Author Archives: Jon

Bolaño and the History of the Future

Posted on February 6, 2026 by Jon

Bolaño’s fiction, whether set in Chile or Mexico, is as much about a memory of Latin America as it is about the region’s actuality, even if that memory is sometimes also a memory of the future. Audio | Transcript | … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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2666 III: Order with the Possibility of Suicide

Posted on January 31, 2026 by Jon

“The Part of Amalfitano” is, at almost exactly eighty pages, the shortest of the five parts that make up 2666. It expands on the character, circumstances, and history of Oscar Amalfitano, a professor at the University of Santa Teresa and … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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2666 II: Machine Reading

Posted on January 27, 2026 by Jon

Upon reaching the end of “The Part of the Crimes,” it is hard to see how it could have stood on its own. And yet, according to the note that prefaces the entire novel, that was Bolaño’s plan, communicated just … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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The Savage Detectives II: The Limits of Heteroglossia

Posted on January 27, 2026 by Jon

The second part of The Savage Detectives is itself entitled “The Savage Detectives,” with the addition of the dates: 1976–1996. What then is the relationship between this part and the book as a whole? Is this the core, the essence … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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2666 I

Posted on January 22, 2026 by Jon

This blog post is something of a placeholder… I admit that for various reasons I have yet to get fully into Bolaño’s novel. I am a little past page 100, almost exactly halfway through the first of the five “parts” … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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The Savage Detectives I

Posted on January 11, 2026 by Jon

The first part of Roberto Bolaño’s The Savage Detectives, just under 140 pages (in the Picador edition) and entitled “Mexicans Lost in Mexico (1975),” is presented as a series of diary entries written by one Juan García Madero between the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Reading Fiction is Back?

Posted on December 22, 2025 by Jon

Man Carrying Thing on YouTube, in a video entitled “Self-help is dead. It’s time to read fiction”, is quite amusing and acerbic on literature and how it is framed (h/t Daniel), and he also says a thing or two germane … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Welcome and Holiday Task!

Posted on December 22, 2025 by Jon

[I just sent the following email to all currently-registered students…] I know that the autumn semester is barely over (indeed, some of you may well have exams coming up in the next week or so), but I thought I would … Continue reading →

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Trailer

Posted on December 5, 2025 by Jon

A two-minute peek into RMST 495/520… Continue reading →

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Blogs

Posted on December 4, 2025 by Jon

A central part of this course is the blog posts that you write in response to the readings. You will set up a blog and, every week you will write a post of c. 400-500 words or embed a video … Continue reading →

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