Robert Bolano on literature and exile
 

The Literary Saloon, a blog I recommend, has in its 14 January entry a link to a piece in The Nation which reprints a speech by Roberto Bolano on literature and exile. Bolano is an author I'd like to think many here would appreciate (and indeed expect many already do) and his speech is well worth reading: thoughtful, witty, oblique but also clear-headed. There is a hilarious, pointed discussion of the four greatest Chilean poets which mocks the entire question by nominating two, neither Chilean. And Bolano's take on nationality?: "I can say that my homeland consists of my son and my books."

I am hopeless at adding links but googling literary saloon will take you there or I guess go straight to The Nation's site.

[Edit: I should have got the author's name right: Roberto Bolaño]

Re: Robert Bolano on literature and exile
 

Thanks for sharing that! Here's the link:

http://www.thenation.com/article/157...ture-and-exile

Re: Robert Bolano on literature and exile
 

There are similarities between Ligotti and Bolaño. Specifically the manner in which they treat "evil." This subject is never, to my knowledge, explicitly handled but is given more of a periphery glimpse. Entirely different writing styles, though. Bolaño being more rambling as opposed to Ligotti's conciseness.

Bolaño is a writer I enjoy in doses, which goes for Ligotti as well. Whatever other adjective you would like to ascribe to it, it still has the quality of being dense.

Re: Robert Bolano on literature and exile
 

Thanks for the link, Sand. Bolaño's comment regarding his homeland is one of the most touching and true things I have read.
I am looking forward to the forthcoming book of his essays and speeches. I anticipate that it may reveal explicitly what I have only suspected up to now, that Bolaño had many affinities with "our" literature. In the introduction to Antwerp he mentions having read Spinrad and James Tiptree Jr. (along with ancient Greek poetry and pornography); and the novel Monsieur Pain (which I have not yet read) seems to be set in something of a decacent milieu, and its story involves elements of occultism and Mesmerism.
And he has written at least one ghost story, which ran in Harper's last year- I believe the title was The Return...

Re: Robert Bolano on literature and exile
 

At Guernica, a story about the Archivo Bolaño, an exhibition of his unpublished writings and notebooks:

http://www.guernicamag.com/daily/sha...anos-archives/

There are three unpublished novels and more unpublished poems.

Re: Robert Bolano on literature and exile
 

On how to write a short story
Roberto Bolaño on how to write a short story | Electric Cereal

On Neruda, Kafka, and the abyss
Roberto Bolaño on Neruda, Kafka, and the abyss | The Book Haven