The Savage Detectives analysis: The tears are all that…
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The Savage Detectives analysis: The tears are all that count
!!SPOILERS!!
I just finished my second reading of the novel, and Daniel Grossman's account at the beginning of chapter 21 feels far more central than I ever realized on my first reading, the conversation in the Renault with Norman specifically.
These are two passages from that conversation that felt especially notable and that would love to hear someone else’s interpretation of:
> ... I said: so what then? Ulises Lima, the days he spent with us in Tel Aviv, and Norman: didn't you notice anything strange, anything out of the ordinary? ultranormal Norman. And then I said: everything! because that's how Ulises was, and that's secretly how we wanted him to be. Not Norman, who wasn't his friend and mostly knew him by reputation, but Claudia and I, who back then thought we were going to be writers and would have given anything to belong to that essentially pathetic group, the visceral realists. Youth is a scam.
> And then Norman said: it has nothing to do with the visceral realists you asshole, you haven't understood a thing. And I said, well what does it have to do with, then? And Norman, to my relief, stopped looking at me and concentrated on the road for a few minutes, and then he said: it has to do with life, with what we lose without knowing it, and what we can regain. So what can we regain? I said. What we've lost, said Norman, we can get it back intact.
and this one:
> Ulises was crying because he knew that nothing was over, because he knew he would have to come back to Israel again. The eternal return? Fuck the eternal return! Here and now! But Claudia doesn't live in Israel anymore, I said. Where Claudia lives is Israel, said Norman, no matter what fucking place it is, call it whatever you want, Mexico, Israel, France, the United States, planet Earth. Let me see if I understand you, I said, Ulises knew that things were going to end between you and Claudia? And then he could try again? You haven't understood anything! said Norman. I have nothing to do with any of this. Claudia has nothing to do with it. Sometimes even that bastard Ulises has nothing to do with it. The tears are all that count.
Norman then dies in a car crash and Daniel, the narrator of the passage, spends the remainder of it searching for and failing to find Ulises Lima to try to understand what Norman was saying.
There's a tragic irony about Norman talking about everything one has lost in life being recoverable and then almost immediately dying, but I don't think that's the main point. Bolaño treats Norman too gently to be mocking what he's saying. I'm not sure what to make of the claim that everything that has been lost can be regained intact, after over a day thinking about it. It's plausible to conclude that Norman disagrees with Daniel's claim that youth is a scam though, and I think Bolaño disagrees with that view, too.
In my opinion the two critical sentences are "Ulises was crying because he knew that nothing was over, because he knew he would have to come back to Israel again." and of course "The tears are all that count.". Cesaréa tinajero's poem, which is absolutely central to the entire novel, is named Sión, which I think is what Norman was really alluding to. The passage of time and changing fortunes and difficulties of life, and pursuing our goals. I think the value of the tears may have been that they signified that Lima was thinking about the future and the past; things beyond just the present.
I think the box on the lines in Sión most likely represent one's place in life. They're far on the left side of the lines since Cesaréa was young when she wrote it, and Belano and Lima are young when they read it. The novel also ends with the "what's outside the window?" line, which I think is linked to the square in Sión.
Or at least that's what I was able to get out of the passage. I'm curious if there's a standard critical reading or if anyone else has a different interpretation. I struggled to find much analysis on the passage beyond just acknowledgement of the irony and of course the famous "youth is a scam" quote.
#entertainment
source
!!SPOILERS!!
I just finished my second reading of the novel, and Daniel Grossman's account at the beginning of chapter 21 feels far more central than I ever realized on my first reading, the conversation in the Renault with Norman specifically.
These are two passages from that conversation that felt especially notable and that would love to hear someone else’s interpretation of:
> ... I said: so what then? Ulises Lima, the days he spent with us in Tel Aviv, and Norman: didn't you notice anything strange, anything out of the ordinary? ultranormal Norman. And then I said: everything! because that's how Ulises was, and that's secretly how we wanted him to be. Not Norman, who wasn't his friend and mostly knew him by reputation, but Claudia and I, who back then thought we were going to be writers and would have given anything to belong to that essentially pathetic group, the visceral realists. Youth is a scam.
> And then Norman said: it has nothing to do with the visceral realists you asshole, you haven't understood a thing. And I said, well what does it have to do with, then? And Norman, to my relief, stopped looking at me and concentrated on the road for a few minutes, and then he said: it has to do with life, with what we lose without knowing it, and what we can regain. So what can we regain? I said. What we've lost, said Norman, we can get it back intact.
and this one:
> Ulises was crying because he knew that nothing was over, because he knew he would have to come back to Israel again. The eternal return? Fuck the eternal return! Here and now! But Claudia doesn't live in Israel anymore, I said. Where Claudia lives is Israel, said Norman, no matter what fucking place it is, call it whatever you want, Mexico, Israel, France, the United States, planet Earth. Let me see if I understand you, I said, Ulises knew that things were going to end between you and Claudia? And then he could try again? You haven't understood anything! said Norman. I have nothing to do with any of this. Claudia has nothing to do with it. Sometimes even that bastard Ulises has nothing to do with it. The tears are all that count.
Norman then dies in a car crash and Daniel, the narrator of the passage, spends the remainder of it searching for and failing to find Ulises Lima to try to understand what Norman was saying.
There's a tragic irony about Norman talking about everything one has lost in life being recoverable and then almost immediately dying, but I don't think that's the main point. Bolaño treats Norman too gently to be mocking what he's saying. I'm not sure what to make of the claim that everything that has been lost can be regained intact, after over a day thinking about it. It's plausible to conclude that Norman disagrees with Daniel's claim that youth is a scam though, and I think Bolaño disagrees with that view, too.
In my opinion the two critical sentences are "Ulises was crying because he knew that nothing was over, because he knew he would have to come back to Israel again." and of course "The tears are all that count.". Cesaréa tinajero's poem, which is absolutely central to the entire novel, is named Sión, which I think is what Norman was really alluding to. The passage of time and changing fortunes and difficulties of life, and pursuing our goals. I think the value of the tears may have been that they signified that Lima was thinking about the future and the past; things beyond just the present.
I think the box on the lines in Sión most likely represent one's place in life. They're far on the left side of the lines since Cesaréa was young when she wrote it, and Belano and Lima are young when they read it. The novel also ends with the "what's outside the window?" line, which I think is linked to the square in Sión.
Or at least that's what I was able to get out of the passage. I'm curious if there's a standard critical reading or if anyone else has a different interpretation. I struggled to find much analysis on the passage beyond just acknowledgement of the irony and of course the famous "youth is a scam" quote.
#entertainment
source
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