Thank you so much for your vlog! I originally thought about doing a vlog but decided against it (unfortunately I’m too self-conscious), so I absolutely love and appreciate your honesty and unfiltered approach. Kudos to you for choosing this format! I will have to check out all your previous posts, since I haven’t watched them all yet. You are very engaging to listen to!
I think we all, at times, feel as if we’re “digging at dirt” as we’re reading the second part of this novel. I agree with what you said about trying to “piece the story together” while feeling like you’re “in a maze”. That is the perfect description of what it’s like to read the second part of The Savage Detectives. It’s very labyrinth-like. It’s complex. It’s confusing. Constantly encountering new characters increases the challenge of piecing together the story. And for this reason, I’m very grateful that we’ve embarked on this Bolaño-reading journey together as a class.
"...and when he said, 'García Madero? Never really heard of him'... Fuck off! Like shut up!! I'm annoyed. What am I reading for then? ... It just feels like I'm not getting anywhere. Yeah. Whatever."
I would say that is pretty insightful.
I sometimes wonder about what and how Bolaño envisioned his readers to react to his writing, the format, the characters... I think as a writer it is inevitable to think about your audience and their expectations/experience. Oftentimes, I think Bolaño is trying to piss us off. Or engage some kind of frustration and confusion. I am trying not to conflate Bolaño and Belano as much as I previously was, but I do think this is how Belano would write prose. Something about Belano falling in love all the time, massive pendulums between confidence and shatteringly low self-esteem, and his comments about Sión (is it mystery? poetry? no, Amadeo, it's a joke) creates a very specific character image about him. Meaning that, in all honesty, I do not take him that seriously. An ounce, (perhaps more), of that does transfer onto Bolaño himself.
So... what are we reading for? Where are we going? To say: yeah, fuck off, whatever.
Hi Harmela,
Thank you so much for your vlog! I originally thought about doing a vlog but decided against it (unfortunately I’m too self-conscious), so I absolutely love and appreciate your honesty and unfiltered approach. Kudos to you for choosing this format! I will have to check out all your previous posts, since I haven’t watched them all yet. You are very engaging to listen to!
I think we all, at times, feel as if we’re “digging at dirt” as we’re reading the second part of this novel. I agree with what you said about trying to “piece the story together” while feeling like you’re “in a maze”. That is the perfect description of what it’s like to read the second part of The Savage Detectives. It’s very labyrinth-like. It’s complex. It’s confusing. Constantly encountering new characters increases the challenge of piecing together the story. And for this reason, I’m very grateful that we’ve embarked on this Bolaño-reading journey together as a class.
We are all lost in the maze together.
"...and when he said, 'García Madero? Never really heard of him'... Fuck off! Like shut up!! I'm annoyed. What am I reading for then? ... It just feels like I'm not getting anywhere. Yeah. Whatever."
I would say that is pretty insightful.
I sometimes wonder about what and how Bolaño envisioned his readers to react to his writing, the format, the characters... I think as a writer it is inevitable to think about your audience and their expectations/experience. Oftentimes, I think Bolaño is trying to piss us off. Or engage some kind of frustration and confusion. I am trying not to conflate Bolaño and Belano as much as I previously was, but I do think this is how Belano would write prose. Something about Belano falling in love all the time, massive pendulums between confidence and shatteringly low self-esteem, and his comments about Sión (is it mystery? poetry? no, Amadeo, it's a joke) creates a very specific character image about him. Meaning that, in all honesty, I do not take him that seriously. An ounce, (perhaps more), of that does transfer onto Bolaño himself.
So... what are we reading for? Where are we going? To say: yeah, fuck off, whatever.