tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8470094.post6380132892159687920..comments2024-03-18T16:55:31.971+00:00Comments on This Space: Death by Saudade by Enrique Vila-MatasStephen Mitchelmorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01658772259307446873noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8470094.post-71201573782385061792017-02-23T12:47:00.886+00:002017-02-23T12:47:00.886+00:00Yes, that makes sense (“…I don't know what I t...Yes, that makes sense (“…I don't know what I think and I don't know how to navigate between being very moved and very bored, though this confusion is part of why I value his books…”). I don’t know what to think, either, although more for the reason I mentioned: I admire his ability to manipulate language, but his devices seem trite to me. Not just the metafictional elements, which after all we’ve been playing with since the ‘60s (modernly, at least), but what Caistor alluded to in that quote: Vila-Matas’s pursuit of <i>a life</i> that has meaning — rather than the pursuit of meaning itself. The distance between those two concepts is, to me, where the artifice lies. Ack!, a pun. :)<br /><br />Nevertheless, I’m commenting again not to contest Vila-Matas’s worth, but to tell you that the reason I came here in the first place is because I saw your tweet advertising “a review of one story” from the collection. Although I didn’t know about your physiological constraints, I’m grateful for your desire to concentrate on what’s important to you rather than attempt to distract yourself with three or four books a week, which seems to be the norm. That might be a conversation for another day, but in the meantime, I bought <i>your</i> book yesterday and will be ruminating on its contents, one essay at a time, for…oh, probably the next year or so. Thank you.Holy Nomadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02295330113887593104noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8470094.post-55058396761551546962017-02-21T11:58:00.855+00:002017-02-21T11:58:00.855+00:00A Spanish work friend recommended Cortázar's s...A Spanish work friend recommended Cortázar's stories but I've not got a copy and he never gave any titles because of course he didn't read them in English, so thanks for mentioning the edition.<br /><br />It's difficult for me to write about Vila-Matas because I don't know what I think and I don't know how to navigate between being very moved and very bored, though this confusion is part of why I value his books. 'The Illogic of Kassel' seems to address this directly, which is perhaps why I am so torn over that novel. He is never one thing but those things all at once (as I've said about Bernhard in the past).<br /><br />Let me add that there two reasons why I wrote about one story: one is that my brain shuts down my body very easily so I have to circumscribe my reading and writing, and the other is that I don't want to contain too much material such as influences, similarities, common themes across the collection, etc. I want to concentrate on what's important to me, which has little to do with filing cabinet issues. <br /><br />I know you're not saying this specifically about Vila-Matas's work, but the metafictional element isn't facile or obvious to me – or at least never only that – mainly because he shows how literature is as much part of life as anything else; an under-explored darkness. Nick Caistor put it well in a TLS review of Dublinesque: "readers may view Vila-Matas as too self-absorbed, too self-referential in his choice of the pursuit of literature as the exclusive subject of his fiction. [...] Yet [his] obsession shows that the quest to create literature is a metonym for the ability to live a life that has some meaning, rather than being entirely absurd." Stephen Mitchelmorehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01658772259307446873noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8470094.post-67850563470391083092017-02-21T11:12:56.599+00:002017-02-21T11:12:56.599+00:00Ah, yes. I did wonder about your jovial dispositio...Ah, yes. I did wonder about your jovial disposition. Facing away from the sea could certainly explain it.<br /><br />You're probably right that Vila-Matas is a special kind of metafictioner, but I'm not sure I understand what qualifies as “special” any more. Many contemporary writers seem so intent on constructing works for the purpose of striking readers (or at least reviewers, which in the end is about the same) as "special" that all I notice are the obvious, facile mechanisms of, well, specialness.<br /><br />I like Vila-Matas’s style a lot, at least in the English translations, but his ideas feel slight or derivative to me, especially in comparison to the high quality of his writing. Have you read Julio Cortázar’s short stories? Most of his best, I think, are included in <i>We Love Glenda So Much and a Change of Light</i>, two collections published in one edition by Vanguard Press’s Aventura imprint (now long OOP, but easy to find). Or maybe they merely seem like his best stories because they’re all translated by Gregory Rabassa. In any case, Vila-Matas often reminds me of a lesser Cortázar. I'm wondering what sort of impression you'd receive from the latter's stories.Holy Nomadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02295330113887593104noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8470094.post-51083323934564287382017-02-20T09:43:43.392+00:002017-02-20T09:43:43.392+00:00Thanks – I know Tabucchi's Declares Pereira bu...Thanks – I know Tabucchi's Declares Pereira but not even heard of this book. I shouldn't be surprised it's a reference to another writer, but it reiterates the reasons I give that make Vila-Matas a special kind of metafictioner.<br /><br />There are many belvederes where I live looking out to sea. I walk beneath them and envy the owners. My view is north, away from the sea, which might explain why I'm such a cheerful chap. Stephen Mitchelmorehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01658772259307446873noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8470094.post-53838972484837509312017-02-20T09:26:43.876+00:002017-02-20T09:26:43.876+00:00I suppose we can assume that Vila-Matas's stor...I suppose we can assume that Vila-Matas's story is an expression of solidarity with his late friend, Antonio Tabucchi, the Italian translator of Pessoa and Lisbon-lover, who wrote about "death by <i>Saudade</i>" in his late-'80s story, "Last Invitation" (included in <i>The Flying Creatures of Fra Angelico</i>):<br /><br />"For brevity’s sake I shall say nothing of other forms of suicide. But before I sign off, one at least, out of a sense of some duty to a whole culture, I must mention. It is an unusual and subtle form, it takes training, constancy, determination. It is death by <i>Saudade</i>, originally a category of the spirit, but also an attitude that you can learn if you really want to. The Lisbon city council has always made public benches available in appointed sites in the city: the quays by the harbour, the belvederes, the gardens which look out over the sea. Lots of people sit on them. They sit silently, looking into the distance. What are they doing? They are practising <i>Saudade</i>. Try imitating them. Of course it’s a difficult road to take, the effects are not immediate, sometimes you may have to be willing to wait many years. But death, as we all know, is that too."Holy Nomadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02295330113887593104noreply@blogger.com