Roberto Bolano's "The Savage Detectives" discussion
This topic is about
The Savage Detectives
Introduction
He looks like a mouth-breather too...
Aloha wrote: "Jim, after we've made a good headway into the SD discussion, I'm going to start a HoL/GEB forum. I already thought of several threads for it.."
Aloha, you could have been reading my mind there. I was about to suggest that we start our own GEB forum, but you got in before me, and even bettered the idea with your proposed HoL combination.
Please don't forget to send me an invite to that group, but i'm hoping you'll give it a bit of time, let's say at least about 10 days, before starting? My head is exploding with all the reading material i currently have on my plate. ( I feel very tempted to ditch Gravity's Rainbow, but then i'd feel like a loser. :( )
You'll be one of the first ones I send an invite to, Traveller.I love seeing more details in HoL while I'm reading GEB. I love ah-ha! moments. Don't worry. It'd be a month before I start a discussion on HoL/GEB. I have to duct tape my head to keep it together to finish GEB. I also have to lead a discussion on Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter starting July 10. I have to prepare a starter dialogue. I also would like to focus on SD with this group. Lots to do for July already.
I was going to start Gravity's Rainbow next, but somebody with an Egyptian icon invited me to this discussion. I'm glad for that. Thanks, Ian.
Great! Thanks, Mike.
Mike wrote: "A title you might find useful is Modern Latin American Literature--cheap and relatively quick to read, but covers a ton of LA authors and poets ..."Great call, Mike! I enjoyed your review of it, and yes, I CAN roll my rrrrrrrrrr's...
Mike wrote: "A title you might find useful is Modern Latin American Literature--cheap and relatively quick to read, but covers a ton of LA authors and poets...."
Cool! Thanks for that valuable reference.
I ordered it, but there doesn't seem to be an e-version,and the paper book version is going to take around 3 weeks to arrive! Looks like my local stores are short on stock for it. I think i'll look for it in the library, in the meantime...
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Is anyone else ready to start this week?
No pressure but it would be good to know that a few of us had started.
Can the early birds report their progress?
I already started. I'm at the early part where he's talking about his love affairs, Latin American writers, etc. Nothing really significant to me. I'm hoping that it will eventually go to really interesting stuff.
I do like the Latin American writer and movements references, though.
I started and finished and am ready to discuss when others are!
I started, am still in the early part, around p. 70. I will be leaving tomorrow, for a week or so with limited internet. But I should be able to check in and follow developments, and will definitely be reading the book!
I'm making my way slowly. Still to early to tell if it'll pull me into the gravity of compulsive hours of reading....
I'm about a third into it. I'ts getting interesting, but loose structurally with its multiple voices and viewpoints. I hope it will wrap up into a nice, coherent whole.
I received mine yesterday but want to start it when I'm done with my current book....argh
I've read a few of the narrative voices,the 'tellings' in the second part, and the character's similar names started confusing me a bit..so i've wondered if i should try and draw an abstract kind of hierarchical structure of the characters and their interrelatedness with one another to help me... when the characters really come flying by fast and loose...
Also, of course, tomorrow i'm picking up Modern Latin American Literature ... so I am in trepidation to see how much help it would be...
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Traveller wrote: "I've read a few of the narrative voices,the 'tellings' in the second part, and the character's similar names started confusing me a bit..so i've wondered if i should try and draw an abstract kind of hierarchical structure of the characters and their interrelatedness with one another to help me... when the characters really come flying by fast and loose.."
I thought of doing something like that,a relationship tree, or at least noting the characters first entrance, it was too fiddly a task and I gave up and just allowed the book to work in me. Have you come up with anything along these lines?
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Alrighty folks, I am away, off for a weeks' vacation. See you in early August sometime. Don't have too much fun without me!
Have fun, Jason, we'll miss you! (And do remember to take a book with! XD )
I finished the book, but am lulkewarm about it. I'm in the middle of writing a review for Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. When I'm done, I'll go back to look at this book closely. Maybe I'll have to do a mind mapping with movements of characters and timeline. There's one friend review that was raving about it, so I believe that there is something to the book that I'm too distracted right now to consider. I find that people often dismiss books when they don't take the time to understand its content. If a thoughtful friend raved about the book, then I have to go in to look at it.
A co-worker saw SD sitting on my desk this morning and said “ohh I love mysteries, is that one any good?” and I said it wasn’t a mystery novel. “What’s it about?” Um… I mumbled something about a 17 year old kid getting laid a lot and poetry and that most of the book was an oral biography and he said, no joke “Oral? Oh not another one of those chick porno books, my wife is really into 50 Shades of Grey right now”. I then proceeded to smash my head into the wall and light myself on fire. I hate people!
Mary wrote: "A co-worker saw SD sitting on my desk this morning and said “ohh I love mysteries, is that one any good?” and I said it wasn’t a mystery novel. “What’s it about?” Um… I mumbled something about a..."Oh, that's awful. :( The Cabbage Detectives would have set him straight.
Mary wrote: "A co-worker saw SD sitting on my desk this morning and said “ohh I love mysteries, is that one any good?” and I said it wasn’t a mystery novel. “What’s it about?” Um… I mumbled something about a..."That's hilarious!
Mary wrote: "A co-worker saw SD sitting on my desk this morning and said “ohh I love mysteries, is that one any good?” and I said it wasn’t a mystery novel. “What’s it about?” Um… I mumbled something about a..."Haha! That's too funny.
One time someone asked me what a "wind-up bird chronicle" was.
Well, there's this guy, well it's Japanese so it's kinda different I guess, but then this guy doesn't have a job and he loses his cat. But then anyway there's this well that he goes to the bottom and all these crazy things start happening. Like surreal and supernatural and there's like women who travel through dreams.....
Oh, so like a fantasy book?
Well, I mean I'm sure Murakami, the author, is aware of fantasy books and maybe playing with certain tropes. But more like fantasy stories of japanese folk tales, kind of.
Oh (very puzzled look across his face). Well what's the bird about?
Oh, well it's like a metaphor for—actually I don't know, nevermind, I'm not even reading it.
Stephen M wrote: "Haha! That's too funny.One time someone asked me what a "wind-up bird chronicle" was."
That's great. Some books just don't lend themselves to an elevator speech-length summary.
Stephen M wrote: "Mary wrote: "A co-worker saw SD sitting on my desk this morning and said “ohh I love mysteries, is that one any good?” and I said it wasn’t a mystery novel. “What’s it about?” Um… I mumbled some..."haha omg! There is no human way to describe a Murakami book, there just isn't.
The wind-up bird chronicle was about a boy who got a little wind up toy bird for his birthday, and then 600 pages of adventures they had together, him and his little bird. In Japan. The end.
There is no human way to describe a Murakami book, there just isn't. But then he is kind of abducted by aliens and then he can't read or write and is really stupid but he has the power to talk to cats.
Wow. Sound great.
He's one of my favorite authors.
I bet.
I'm reading this now!Oh hang on, everyone's gone.
*hears tumbleweed blowing*
I'm here, the lone ghost. *rattles chain*
I'm not gone. (And I already noticed you starting this book, I just didn't comment on it.)Just know, MJ, you are being watched.
Jason wrote: "I'm not gone. (And I already noticed you starting this book, I just didn't comment on it.)Just know, MJ, you are being watched."
Scary. To be honest this might end up getting delayed again, since I don't think I can stand to read the whole book in the rubbish UK paperback ed with the rubbish 6pt-font and the rubbish cover. I'll have to buy a hardcover ed. So this is probably goodbye.
Just use a magnifying glass.
Yea, Jason, I guess in certain cultures they lack the yankee ingenuity that we take for granted.
Come on. This is a guilt visit. MJ is feeling guilty about not reading TSD, so he showed up then makes an excuse as to why he's not reading it. We got your number, MJ!
I am enjoying all the genre crossing here - a little bit of Marley's ghost, some Westerns (or histories of the Dust Bowl) thrown in for good measure - and Jason has added the 2 volume OED with the magnifying glass. I think Bolaño would approve.
Kris wrote: "I am enjoying all the genre crossing here - a little bit of Marley's ghost, some Westerns (or histories of the Dust Bowl) thrown in for good measure - and Jason has added the 2 volume OED with the ..."At least I didn't mention a certain...broken pince-nez, shall we say?
Don't forget Freud and the guilty unconscious!
Perfect, both of you!
I'll make it. I have a good lamp.
Oh yay this group's active again!
We'll all monitor MJ's reading progress with our pince-nez or magnifying glass.
I wonder if one of those miner's helmets with the light on the front could be helpful too?
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Roberto Bolano's "The Savage Detectives"
Books mentioned in this topic
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid (other topics)Modern Latin American Literature: A Very Short Introduction (other topics)
Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter (other topics)
House of Leaves (other topics)
One Hundred Years of Solitude (other topics)
More...
http://blogs.kansascity.com/crime_sce..."
Oh man!! I had better rethink this whole situation... Don't want to look anything like that. :(
I guess that's what they mean by 'the criminal mind'.