I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: SAM COOKE-Portrait of a Legend 1951-1964 (2003).

After reviewing Colin Meloy Sings Sam Cooke, I decided to check out Sam Cooke himself, since I said I didn’t know anything about him.  Well, it turns out that I was totally wrong about that.  I checked out this disc from the library and was rather surprised to realize that I knew at least a dozen songs by Cooke.  And not just that he sang songs which I knew–they were his versions that I knew.

Granted some of my knowledge comes from Animal House, but that’s neither here nor there.

I’m not even sure what to classify Cooke’s music as, and maybe it’s not necessary to do so.  Back in the day it would have been played on oldies stations (but they seem to play songs from the 60s and 70s now).  Is it soul, R&B, rock?  I dunno.

So, Sam Cooke sang “You Send Me” (darling, you) “Cupid” (draw back your bow); “(What a) Wonderful World” (don’t know much about history); “Chain Gang” (that’s the sound of the men working on the).  And later songs like “Twisting the Night Away.”

And big surprise, who knew he wrote the great Cat Stevens hit: “Another Saturday Night” and the party anthem “Having a Party” (hey mr dj keep those records playing).

This disc has 30 song and runs about 80 minutes, and I admit that at least half of them were just okay.  The genre really doesn’t appeal to me all that much (although I can clearly tell that he was a pioneer writer (with a great voice to boot)).  I could see myself listening to (and enjoying) this disc as background music, and little else.

Nevertheless, it was really cool to learn that it was the same guy who sang all those songs, and I can now put a name to the songs in Animal House and other 50’s era movies.

[READ: Week of February 8, 2010] 2666 [pg 163-228]

This week’s read is all about Amalfitano.  In fact, this week’s read was an entire “Part” and to learn all about Amalfitano in one go.  This Part exists irrespective of the previous part, although there will be one single item that we saw in Book 1 that indicates that this Part is set before the action of Part 1.  Well, actually, it is all clearly set before Part 1, but there is one detail that carriers over from there.

As the book opens, Amalfitano wonders what the hell he is doing in Santa Teresa.  And that question is never really answered satisfactorily for him or for us (we learn why he is currently there, but he seems to dislike it so much there’s no really compelling reason why he stays).

In the present time–which is an unstated number of months or even years ( I think) before the critics of Part 1 run into him–Amafiltano (who was born in Chile) is 50 and his daughter Rosa (who was born in Spain) is 17.  I loved the part about them being citizens of different nations and continents with different passports, so when they traveled together they were separated at customs.  It’s also interesting that later we learn Amalfitano and his father were both also born in different countries (his father is Italian).

[Confusion about countries of origin seems to be very important in this book].

The bulk of the first half of Part 2 is devoted to Lola who is Amalfitano’s wife  and Rosa’s mother.  Although the Part is about Amalfitano, it’s really about Lola and her escapades.  When Rosa was two,  Lola decided that she had to leave her family to visit her favorite poet.

[Poets, writers and artists play a prominent role in this book as well].

This poet was presently living in an insane asylum [another theme in this book] near San Sebastián.  Lola believes that this poet was her soul mate, and she explained to Amalfitano how she met him at a party in Barcelona where they had a major connection.  She always wondered what would have happened between them if they stayed together.

Amalfitano knows very well, however, that he introduced her to this poet’s works after they were married.

Lola’s friend Inmaculada (and there’s a funny bit about how her nickname is Imma, but Amalfitano always calls her Inma, as that is how you spell the beginning of her name) picks her up and travels with her to San Sebastián.  They stay in a hostel.  After several failed attempts, Lola and Inma get in to see the poet.  Their meeting goes as one might expect when two crazy people get together.

After a few days of returning to the asylum and not getting in, their money runs out.  Inma absconds to Madrid explaining that she will get money and return for Lola (which she never does).  Soon Lola is kicked out and is forced to spend nights in a cemetery.  While there she meets a man named Larrazábal.  He is very jealous that she managed to sleep in a cemetery as he always wanted to live in a cemetery (!), and he takes women there for carnal fun.

By the way, Amalfitano knows all about Lola’s exploits because she has been sending him postcards keeping him updated.

“Madness really is contagious” is the quote that opens a section.  It’s unclear if Amafitano thinks it or if Lola does (although she seems to confirm it later), but it is a very appropriate sentence for this Part.

Eventually, Lola moves in with Larrazábal.  They seem to live like husband and wife (or more like lover and kept woman (even though she reminds him that she is married–which must make Amalfitano feel good).  Eventually, however, she  saves up enough to leave him and she heads for France.

For five years Amalfitano heard nothing from Lola.  During that time, he believes he saw Inma at his local park, but he did not get to confirm this.  And then, two years later, seven years after she left, Lola returns to her original home (although Amalfitano and Rosa were gone).  When she finally tracks them down, there is a tearful-ish reunion (mostly between Lola and Rosa).  She reveals to them not only that she has a two year old son in France named Benoit, but also that she is dying from AIDS.  After several days she returns to France and her son.

And that’s all we hear of Lola.

The next section is taken up with Rafael Dieste’s Testamento geometrico. Amalfitano finds this book in one of his boxes.  It was shipped to Santa Teresa.  But he has no idea where this book has come from  He doesn’t remember buying tit and t isn’t Rosa’s, so where did it come from and why did it follow him here?

After several pages of confusion, he decides to take Duchamp’s idea and put it into reality: he takes three clothespins (which he persists in calling perritos as they were called in Chile, and clamps the book to a clothesline (In Part 1, of course, the Critics briefly investigate this book on the clothesline when they first visit Amalfitano’s house).

Rosa is nonplussed by the book.

Amalfitano, however, is clearly impacted by this book.  He begins doodling geometric figures during his classes, and when he investigates them later her sees that he has attached various philosophers names to points on the shapes.  He checks on the book every day, although nothing of note has happened to it (it is quite well bound).

About midway through this Part, we finally see Amalfitano work at the the University of Santa Teresa (his first few days were miserable).  It was Professor Silvia Perez who encouraged him to come to Santa Teresa (his contract had run out at the  University of Barcelona).  He likes Silvia, but immediately dislikes his department’s Dean.  Dean Guerra makes a bad impression on him at their first social encounter.

And soon, seemingly out of the blue, Amalfitano starts hearing voices.  And this voice (aside from hating faggots) begins asking him some pretty intense questions.  Amalfitano think the voice belongs to his grandfather (although his grandfather wouldn’t know anything about him to ask these specific questions)  But maybe it’s his father (who also hated faggots: Chilean boxers are all faggots, Italian boxers are real men).  Amalfitano isn’t sleeping well, what with the voices.

There’s an amusing section showing his and Rosa’s utter disdain for Santa Teresa.  They brush their teeth 8 or 9 times a day because they fear the water will turn their teeth brown (like so many locals’ teeth are).

Around the time that school starts, he and Rosa go on a trip with Professor Perez and her 16 year old son Rafael.  The went for a picnic, with the kids swimming and having sodas (with a hint of sexual tension between the adults).

The voice, returns throughout this section.  It’s berates Oscar (for that is Amalfitano’s name) into doing something, anything (stop being a faggot) even if it’s just washing the damn dishes.  After apologizing for saying faggot so much (he doesn’t mean anything by it, he swears), the voice states rather boldly that “Calm is the one thing that will never let us down” (208).  Ethics, the sense of duty, honesty, curiosity, love bravery, art, everything else lets us down.

Amalfitano wonders if calm is the opposite of madness.  Absolutely not says the voice.

The next day, Amalfitano is walking downtown and he sees a group of women protesting.  They demand transparency from the police in the disappearance of all the hundreds of women.  Among the protesters are Rosa and Professor Perez.  She invites them to her house for dinner.

Before he gets home he is called out to by Dean Guerra’s son, Marco Antonio.  Marco takes him to a far off bar called Los Zancudos [the wading birds] where they can drink some mezcal.  They order genuine Los Sucicidas, and Amalfitano thinks it is “an extraordinary drink” (215).  Their drinking turns to talk and Marco opines that the whole country is gong to hell.

As the section draws to a close, we get a weird(er) section about yet another book, scarcely 100 pages long by Lonko Kilapán called O’Higgins Is Araucanian: 17 Proofs, Taken from the Secret History of Araucanaía.  And we get a lot of information about these proofs.

But he runs into Marco again (this time Marco is dressed like a cowboy).  They are both headed to a dinner at the rector of The University of Santa Teresa, Dr Pablo Negrete.  There’s an incident at the party where Amalfitano tries to help a waitress whom he thinks is going to drop a tray of drinks, but he actually causes her to drop the drinks which elicits quite a reaction.

Arucanians are telepathic.  They were amazing sailors and had traveled the world.  The telepathy allowed them to remain in constant contact with the Chileans who had traveled the world.

Oh and Marco is stifled by life in Santa Teresa.  To escape this, among other things he dresses like a faggot to get beaten up just for the thrill.  He used to read but all he reads now is poetry specifically Georg Trakl.  This leads Amalfitano to think about how even bookish people have for the most part been reading minor works of literature (Metamorphosis over The Trial, Bartelby over Moby Dick).  “They want to watch the great masters spar but the have no interest in real combat, when the great masters struggle against that something that terrifies us all, that something that cows us and spurs us on, amid blood and mortal wounds and stench” (227).

That night, Amalfitano has a dream that he saw the last Communist philosopher who turned out to be… Boris Yeltsin.  Yeltsin says that life is supply, demand and, the unknown third part, magic.

COMMENTS

I have been really enjoying the comments at Infinite Zombies, and have really appreciated the insights that have expanded my appreciation of Part One.  Especially the idea that Part One was a comedy.  I look forward to more insights about Book Two, as frankly, I’m a bit lost here.

I enjoyed the first part about Lola and found it interesting and sad.  But the second part seemed to rely on a lot of knowledge that I simply do not possess.  And, much like when I tried to read The Satanic Verses, I’m sure I missed a whole lot of what was going on.

I can tell that there are some major philosophical points being made here, but as for the actual story itself, I’m not that sure.  And, I admit I found myself losing interest in some of the more discursive passages.

I am still looking forward to Part Three in hopes of new insights.

For ease of searching I include: Bolano.