Can disgust be poetic, entertaining even? Is art allowed to be apolitical, unethical? Does anything go in the name of art? As I read this book, I thought about the song ‘Atrocity Exhibition’ by Joy Division, but I also thought about how none of these questions seem to matter anymore.
I know next to nothing about Latin America, but it never stops me from reading Bolaño. This is perhaps my favourite among what I’ve read so far.
“What you have to understand is that Carlitos Wieder looked down on the world as if he were standing on top of a volcano; he saw you and me and himself from a great height, and, in his eyes, we were all, to be quite frank, pathetic insects. That is how he was; he believed that Nature intervenes actively in history, shaping it, buffeting our lives, although in our pitiful ignorance we usually attribute these blows to bad luck or destiny.”
#distantstar
#robertobolaño