I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: BLUE ÖYSTER CULT-Tyranny and Mvtation (1973).

The album cover is similar to the first disc (a simple black and white), but this one adds a touch of red. Similarly, the music adds a touch of something that makes this disc leap beyond the foundation of their first.

The songs are heavier, the lyrics are weirder and yet the whole proceeding is catchier and groovier at the same time.

The first half of the disc is called The Black (going with the first song “The Red & The Black”).  It contains 4 great tracks.  The highlight is the improbably named “7 Screaming Diz-Busters” a 7 minute song that starts off with great heavy guitars, segues into a spooky/wild moog organ fueled freakout and ends with a denouement that is mellow and creepy.

But the other three songs rock hard too.  “The Red & the Black” is a super fast boogie which repeats some of the lyrics from the first disc: “Canadian mounted baby.  Police force at work.  Red and black. Its their color scheme.”  The tempo slows somewhat with “OD’d on Life Itself,” but it quickly comes back with “Hot Rails to Hell.”

Side two, The Red, opens with “Baby Ice Dog” with lyrics by Patti Smith (!).   The side is less heavy, with Allan Lanier’s piano coming to the front on this track (although there’s a delightfully cheesy wolf howl at the end). “Wings Wetted Down” foreshadows more familiar BOC with great choruses and harmonies, coupled with cool riffs.  And the final song “Mistress of the Salmon Salt (Quicklime Girl)” is yet another wonderfully oddly titled (and lyrically peculiar) song.

Even though the first disc is quite good, BOC totally hit their stride on this disc, showcasing their weirdness and their virtuosity in equal strength.  The recently remastered edition contains 4 live tracks that show just how much the band rocked in a live setting too.

[READ: Week of February 22, 2010] 2666 [pg 291-349]

During last week’s reading, I had replied to a post on Infinite Zombies in which I stated that I am a very credulous reader.  If I believe that the author is doing something worthwhile, I’m totally willing to suspend my disbelief about whatever the writer tells me.  Sometimes, when I’m done, or if I’m asked to be critical, I’ll look for flaws, but generally I like to go with the flow.  So, I’d been reading along uncritically primarily because I don’t exactly know what Bolaño is up to, (even 300 pages in) so I’m just going to enjoy the ride.  More on this in a moment.

This week’s reading continues Fate’s saga down in Santa Teresa.  His story request about reporting on the murders in Santa Teresa has been turned down.  And he thinks back to all of his other stories that have been rejected by the newspaper.  Like the Mohammedan Brotherhood.  Fate met them at a Pro-Palestine demonstration. They were marching under a banner of Osama bin Laden (shortly after 9/11/01).  They were so over the top that Fate felt the need to interview them.

And now that the seed of doubt had been planted, I felt that this idea, that a group of black men would be marching under a banner of Osama bin Laden shortly after 9/11/01, just stretched the realm of believability.  And just as I was about to disbelieve the book, we get this exchange:

“Motherfuckers marched with a poster of bin Laden,” said his editor.
“It takes balls,” said Fate.
“Balls of steel, plus you have to be a complete goddamn moron.”
“You know some undercover cop came up with it.” said Fate. (294)

So, Bolaño is in on it.  He’s not just making up crazy preposterous things (well, he is, but he’s not passing them off as real things). Consider my disbelief resuspended.

When Fate looks up he sees a woman, Guadalupe Roncal, standing next to him.  She is a reporter who is nice enough, naive enough and desperate to keep her job enough to do a story about the killings in Santa Teresa.  She overheard him talking to his boss about the murders and asks if he wants information about the case.

She tells her story which is that the previous reporters who have investigated the killings have all been killed.  Her bosses basically said it would be in her best interest to take the case.  She assumes that she’s a marked woman, so she’s trying to blend in with the sports reporters until she’s ready to do her interview with the prime suspect in the murders, The suspect, an American, is still in jail even though he’s been in jail for quite some time and more murders have happened since then.  Fate agrees to go with her to the interview.

There’s a little digression about Fate as a student at NYU, in which we get the line, “(in fact, he had never in his life been with a woman he had to pay)” (301).   At this point, I have to jump in and wonder either a) how prevalent prostitutes are in Mexico, or just how frequently Bolaño himself made use of them.  I am fairly astonished at how the assumption here in this sentence, and in much of the book is that prostitutes are the norm.  It’s no secret that this book has misogynistic tendencies all over it (the most obvious being the central plot of the murders).  Even when Fate first meets Guadalupe he considers that she might be a hooker (strangely enough she later tells him that she’s not a hooker). It’s rather disconcerting, but I can’t tell if this is  Bolaño or the “book”.

When Fate wakes up he remembers that he threw up during the night (there’s more vomit in this Part than in almost any other book I’ve read) but he finds no evidence of it.

Fate arrives at the Arena before anyone else.  There’s literally no one there.  Fate goes to a bar where all the reporters are hanging around.  He asks about the gorgeous hills in the distance but all anyone will say about them is “not pretty.”

When the fight scene finally arrives, we get a panoramic viewpoint of a boxing match.  It is very cinematic.  Everyone in the audience is acting as though Merolino will win.  Fate wanders around, finds someone in his seat, watches a bit of an earlier match, runs into Omar Abdul (Merolino’s sparring partner), and then hears someone calling his name.  He can’t find the voice.  In a movie, we would see Fate spinning around looking in vain for the voice, until finally he sees Chucho Flores.

Chucho is sitting with the blonde from the other night, Rosa Méndez, with a man named Juan Corona and, in a moment that blew my mind, sitting next to them is Rosa Amalfitano!  We also meet Charly Cruz, the video king.

Rosita (which is what I’ll call Rosa Mendez to avoid confusion) proves to be very genial and kind of dumb.  She says that Fate is the first black man she’s met and other conversations starters.

Hilariously, the fight is over in 2 rounds.

Then they all go out to eat at El Rey del Taco.  which is like a Mexican version of McDonalds.  While he’s wondering what the hell he’s doing in a Mexican chain taco place, he realizes that it’s because of Rosa.

Charly Cruz talks about another director that he’s met, Barry Guardini [pseudonym or bullshit?  I can’t find evidence online, unlike with Robert Rodriguez].  And then he waxes poetic bout movies.  The gist of his speech is that movies, either in old theaters or in the house when you can shut everyone out with a DVD, are sacred.

After dinner they go out drinking to several different clubs.  He loses track of Rosa and eventually finds her in a room with Chucho Flores and another man. Rosa seems to be high.  Then Fate runs into Omar Abdul and the other sparring partner, they’re drinking mezcal, and Fate buys them a drink.

Then they all went to Charly Cruz’s house.  Charly shows Fate the video that is supposedly directed by Robert Rodriguez, which is a surprisingly graphic porn film (that gets really trippy at the end). When it’s over, Fate asks where Rosa is, and is told she’s sucking Chucho’s dick.

Now the story turns into something like Taxi Driver, with fate rescuing a coked up Rosa from a den of iniquity.  He grabs Rosa, punches out Corona (who had been holding a gun, which Fate grabs).  He, Rosa and Chucho flee the building in Fate’s car.  They drop off Chucho at a bus stop and return to Fate’s hotel room, where Rosa takes a shower and then we begin the unofficial subsection of The Part About Fate:  Subsection A: The Part About Rosa.

For Rosa tells Fate all about her life with Chucho for the next ten pages or so.

Rosa met Rosita at the video store where they both rented movies.  Rosita introduced Rosa to Charly Cruz who befriended her.  Rosa and Rosita became friends and hung out a lot at Rosita’s apt where Rosita proved far more worldly although Rosa was far more wise.  Then she and Chucho began a courtship.

He was very gentle with her but could also be a wild lover, who snorted cocaine and took pills during and after sex.  (and yes, there’s a lot more graphic sex here, with a surprisingly detailed description of a blow job).  I rather enjoyed the scene when Rosa brings Chucho home to meet Óscar Amalfitano.  He asks some wonderfully obscure questions. What does he think of hexagons? (He doesn’t).  And then a very pointed one, What does he think of the killings in Santa Teresa (it’s regrettable, but the police are on to the men).

Amalfatino tells Rosa that Chucho is trouble.  “So what you mean is,” said Rosa from the kitchen laughing, “I should dump him.”
“Dump him.” (332).

But even better is when Rosa brings home Chucho, Charly Cruz and Rosita.  They don’t expect Amalfitano t0 be home, but he had called off work that day.  He asks the guys more weird questions, like do you know what ‘apparent movement” is.  Amazingly, Charly Cruz does know (it’s images lingering on the retina).  And through the scientific discoveries of Professor Plateau we have gained the zoetrope.  They get involved in a discussion of the optical illusion of the man and the jail cell on either sides of a piece of cardboard–as it spins it looks like he is in jail (but really he’s not in jail, which is why he’s smiling).

On a later day, Rosa met a school friend in an American style diner.  When they parted, he kissed her cheek.  Chucho ran up to her and called her a whore, and made a rather big scene in the place.  He said he loved her more than anything and wondered oh, what would he do without her?  Rosa decides that it’s time to break up with him.

That was three days ago.  So, why were she and Chucho still together?  Was she going to sleep with him still?  No, they were trying to part amicably, which is why she went to the boxing match (her first ever boxing event) because Rosita asked her to go with them.

After the long story, Rosa crashes and Fate goes to the clerk to ask about internet access.  The clerk hands him a card for 24 hour cyber cafe called Fire, Walk with Me (which sadly we never get to see).  Fate says it sounds like a David Lynch film (which is wrong, since it IS a David Lynch film, but whatever).  They have a brief discussion about David Lynch (which does rather set the tone for what happens next).

Fate returns to his room.  The clerk calls shortly after to tell him that a policeman just called to see if he was staying there.  The clerk told him that Fate had checked out.  Fate and Rosa flee the hotel and wend their way to Amalfitano’s house (where we see the geometry book!  The most consistent character in the novel so far!).

Fate meets Amalfitano.  They explain everything to the man, including Fate’s appointment with Guadalupe (which he blew off yesterday).  There’s a cop out in the street who gets out of a Peregrino.  Amalfitano gives Rosa a wad of cash and asks Fate to take her across the border and put her on a plane to Barcelona (!).  She doesn’t want to go, but he is insistent.  As they drive away, Fate sees Amalfitano talking to the man in the Peregrino.

And from there the story takes a cinematic/hallucinogenic quality.  Much like in the end of Part One, this Part ends with a series of scenes that intercut each other.  On my first read I wasn’t sure whether the one sequence was a dream or just a future event. On a second read, I think that they are actual events, but they are juxtaposed with past events for maximum effect.

Fate and Rosa pick up Guadalupe at her hotel.  They drive to the prison (Guadalupe in her own car) where they plan to interview the suspect. The scenes at the prison are interspersed with scenes of Fate and Rosa driving to Tuscon.  It’s these driving scenes that seem unreal, because Fate keeps coming in and out of sleep and even describes his mind wandering.

Tuscon seems unreal, and Fate doesn’t recognize anything.  They never get to the point where Rosa is put on a plane, so it’s unclear what happens there.

But, Guadalupe, Fate and Rosa sit in the prison cell waiting for the killer.  He plods down the hall singing a German folksong about a giant lost in the woods.  When he arrives, he is enormous, pale, blond and very calm.  And in a nice parallel to the race issues of the beginning, Fate sees the giant as an albino.

The giant tells Guadalupe that she can ask him anything, but her mind goes blank.

This sets us up very nicely for Part 4, a part I’m led to believe is quite harrowing in that it details the actual crimes committed against the women.

COMMENTS

I’m not about to compare this book to Ulysses, but like Ulysses, I can’t help but wonder if Bolaño is playing with genres in each of the Parts.  This part played very much like a crime movie.  There have been other cinematic elements throughout the book, but I hadn’t really been thinking in that way during Parts 1 and 2.  All of the directors that have been mentioned as well as the juxtaposing of scenes smacked of movies.

I’m still not sure exactly how these Parts are going to fit together.  I mean obviously the story will coalesce around the crimes, but I’ curious to see if the characters are all going to show up again, or if they’ll meet each other ever.

For ease of searching I include: Blue Oyster Cult, Bolano.