Roberto Bolano's "The Savage Detectives" discussion
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The Savage Detectives
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Aloha
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rated it 5 stars
Sep 13, 2012 05:22PM
He's relishing the bubble bath and doesn't want to get out.
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Ian wrote: "He's had 11 hours. Why hasn't he finished?"He's also been devoting his time to proselytizing re. the patented Ian Graye writing style....
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You are devoted to your craft.
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I am a slave to witcraft and many other temptations.
Mike wrote: "It's after midnight in Scotland. Perhaps, he's turned into a pumpkin."Or he's polished off The Savage Detectives and decided to start and finish 2666 as well for his bedside reading.
Ian wrote: "Kris wrote: "You are devoted to your craft."I am a slave to witcraft and many other temptations."
That sounds familiar.
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He might still be outside doing something ignis fatuus with his carved pumpkins.
What's "ignis fatuus"? Is that when he lights a match to his butt when he farts?
Ian wrote: "Mike wrote: "It's after midnight in Scotland. Perhaps, he's turned into a pumpkin."He might still be outside doing something ignis fatuus with his carved pumpkins."
Ah, it's not every day that I see someone referring to will-o'-the-wisp. You are bringing back memories of Medieval Latin.
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Isn't that "flatus ignitus"? Or was that a curse in Harry Potter?
Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights?
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She no licking stein. She's a lesbian.
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Having shapeshifted back into my non-pumpkin semi-plasmic humanish form, I am well into Part Two, where Bolaño seems to have dropped the visceral realists entirely and is now writing about any literary person in the known universe who has ever been to a South American country. This may take some time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heAw4z...MJ wrote: "Having shapeshifted back into my non-pumpkin semi-plasmic humanish form, I am well into Part Two, where Bolaño seems to have dropped the visceral realists entirely and is now writing about any lite..."
Hello everyone!I started reading this book just this morning and I am on page 20. I joined this group just to compare notes. Yay! So many of you here. Are you all fans of Bolano? I am! Go Bolano!
Bolaño is the maño! I finished this on Saturday. Brace yourself for an extremely invigorating and unbelievably long ride.
I don't keep notes since I'm so literarily promiscuous, but I'd like to read yours. And I should probably go and read some of the other threads now . ..
MJ, waaah, you're done reading already? I am just starting. I only keep mental notes and my book becomes thicker due to dogeared pages if I really enjoyed reading a certain book. But I am fond of writing reviews primarily to record my thoughts. So, when I become really really old, and cannot type anymore, I can read my reviews and be reminded of the books that I read and enjoyed or despised. :)
K.D., I'll be happy to check in and discuss TSD with you as you read! I bet others might too. :)And MJ, the same goes for you, of course.
K.D. wrote: "So, when I become really really old, and cannot type anymore, I can read my reviews and be reminded of the books that I read and enjoyed or despised. :) "I'm glad I'm not the only one who does that. This is partly why I write reviews for everything I read, so I can access my opinion with a simple surf of the shelf. Beats having an actual memory.
I'm not a great group participant since I don't tend to remember what I've just read in any great detail. And I don't jot down notes as I read, since I'm not technically writing a thesis or anything. One thing that occurred to me is you can read this book pretty much in any order you like. You can shuffle all the narratives in Part Two around, the only difficulty is marking which ones you've read. It's an "infinite" novel in that respect, except like The Unfortunates, it does impose a "beginning" and "ending" of sorts on the reader. (Although it wouldn't make much difference if you started at the end).
I'm glad you liked it, MJ. It's funny because your review is sort of deprecating, but then there are those 4 stars. I found it to be very positive and life-affirming overall, even though it is about so many people's failures. But I did read it in my happy place, so it could be that.
Jason wrote: "I'm glad you liked it, MJ. It's funny because your review is sort of deprecating, but then there are those 4 stars. I found it to be very positive and life-affirming overall, even though it is abou..."I like it that thinking of TSD transports you to your happy place. Time and geographical travel from fiction. :)
Positive and life-affirming aren't the words I would use. The break-up of a group of hopeless, pretentious young writers into a kind of bleak post-writing world where everything is violent, hopeless and humdrum, is pretty grim for me. As a writer.
I write for a similar reason, primarily for myself. It's like a reading diary. I like breaking down a book to see what it's made of. Writing a review lets me do that, so beware when reading my review. You may not want to see the gadgets inside unless you're done reading. I even once thought of doing a mind map of a book, with bubbles and lines.K.D. wrote: "But I am fond of writing reviews primarily to record my thoughts. So, when I become really really old, and cannot type anymore, I can read my reviews and be reminded of the books that I read and enjoyed or despised. :)
"
I need to go into member's review to see whether you wrote a review for this. I'm barely getting any notifications lately, so I have to remember to go into a forum to catch up.MJ wrote: "I'm not a great group participant since I don't tend to remember what I've just read in any great detail. And I don't jot down notes as I read, since I'm not technically writing a thesis or anythin..."
MJ's review is not in member's review, but I found it by going into his shelf. However, I can't get it to its own review page. I would have to scroll until I get to his review under the book, and that would be tedious. Anybody know how to get to the review via a member's shelf who you're not friends with?
There's a link next to his name, Aloha. It says "- rated it 4 stars"—it links directly to his review.
You're fast. Thanks, Jason. I'll give that a try.
You can also get to it from his shelves without having to be his friend. When you see the book on his shelf, you have to click "view" at the far right.
The third way is by going to the specific book page for this group which can be accessed by going to the group's bookshelf and clicking "view activity". MJ's review is on Page 1.Any of those 3 methods should work pretty easily without having to suffer the tedium of scrolling down the main book page in search of a an elusive Scot.
Great! The easiest is to click on the rating, but it's good to be able to get to a review when searching a member's shelf. Thanks, Jason!
The fourth way is to follow MJ, which you should do anyway because he's awesome, and then his reviews will show up on your main book page.
I have now met my quota of 5 useless posts per thread. That is all.
Jason, you've covered lots of bases. I can now stalk people with ease. Thank you. I'm still learning how to navigate GR.
Okay, I'll follow MJ. I can add him to my livestock list.
MJ wrote: "Positive and life-affirming aren't the words I would use. The break-up of a group of hopeless, pretentious young writers into a kind of bleak post-writing world where everything is violent, hopeles..."It would seem grim, objectively. And it probably would have seemed more grim to me if my state of mind were different while reading, but I did find some hopefulness buried in there somewhere. Is it just me? Did anybody else find this book to be uplifting from a wide-angle perspective?
Aloha wrote: "Jason, you've covered lots of bases. I can now stalk people with ease. Thank you. I'm still learning how to navigate GR."Oh, I am the king of stalking people. Come find me when you are ready for your next lesson.
The grim or hope depends on the point of view. Like everything in life, it's elastic. You can find it hopeful in that there is a care to search for the soul. You can find it grim in that the soul seemed lost and hopeless. In my view, as long as someone cares enough to keep the flame alive and do a search, it is hopeful, and may have an effect in the long run. It's like the life stories of artists and writers who have suffered a horrible and maybe very short lives, but left behind a golden nugget of literature or art work that became highly influential. If you look at the limited point of view of the artist's life, it would be grim. If you look at the influence on future generations, it is hopeful. Jason wrote: "It would seem grim, objectively. And it probably would have seemed more grim to me if my state of mind were different while reading, but I did find some hopefulness buried in there somewhere. Is it just me? Did anybody else find this book to be uplifting from a wide-angle perspective? "
I added you to the livestock, too, Jason. I am the resident cannibal in the horror forum. I've been MIA from there for a while, though, looking for new prey.Jason wrote: "Aloha wrote: "Jason, you've covered lots of bases. I can now stalk people with ease. Thank you. I'm still learning how to navigate GR."
Oh, I am the king of stalking people. Come find me when y..."
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That's great! Thanks, Mary.
Mary wrote: "Awwww....http://www.flickr.com/photos/madamfou...
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I'm done reading this book. I gave it 4 stars. In GR, that means "I really liked it!"I did. I really liked it.
Roberto Bolano's "The Savage Detectives"
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