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3.52 AVERAGE
3.52 AVERAGE
all great artists (just bolaño & bowie) have their fascism arcs.
3.5 it was really good there were some great moments tbh it just didnt captivate me until the last 100 pages or so
3.5 it was really good there were some great moments tbh it just didnt captivate me until the last 100 pages or so
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
3.5 stjärnor.
Tröttnade på utläggningarna om strategispelet och de långa drömsekvenserna. Men överlag är jag väldigt förtjust i Bolaño och hans sätt att konstruera berättelser.
Tröttnade på utläggningarna om strategispelet och de långa drömsekvenserna. Men överlag är jag väldigt förtjust i Bolaño och hans sätt att konstruera berättelser.
Someone needs to make this book into a movie. Michael Haneke?
The Third Reich (1989) by Roberto Bolano - he does this thing where he creates fear in almost inexistent spaces. A game that has been played before with bloodshed and lost lives. it is replayed for leisure on a beachside resort that consumes the narrator’s very life, finding fear where he hadn’t seen it before in Bolano’s masterful prose. Though some parts drag and the historical aspects bore me, naturally, it could’ve been reduced by a third to make it ultimately thrilling.
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The book was challenging but I’m in awe of how Bolano explores themes of public memory. A German playing a WWII game in the role of Nazi Germany begs questions that the main character doesn’t seem to want to answer or acknowledge until things come to a head. The themes of this novel are relevant even today as we grapple with misinformation and white supremacist revisionist histories.
“It’s clearly not unusual to append dire consequences to the outcome of a game; one can always play chess with death. It is unusual to align these antagonists with any sense of national identification; most games do not lend themselves to the practice. A German playing Germany in a World War II simulation makes for a far different landscape, however. And whether Berger’s fears are those of a fantasist recluse imagining threats or of a suppressed recidivist realizing that refashioning history might have some consequence is a tantalizing question, all made possible through Bolaño’s superb exploration of just what conflating these two tendencies might produce. An attack on Moscow might merely involve a roll of the dice, but it might involve quite more.” https://themillions.com/2012/02/war-games-on-roberto-bolanos-the-third-reich.html
“It’s clearly not unusual to append dire consequences to the outcome of a game; one can always play chess with death. It is unusual to align these antagonists with any sense of national identification; most games do not lend themselves to the practice. A German playing Germany in a World War II simulation makes for a far different landscape, however. And whether Berger’s fears are those of a fantasist recluse imagining threats or of a suppressed recidivist realizing that refashioning history might have some consequence is a tantalizing question, all made possible through Bolaño’s superb exploration of just what conflating these two tendencies might produce. An attack on Moscow might merely involve a roll of the dice, but it might involve quite more.” https://themillions.com/2012/02/war-games-on-roberto-bolanos-the-third-reich.html
reflective
slow-paced
I hang around a lot of board gamers. Grognards, train gamers, heavy euro gamers... folks who would look at you over their glasses if you mentioned Monopoly (full disclosure: I would, too). There's a certain toxic quality to this group, an underlying aggression and self-aggrandizing instinct which might come from focusing too steadily on a single perspective, their own. The authenticity of Bolaño's writing around Avalon Hill's Rise and Decline of the Third Reich (later reimplemented by Advanced Third Reich, then by GMT Games as A World At War) makes me think he must have played at least for a little while, though he tends to parallel gaming with Academia a little too much for me to believe he has ever attended a convention.
How right he gets the culture of a grognard doesn't matter at all, of course, but Bolaño's instinct to draw Udo's particular cloud of evil from that arena shows off his great talent for finding metaphor. He was primarily, after all, a poet.
I highly recommend this sneaky little novel. It is no less important than Bolaño's heavier works, though maybe a little rougher around the edges. I would love to put it together with Hawkes' The Blood Oranges in a class titled: "What I Learned Over Summer Vacation."
Finally, for anyone interested in a recent take on the current version of the game played in this novel I HIGHLY recommend the following essay. It is both humorous and poignant and shows what a phenomenon The Third Reich has evolved into: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/940888/life-altering-game-deserves-kind-session-report
How right he gets the culture of a grognard doesn't matter at all, of course, but Bolaño's instinct to draw Udo's particular cloud of evil from that arena shows off his great talent for finding metaphor. He was primarily, after all, a poet.
I highly recommend this sneaky little novel. It is no less important than Bolaño's heavier works, though maybe a little rougher around the edges. I would love to put it together with Hawkes' The Blood Oranges in a class titled: "What I Learned Over Summer Vacation."
Finally, for anyone interested in a recent take on the current version of the game played in this novel I HIGHLY recommend the following essay. It is both humorous and poignant and shows what a phenomenon The Third Reich has evolved into: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/940888/life-altering-game-deserves-kind-session-report