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#106: WDAC FM (Patreon)

Published:
2018-12-31 06:10:23
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

Throwing it to the D/C savages to see what you wanna know, arright.  Owroof owroof owroof.

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Comments

john schietinger

Thanks for the thoughtful Bolano response, Michael. An entire episode devoted to his work would be great. Nazi Literature in the Americas is certainly his funniest book and, like you said, is completely horrifying at the same time. I've never read a book quite like it.

Robert

Really fun episode MJ! I like that all the names you mention in passing in this episode delicately create a thirst for future episodes I didn’t know I wanted to hear. Hearing Tom McCarthy & Bolano mentioned made me wonder what your thoughts on 21st C literature are (if any). From Tom McCarthy (who I must say is really up & down in my view) I get the strong impression his whole oeuvre is about the struggle to authentically interact with both the organic and inorganic and how as one subsumes the other we are stranded in terms of our ability to comprehend leading to some acute stasis. Remainder, C and satin island all sort of end in that cul de sac of thinking that feeds into repetitiveness that you would associate with a malfunctioning computer rather than a human. A kind of more realistic vision of a singularity - system error/ reboot / 404. Tried and failed numerous times to read Men in space but imagine it would be a prototype for his later work. His book of essays he released 2 years ago was pretty fun tho. The English Joshua Cohen in terms of appeal in my mind.

Kylancomeault

Okay I'm glad I'm not crazy in thinking that Ottessa Moshfegh's second book Eileen was weirdly not good. Like an over expanded short story that was lacking depth to begin with.

Kylancomeault

According to my girlfriend her book of short stories clings closely to Eileen so I don't know what to think. Seems like a lot of pop literary critics like My Year of Rest and Relaxation but that's not really something to hang your hat on.

deathcorner

Ottessa, if you're reading this – and you must be; I'm famous and influential – be weird again. Starve with me. Come on the pod so we can Maron it out.

randy lahey

your rendition of "Pet the Cat Backwards" has brought so much joy into my life

Patrick Correa

Great episode! To expand on my initial statement, as to why I think Bolaño captured Ciudad Juarez so well. When I was a kid, my family stayed in Juarez, and my mother loves the city. From an early age I have been fascinated by the border. Specifically Juarez and Reynosa Tamaulipas where my family originates, and what he captures, he does well. The pervasive atmosphere of fear which you have mentioned, Reynosa is the same where you feel this sinister calmness, but any second can all go to hell. You can lower your guard easy because there’s a lot of friendly people and if you live in Mexico border towns or cities is hard to be alone. They will ask you where you from. Never in a menacing manner. Since you now share a common experience on this little patch of land just by standing there. There is a mysterious, violent seduction in that city. Also, you think you know about what is going on but at the same time; you don’t know the full picture. Where corruption becomes the norm. You can no longer distinguish it.  The way Bolaño portrays the Narcos. He portrays not in the typical Narco Cultura way. They are familiar to society or fully integrated into society. Business, politicians, people inside civil society, never outside of it. That way they blend with society and thus become invisible. Like the character Pedro Rengifo for example.    Regarding the femicide, has to be a reason why the Mexican Government allowed this news to be leaked, because if you know anything about Mexican Government, hardly anything gets out unless they approve it.  Charles Bowden in his book Murder City wrote that the focus on dead women  “enables Americans to ignore the dead men,” and that “enables the United States to ignore the failure of its free trade schemes, which in Juarez are producing poor people and dead people faster than any product.” Roberto Bolaño book is fascinating, transports you into that world. Juarez was the literal model of free trade. Bill Clinton and Al Gore could not shut up about praising it. They fooled the American people in that it would be a massive success and bring jobs to Americans. Raise the third world countries out of poverty. However, now they ignore the free trade disaster. They would rather not mention the past. Since it is a reminder of the close horror near the border. That will eventually arrive here if things do not change.

deathcorner

Thank you, and you're completely right about the way Bolaño avoids the narco stereotypes. That's what's so fucking frightening about his version of Juárez: anybody might be in the drug trade, and not just the higher-ups who, as you note, are so fully integrated into polite society (the biggest narco, the police chief, and the University rector are all tight), but there are thousands and thousands of low-level runners and errand boys who might either get themselves killed or kill YOU because they think they're fucking pimps. And I think that's part of what Bolaño means about "the secret of the world" being concealed in this killings, and part of the horror of Juárez as a vision of the future: there are gonna be more and more places where the idea of a formal economy breaks down, something like heroin or cocaine becomes the real medium of exchange, and there's really no work that pays a living wage outside the black market. I remember reading years ago that the vast majority of prostitutes in Juárez were pimped by police, and that a huge number of cops work as bodyguards for narcos during their free time. The Shining City of Free Trade angle is horrific, too, because I do think we're going to see more and more of it. The same way the maquiladoras control the Juárez economy, we're going to see more and more "First World" cities, I think, controlled by a single sprawling corporation that owns everything from housing to grocery stores, and the world will break down into nominal "liberal democracies" that are actually patchworks of regional oligarchies. All these fucking Amazon HQs, and the disgusting groveling city governments have done to acquire them, are – I hate to say it – the wave of the future.

Brotendo

there’s this movie that hasn’t officially been released yet but has an HD leak online called Under the Silver Lake that I watched a few days ago. it’s like a LA/Noir/mystery film and kind of talks about this facade and fakeness of Hollywood that made me think of what you discussed about Zappa. It’s decent I think in a kind of Lebowski, Inherent Vice stoner noir way but not quite as good as those two.

Andrew Willetts

Oh man, hearing you say that you did not enjoy reading Against the Day has me nervous. I read GR and M&D back to back last year and have been having trouble finding the same magic elsewhere. I'm halfway through White Noise right now, and it's a quaint little thing--I'm not overly thrilled with it, though I dig the ideas Delillo is talking around--but I cannot stop glancing over at the AtD copy sitting on the shelf. Opened it up the other day and the first thirty pages felt like some hella-fun. I just want to be swept away again, and man do I want to read Pynchon playing with multiple genre voices on anarchy and early 20th century history, but it seems to be a divisive tome, though I cannot place why. What's your take on Against the Day? I might have to switch it for 2666, because I am really jonesing for some transcendence here, though Pynchon has never failed me before.