Love your reviews man. Love that they aren’t all positive all the time like some other RU-vid reviewers. Always giving it to us straight. Life is too short to read books that aren’t for us and you convey that well.
Yes!! Spot on. I’ve read about a half dozen of his novels and ‘Cecil Taylor’ is amongst his strongest works. The last line of that short story will stick with me forever; it is a magnificent dismount. Your observation about Aira’s air of improv is accurate to what he reports his writing style to be- he often writes a page a day with little connective tissue to the previous days work. I think he calls it ‘The Continuum’. Brain is foggy, and he might be full of shit. Would be curious to hear what you think about ‘The Hare’: his wild goose chase novel that is absurd, but reigns in *some* of Aira’s ponderous tendencies for the sake of a coherent narrative. Good stuff as always.
That is an interesting concept/conceit ... i'm just thinking if a movie was made that way, essentially a string of blip narratives/concepts loosely evolving, 'extemporaneously' strung together ... a jarring yet stimulating sequencing of things.
Love Aira. My favorite is called the Divorce. But I've read many of his books and have enjoyed them all very much. Bolaño said once you start reading Aira you can't stop. He was right. I need to read Day in the Life of a Landscape Painter.
Totally true statements. I first got published at 23. I was so excited. I got the magazine and read my story. Then I read my heroes and realized I sounded like a florid prick. I spent 15 years writing and rewriting and rewriting and destroying every story. Six years ago I got to the point where I didn't hate my work. Since then I've had around 15-20 stories and selections of poetry published in various lit rags. Am I always in love with the works? No. Am I embarrassed by them? No.
Hey, Happy Late-Birthday! Thanks for putting up so much good lit content in youtube. A few years ago, I had started reading "The Savage Detectives" by Bolaño when I started seeing your review of 2666. A minute in, I had decieded to get the book and read it asap. It took me a while to finish TSD, after which I read Amuelet and some short stories before 2666. Wildest ride I had while reading a book. (Cool side note: My philosophy prof saw me reading 2666 before her class and actually told me I had permision to skip her class if I ever had to decide between showing up or finishing the book.) Anyways, I get what you mean with Aira's short stories. Some really good stories, some stories that seam more like an anecdote or a joke written in a "literary style". I have a copy of Aira en español. One of the few birthday gifts I got from my dad.
Thanks for your work! Each episode feels like a psychotherapy to me:) Do you have a podcast where you upload all these talks? Would be great to listen it while travelling
Congrats on reaching Dantes midway point! Also, thank you for inspiring me to spend a bunch of the upcoming rent money on glorious literature! Fuck the landlord!
i mean, the human condition is the balance between taking things seriously and not taking things seriously. or as was said, amusing ourselves, but not amusing ourselves to death. it's about culture and directionality; are we getting better as a species? hopefully, and although we deeply know ourselves, we barely know ourselves. the human experiment
I have a reading recommendation, bit different but I think you’ll enjoy it. Simians, Cyborgs and Women by Donna J. Haraway (it’s non fiction though and I’m not recommending it to make you film a video I just think you should read it if you haven’t).
