“Apología de Bob López”, by Guillermo Nugent, it is a specialized text that pretends to be impartial, an exposition of facts. In reality, the author’s voice softly whispers to the reader with a set opinion. It’s a commented narration, from a contemporary point of view of the story “Alienación” by Julio Ramón Ribeyro.
It can function as a good counterpoint to other commentaries, like Canal IPe’s video essay (Canal IPe, 2020). This video portrays Roberto López’s evolution as a direct reaction to the words of Queca. And it fails to see the full social context of the time or the position of other characters, it devoids the main character of any agency. On the other hand, in the original story “Alienación” (Ribeyro, 1977), the narrator’s voice impacts our perception of the story. This way, I find Nugent’s text to be a good companion to the main story, as it allows us to weigh different opinions, and make up our minds.
“Apología de Bob López” (Nugent, 1995), through the voices of Bob López and the Narrator, critiques the social hierarchy of Lima in the 70’s. This is seen in Nugent comments such as “Esto desde el PVN es un despropósito, algo aberrante, digno de lástima” (pág. 2), where the author infers the position of the narrator. Another example is when he comments on the narrator’s outrage at Queca’s and López attempt to jump the social hierarchy. The narrator calls Queca “huachafa”, and Nugent reminds us of the need to “garantizar y poner límites a los atrevimientos del protagonista” (pág. 11) refering to Roberto.
This shines a light on the Narrator as a protagonist and main critic of Bob López, which makes him the object of Nugent’s criticism. And this very fact makes “Apología de Bob López” a good companion for the story. Although Nugent has a definite opinion on both Bob and the Narrator, the criticism of the latter makes this text stand out from other analyses. Alas, the text is an analysis, and the storyteller is Ribeyro, which means that both texts are needed for a complete opinion.
Thus, I think there are two ways to look at the text, as a companion to the story, or as supporting material for the narrator’s position. For example, through Nugent’s text one can talk about the social and historical context of the time. This is possible because of the text’s character, though one can criticize the difference between the voice in Nugent’s introduction, and the commentary.
References
Canal IPe. (2020, October 28). “Alienación” by Julio Ramón Ribeyro. Instituto Nacional de Radio y Televisión del Perú. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX4BfShxvUU
Nugent, G. (1995). Apología de Bob López. Ius et Veritas, 1(11), 189–208. http://revistas.pucp.edu.pe/index.php/iusetveritas/article/view/15525/15975
Ribeyro, J. R. (1977). Alienación. En La Palabra del Mudo (Vol. 3)