Gerardo, In both the short story In the Cafe by Aira and the TV show Warigami, origami is quite central and the narratives couldn't be told without it (unlike, say, in Blade Runner, where the origami gives an important hint, but could be replaced easily by something else)
The story depicts a child becoming restless in a cafe, and a series of origami pieces being folded by the people to capture the child's attention. This goes on for a while, and each folded piece is more complex than the previous one, eventually becoming less and less believable, while being folded by the next person who just happens to be present in the cafe, not as part of an origami-related group or event. This is narrated earnestly and with a totally straight-faced tone, without any acknowledgment of the absurdity of the situation. I don't know how the story reads to people without origami experience. The point at which the realization hits that this is a farce is probably different. I know I couldn't stop myself from imagining the design structure of the pieces while reading their descriptions, and it took several of them before I could make my brain give up and let myself just read, (I think every origami designer should read this story, but that's just me.) In the TV show Warigami, origami is a part of the protagonists' family magical heritage and serves as an extension of a martial art. If anything, the story is even more bizarre than In the Cafe, but I don't find as much humor hidden in it, more just a silly "B-movie" style story. Goran On Sat, Jul 26, 2025 at 7:47 AM Gerardo via Origami < [email protected]> wrote: > Thank you for your origami literature–and other media–recommendations! > > What did you like about each of them, Madonna, Louise, Goran, Hans, and > Matt? What can you tell us about their depiction of origami? I'd love to > know! > > Matt and I will soon read *Apuntes para un tratado en cocotología*; I > guess we can translate it as *Notes for a Treatise in the Study of > Pajaritas*, by the well-known Spanish writer Miguel de Unamuno > (1864-1936). For those of you who don't know the text, it's a humorous and > satirical essay by a fictional teacher named Mr. Fulgencio. I believe it > hasn't been translated into English. You can read more about it in The > Public Paper Folding History Project: > https://www.origamiheaven.com/historyapuntesparauntratadodecocotologia.htm > > > Cheers! > > -- > *Gerardo Gacharná Ramírez, Sch.* >
