SOURCE: Febles, Jorge. “Dying Players: Ramírez's ‘El Centerfielder’ and Dybek's ‘Death of the Rightfielder.’” Confluencia 12, no. 1 (fall 1996): 156-67.

In the following essay, Febles compares Dybek to Sandinista writer Sergio Ramírez, finding elements of the carnival concept in the work of both authors: reigning absurdity, grotesque figures and rituals, atemporality, and a celebration of the “play spirit.”

Perhaps there is no rhetorical exercise as gratuitous as searching for tangentialities between literary texts that bear little direct relationship. And yet, such is the nature of the comparative effort which this essay attempts. I intend to demonstrate how coetaneous authors from different nations, writing in different languages and pursuing diverse aesthetic intentions can nevertheless perceive the game of baseball in a self-same manner. My conclusions, therefore, will pertain more to the sport itself, to its unavoidable tie with the play spirit inherent in human beings, than to the texts...