Welcome to week six! We are closing in on the end.
This week’s reading is up to page 450 in the U.S. edition. For those reading other editions, it is through the end of Part 2, Chapter 19!
The spoiler discussion for this section starts now!
This section felt more like the Bolaño I’m used to, with more mysterious shadows and a healthy dose of paranoia about vague, unsubstantiated threats. It felt more like a collection of his short stories, making me wonder how much of his stories could easily have been thrown in here. The sections on Quim in particular feel like some of my favorite of Bolaño’s stories. Here is one of my favorite parts:
“When I was halfway there, though, I had an idea and I turned around, but the Impala was no longer in the street, visible or invisible, now you see it, now you don’t. The street had become a jigsaw of shadows with several pieces missing, and one of the pieces missing, oddly enough, was me. My Impala was gone. And in some sense that I couldn’t quite understand, I was gone too.”
Just echoing everyone’s thoughts about this section. Lots of fun, the momentum continues to build and, as Trevor mentioned, this feels more like the Bolano I know and love. I also have a soft spot for the Quim sections and also really enjoy Amadeo. Wouldn’t mind a - small - glass of Mezcal myself during those parts!
Hi Paul, just wanted to let you know that I just tried to comment on Week 7's readings, and it said only Paid Subscribers can comment on that thread. I'm guessing a setting needs to be changed...?
Could you try again? I have gone into the settings for that post and it explicitly says it is open for everyone and all will be able to comment. I made a minor edit to the end of the post hoping that by editing it and updating it all would now work.
I thought this section was pretty gripping! Lots of long life stories, but also the reveal and explanation of Cesarea's "poem" (breaking with traditional form, just like this book, eh?). The story Felipe Muller told was pretty neat too. "Sublime, in a way, but creepy too... If you mix the sublime and the creepy, what you end up with is creepy. Right?" I think Weird Fiction/Horror has answered that with a resounding "yes!"
Edith Oster's story kind of dragged for me but there's surely implications for Belano's life trajectory from meeting her. Glad she found some sort of stability in the end. She kind of reminded me of people I know with BPD, though I'm not necessarily trying to "diagnose" her.
Someone last week talked about 80's culture in Mexico and we're moving into the 90's now ... I'm a Millennial so I was in my own little world at the time (and, in the US, not Mexico). Were there any significant [Mexican] culture shifts moving into the 90s and into the turn of the millennium?
And re: Edith Oster, I should make clear that someone's story doesn't have to be immediately connected to what we think are the main topics & subjects of the book to be worth telling. At the end of it all, I think many of us just want to be remembered, and so her story deserves to be heard just as much as Belano's or Lima's. For merely being alive, someone paints their strokes on the broad tapestry of life. It's not all about what is immediately story-relevant.
However, that's the romantic in me. In practical reality I had my cats distracting me and so I had a hard time hearing Edith out on this one :) And I think it might have been the longest continuous section yet? Not 100% sure on that though.
A lot of things going on in the readings this week. Along with the refrain of Amadeo's long day with B&L (and the reveal of Cesárea's cryptic 'poem'), we've got a few from Quim, including his release from the asylum (I have a real soft spot for both Amadeo and Quim).
And then, as you say, we've got some that seem like connected short stories. A long entry from Andrés Ramírez, who seems to be interviewed by Belano himself, though we know the other interviews aren't by him (all talk about him in the third person). So there are multiple interviewers, of which Belano may be one (just this one?) A detail I noticed from this one, which I'm not sure would translate, is that Ramírez addresses Belano with 'usted' - the formal 'you'. This is really odd to me. I know in Spain at that time (I lived there about the same time), the formal 'you' was not in use except in very formal situations - old people and maybe brief interactions with a salesperson, or someone in authority. We always used the informal you even with our professors. I know the formal is used more often in Central/South America, but these guys had been living in Spain for years, and also Ramírez hired him as a dishwasher (so was in authority over him, not the other way around) and called him a good friend. It was odd, and I was wondering what it meant.
And the long passage from Edith, which did seem even more like a connected short story. She overlaps with Belano, but then it continues her story well past her time with him.
I was thrown for a loop when we find out Belano was interviewing. Is Lima an interviewer for any of these? I don’t think it’s important but just an interesting thought. I think of these interviews being done by some new young avant garde poets who are looking into the history of visceral realism the way Belano and Lima were looking into the Stridenists
I can't recall any hints that Lima might be an interviewer, and there are plenty of sections where Belano and Lima are both third parties in the story, but it's possible with some of the Europe sections. I definitely think there's still an unnamed third party for most of these.
Love hearing about these irregularities or interesting choices on either Bolaño or Grossman’s part. I know that I might not ever be proficient enough to grasp the original Spanish but I love hearing about these bits.
Late on commenting on this thread so not sure if anyone will see it. What did everyone think of the reveal of Cesária Tinajero's only poem since it was art/drawings? Was that unexpected for you?
Just echoing everyone’s thoughts about this section. Lots of fun, the momentum continues to build and, as Trevor mentioned, this feels more like the Bolano I know and love. I also have a soft spot for the Quim sections and also really enjoy Amadeo. Wouldn’t mind a - small - glass of Mezcal myself during those parts!
Hi Paul, just wanted to let you know that I just tried to comment on Week 7's readings, and it said only Paid Subscribers can comment on that thread. I'm guessing a setting needs to be changed...?
Could you try again? I have gone into the settings for that post and it explicitly says it is open for everyone and all will be able to comment. I made a minor edit to the end of the post hoping that by editing it and updating it all would now work.
I thought this section was pretty gripping! Lots of long life stories, but also the reveal and explanation of Cesarea's "poem" (breaking with traditional form, just like this book, eh?). The story Felipe Muller told was pretty neat too. "Sublime, in a way, but creepy too... If you mix the sublime and the creepy, what you end up with is creepy. Right?" I think Weird Fiction/Horror has answered that with a resounding "yes!"
Edith Oster's story kind of dragged for me but there's surely implications for Belano's life trajectory from meeting her. Glad she found some sort of stability in the end. She kind of reminded me of people I know with BPD, though I'm not necessarily trying to "diagnose" her.
Someone last week talked about 80's culture in Mexico and we're moving into the 90's now ... I'm a Millennial so I was in my own little world at the time (and, in the US, not Mexico). Were there any significant [Mexican] culture shifts moving into the 90s and into the turn of the millennium?
And re: Edith Oster, I should make clear that someone's story doesn't have to be immediately connected to what we think are the main topics & subjects of the book to be worth telling. At the end of it all, I think many of us just want to be remembered, and so her story deserves to be heard just as much as Belano's or Lima's. For merely being alive, someone paints their strokes on the broad tapestry of life. It's not all about what is immediately story-relevant.
However, that's the romantic in me. In practical reality I had my cats distracting me and so I had a hard time hearing Edith out on this one :) And I think it might have been the longest continuous section yet? Not 100% sure on that though.
Where is everyone today, lol?
A lot of things going on in the readings this week. Along with the refrain of Amadeo's long day with B&L (and the reveal of Cesárea's cryptic 'poem'), we've got a few from Quim, including his release from the asylum (I have a real soft spot for both Amadeo and Quim).
And then, as you say, we've got some that seem like connected short stories. A long entry from Andrés Ramírez, who seems to be interviewed by Belano himself, though we know the other interviews aren't by him (all talk about him in the third person). So there are multiple interviewers, of which Belano may be one (just this one?) A detail I noticed from this one, which I'm not sure would translate, is that Ramírez addresses Belano with 'usted' - the formal 'you'. This is really odd to me. I know in Spain at that time (I lived there about the same time), the formal 'you' was not in use except in very formal situations - old people and maybe brief interactions with a salesperson, or someone in authority. We always used the informal you even with our professors. I know the formal is used more often in Central/South America, but these guys had been living in Spain for years, and also Ramírez hired him as a dishwasher (so was in authority over him, not the other way around) and called him a good friend. It was odd, and I was wondering what it meant.
And the long passage from Edith, which did seem even more like a connected short story. She overlaps with Belano, but then it continues her story well past her time with him.
I was thrown for a loop when we find out Belano was interviewing. Is Lima an interviewer for any of these? I don’t think it’s important but just an interesting thought. I think of these interviews being done by some new young avant garde poets who are looking into the history of visceral realism the way Belano and Lima were looking into the Stridenists
I can't recall any hints that Lima might be an interviewer, and there are plenty of sections where Belano and Lima are both third parties in the story, but it's possible with some of the Europe sections. I definitely think there's still an unnamed third party for most of these.
Love hearing about these irregularities or interesting choices on either Bolaño or Grossman’s part. I know that I might not ever be proficient enough to grasp the original Spanish but I love hearing about these bits.
Ha. Meant Wimmer not Grossman.
Late on commenting on this thread so not sure if anyone will see it. What did everyone think of the reveal of Cesária Tinajero's only poem since it was art/drawings? Was that unexpected for you?
Is it deep or is it a joke? Or both? Neither?
New weekly thread is up, can you post? I can't. :(
https://mookse.substack.com/p/week-7-the-savage-detectives-readalong/comments
Is it not working correctly? I will go see if I can figure out what’s going on!
It's working now, thanks!!!