Strange Forces

Strange Forces (Spanish: Las fuerzas extrañas) is a collection of short stories by Argentine writer Leopoldo Lugones, first published in 1906. Despite having been Lugones' least successful work at that time, it is considered to be a key pioneer in the development of the science fiction and fantasy genres in Argentina. The stories all deal with the concept of toying beyond the limits of human knowledge, having most a tendency to develop from a scientist’s invitation of a friend in order to share with them the results of their experiments, resulting, ultimately, in disaster. Jorge Luis Borges, being an important admirer of Lugones, once said:

The literature of America feeds on this work of this great writer; writing well is, for many, writing as Lugones. The pages of "Las Fuerzas Extrañas" are amongst the most accomplished of hispanic literature. Many of the pseudoscientific explanations used as a basis of the plot of the stories have greatly resembled scientific explanations accepted by mainstream science years later. Such is the case that Lugones himself, following the publishing of the 1926 second edition of the collection, said:

Some theories from this book, with twenty years passed by, notwithstanding the fact that they belong to an age even more behind in knowledge, are now accepted in the scientific field.