Roberto Bolano's "The Savage Detectives" discussion
This topic is about
The Savage Detectives
the cabbage detectives
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Comments on the Interviews
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There are many members who I know would be fantastic interviewees, but who haven't written anything yet.
Assuming nothing untoward happens to the Visceral Realists en route to the Big Easy (e.g., train crashes into a pineapple plantation), two things could happen.
One, we could build to a denouement and finish it.
Two, we could keep it open-ended and let anybody add to it from time to time.
Three, hey, we could start another chapter!
What do you all think?
Who is lurking on the sidelines and just needs some time to contribute?
Now is the time to assert your character's right to participate, so that we all know they're part of the story.
So I tore myself away from GR and the first thing after opening the shop,I headed for the cooking section to find out the word on this crucial fruit vegetable debate. Before even beginning to search, a new book stood out for me; The World of Fruits and Vegetables by John GoodeInterestingly folks, he says that the tomato is also known as the love apple(freud would be so pleased) : originally from Peru and related to the potato (both of the deadly nightshade family) a red or yellow fruit.
The man seems to be bold and knowledgable, but too bold and not knowledgable at all about crucial aspects of food combination.He will try anything it seems and some of his combinations gmde me queasy.As a practitioner of macrobiotics,when I was studying at the East-West Foundation in Boston,we experimented with food combining along the yin/yang continuum and I am convinced of the importance of this for good digestion. As bad digestion detracts from creative endeavour as well as being damned unpleasant,I think we need to pay more attention to our digestion.
Of corse I am biased but even western medicine,so focused on suppression of symptoms and cure,is waking up to this and beginning explore diet as a means of prevention.
It is known fact that different foods require different enzymes to aid in their digestion.In the 60's with the back to the land movent we all had food combining charts on our kitchen walls.I often referred to this book(earlier edition)
Food Combining Made Easy
This has been a rather sober 2 cents worthh which I somehow felt necessary to add to sort of grounding the gutwrenchingly underhandedly funny quite destabilizing
Mod
You guys are all absolutely brilliant! I feel so honored to have been included in this group, honestly! What good fun this has been- they say laughter is the medicine of the soul.I'm not going to comment on the posts separately at this stage, because i got a bit behind and they are all good and made me laugh a lot.
Ian wrote: "One, we could build to a denouement and finish it.Two, we could keep it open-ended and let anybody add to it from time to time.
Three, hey, we could start another chapter!
..."
Maybe let it run on a bit more and then wrap it up when it seems to obviously have come to it's end; or simply leave it open.
In any case, i do feel we should and perhaps start a new folder (eventually) where we move off of fruit and veggies?
This group seems to have such creative talent, i'd love to see what more they can up with. Just a suggestion.
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Oh, i almost forgot. There is a lot of ... er... sex in the real book. It would be kinda ...erm uncomfortable if we built that into the interviews, given that we've gone and used ourselves as characters, but i wondered if it would be beyond the pale to start writing anything leaning in that direction using fictional characters? Just to make it more true to the book. I guess to make it really true to the book, you'd have to insert some dope here and there as well.
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Sorry to say this, but unexpected life events have called me away on urgent business, probably for the rest of today and possibly longer.I hope to get back to group activities here very soon. In the meantime, please proceed, and have fun with it! -Jim
How about ending the fruit/veggie theme and keeping it going?
I agree with Mary and Traveller - I think we're getting to a natural conclusion for the fruit and veggie theme, and I'd love to see what else the group comes up with. And there are so many other creative group members who could get involved. I'd love to hear their voices in it.
Traveller wrote: "Oh, i almost forgot. There is a lot of ... er... sex in the real book. It would be kinda ...erm uncomfortable if we built that into the interviews, given that we've gone and used ourselves as char..."Funny, I dont remember any sex in the savage detectives. I am not actually rereading, just poking around, looking at some notes I made at the time.
I would be thrilled if any of youse wanted to carry on with my story, second installment just posted. I wish I didnt have to go off to work,,,yesterday very late.
Sorry, got sidetracked with RL, will be back in a few hours, hopefully...Magdelanye wrote: Funny, I dont remember any sex in the savage detectives. I am not actually rereading, just poking around, looking at some notes I made at the time..."
I could quote some of it if you like?
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"La Vucciria" by Renato Guttuso
Renato was a painter who illustrated Elizabeth David's "Italian Food":
http://www.all-art.org/art_20th_centu...
love this amazing painting.but when I click on the links, it just redirects me to the top of the page?
Mod
but when I click on the links, it just redirects me to the top of the page?"
I think it's fixed, M.
The painting is amazingly apt for the Cabbage Detective interviews! I haven't had time to properly read the latest interviews yet, so will comment on them later.
Unfortunately, I am out of action here for at least one more day. I hope to catch up with the interviews and other additions over the weekend, and will see what I can contribute if time permits. Regrets and regards, Jim.
Jim wrote: "Unfortunately, I am out of action here for at least one more day. I hope to catch up with the interviews and other additions over the weekend, and will see what I can contribute if time permits. Re..."Hoping all turns out well, Jim. Take care.
Ian wrote: ""La Vucciria" by Renato Guttuso
Renato was a painter who illustrated Elizabeth David's "Italian Food":
http://www.all-art.org/art_20th_centu..."
Great painting and web site - thanks, Ian.
Just picking my jaw off of the floor, absolutely agape over this Renato Guttuso who incredably I had never even heard of before... When I noted the lack of cabbages in the image/painting that you posted, I realized, of course! it is not that the detectives are cabbages, but that they are looking for cabbages.......I finally got it in a way I did not when hit over the head with a giant one, altho I admit I found that development,the stolen giant cabbage,strangely satisfying.
He is a visceral realist for sure!
oh Ian who taught me how to bold... thank you for this and all the savage fun of this site and this new group of delightful people.
Now where are Bird Brian,Paul B, Praj, Bennet and Shovelmonkey? Kinkajou and HRO and Ellie and Ice Bear!! These folks are all in my story, I want their POV and delight
Jim wrote: "Unfortunately, I am out of action here for at least one more day. I hope to catch up with the interviews and other additions over the weekend, and will see what I can contribute if time permits. Re..."It's OK Jim, your character is still kind of insane for some reason...but I think we finally wheened you off the pineapple
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Maybe the solution all along was a cabbage flavored margarita? If we can make the masses drink that then world domination is ours.
We can always delay the start of M&M if we need more time for SD. Mary and I don't want to get in the way of SD at all.
Mary wrote: "Maybe the solution all along was a cabbage flavored margarita? If we can make the masses drink that then world domination is ours."Ewwewww
Mod
Mary wrote: "Maybe the solution all along was a cabbage flavored margarita? If we can make the masses drink that then world domination is ours."Good heavens, the mind boggles as to what that would taste like... D: yetcchh!
EDIT: Kris is in before me- what Kris said: Ewwwewww ...not to mention that it might stay with you all the way down your digestive system... ok, i've been drinking those naughty choccies again, so it's all downhill from heere....
..and the two that i ate now had real vodka in them...so.. it's Friday evening right? I'm allowed to get drunk on nice little chokkies, yes?
I love DJ's approach to the most recent interviews! I'm at a family picnic atm, but should be able to do more writing when I get home tonight and over the weekend. Can anyone push the story along further in the interim? Any preferences or ideas for how things should go?
I think it would be good to treat the cabbage as an ideal, to get back to some of the higher minded ideals in SD. It could be a kind of holy grail of the Chretien de Troyes rather than the Monty Python variety. How does this sound?
Mary wrote: "Maybe the solution all along was a cabbage flavored margarita? If we can make the masses drink that then world domination is ours."you will need a really good marketing ploy.
how about margarita flavored cabbage?
think sauerkraut with a kick.
Methane! (re. post 62): diabolical. I never saw that coming. :)
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Neither did I.
Ian wrote: "Kris wrote: "I never saw that coming. :)"Neither did I."
The Big Cabbage is in extreme danger. :(
Magdelanye wrote: "how about margarita flavored cabbage?think sauerkraut with a kick."
Haha much better!
Posts 66 & 67 - the plot thickens!! These are great - Victor and Priscilla (parseltongue), assless chaps in 12 colors, applying eyelashes "to an unwilling and squirming male" - ha! Is DJ about to go undercover? :)
All this talk of New Orleans has made me decide to make jambalaya this weekend.
Mike wrote: "Kris wrote: "All this talk of New Orleans has made me decide to make jambalaya this weekend."I was thinking you were in NOLA and was tempted to send you the name of one of my favorite restaurants..."
Oh, I wish I were there, Mike - the restaurant sounds great! I was only in New Orleans once, in the mid-1980s. I need to get back there again. This gives me more incentive for a visit.
Post 58- Ok, that was a stroke of brilliance! *Bows to Mary*We’re all here, we’re waiting” I told Kris. On the table with me sat Jay Rubin and Eiji the cat who were both enthralled with “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles”, Jenn frantically turning the pages of “The Savage Detectives”, Viajero Haldez using her knife to turn the pages of “Chronicle of a Death Foretold”, Esteban with his face buried inside “Infinite Jest” and Magdelanye sighing into the pages of Pynchon’s “V.”
Homework well done, Mary!
Mike wrote: "We try to get there every year for the NOLA Jazz & Heritage festival: it's cheap, great music (12 stages, I think), room rates go through the roof. http://www.nojazzfest.com/ click on Music Schedul..."That sounds wonderful - and it's easier for me to travel at that time of year than it used to be, so attending the festival could be in my future. Great variety of artists performing, too. This looks much more my speed than Mardi Gras. Thanks for the inspiration, Mike!
Post 59 - very clever! The page-moving-on trick sounds like something out of an adventure game. XD
Post 61 - We had shared something really special once, and I had to admit that he still looked a little like a darker Brad Pitt if the lighting was right and I squinted a bit. I drove a bit faster, spurred on by the urgency of our quest, as well as by my impatience to see our comrades. I also knew that we would have another obstacle to discuss when we reunited - how to deal with what had befallen Jim. I couldn't imagine our succeeding without him, but reuniting with him would be its own challenge.
Perhaps the cabbage detectives are in such a hurry that their compatriots cannot catch up with them? You know, with them sometimes having things to do besides revolutionary activities and looking for giant cabbages?
...but i had to laugh at: he still looked a little like a darker Brad Pitt if the lighting was right and I squinted a bit. Tee-hee!
Traveller wrote: "Perhaps the cabbage detectives are in such a hurry that their compatriots cannot catch up with them? You know, with them sometimes having things to do besides revolutionary activities and looking for giant cabbages? ...but i had to laugh at: he still looked a little like a darker Brad Pitt if the lighting was right and I squinted a bit. Tee-hee! "
Ah yes, RL interfering yet again! And yes, I figured it was time to pick up on those Brad Pitt references that DJ keeps making. :)
Post 63. LOL :D
"Methane? -that's inthane!".
Not when you have huge cabbages stashed away, it'th not!
Post 49 - Very nice set-up, Don Juan! I shall watch for developments and try to remember my story on the morrow. Hopefully I can borrow.