Cortazar's fundamental mistrust of language expresses itself in various forms: in the spontaneous creation of melodramatic dialogues, in the humorous seesaw questions between La Maga and Horacio, and in the recital of nonsense poems. In an effort to surpass traditional linguistic expression, Oliveira and La Maga create their own subjective language called gliglico.

Moreover, there is a continual playing with words throughout Hopscotch. For example, Cortazar arbitrarily adds "h" to the beginning of certain words.

Since, in Spanish, "h" has no phonetic value the random placing of "h" before words may be considered added ornamentation to what is already mere decorative print for Cortazar.

In contrast to his lack of faith in language, Cortazar looks upon silence as a direct and efficacious way of communicating reality's ultimate truth. In chapter sixty-six, he speaks of a written page that consists of one sentence repeated over and over again. Towards...