I love when it’s asked what it is about Bolano that really struck a chord with the American audience. For me it’s how much Bolano seems to love poetry and literature and how that love emanates though all of his works. He makes poetry and literature so romantic in a time where it is otherwise dead. People talk all the time in America about how poetry is dead, and that can certainly extend to literature if you think about all the crap that the average American reads, if they read at all. It’s as if Bolano brings poetry and literature back to life. He makes it something special to pursue. So much of his writing is through the lens of youth, and what types of youths are really out drinking and partying and violently discussing poetry? It’s as if he is the last person to be trying to keep poetry and literature alive, something we need so much. We’d all like to stay young forever and by reading Bolano, we do.
Yup. That's what they touch on around 28:00. I was astounded by how Detectives would casually (and yet not casually) just mention all the writers I loved as a kid, living in Paris -- Baudelaire, in particular, and it made me REALLY think twice about American literature and how for whatever reason these writers seem to have been untouched by the writers I loved. So it turned things around for me -- I realized what every artist must discover in every new generation, whether it be Eliot, or Baudelaire before him, and all the way back to Dante and before -- that great scene in Satyricon where the rich guy is going through his art collection talking about how poetry is dead now, how we can never get back to the Greeks, how "these days" everything is stuck in superficial pop media -- that's what that guy was saying in the year 30. This is the exact same thing any writer thinks, and afterwards it's a question of how things work out in your life, but most writers, quite honestly, never even get to that step. We live in a visual culture, so nobody thinks twice when Scorsese or somebody makes a reference to other films, or when an MCU movie does it -- but for whatever reason, when a writer does it, everybody freaks out and worries about being "pretentious." When I heard Scorsese saying how everybody used to make fun of _him_ for being "pretentious" at the stupid parties he wound up at in LA in 1969, and how many of those people we are about now (zero), the whole thing started to make more sense. I think _everything is always like this_ and I feel like the smart people, say on youtube, are kind of halfway there, but for whatever reason they can't seem to make the next step, and it's too bad, because now I know a lot of working artists and writers and none of them are any different except they just went ahead and tried. True, things are highly mediated these days by big tech. But there's always _something_ -- imagine trying to live through the end of the roman empire -- and I'm not saying it's a charade, but when I finally got published I was taken aback by how relatively simple it actually was to walk through that screen. Of course, very few of those writers who are published in the New Yorker, say, would ever say this, b/c they want to cover their tracks. Part of it is just that they went to Yale or Columbia or Iowa, and it's pretty much automatic b/c the profs hook them up with agents. But agents are sick of those people and all the agents ever talk about is how they wish they'd get more interesting writing on their desks. But those writers _do_ have a serious work ethic -- in a way it is a closed circuit in that they know the risk-reward thing will work out in their favor, but any writer or artist no matter what the circumstances must have a serious work ethic. I like what she says about Bolano's photo, too -- writing is no different than any other endeavor, imagine a dancer going on and on complaining about how awful it is to have to get a photo done. Yes, Bolano is a superstar, but he should be; he's an amazing talent. The writing world in America is way too negative!
This is spectacular, a marvellous experience like no other. No ordinary conference at all.Well done and thanks for sharing this amazing panel. As a Peruvian i can only be amazed that south american literature is being shared and discussed in such a creative and uplifting manner. Keep up the good work.
Seriously? How awesome is that! Me too. I dont know the translation of his work so which titles do u like the most? There is an almost perfect book of him that deals with a strange mixture of reflextion and aforisms.
GUAXIMAN I think you talk about "prosas apátridas" I do not have that book but I have his diary "la tentación del fracaso", which I just started reading a week ago, and the complete collection of all his stories in two volumes entitled "la palabra del mudo" from which I have read already more than sixty of them. He is an awesome writer and I think he deserves much more recognition.
I've never read Ribeyro but I will now. I remember some years ago after I'd first read Bolaño and then discovered Cesar Aira. I was in a bookstore looking through some books when I suddenly thought to myself: "If I'm not reading a South American writer, I'm just wasting my time!"
Worth mentionaning, for those of you who are eager to read more from Bolaños generation: David Shook-- aka Bolaño's most devastatingly handsome translator-- also translates Mario Bellatin, who is absolutely brilliant.
Someone tell me how his wife and children are doing after his death at 50 in 2003. It's been 16 years. They must be raised or nearly so. I hope they are well.
There was a Spanish documentary a couple years ago where his family was featured. His son had already broken into puberty and with a gravely voice described his memories from his father. They seemed to be doing okay.
The guy with the funny moustache is actually translating the Spanish that is being read. Since what the woman says, is not translated, I assume it's not important.
One of her anecdotes: She's an Argentine journalist living in Mexico. She was the last person who interviewed Bolaño. During Day of the Dead she made an altar in her house to honor Bolaño, she put a picture of him next to one of Che Guevara, when she came from work, firemen were there. Her house had burned down. Mentioning the Ouija board joke at the beginning, she jokingly says "I wouldn't conjure him up!".
It is amazing how a novel completely lost the sense due to translation. A culture is so difficult to translate. You got to read Bolaño in spanish to really enjoy him!
Latin american here! The Bolaño experience isn't that much dependant of knowledge of Chilean culture, Mexican culture or spanish culture. Except for some books (such as By night in chile and Distant star) the themes that encompass the universe of Bolaño are nearly universal, although it is true that many things are lost in translation. Enough understanding of Latin American suffering and experience is enough for enjoying his works: he himself said that before anything he was a Latin American, not a Chilean or a Mexican or a Spaniard. Bolaño es el campeón!
