Fiction

[Blythe]

Has anyone read anything by Herta Müller or J.M.G. Le Clézio?

Haven't read anything by either as of yet, although the latter is on the never ending list.

I finally have given up [as far as I can tell] on 2666, in the end, I don't feel it's worth all the verbiage.  The book put me in a foul mood, and I just couldn't force myself to pick it up again.  Maybe someday.  Doubtfully.

I just finished Shutter Island, we'd seen the film last week, and bought the book on the way home.  It was nice to see a film keep the authorial view so accurately.  A lot of the dialog was identical, and the heart was the same.  DiCaprio, never one of my favorites, at least previously, is rapidly becoming someone I respect as an actor. 

[Beppo]

I finally have given up [as far as I can tell] on 2666, in the end, I don't feel it's worth all the verbiage.  The book put me in a foul mood, and I just couldn't force myself to pick it up again.  Maybe someday.  Doubtfully.

What point did you give up? Part 4 is pretty horrendous but part 5 is way good.

[Blythe]

I finally have given up [as far as I can tell] on 2666, in the end, I don't feel it's worth all the verbiage.  The book put me in a foul mood, and I just couldn't force myself to pick it up again.  Maybe someday.  Doubtfully.

What point did you give up? Part 4 is pretty horrendous but part 5 is way good.

I was pretty far into part 4, page 452 in the hardback copy, approximately 100 pages in.  Truth is, since I read that far, I probably could have finished that part and gotten into the 5th...you're not the first that's mentioned it's about the best, or most coherent at any rate. 

It's difficult for me to say that absolutely I'll never finish it, but considering I was snapping at everyone, and being generally not very pleasant to be around, it's a wonder my copy hasn't mysteriously disappeared.     Just kidding, sorta, kinda.

You finished then I take it?  Opinions?

[Gintaras]

Blythe, let me know if you ever get around to Le Clézio. 

Started reading Murakami's Norwegian Wood.  Link is to his website.  Can't say I was overly enthralled by What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, but am liking what I have read of Norwegian Wood thus far.

[Beppo]

Blythe,

Yes - I read it a while back.

When I was reading Part 4 of 2666 I was having experiences not unlike you're describing. I insisted on telling some people about me that what I was reading was causing me some misery, which was bringing into question whether I was going to continue or not, an experience I'd never really had before. It takes you to places you don't want to go and leaves an impression long after the book is closed.  On occasions I had to stop I would be exclaiming out loud that it was worse than horrible.

However, I did eventually get through it and got to Part 5.

If Part 5 was a single book it would be the book I'd recommend as an introduction.

[Blythe]

Beppo, thanks for your response. 

2666, to me is too much of a continual bullying of the reader about how horrible the world is, how unfair everything is for the workers of the world.  Because, obviously, the victims in 2666 are representative of the workers, peons, and the poor of the world.  Anyone not a victim is held by Bolano somehow at fault for the crimes.  Either by committing, not investigating, or ignoring the crimes, it is everyone's fault.  Bolano's only innocents are the voiceless victims themselves.  And that stance in itself, seems unfair to me. 

He had a point, if all of humankind would be more aware, and act upon that awareness the world would in fact be a better place.  Maybe this book was his way of attempting one last prod at the Conscience of Man[kind].  Bludgeoning the reader is not the way to accomplish anything positive however. The continuous and unrelenting violence in 2666 was such it seemed to only numb the reader......his bitterness over-flowed onto the page like acid, defeating the author's purpose. Hopelessness was the real message I received from Bolano.

And, ironically enough, that is unfair in itself. 

[nnyhav]

No.

Been ignoring the news out of Ciudad Juarez? It's exceeding even Bolaño's imagination.

[nytempsperdu]

Not to mention the Congo and various other vales o' sorrow...  Am heeding warnings, but still want to read 2666 one of these days...with sufficient bracing.

Meanwhile, the amount of attention to culinary detail in The Lacuna makes me wonder if Kingsolver was influenced by Like Water for Chocolate--and reminds me that it hasn't been so very long since she wrote Animal, Vegetable, Miracle that Donotremove (I think it was) liked so.  Am enjoying the insouciance of her main character, speculating about possible comparisons to present time/trends--loved the likening of the press to the howler monkeys of Isla Pixol.  Her choice of quotations from Trotsky are so spot on timely that when I'm done, I may have to go back to Trotsky's My Life that sits on my bookshelf right next to Rosa Luxemburg Speaks  (it's safe to say that here, isn't it?).   

[Blythe]

No.

Been ignoring the news out of Ciudad Juarez? It's exceeding even Bolaño's imagination.

I'm not ignoring either the Ciudad Juarez news or the Congo, or any of the dozens of places in the world awful killings are taking place.
My comments stand regarding 2666.

[nnyhav]

No.

Been ignoring the news out of Ciudad Juarez? It's exceeding even Bolaño's imagination.

I'm not ignoring either the Ciudad Juarez news or the Congo, or any of the dozens of places in the world awful killings are taking place.
My comments stand regarding 2666.

No, actually your comments just lie there, writhing.

You want "bullying of the reader", try Gass' The Tunnel. Imputing such to Bolaño in this manner constitutes abuse of the book and of the author. It's not that the part about the crimes is all that good (tho I think better than the part about fate), but literature has long incorporated lists as a device, and this long list in its flat documentary presentation has its point, inurement in an environment where such crimes can take place. Maybe it works, maybe not (cf http://www.thevalve.org/go/valve/article/2666_part_4_crimes/ & comments on FUing). He was drawing attention to a situation that pretty much went unreported MSM-wise at the time of his writing; extrapolating to the whole of 2666 that this is some sort of consciousness-raising to benefit "the workers of the world", "the voiceless victims", isn't supported by evidence in the presentation.

But of course to continue in this vein would be bullying the commentator.

[Blythe]

No.

Been ignoring the news out of Ciudad Juarez? It's exceeding even Bolaño's imagination.

I'm not ignoring either the Ciudad Juarez news or the Congo, or any of the dozens of places in the world awful killings are taking place.
My comments stand regarding 2666.

No, actually your comments just lie there, writhing.

You want "bullying of the reader", try Gass' The Tunnel. Imputing such to Bolaño in this manner constitutes abuse of the book and of the author. It's not that the part about the crimes is all that good (tho I think better than the part about fate), but literature has long incorporated lists as a device, and this long list in its flat documentary presentation has its point, inurement in an environment where such crimes can take place. Maybe it works, maybe not (cf http://www.thevalve.org/go/valve/article/2666_part_4_crimes/ & comments on FUing). He was drawing attention to a situation that pretty much went unreported MSM-wise at the time of his writing; extrapolating to the whole of 2666 that this is some sort of consciousness-raising to benefit "the workers of the world", "the voiceless victims", isn't supported by evidence in the presentation.

But of course to continue in this vein would be bullying the commentator.

Being bullied by an author, or poster is not on my list today, and undoubtedly not tomorrow either.  
I do however still differ with your take on the meaning and purpose of the book.

In my post # 2357 I put forth my thoughts...."that callousness and eventual indifference to the fates of the victims is the uniting factor of the book...and the point that Bolano is really attempting to make regarding humans and the world in general."

[madupont]

Not to mention the Congo and various other vales o' sorrow...  Am heeding warnings, but still want to read 2666 one of these days...with sufficient bracing.

Meanwhile, the amount of attention to culinary detail in The Lacuna makes me wonder if Kingsolver was influenced by Like Water for Chocolate--and reminds me that it hasn't been so very long since she wrote Animal, Vegetable, Miracle that Donotremove (I think it was) liked so.  Am enjoying the insouciance of her main character, speculating about possible comparisons to present time/trends--loved the likening of the press to the howler monkeys of Isla Pixol.  Her choice of quotations from Trotsky are so spot on timely that when I'm done, I may have to go back to Trotsky's My Life that sits on my bookshelf right next to Rosa Luxemburg Speaks  (it's safe to say that here, isn't it?).   

I'm very fond of Margarethe von Trotta's film: Rosa Luxemburg

I thought of it often as the Bush administration got into gear.

Recently, it was thought they had found the body of R.L. but medical tests didn't seem to indicate  further effort at positive identification. Buried in a Potter's field grave.

[madupont]

http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780679403937&view=auqa

[nytempsperdu]

I liked the movie about Luxemberg a lot, too, even if my memory of it was tarnished by an attempted mugging as I walked home alone, by a juvenile who held an orange in one hand and a serrated steak knife in the other as he took a stance just downhill from me on a steep SF street and said "Why don't you give me all your money?"  I started to ask him what gave him the impression I had any money but looked into his eyes and perceived that he was in an altered state, so I altered his position by pushing him down on the sidewalk then ran down the street shouting I recall not what, heard by a group of off duty police through the large open windows of  a local watering hole whence they had repaired after their baseball game.  Two of them came through said open windows and chased the miscreant a couple of blocks and apprehended him, retrieving the knife he'd thrown down as they brought him back to the watering hole where a cop car had appeared in a very short time.  He was one of the local runaway "rent boys" that populated the notorious "Polk Street Gulch" near the movie theater.  His probation officer said he was the son of upwardly mobile parents down Palo Alto way who had no time for him. I felt sorry for him when they didn't but I did show up for his hearing at juvie, where he was not unknown and from which he escaped not very long thereafter, as his P.O. called to let me know.  I spied him once more on Polk St., pretended not to recognize him.

But yeah, a good movie...   

[Donotremove]

Temps, great story, well written. Best reading I've seen on Melba in, oh I don't know, a long time. Cheers, young'un.