I had a strange Bolaño-moment this week. In Bolaño's ´Between Parentheses´ he writes about the movie and book ´84 Charing Cross Road'. Watching that movie this week, I noticed that someone in the moview asks about a book on Archimboldi in a book shop. In the movie, Archimboldi's a graphic artist but I guess that's where Bolaño took his name from for ´2666´ (I havent´t read the book ´84 Charing Cross Road´ so I have no idea if his name is mentioned there).
― EvR, Wednesday, 2 July 2014 16:26 (nine years ago) link
I just finished Between Parenthesis. I'll need to find that film.
As a result of finishing the book I was doing some Bolano research tonight (or googling). Many (if not all the pieces) were written while he was feverishly writing 2666, so actually this turns into a keeper, something to read in parallel.
I made a little list of stuff to get (or keeping until it is translated):
Rodrigo Fresan - Mantra (not translated, although Kensington Gardens has been translated)Juan Rodolfo Wilcock - The Temple of IconoclastsJaime Bayly - I Love My Mommy (not trans.?)Roberto Arlt - short stories (not sure, but there is a bk)Rodrigo Rey Rosa - (couple of things knocking about)Carmen Boullosa - (as above)
Bolano is clearly made by Argentinian writing from the 30s and 40s (the group around Borges although he talks about Macedonio Fernandez (whose Museum of Eterna's Novel has been translated), then Sabato (keep meaning to read The Tunnel), Arlt, Borges of course (he loves his poetry which isn't as well regarded in English at least) (he is the absolute central figure and why not..), Bioy, Ocampo (NYRB really helping here, the latter just issued).
Bolano does have this love/hate r/ship w/the Latin American boom, seems to love as originally conceived but then hate with an equal zeal because of what it became in the hands of Isabel Allende and the like. Then again he seemed to have made a ton of friends through writing - so combative but v sociable too. Really good newspaper reviewer.
On the poetry front he idolizes Parra (whom I've read now), likes Lihn (not a hope in finding) and then Catalan and Spanish poets I'm not going to find.
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 3 April 2015 23:13 (nine years ago) link
Sorry Macedonio Hernandez is the person who invented Borges
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 3 April 2015 23:14 (nine years ago) link
that movie is available in the itunes store. i need to reread ´Between Parentheses'.
apparently he was friends with javier cercas, who casts him in his novel ´soldiers of salamis´. i think the swordfighting-on-the-beach scene in ´the savage detectives´ is about him and enrique vila-matas.
there´s a spanish book called ´bolaño por si mismo´ which is quite good if you want to know more about his influences.
― EvR, Saturday, 11 April 2015 13:03 (nine years ago) link
apparently he was friends with javier cercas, who casts him in his novel ´soldiers of salamis
Yeah Bolano reviews the book in Between Parentheses - such a strange reading experience..
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 11 April 2015 13:13 (nine years ago) link
like the poem from romantic dogs you posted several thousand years ago upthread, xyzzzz. waiting to pick it up from the library, read some in a bookstore & felt prepped to really like it.
― tender is the late-night daypart (schlump), Saturday, 11 April 2015 18:43 (nine years ago) link
Cool, I actually have only read a couple of poems from that myself.
I do not own any Bolano, its all read from libraries. The copy I see of 2666 is so horrible looking though.
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 11 April 2015 19:10 (nine years ago) link
The Rebeca Nodier bookstore is tended by Rebeca Nodier herself, an old woman in her eighties who is completely blind and wears unruly white dresses that match her dentures; armed with a cane and alerted by the creaky wooden floor, she hops up and introduces herself to everyone who walks into her store, I'm Rebeca Nodier, etc., finally asking in turn the name of the "lover of literature" she has the "pleasure of meeting" and inquires what kind of literature he or she is looking for. I told her that I was interested in my poetry, and to my surprise, Mrs. Nodier said all poets were bums but they weren't bad in bed. Especially if they don't have any money, she went on. Then she asked me how old I was. Seventeen, I said. Oh, you're still a pipsqueak, she exclaimed. And then: you're not planning to steal any of my books, are you? I promised her that I would rather die. We chatted for a while, and then I left.
― j., Tuesday, 22 December 2015 08:16 (eight years ago) link
thank you for that. Ms. Nodier deserves our boundless admiration.
― a little too mature to be cute (Aimless), Tuesday, 22 December 2015 18:17 (eight years ago) link
There's now another theatrical adaptation of 2666 in Chicago, though this interview with its directors strangely never mentions the earlier attempt by Pablo Ley Fancelli and Alex Rigola in Barcelona, 2007: http://lithub.com/adapting-bolanos-unadaptable-masterpiece-for-the-stage/
― one way street, Wednesday, 17 February 2016 14:59 (eight years ago) link
i read Amulet last week and couldn't put it down. the reclusive painter honing in on Erigone and Orestes, Arturo Belano negotiating like he's in the mafia, the singing ghosts in the valley, Auxilio covering her missing teeth when she speaks. i enjoyed it despite not knowing anything about the Tlatelolco massacre, the topic the whole fucking book is dancing around. someday after i've learned one or two more things about the world i look forward to circling back to Amulet and reading it again.
― Karl Malone, Thursday, 5 July 2018 15:44 (five years ago) link
the character of Auxilio was based off of the story of Alcira Soust Scaffo, who really did remain hidden in a bathroom for 15 days during the military's occupation of the university.
https://i.imgur.com/Rhl2fl6.jpg
https://www.laizquierdadiario.com/Alcira-la-poeta-del-68-mexicano-entre-Roberto-Bolano-y-Jose-Revueltas
― Karl Malone, Thursday, 5 July 2018 15:52 (five years ago) link
Distant Star is fuckin' great.
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 28 April 2021 23:16 (two years ago) link
My favorite of his, so haunting and sad.
Been rereading Savage Detectives as well, now that I actually live in Mexico City it's so much fun recognizing all the places! Even the beginning has held up better than I thought, and how the second part gets more and more melancholy and mysterious as time moves on never fails to amaze me.
― groovemaaan, Thursday, 29 April 2021 00:26 (two years ago) link
Had no idea I needed a novel about Roberto Bolaño, but holy shit, LAST WORDS ON EARTH by Javier Serena, translated by Katie Whittemore, coming from @open_letter this year is 🔥🔥🔥. Anyone who loves Bolaño or understands the uncompromising pursuit of literature will love this.— Mark Haber (@markhaber713) April 28, 2021
― Mark E. Smith died this year. Or, maybe last year. (bernard snowy), Thursday, 29 April 2021 13:12 (two years ago) link
After obsessing over this guy in my 30s, I honestly haven't thought much about him in a while. Mostly due to starting a family, but I also just burned out on him a bit. I should revisit one of his novellas. My favorite Bolano character type is the old friend/acquaintance who reappears in your life in an almost menacing way, now adrift and depressed, mumbling dark things to himself.
― Heez, Thursday, 29 April 2021 15:30 (two years ago) link
has much in common with Sebald in that respect
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 29 April 2021 15:30 (two years ago) link
found out that a friend of mines parents are depicted in the savage detectives, in the first part of the book theyre part of the artistic milieu like a sculptor and... something, been a while since i read the book, and since he told me lol, not a close friend
― lag∞n, Thursday, 29 April 2021 16:29 (two years ago) link
Influencers!
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 29 April 2021 16:30 (two years ago) link
lmao
― lag∞n, Thursday, 29 April 2021 16:30 (two years ago) link
Is that the foul-mouthed American woman?
― keto keto bonito v industry plant-based diet (PBKR), Thursday, 29 April 2021 16:37 (two years ago) link
yeah must be i know one of his parents is american
― lag∞n, Thursday, 29 April 2021 17:28 (two years ago) link
finishing up Distant Star rn, pretty good! I do like the concept of "how do you process it when someone in your little arts circle becomes a politically aligned psychotic murderer," because I am thinking of similar things now that I recently found out that someone I grew up with created a giant company that does new slavery or whatever.
for some reason this book is kinda reading like a musical to me, where things are happening in a semi-realistic way or whatever and then suddenly the plot takes off on these (kinda corny) flights of fancies and then comes down (like the skywriting poetry, or the the torture photography exhibit or w/e). Anyway, I tried to read him like 10-15 years ago and thought he was pretty overrated, couldn't get through anything, now I'm having a good time reading this book, not sure why. 10-15 years ago I was able to dive into Marias and Sebald and other more "it helps to be divorced to get it" authors, but whatever it's nice to have something to be into now.
― Bongo Jongus, Sunday, 6 February 2022 20:20 (two years ago) link