Hi everyone, likewise to what I have read from everyone else’s posts so far on Amulet by Roberto Bolańo, it is kind of hard for me to pinpoint how I feel about the book. I don’t think I loved the book, but it did leave me a lot to think about. One of the main takeaways for me from Amulet was the construct of time. Bolańo’s construction and deconstruction of time is also very prevalent in The Savage Detectives, but I will come back to more of my thoughts on time later on.

First, I want to touch on Auxilio as a character and why I think she is very powerful agent in her own story, as well as in other people’s lives as well. She notes that she lives somewhat of a nomad lifestyle where she never really stays in one place for too long, I don’t think it can be denied that she makes lasting connections with the people she meets and generally has a positive impact on them. Moreover, I appreciate her personality because I think there is an unapologetic attitude to her that I find admirable. For example, her friendship with Elena highlighted her undeniable ability to make friends anywhere. She mentioned how Elena would always talk about how philosophy and theatre were closely related. Even though they don’t seem to have very similar interests or personalities, Auxilio finds a common ground with her, and when she goes missing for awhile, she makes it her mission to find where Elena went, and goes as far to get her home address from the faculty. Maybe one could argue she was so concerned for selfish reasons, for companionship or looking for someone to stay with, but there is no explicit mention of her staying with Elena and based on my reading, Auxilio puts a lot of her soul into her relationships which is why she always shows a level of care. On page 43, Auxilio states she never lost her humour, which is another part of her personality that shines throughout the book. From her viewpoint, even the bleakest moments can have some humour, like when she jokes about UNAM with Arturo’s mother. It is aspirational to be resilient to the point where you can allow positivity to infect even the most tragic or upsetting realities.

Back to my thoughts on time in this book, the way Auxilio frames time, claiming she sees events that happen in the future far decades ago. On page 31, she states “The birth was over” when she is recalling what happened when she stayed in the bathroom stalls when the soldiers left. This really stuck out to me for a couple of reasons. First, we obviously know this is not her actual birth, because she is an adult woman. But similarly to García Madero with being introduced to visceral realism/realists, this was a definitive moment that felt like birth. We don’t remember being born because we are newborn babies, but with monumental moments like what happened in UNAM, our memories, cognition and perspective are able to actually comprehend what birth means, and then we prescribe our birth to something else besides the actual act of being born. My personal opinion, Auxilio’s birth is much more significant than García Madero’s if we had to judge from an objective standpoint, but I get that the value assigned to these life changing events is personal, I’m just being a bit of a hater.

Overall, I really enjoyed the element of time in this book, as well as the balancing of bleakness and random tidbits of her bohemian life.

Hi everyone, I have read about 70 more pages since my first blog post on Zeno’s Conscience, which puts me at page 130, which is just before the part titled The Story of My Marriage finishes. Originally, I was going to finish this part, but I don’t think I divided it up very well, so I adjusted.

To be completely honest, I enjoyed the first two parts Smoke and My Father’s Death more than this third part I’ve now read as well. However, I think this largely due to the fact that I am getting so annoyed with Zeno in this part of the book. What I have read so far is Zeno’s recollection of how he met his future wife and then eventually married her. I read quite a bit, and as of right now, they are still not married! Instead, it has been Zeno going over to the family house, where he pines for Ada. Let me provide some context; there are four daughters, Alberta, Augusta, Ada and Anna. A quick additional note, Zeno found it very intelligible of their father Giovanni to name all of his daughters with an “A” name. As we can see, it is really the little things for Zeno that matter. Anyways, Zeno uses a quick process of elimination to decide that Ada is the daughter he is in love with and wants to marry because Alberta is too plain, Augusta is in love with him and he doesn’t like that and Anna is a child.

Maybe there is another part of me that stopped reading before the part ended because it was taking so long to find out if Ada was going to marry Zeno or not. I have left off at a very interesting part. As of right now, Ada shows no interest, and has also met another suitor that Zeno describes as handsome.

While I have written a lot about Zeno’s adventure of trying and miserably failing to court a woman he thinks he is in love with, that is not all that is in play during this section of the novel. The strange neurotic behaviours and twisted opinions are still very prominent. On page 81 Zeno is writing about why he wants Ada to be his wife. At first it starts off sweet, he talks about how Ada accompanies him at all times, even when they are apart because he always envisions her. Then he goes on to write “I bestowed on her all the qualities I lacked and whose need I felt, because she was to become not only my companion but also my second mother, who would adopt me for a whole lifetime of manly struggle and victory. My initial thought was: Freud must be smiling right now. After smiling uncomfortably and laughing about how his wife would adopt him, the part of “struggle and victory” stood out to me as well. Zeno cannot seem to have any normal, standard or neutral experiences. Everything is extremely emotionally charged. Even when he tells himself he is going to remove himself from a situation, because at one point he considers giving up on courting Ada, he cannot do it with any peace of mind or stability. When I think about the first two parts of the book I read, Zeno was more convincing in his methods, that he was in control and was choosing to act odd. However in this part, I think this foreign element of love, which Zeno has an unique definition of, throws him for a loop even more. It is an interesting read, but it is becoming harder to follow his train of thought.

Thanks for reading!

For my second blog on The Savage Detectives, it took me a moment to try and decide what an appropriate title could be for my post. I’ve called it “Additional Context” because as I was reading, especially with the characters we saw little glimpses of in the first part, more of the puzzle was starting to come together. The opinions on visceral realism and the ways in which everyone is somehow connected to each other was all starting to fall into place and make a bit more sense. To be honest, I found this format of many short stories or recollections from an array of perspectives less engaging than the first part, which focused on García Madero’s perspective. However, I think it is just a personal preference as I enjoy getting into details with characters, and I do think the format of the these following chapters was relevant for the novel.

I found that certain characters such as Luscious Skin, María Font, Alberto, Laura and others, were all portrayed in the second part of the novel quite differently than the first part. I don’t think this is too shocking, considering that in the first part of the book, what we initially learn about the people in García Madero’s life are purely from his point of view. One example of this difference in portrayal was with Luscious Skin, where he calls himself a “peace-loving person” and claims he never hit Belano, despite strongly disliking him. If I had only read the first part of the book, based on the depictions of his violent sexual behaviour, I wouldn’t use peace-loving as an adjective to describe him. María’s account of the events that transpired after García Madero and the others took her father’s Impala and escaped also demonstrates the differences of what we learn, compared to when the story is told from just García Madero’s point of view. In the first part of the novel, María is understood to be very sexually liberal, compared to her sister, but in her own account specifically on page 194 (of the Picador edition), she talks about how during one of her last conversations with Belano and Ulises, that we as readers know of, that she was supposedly tempted to sleep with both of them, but she stays silent. While the contrast between Angelíca and María in terms of their sexual experiences already reveals themes of misogyny and sexuality during this era, I think this also spoke to María’s agency, and her turmoil in not understanding how to navigate emotionally complex situations. Her situation is not unique however, this avoidance, escapism and redirection of emotions seems to manifest in almost every single character. Right before her account, we have another one from Jacinto, that overtly highlighted the visceral realism movement as a facade to distract from something much more serious and looming. Jacinto, who is having a child with Xóchitl, did not focus on finding a job to support his family, but instead spent every single day talking about poetry, and supposedly pouring his soul into the movement. However, I think the movement is also producing hierarchies, as Jacinto seemingly has jealous feelings towards Belano, not because he flirts with Xóchitl, but because he has authority over everyone else.

Finally, my thoughts on Auxilio’s piece at the very end of this section. I really enjoyed her point of view. It was dramatic and it had me wondering if a soldier or someone else was going to find her in the bathrooms. She spoke of the university being violated multiple times, which I think explains why she finds such solace and importance in poetry, because it gives her an avenue to grapple with traumatic or painful events. If anything, I understand and believe she has a genuine connection to poetry the most out of anyone we’ve been introduced to so far. This has left me excited to read Amulet in the coming weeks.

Thank you for reading my post this week!

Hi everyone, this is my first blog post for our self-selected books for the course. I chose to read Zeno’s Conscience by Italo Svevo, and I read up to page 61. I haven’t evenly split my book into four sections based on page numbers, but instead I went off of the parts in the book, which meant I read the first two parts; Smoke and My Father’s Death. 

I will start with a summary of what I have learned from the book in the first sixty pages. The very first page is actually from a character called Dr. S, who we as readers do not know anything about really. She states that she will not be doing any psychoanalysis yet, as the latter part of the book is dedicated to that, and in fact she is publishing these unfinished written memories of Zeno’s as revenge for not participating in his treatment properly and to get him to resume as well. The last sentence of Dr. S reads “If only he knew the countless surprises he might enjoy from discussing the many truths and the many lies he has assembled in here!” Immediately, this shifted the perspective I was going to read this book in. Instead of reading the book as a personal recollection of Zeno’s life, I read with a lens that did not really trust the words and experiences Zeno was recalling, as he as been deemed by a doctor as a liar essentially.

When reading the first part Smoke, I felt there was a humorous undertone in it all. First Zeno recalls how he began his habit of smoking, which stemmed from him stealing cigarettes from his father. However, the humour for me, came from his descriptions of just how much he smoked, but then also how much he hated it. Furthermore, after becoming “violently ill” from all his smoking, he begins a phase where he quits smoking almost every single day. On page 13, Zeno begins to ramble about how the date is imperative to him quitting smoking. In relation to the year 1913, Zeno claims there was no thirteenth month to harmonize the year he would quit smoking. These kinds of excuses seem ridiculous as you read, but the way in which the book is written, Zeno seems very convincing. At first, he does not come off as illogical or unstable. There is a calmness in the way he writes about his illnesses arising from smoking, him seeking a doctor to help him quit smoking. Due to the abruptness and simple way Zeno writes, he also reveals quite a bit about his neuroticisms and his significant character flaws, such as the complete inability to make decisions and take responsibility. For example, on page 19, he randomly decides to bet with Olivi that he won’t smoke before him, but then decides he cannot stand the fact that he is now a “slave” to Olivi, and smokes to alleviate that reality.

My Father’s Death explored the strange relationship Zeno recalls with his father, and reveals more of Zeno’s strange tendencies and raises the same questions of his reliability. According to Zeno, his father brought up his tendency to laugh even during serious matters, and Zeno’s response (of course very normal, believable and level-headed) was to find the closest doctor and get himself examined so he could receive a clean bill of health. Naturally, Zeno’s father was not very pleased, and this brought him to tears, confirming for him that Zeno was crazy. This is just one of the many odd encounters Zeno had with his father, before he became extremely ill and frail himself, which led to a whole other set of complications of their relationship. When a doctor was called in to take care of Zeno’s father, he almost instantly got the sense that Zeno did not really care and would be happy if he died. From that point, Zeno held great disdain towards the doctor, but never really explicitly tried to deny that either, and instead said this guilt crushed him. It was almost as if he knew that wanting his father to die is wrong, but was not able to get his words, emotions or thoughts to align with this.

I’m excited to keep reading, the next part is the story of his marriage, which I cannot imagine the wife would be too fond of, considering how detached and strange Zeno comes across as. It is clear that Zeno has a very specific worldview of mistrust and general angst, so I would be very surprised if the next 100 pages are about how lucky he is to be married. Thank you for reading my post!

Simi

Hi everyone, in my version of “The Savage Detectives” by Roberto Bolano, I read up to page 140, which took me to the end of Part 1. I’m not sure if everyone else felt this way, but the entire time I was reading, the most prominent feeling for myself was absolute exhaustion. Juan García Madero is one of the most stretched-thin characters ever. Well most of the time anyways, there are some days where he writes that he does absolutely nothing except staying in bed reading and writing. However majority of his days are spent with different faces like Arturo and Lima, who at first, he was chasing in a slightly desperate manner trying to prove to them and himself that he belonged to the Visceral Realists. My feeling of exhaustion on behalf of Madero first came from me comparing my own life to his, especially considering he is only seventeen years old, and he’s staying out all night with people he’s just met, running from place to place on a whim, and I think about how unalike I am to Madero. I think there is intention from Bolano’s behalf to try and evoke those feelings because the idea of a poetic revolution is grand, time consuming and it feels like an “all or nothing” moment.

While Madero is not the most likeable or relatable character to me, I think there is a theme of confidence that evolves in the first part of the book. The first event of the book is his argument with Álamo over what a rispetto is and other poetry related terminology. From this incident onwards, there is an underlying purpose to Madero’s interactions, thoughts and actions; which is he wants to contribute to the Latin American revolution of poetry. Even though in the earlier pages of Part 1, Madero writes he is sure he will never see Lima or Arturo again and is uncertain of his status with the Visceral Realists, nonetheless, he is still practicing his poetry in public and putting himself out there every day.

The relationship between Madero and Quim is also quite unique and complex. In my reading, I think Madero and Quim are quite similar, which if I had to guess the inner thoughts of Madero, I don’t think that is something he would be keen on. When he first hears about Quim and then meets him, he thinks he is a crazy man. However, as his relationship with primarily María, as well as the whole family progresses, he learns more about Quim’s passions for poetry, and I think he develops his own opinion on him. I also found it very interesting that when Madero discovered that Quim was sexually involved with Lupe, he seemed to show judgement, when Madero has also found himself in morally grey areas pertaining to sex and relationships. It seems like there are some parts of Quim he admires, but his faults he shows resentment towards, maybe because it is just the parts of himself he despises as well.

Overall, I enjoyed the first part of the book, and considering how it ends, I am curious to see where Madero and the others flee to.

Hi everyone, my name is Simi Braich! I am currently in my fourth and final year of my degree in political science here at UBC. Even though I am a political science major, and I have a separate minor as well, I have taken a couple of other RMST courses as electives, as well as other literature focused courses in different departments. I have enjoyed reading throughout most of my life, so I always look for ways to incorporate it into my life or even school routine. Outside of school, I like to read (for myself), play and watch soccer and spend time with my friends and family. I also have a pet dog named Caesar and a gecko named Jeeto and they are best friends!

This course in particular really caught my eye based on the title and description of the course, which pertains to long books. It first made me try to remember all the books I have ever read and then think about how many of them were “long”. What constitutes a book being long, is debatable, likewise to what the elements of a story should be which I find really interesting. After attending the first seminar, it solidified what I had expected the course, but it also made me familiar with other topics we would be covering in the course. I have read for many years, but I am very excited for this course because we will also be learning about the practice of reading, as well as its importance and variations which I have never really considered before. Based on the format of the seminar, I am expecting to spend a lot of time on collaboration and discussion, similar to how we did in the first class.

For my self-selected book, I have chosen Zeno’s Conscience by Italo Svevo. I have been wanting to read this book for some time, so this course has now given me a specific reason as to why I should. Based on what I have heard of the book and its plot, it reminded me a little of a play called Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen. I really enjoy works that follow one central, very eclectic and/or manic main character, so I think I have picked a good book for myself. The book was written originally in Italian and I have also not read too many books from Italy, so I am also looking forward to broadening my scope.

Thank you for reading my introduction post, I’m excited to work and learn with everyone this semester!