Editor's note: The late Chilean writer Bolaño left behind a large number of works, "Science Fiction Spirit" is one of them. The Chinese version of the book was recently published by Shanghai People's Publishing House, Century Wenjing. This article is a postscript to Bolaño's "Spirit of Science Fiction".
In "El arcón de Roberto Bolaño" (El arcón de Roberto Bolaño) for The Spirit of Science Fiction, Mexican literary critic Christopher Domínguez Michael ) wrote: "Like Fernando Pessoa's trunk, Roberto Bolaño's unpublished manuscripts continue to be found in his trunk". We don't know how much stuff is still hidden in Bolaño's big box, but early works like "Spirit of Science Fiction" can still bring enough surprises to us "Bolaño people".
According to the information left by Bolaño's manuscript, the creation of "Spirit of Science Fiction" began in 1980 and was "finished" in 1984. Suggestions, a work from the same period, is the fruit of Bolaño's reminiscence of the Mexican years, who left Mexico for Europe in 1977. Bolaño once said: "In Mexico, I lived a very literary life. Surrounded by writers, I was in a world of either writers or artists. In Barcelona, I began to enter a world without writers". There was a tacit understanding among many Latin American writers who "self-exiled" to Europe, that they were away from their homeland in order to better understand that land. From this perspective, "Spirit of Science Fiction" is Bolaño's retrospective and reflection. It is a lecture on Octavio Paz who jointly promoted the "subreality" movement with his friend Santiago and others. A summary of the fearless years of smashing the field.
It may be precisely because of the similarity in theme between "Spirit of Science Fiction" and "Wilderness Detective", many critics believe that the former is the "draft" or "predecessor" of the latter, which naturally has some truth. The description of their lives in Mexico City resembled a miniature version of "Wild Detective," and combined with what the surviving manuscripts showed, Bolaño wanted to expand on the existing story with Remo, Jose... The descriptions of "motorcycle poets" such as Alko will eventually make Remo and Yang give up literature and join the guerrillas. This design of "literary dreams - broken dreams" is also similar to "Wilderness Detective". However, precisely because these contents have not been created, the "Science Fiction Spirit" in our hands has become a text different from "Wild Detective". We may consider the former as another way to open the latter, just like 70 chapters This book has the same relationship as the 120-volume "Water Margin". The shorter version puts a stop to the text at the moment when the reader's emotions are mobilized to the peak. After reading this book, Sono will not linger in our minds. In the sand of the desert and the blood of Tina Herro, only a scene like the following hovers in front of you: a young man and a woman are not in the mist of a public bath in Montezuma; poets are speeding through the streets of Mexico City on motorcycles ; A young man 1.76 meters tall, wearing jeans and a blue shirt, standing by the longest avenue in the Americas against the sun, looking at the future of him and his friends...
I vaguely remember the complaints from readers that "there is neither wilderness nor detective in "Wilderness Detective" (in fact, there is both "wilderness" and "detective" in the book), so it seems that perhaps this text is also obliged to do a little about the title of the book (Private) Interpretation. Although there are many descriptions of fictional scenes such as dreams and novel contents, "Science Fiction Spirit" is still a novel that is closer to reality, rather than a work of science fiction literature. Christopher Domingos Michel, mentioned above, believes that science fiction is more of a mental state for Bolaño, a reverse pursuit of the past. I agree with the first half of this definition, but have a different view on the second half. I think sci-fi also means endless fantasies of future times for Bolaño. Fantasy is also the soil on which science fiction literature lives. Without bold imaginations for the future, science fiction literature would cease to exist. The so-called science fiction spirit is the process of constructing hope through imagination and then chasing hope, even if this hope is as illusory as science fiction. That's exactly what Jan and Remo have been doing, and what "moto poets" like José Arco and the Angelica sisters have been doing. I hope that American science fiction writers will establish an association to support third world countries, especially Latin American countries, and even "give us a certain amount of support in the political field". Such fantasies are as wild and whimsical as science fiction literature, but we really want to be that kind of finalist. Is it someone who has never been "wonderful" in this life? This may also be the inspiration brought to us by the "spirit of science fiction".
Bolaño once said, "To a large extent, all of my writing is a love letter or a farewell letter to our generation", if "Wild Detective" was first written as a love letter and then rewritten as In the case of a farewell letter, "Science Fiction" is a pure love letter through and through, but whether it is a love letter or a farewell letter, they are enough to make our hearts surge, and then we muster our courage again, willingly "giving everything without asking for anything in return", willingly "Stupid and noble," willingly doing things that might be doomed to fail.
Now that Bolaño's writing is so much better, there is no need for the translator to write clumsily at length, but before I stop, allow me to excerpt a few words from the book, which, in my opinion, are correct. It is the condensed of Bolaño's "science fiction spirit":
"I wrote all night."
"are not you cold?"
"It's cold. Shit, I thought I'd never get cold here."
"It's almost dawn."
November 21, 2021, Xi'an
In "El arcón de Roberto Bolaño" (El arcón de Roberto Bolaño) for The Spirit of Science Fiction, Mexican literary critic Christopher Domínguez Michael ) wrote: "Like Fernando Pessoa's trunk, Roberto Bolaño's unpublished manuscripts continue to be found in his trunk". We don't know how much stuff is still hidden in Bolaño's big box, but early works like "Spirit of Science Fiction" can still bring enough surprises to us "Bolaño people".
According to the information left by Bolaño's manuscript, the creation of "Spirit of Science Fiction" began in 1980 and was "finished" in 1984. Suggestions, a work from the same period, is the fruit of Bolaño's reminiscence of the Mexican years, who left Mexico for Europe in 1977. Bolaño once said: "In Mexico, I lived a very literary life. Surrounded by writers, I was in a world of either writers or artists. In Barcelona, I began to enter a world without writers". There was a tacit understanding among many Latin American writers who "self-exiled" to Europe, that they were away from their homeland in order to better understand that land. From this perspective, "Spirit of Science Fiction" is Bolaño's retrospective and reflection. It is a lecture on Octavio Paz who jointly promoted the "subreality" movement with his friend Santiago and others. A summary of the fearless years of smashing the field.
"Science Fiction"
At first glance, the narrative structure of "Spirit of Science Fiction" is very simple, but in fact Bolaño has carefully designed it. The novel contains two main narrative threads that go hand in hand and intertwine, creating more possibilities both in time and space. The first major clue is that at some indeterminate moment, a novelist is being interviewed after winning a literary award, and as the plot unfolds, he gradually tells the plot of that award-winning work. The second major clue is the life experiences of young Chilean writers Jan Shreira and Remo in Mexico City in the 1970s. This main line can be divided into four sub-lines: Remo and like-minded literary youth Jose Arco conducted a research activity on the number of literary publications published in Mexico City; Yang did all kinds of strange things in the attic he rented with Remo. Dreams; Young keeps writing letters to his favorite sci-fi writers; Remo and Laura fall in love. Many classic elements of Bolaño's literary universe appear in these two big and four small narrative threads: pursuit, passion, persistence, courage... However, in this work, we rarely see death, violence, Cruelty, destruction and other heart-pounding themes that appeared frequently later, so I sometimes feel that there are two Bolaños: one is Bolaño who wrote "Science Fiction Spirit" and "Wild Detective", this Bolaño. Raño has a dream, is brave and fearless, even if he fails again and again, the other is Bolaño who wrote "Night in Chile" and "2666". This Bolaño sees through the essence of human nature. The recorder of the trial generally records the wickedness of mankind.It may be precisely because of the similarity in theme between "Spirit of Science Fiction" and "Wilderness Detective", many critics believe that the former is the "draft" or "predecessor" of the latter, which naturally has some truth. The description of their lives in Mexico City resembled a miniature version of "Wild Detective," and combined with what the surviving manuscripts showed, Bolaño wanted to expand on the existing story with Remo, Jose... The descriptions of "motorcycle poets" such as Alko will eventually make Remo and Yang give up literature and join the guerrillas. This design of "literary dreams - broken dreams" is also similar to "Wilderness Detective". However, precisely because these contents have not been created, the "Science Fiction Spirit" in our hands has become a text different from "Wild Detective". We may consider the former as another way to open the latter, just like 70 chapters This book has the same relationship as the 120-volume "Water Margin". The shorter version puts a stop to the text at the moment when the reader's emotions are mobilized to the peak. After reading this book, Sono will not linger in our minds. In the sand of the desert and the blood of Tina Herro, only a scene like the following hovers in front of you: a young man and a woman are not in the mist of a public bath in Montezuma; poets are speeding through the streets of Mexico City on motorcycles ; A young man 1.76 meters tall, wearing jeans and a blue shirt, standing by the longest avenue in the Americas against the sun, looking at the future of him and his friends...
I vaguely remember the complaints from readers that "there is neither wilderness nor detective in "Wilderness Detective" (in fact, there is both "wilderness" and "detective" in the book), so it seems that perhaps this text is also obliged to do a little about the title of the book (Private) Interpretation. Although there are many descriptions of fictional scenes such as dreams and novel contents, "Science Fiction Spirit" is still a novel that is closer to reality, rather than a work of science fiction literature. Christopher Domingos Michel, mentioned above, believes that science fiction is more of a mental state for Bolaño, a reverse pursuit of the past. I agree with the first half of this definition, but have a different view on the second half. I think sci-fi also means endless fantasies of future times for Bolaño. Fantasy is also the soil on which science fiction literature lives. Without bold imaginations for the future, science fiction literature would cease to exist. The so-called science fiction spirit is the process of constructing hope through imagination and then chasing hope, even if this hope is as illusory as science fiction. That's exactly what Jan and Remo have been doing, and what "moto poets" like José Arco and the Angelica sisters have been doing. I hope that American science fiction writers will establish an association to support third world countries, especially Latin American countries, and even "give us a certain amount of support in the political field". Such fantasies are as wild and whimsical as science fiction literature, but we really want to be that kind of finalist. Is it someone who has never been "wonderful" in this life? This may also be the inspiration brought to us by the "spirit of science fiction".
Bolaño once said, "To a large extent, all of my writing is a love letter or a farewell letter to our generation", if "Wild Detective" was first written as a love letter and then rewritten as In the case of a farewell letter, "Science Fiction" is a pure love letter through and through, but whether it is a love letter or a farewell letter, they are enough to make our hearts surge, and then we muster our courage again, willingly "giving everything without asking for anything in return", willingly "Stupid and noble," willingly doing things that might be doomed to fail.
Now that Bolaño's writing is so much better, there is no need for the translator to write clumsily at length, but before I stop, allow me to excerpt a few words from the book, which, in my opinion, are correct. It is the condensed of Bolaño's "science fiction spirit":
"I wrote all night."
"are not you cold?"
"It's cold. Shit, I thought I'd never get cold here."
"It's almost dawn."
November 21, 2021, Xi'an
Bolaño
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