Help me "get" 2666?
March 14, 2010 9:55 AM   Subscribe

I just finished 2666. It seems like the sort of book that requires a few reads, and at 900 pages, that is not likely to happen any time soon. Thus, I am looking to AskMeFi for some insight on things that I may have missed. I guess, in short, what is this book about?

Looking for your thoughts, and also leads on essays or particularly enlightening long-form reviews that might exist.

Things I am particularly interested in:

- the significance of 2666, beyond the basic explanation int he afterword.
- any insight into Bolano's various meanderings on academia, Mexico, Bobby Seale, war, death, etc. many of which seemed very satirical.
- any thoughts on The Part About the Crimes - does this serve primarily as polemic or is there a more subtle signficance related to the plot, narrative structure, etc.
- pretty much any insight you can share that you think is relative or interesting
posted by kensington314 to Society & Culture (12 answers total) 19 users marked this as a favorite
 
Here's a couple of articles that may or may not give you some guidance.
posted by matildaben at 10:20 AM on March 14, 2010 [1 favorite]


I haven't read 2666 yet, but from what I understand about Bolaño (and having read other books of his), he constructs these worlds where there is no main theme; rather, he has a sprawling universe in which he frames his characters and sets them loose. (I.e. Savage Detectives.) Sort of like real life--there's no inherent meaning outside of what you bring into it yourself.

That's my take, but I would love to hear anybody else's. This looks like it'll be a fun space!
posted by mixer at 10:32 AM on March 14, 2010


I think there's something to mixer's take on the Bolaño's literary universe. After I read 2666 I took up Nazi Literature in the Americas, a short fictional biographical encyclopedia of Nazi writers. There is some overlap with characters from 2666, which is rewarding, but what's really interesting is that it doesn't so much read like a work of fiction so much as the act of Bolaño populating his universe. Most of the characters fizzle out, some are revisited, others are extremely haunting and present throughout the book. In lieu of solid theories on 2666 I'll offer it as a fruitful place to keep looking.
posted by farishta at 10:44 AM on March 14, 2010


Paging through my copy of Nazi Literature of the Americas, I came across mentions of Eugenio Entrescu, whom I wikipedia'd thinking he was a real historical figure. But no, he exists only in the Bolañoverse--I guess he's mentioned in 2666 too!

Anyhow, not really related to the post, but such a great bio at the end of NLA: "During the Second World War he distinguished himself in the capture of Odessa, the Siege of Sebastopol and the Battle of Stalingrad. Erect, his member was exactly twelve inches long, half an inch longer than that of Dan Carmine. He commanded the 20th Division, the 14th Division and the 3rd Infantry Corps. His soldiers crucified him in a village near Kishinev."

BTW: The New Yorker just ran a short story of his, William Burns. I can't find the website now, but there are some criticisms out there I found when googling the short story that I found interesting. If I find them later I'll be sure to post the links here!
posted by mixer at 11:10 AM on March 14, 2010


Holy cow, I've semi given up on this after reading the first section. If the rest of the book is like the beginning, I don't think there is a point. It's just a carefully constructed and exhaustively described world on paper.
posted by sanka at 2:59 PM on March 14, 2010


Waggish has some thoughts on 2666: 1 2 3 4
posted by juv3nal at 3:28 PM on March 14, 2010


I liked Richard Crary's take. I agree with him that The Part About the Crimes is the crux of the whole thing, maybe of Bolano's whole career.

sanka: the first section is the worst, by far. Don't give up! Section 2 is quite good.

Bolano definitely has an angle, but he throws a lot into 2666. Reading By Night in Chile and the collection Last Evenings on Earth (my two favorites, both quite short) might help triangulate. The New Yorker article from a few years back is also useful.

And I recommend Jose Donoso and Juan Rulfo as two fantastic lesser-known Latin American novelists who influenced Bolano.
posted by waggish at 5:17 PM on March 14, 2010


oh woah, metafilter's own! etc.
posted by juv3nal at 5:51 PM on March 14, 2010


We are in the middle of a group read of 2666 over on my blog Bolaño Bolaño. We are giving it the old microscope and scalpel treatment. You might also post this question on the forums there.

Personally, I love the novel and I don't necessarily "get it", but I enjoy trying to unravel what Bolaño is doing here. What does he mean that the murder of these women contains "the secret of the universe?" I've found that there's not a huge overlap with people who, for instance, love Infinite Jest and also love 2666. It's more like, if you enjoy the stories of Borges, you might like 2666. It's OK if you don't get it or like it.
posted by mattbucher at 6:24 PM on March 14, 2010


There's a lot in 2666 but if there's a single message I'd take from it's: Life is an endless expanse of horror but if we can get a laugh here and there it's bearable.

It's a reductive take on it, and I could swim around in the details for ever. When I finished it my first impulse was to turn the book over and start again, but I decided that it would be better to wait a few years and return to it as a different human being. I think I will get a whole new set of things out of it then. I may even revise my one-sentence "message."

I love 2666. It's definitely my book of the decade, both for its quality and for what Bolaño means to me personally (finding his work in 2007 kickstarted the writing engine in my head after it had been motionless for a long time).
posted by Kattullus at 8:48 PM on March 14, 2010 [1 favorite]


A teacher I had at university said (repeatedly) that the only two important questions to ever ask about a piece of art were "What did I see?" and "How did it make me feel?" (This was primarily for visual art, of course, but "read" can easily replace "see" in the first question.)

This mantra was extremely helpful to keep in mind when lost in trying to "get" 2666.
posted by davidjmcgee at 9:33 PM on March 14, 2010


Oh, I was just reminded of something, from an essay about the AIDS crisis activism by Eileen Myles that was recently posted to MetaFilter. Here's a the bit where she mentions Bolaño:
Much of the challenge today of being in conversation with younger scholars, activists, writers, and artists who weren’t present for the events that this show enacted is the struggle to find contemporary analogies. Things make quicker sense if we let America become the Americas. The work dealing with the “disappeared” by artists from Argentina, Chile, and other nations offers a multitude of examples of art’s response to political horror. But it is a poet and fiction writer—the late Roberto Bolaño, who worked for the last ten years of his life with the gun of a potentially fatal illness to his head—whose large and significant political oeuvre seems most analogous to ACT UP’s. Bolaño’s work is uncanny in its capacity to summon up the sensation of living in a time when one’s goofy friends from poetry workshops and art openings might be suddenly yanked out of their beds in the night by the death squad. That’s how living in the AIDS crisis felt. Impossibly violent and cruel. Violent (in its isolation) because it was only “true” for part of America. Jaw-dropping for many of those affected because they were people of some privilege, white homosexuals, even middle-class people, who were directly experiencing the monstrosity of their own culture for the first time—collectively.
2666 is very much about how violence is always a presence in people's lives. It also yokes the bit about the Black Panthers to the rest of the novel.
posted by Kattullus at 12:45 AM on March 15, 2010


« Older Is it the yeast or is it me?   |   Apartment Flood. Computer Damaged. Landlord... Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.