tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393996338560944889.post3516565144921719575..comments2024-03-02T02:26:00.928-05:00Comments on bleakonomy: 2666: The Part About the Crimes, pages 513-564tetracontadigonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04604381739383227553noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393996338560944889.post-70810802741206663572010-03-29T22:58:59.630-04:002010-03-29T22:58:59.630-04:00Oddly enough, I'm just responding to your reac...Oddly enough, I'm just responding to your reaction to the book. I can't know what the book actually says without reading it. From what I've gathered, I probably wouldn't find the book, ahhh, interesting.<br /><br />I don't object to fictional misogynistic violence as such, in fact, I just finished a book with a rather brutish section in it, but the point was to give context to a character, allowing him to develop as the circumstances in his life changed. We clearly appreciate different aesthetic values in dance and literature, but any one view is neither Right nor Wrong. Let a thousand flowers bloom.Gadfly Johnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393996338560944889.post-30588409061792103872010-03-29T17:53:57.966-04:002010-03-29T17:53:57.966-04:00Dan: First, thanks very much for pointing in my di...Dan: First, thanks very much for pointing in my direction. It's appreciated.<br /><br />Next, I would definitely be on board for a group read of The Pale King, so count me in if you guys decide to read it in the future.<br /><br />I too enjoyed the section about Maria Exposito. Its interesting, because Bolano was sort of famously scornful of Magical Realism--not so much of Marquez, but of writers he considered to be his epigones, like Isabel Allende (I haven't read her and so have no idea if I'd like her writing or not, but apparently she and Bolano had a rather frosty relationship). But you are right, there are definitely elements of magical realism in this and other sections (Florita Almada comes to mind). Also, there's a huge revelation about the identity of Lalo Cura in this section, but you have to read pretty much all of The Savage Detectives to really understand it. <br /><br />I had a similar reaction to the litany of sexist jokes (though sexist seems too mild a term--pathological is more like it). For some reason that hit me harder than the descriptions of the murders. Maybe, like you, I've just become inured to them, but I've also found that those passages are laced with moments of genuine tenderness. One that I can't get out of my head is the passage on page 502, where Juan de Dios Martinez is speculating about how the killers disposed of the bodies of two little girls who, he notes,"hardly weighed anything, and who, if carried between two men, surely were each no heavier than a small suitcase." That line just kills me. <br /><br />Anyway, only one more week to go...David Winnhttp://www.ablogabout2666.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393996338560944889.post-72523285066153772142010-03-29T16:49:57.412-04:002010-03-29T16:49:57.412-04:00GJ, I admire your valiant attempts to offer commen...GJ, I admire your valiant attempts to offer commentary on a book you are not reading.Danhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11213051268392108382noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393996338560944889.post-54318318245771770752010-03-29T15:00:43.371-04:002010-03-29T15:00:43.371-04:00So Bolaño has spent 50 odd pages, invented some mi...So Bolaño has spent 50 odd pages, invented some misogynistic police officers so he could tell a lurid tale of graphic violence against womyn, and what he was striving for was to illustrate how very bad a society would be if it tolerated this sort of thing.<br /><br />Well then. That's, err, ahhh, some, erm, important prose. Insights one can't find just anywhere. Although I'm still unclear on why he must write violence porn if he really is against misogyny and abuse by The Man, and wants to convince us of the inherent rightness of his position. Sounds like one of those Quit Smoking programs where they force you to live in an ashtray.Gadfly Johnnoreply@blogger.com