for the reader the narrative structure as well as the theoretical issues he is addressing through the process of his writing. In the following chapter, we will examine the use of well­known paintings in the text in relation to the establishment and subse­quent decentering and transformation of the symbolic structures they create in Antagonía.

NOTES

1 A Moorish architectural design in which a defensive tower is topped by a four­sided figure ending in a point.

2 The phrase "como rezaba la llamada" mentioned earlier, also is connected to the idea of safety. Women used to wait for the lamplighter to accompany them when they went out at night.

3 The defining characteristic of gnosticism, a religious movement of the first two centuries A.D., was that "its adherents belief in gnosis (knowledge)-the knowledge of God supposedly revealed to initiates to enable them to attain salvation" (Flew 123). Like Manichaeism, it reflects a dualistic system of nature, with the separation of the "good" spiritual world and the "evil" material world.

4 The "periplo" in Los verdes loosely has as its antecedent in Dante's Commedia, mentioned by the narrator in Recuento: "Así como Dante, en la exposición de su periplo por las zonas más oscuras de la conciencia( ... )." (I 569).

 Aproximations to Luis Goytisolo's Antagonía, Pamela DeWeese. Peter Lang, 2000. New York. Págs. 73-92. Con permiso de reproducción.