/lit/ - Literature

It sounds like you don't know shit about bolaño

>>4785489
Try me.

>>4785402
Sorry to ask translation questions but I would like your input.
Does Bolano translate to English well?
If so what translation should I look for?
What would I be missing from a translation?

I'm taking Spanish courses now, and I taking a trip to central america to hone my Spanish in less than a month. Should I wait until my Spanish is decent before I tackle Bolano?

>>4785402
Try some saramago, blindness is awesome (ensaio sobre a cegueira) But be warned, this fucker writes in streans of conscience, no pontuations or anything, including dialogues.

>>4785402

Fuck your Bolaño, fuck his pseudo beat faggotry. Also fuck the latin-american Boom, go read some Ibargüngoitia.

>>4785726
I've read the translation of Savage Detectives and there are two things worth pointing out:

1) Culture and understanding of Mexican literary tradition. One of the things Bolaño is best at is not caring about the reader's literary background. In Savage Detectives he puts fictional and real poets to interact with each other. They're just like any other character, and this shows up in 2666 too, as Archimboldi is a fictional writer passing as a character the same way real writers do in Savage Detectives. So the translation doesn't focus too much on that matter and reads pretty well. As far as cultural reference go, as with any other foreign book, there is no help, slang will lose it's power.

2) Prose. Susprisingly, Bolaño's prose style translate great. I would go as far as saying some passages flow better in english. On the other hand, some characters have very subtle voices and the translator got lost, failing to translate the text marks that define them.

>>4785749
Nigger, I'm mexican and have a degree on literature, don't you think I've read Ibargüengoitia already? In fact I'm currently re-reading Instrucciones para vivir en México as this newbie writer, Daniel Espartaco, is trying to emulate Ibar's sense of political irony and black humor, and I need to re read Vela Perpetua and Las muertas to voice an opinion about it.

>>4785489
I second this. I don't think Bolano needs academia and you announcing to the world via 4chan that you want "to dedicate your academic life" is worthless. And I don't think he would appreciate the asinine dick sucking comment either.

>>4785756
Gracias amigo

Any decent gaucho lit you'd recommend OP?

>>4785777
You gotta trust me, I won't put that on a paper. Also, if you knew the number of people trying to kick Bolaño out of the canon, and the even more outstanding numbre of people trying to dont let Mario Santiago (Ulises Lima) onto the canon, well, maybe you'd understand.

Who is the best contemporary Mexican writer and why is he Sada (ripinpiece)?

Álvaro Mutis's 'The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll' is being shipped to me. Has anyone read it?

>>4785782
Not op, Analista de bagé, it's comedy / short stories, search for it.

>>4785784
You sound like a fast-talking cunt with a desparate sense of superiority. Also Bolano would be happy to be "kicked out of the canon". Good literature doesn't need a canon.

>>4785788

I haven't read it yet but going by the title and synopsis it sounds like it was influenced by Las Industrias y Andanzas de Alfanguey.

>>4785782
Ok, there are three stages of gaucho literature worth pointing put from an entry level perspective. I'm assuming you already not about post colonialism and all that crap.

1) Faustino Sarmiento's Facundo. Biographical novel about one of the greatest gauchos. It's boring, but it has three parts and one of them is entirely dedicated to make clear that Rosas was wrong and liberals were right. That's the foundation of argentinian thinking.

2) Martin Fierro. An epic poem about the gauchos, their songs and culture. Boring, but if you're really into the subject, it can be really enlightening.

3) Borges. Read his short story The South. It gives closure to the gaucho literary tradition, acknowledges it's worth and moves on. This is part of why Borges is so important to Argentina.

>>4785786
I assume that by contemporary you mean alive, so I'd say Sergio Pitol, but he's an oldman with no more that one of two years left.

So contemporary... I think the title is in dispute between Villoro and Parra with the first taking the lead. Only time will tell.

>>4785791
Ok man, you're the embodiment of Bolaño's will. I'll give you that.

Any mature enough reader that's been reading for a while with few pretentions knows that what an author has to offer to him, first and foremost is his story and the way he has of telling it (his 'voice'), so I'm not going to argue about Bolaño's academic merit because I care little for them.

What I do know is that I love Bolaño for his consistency. To me he read like a less experimental version of Cortázar (another of my favorites), a more pessimistic way of filling a dense, very dense, paragraph. I just couldn't escape his weaving of culture and literature in his narrative. He's one of those writers that somehow elevate you after you are done with them (not really, though -as if you could put a stop to them). They naturally make you develop and interest for the same things that interested him, in other genres and authors (like what Borges and Cortázar did for me).
OP, are you familiar with other Argie writers, like Arlt, Marechal, Lugones, Lamborghini?

If you haven't read Adán Buenosayres I suggest you give it a try. It's a great satiric epic of life in Buenos Aires, quite timeless to get a feel of the color of the city. Even Borges is one of his characters -of his Fervor de Buenos Aires (i.e., back when he was quite the nationalist).

I know very little of Lugones but I know he even delved in scifi.

>>4785791
You are trying too hard and it shows. Stop it with your insecurities, man.

What can you tell me about Felisberto Hernandéz?

>>4786461
Thanks for the Adán Buenosayres suggestion. I'll check it out when the spring break is over and I hit the library again.

>>4786476
He's one of the few well known uruguayan writers, but his style is more close to argentinian fantasy. I don't remember now (I just woke up), but maybe he was doing gret fantasy before his neighbours. Check out his short story El acomodador and if you like it you can follow with Las Hortencias.

>>4785803
You are full of steaming dogshit. Typical pretentious academic.
If you had really read Facundo you would know it's not a novel at all, it's a fucking sociological essay, and the character it studies wasn't a guacho, he was a caudillo. And if you think that ''Rosas was wrong and liberals were right'' is the foundation of argentinian thinking (what does that even mean anyway), you should read about a little guy called Juan Domingo Peron.
Source? Argentinian.

Let's discuss 2666, just so we could light as many enigmas as we can, the book is filled with such.

>>4786825
One of the very first things you learn as you grow up is never listen to an argentinian.

>>4786825
>caudillo
I'll actually grant to OP that caudillo culture was directly related to the simple gaucho's life.
He was exploited, drafted, drilled and whatnot by such powers. So reading about such leader does provide some insight on gaucho life.

If you were to study working conditions for manual laborers in Soviet Russia, reading about Stalin's life and work ethic would be a must.

>>4785402
>As you can see, my author is Bolaño. I love him. I would suck his dick if he was alive. His novels are like his life and backwards. The repercutions his persona had over literary history are being pondered right now and I want to dedicate my academic life to be part of the discussion.

Read his short stories. Hated them. Not sure why. The Insufferable Goucho? Yawn.

>>4786872
>as you grow up is never listen to an argentinian.
xD

>>4786825
>And if you think that ''Rosas was wrong and liberals were right'' is the foundation of argentinian thinking

But it was, at a time. And it sort of still is, if you were to ask the people of the 'interior' that cared not that much about Él and Eva.

We call your attitude a bias. So please, be less of a dick when you are not 100% correct.

I have relatives in the provinces and being an unitario/federal is not only a hot topic, but one of their pillars of thought. The students at Puán circlejerk on Rosas all the time. The uncle of a a close friend wrote countless letters reclaiming Rosas body when he was young.


So I'd say the pillars of Argentinian thinking are
- Rosas
- Perón
- Attitude towards foreign powers (Historical revision or re-revision)
- Literature-wise: Arlt/Borges/Perón/Piglia/Cohelo and 'self help' literature

>>4786887
Yeah but he did not say that. He repeated stuff he probably read on the internet and reinforced cliched misunderstandings about argentinian politics and culture.

>>4786921
But I agree with you dude, but the pillar, as you said, is the dichotomy, not ''Rosas is wrong, liberals were right'', as he put it.

So Brazilian /lit/ doesn't count as hispanic, right?

>>4786893
gaucho*

>>4786926
He did not. He made a mistake on the 'novel' thing and you jumped at him. He's a foreigner, you ninny. You should understand better that they don't have as much 'inside data' as we do.
I'm sure OP knows who Perón is and what he represents. Thinking he doesn't is silly.


>He repeated stuff he probably read on the internet
And now what's with this shitty projecting?
You are an example of everything that is wrong with Argentinians on the web. Full of themselves, egotistical in their understanding of how other cultures view them.
Cunts for lack of a better word.

If I were too look at your post with your own eyes I'd say you are just as full of shit as OP. I'm sure he'd whip your ass in a dick-measuring contest of who knows more about Latinamerican literature (not just South America, of course).

But I'm not doing that. Because I'm actually nice.

>>4786947
It doesn't, but I've read some. I like Lispector and Guimaraes.

>>4786958
I'll respond to you because you're some kind of shiny argentinian or something. We had this discussion in class, actually it went on for three classes, about Facundo being a novel or not. We cloncluded that it was, the same it was a political essay, a biography, a speech and a guideline. To be honest, I won't put it inside one literary genre, but the third part is certainly novelesque.

>>4786991
>shiny argentinian
not sure how to interpret that, lol. hope that's not a typo.

You see, not all Argentinians are prideful, aggressive nor self centered. There IS some underlaying pride and self centeredness in most people, sure. But I don't know why, the Internet culture did something very wrong to our young people and you see very toxic samples. 4chan is a breeding ground for that kind.

I'm not calling that other guy toxic, though. It's just that I read his post and all the bad memories of immature toxic aggressive kids short-circuited my brain.


Our main problem is that we lack any structure or leader to help us pacify all the numerous differences and contrasts in our daily life. We've been brought up in this culture and it's been like this for ages.

There's so much XX vs. YY shit going on in our daily lives that most people don't even care in constructive criticism nor careful thinking. It's easier to spout something quick for effect (i.e., fallacies). We call them 'chicanas', and not because they have anything to do with Los Chicanos.


I can't speak for other countries. I'm sure some similarities can be found in some, because people are people. But Argentina, to me, is sadly toxic in too many cases.

>>4787069
Haha, don't worry, pal, you see, in the Pokemon games there is a rare chance of finding a pokemon with different color than it's usual palette. That's a shiny pokemon. They're very rare and trainers dream about finding one.

>>4787114
I'm not that guy and just stumbled upon this thread, but you're quite presumptuous to make assumptions like that about argies.

It's okay though, it happens when foreigners take their cultural notes from youtube comments and random encounters, though it is pretty funny you claim the moral high ground while doing precisely what you accuse argies of doing.

>>4787069
One thing that is a lot more common than argies being aggressive or self centered, is self deprecation, thanks for being a good example of that.

>>4785402
>hispanic literature
>tons of non-Hispanic authors

captcha: columbia erspeay
>also not Hispanic

>>4787145
>talk about how the culture of anger, division and fallacies as currency in serious arguments is plainly awful
>implying that is self deprecation

Thanks for addressing absolutely nothing I said :)

Well, guys García Márquez just died. Let's re read Cien años de soledad in his honor.

>>4787260
No, he did not.

>>4787266
Muchos años después, frente al pelotón de fusilamiento, el coronel Aureliano Buendía había de recordar aquella tarde remota en que su padre lo llevó a conocer el hielo.

¿quién es tu novelista feminista favorita, poke?

>>4787260
>>4787266
>>4787269
>RIP Gabriel García Márquez
Ok, now I see a source for that. You will understand my skepticism since fake death announcements are a favorite joke around here.

>>4787190
But you're doing the exact same thing.

>>4785402
>tfw you killed Gabo

>>4787305
Check Yahoo news

OP, i'm chilean and began studying literature this year, so it's nice to see someone starting a thread about hispanic literature.Do you (or anyone else,obviously) like poetry. I have been reading a lot of chilean poetry since last year and may talk about that if you are intersted.

>>4787305
>I found a source so now I know
>>4787523
>look here for a source so you'll know