I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: ROEDELIUS SCHNEIDER-“Umstuden” (2013).

I picked this song because I thought he had the same name as the character in this story, but he doesn’t.  Rats.

So this collaboration between electronic music pioneer (whom I’ve never heard of) Hans-Joachim Roedelius (who is 78!) and Stefan Schneider (who is much younger).  This piece is a largely a simple piano motif played over a pretty bassline.  (I assume this part if Roedelius).  Then after a few minutes come the effects and drums.  They are quiet and they add more texture than anything else.  But they also modernize this ambient track in a really interesting way–keeping it from getting too soporific (although the melody itself isn’t really soporific at all).  It keeps it lively and a little unexpected.

Although I’m not a huge fan of ambient music, I could see listening to more of this album.

[READ: August 5, 2013] “Collectors”

This story is constructed in a fascinating way.  Set in Peru, it opens with the story of Rogelio, a skinny boy who fails at school (later he is unofficially diagnosed with dyslexia).  He is unhappy at home, especially when his older brother Jaime moves to San Jacinto.  At age 13 Rogelio quit school and moved to San Jacinto to be with his brother.  They worked together making delivers and fixing up vehicles (and making a profit).  It slowly dawns on Rogelio that not everything they do is entirely legitimate, (especially since Jaime seems to have so much cash).  But he;s okay with that and asks no questions.

Then the story informs us in the middle of the second paragraph that Rogelio will wind up in Collectors prison (which I assume is infamous although I’m not actually sure if it’s real).   And sure enough about midway through the story we find out how it happened–Rogelio was carrying something (he didn’t know what) and he was searched by the police (who were looking for weapons).  We’re also told about Rogelio’s cellmate, Henry, who is nice to him.

Then we learn about Henry and how he wound up in prison.  He was a playwright.  And he wrote a (not very good) play called “The Idiot President” which the President (or someone) found offensive.  And soon Henry was regarded as a terrorist.  He considered it an absurd joke at first until the weeks turned into months and he was eventually shunted of to Collectors.

We learn about Collector’s prison, how Rogelio initially didn’t even have a cell–he slept under the stairs–until he was able to buy a cell (with money from Jaime).  Henry, because he had some money, was able to afford a cell and was very lucky to get a kindred soul like Rogelio.  The two actually become friends–talking and reading–and eventually become, dare they say it, lovers.

And they manage to survive in the prison by never upsetting the status quo and being able to read the feeling of the place (Rogelio grew especially good at that when he had nowhere to hide).

Eventually Henry gets up the nerve to ask the cell block boss, Espejo, is he can put on “The Idiot President” in the prison.  Espejo is not impressed at first but then decides what the hell, especially if Henry names a character after him.  So Henry rewrites the play and learns that all of the inmates want to audition.  At this point, the story seems like it will become a strangely lighthearted prison story, with a big theatrical romp.  And it does, for a bit, with Roeglio really owning his character–who is stabbed in the back.

The story then jumps a few month ahead to Henry’s release.  He was always more likely to be released than Rogelio.  And he had to admit that he thought about Rogelio and wondered when or if he would see him again.  The end of the story changes things dramatically, with an emotionally powerful yet subdued moment.  It’s a very well constructed and interesting story that I liked quite a lot.

And which I just learned is an excerpt.  Karen was a little harsher to the story but primarily because it was an excerpt.   I thought the ending was a little suspect myself, and probably should have been harsher about it.  But I was impressed enough by the construction and narrative to not mind so much.  Interestingly, Karen writes that she had read Alarcón’s “The Idiot President” in the New Yorker back in 2008 (it’s available for free).  This means that he has been working on this particular book for at least five years.  Wow.

For ease of searching I include: Alarcon.