Red Mosquito

Steve Albini wrote:Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.

tragabigzanda wrote:So...RM is a bunch of drooling idiots for Bolano's work? Or Bolano is a drooling idiot?

Steve Albini wrote:Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.

tragabigzanda wrote:I was really intrigued by 2666 when it came out, that's at the top of my Bolano list. Maybe I'll see if it's at the library today.

Simple Torture wrote:

tragabigzanda wrote:I was really intrigued by 2666 when it came out, that's at the top of my Bolano list. Maybe I'll see if it's at the library today.

Do it, don't be a wuss.

durdencommatyler wrote:Started Distant Star by Bolano. I only got through the first two chapters on my way to work but fuck me. I love this book already.

Simple Torture wrote:

durdencommatyler wrote:Started Distant Star by Bolano. I only got through the first two chapters on my way to work but fuck me. I love this book already.

The first couple of chapters are some of the creepiest. It sort of switches genres later on, but the mood of the beginning of that book...oh, yeah.

durdencommatyler wrote:

Simple Torture wrote:

durdencommatyler wrote:Started Distant Star by Bolano. I only got through the first two chapters on my way to work but fuck me. I love this book already.

The first couple of chapters are some of the creepiest. It sort of switches genres later on, but the mood of the beginning of that book...oh, yeah.

Oh man, that's kind of a bummer because, yeah, the mood/tone, that's what I'm loving the most about it. Anyway, I'm already totally hooked. So whatever it turns into, I'm all in. I'm sure it'll be great, wherever it goes.

Simple Torture wrote:

durdencommatyler wrote:

Simple Torture wrote:

durdencommatyler wrote:Started Distant Star by Bolano. I only got through the first two chapters on my way to work but fuck me. I love this book already.

The first couple of chapters are some of the creepiest. It sort of switches genres later on, but the mood of the beginning of that book...oh, yeah.

Oh man, that's kind of a bummer because, yeah, the mood/tone, that's what I'm loving the most about it. Anyway, I'm already totally hooked. So whatever it turns into, I'm all in. I'm sure it'll be great, wherever it goes.

Bolaño loves playing with the tropes of different genre fiction, so he switches between registers all the time. It's not necessarily a bad thing when a book switches from nearly horror to a detective story--it just adds a different flavor.

durdencommatyler wrote:

Simple Torture wrote:

durdencommatyler wrote:

Simple Torture wrote:

durdencommatyler wrote:Started Distant Star by Bolano. I only got through the first two chapters on my way to work but fuck me. I love this book already.

The first couple of chapters are some of the creepiest. It sort of switches genres later on, but the mood of the beginning of that book...oh, yeah.

Oh man, that's kind of a bummer because, yeah, the mood/tone, that's what I'm loving the most about it. Anyway, I'm already totally hooked. So whatever it turns into, I'm all in. I'm sure it'll be great, wherever it goes.

Bolaño loves playing with the tropes of different genre fiction, so he switches between registers all the time. It's not necessarily a bad thing when a book switches from nearly horror to a detective story--it just adds a different flavor.

Totally agree. It was probably my favorite thing about Savage Detectives, too. The tonal shifts and the genre playfulness. Am I to assume then that Distant Star becomes a detective novel? Because if that's the case...

“Without turning, the pharmacist answered that he liked books like The Metamorphosis, Bartleby, A Simple Heart, A Christmas Carol. And then he said that he was reading Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's. Leaving aside the fact that A Simple Heart and A Christmas Carol were stories, not books, there was something revelatory about the taste of this bookish young pharmacist, who ... clearly and inarguably preferred minor works to major ones. He chose The Metamorphosis over The Trial, he chose Bartleby over Moby Dick, he chose A Simple Heart over Bouvard and Pecouchet, and A Christmas Carol over A Tale of Two Cities or The Pickwick Papers. What a sad paradox, thought Amalfitano. Now even bookish pharmacists are afraid to take on the great, imperfect, torrential works, books that blaze a path into the unknown. They choose the perfect exercises of the great masters. Or what amounts to the same thing: they want to watch the great masters spar, but they have no interest in real combat, when the great masters struggle against that something, that something that terrifies us all, that something that cows us and spurs us on, amid blood and mortal wounds and stench.”

Simple Torture wrote:In some ways, all of his novels are detective novels--people are always on the search for something, whether it's a person, a legend, a literary idea. I love his work so much, probably, because the narratives act out the process of reading, analyzing, and working with literary texts: you know there's something in there, something deep, deep in the center of it that would give you a flash of inspiration and understanding about the universe, but all you can really know are its outlines and contours, because there's something deep and dark about the Truth that's dangerous, too. His books are about trips into this big dark unknown, and it's scary, horrifying, and exotically pleasurable all at the same time.

lennytheweedwhacker wrote:do you remember what life was like pre-bolano, s_t?

durdencommatyler wrote:

Simple Torture wrote:In some ways, all of his novels are detective novels--people are always on the search for something, whether it's a person, a legend, a literary idea. I love his work so much, probably, because the narratives act out the process of reading, analyzing, and working with literary texts: you know there's something in there, something deep, deep in the center of it that would give you a flash of inspiration and understanding about the universe, but all you can really know are its outlines and contours, because there's something deep and dark about the Truth that's dangerous, too. His books are about trips into this big dark unknown, and it's scary, horrifying, and exotically pleasurable all at the same time.

So, I read Savage Detectives and liked it but felt a bit... weird about parts of it. I'm enjoying this one (Distant Star) a lot so far. And I love what you're saying about his work and why you like him as a writer. What you're describing really speaks to me in a deep way. What other books of his would you recommend for me? I still own Savage Detectives and want to revisit it after I've read a couple of his other books.

Simple Torture wrote:

lennytheweedwhacker wrote:do you remember what life was like pre-bolano, s_t?

At this point, not really. It was like a bomb going off.

lennytheweedwhacker wrote:

Simple Torture wrote:

lennytheweedwhacker wrote:do you remember what life was like pre-bolano, s_t?

At this point, not really. It was like a bomb going off.

one might consider this the genesis: http://archive.theskyiscrape.com/viewto ... 9#p2571003