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Showing posts from 2014

Some Sort of Hoax Device

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I picked up a beaten up copy of this for a few pesos at Under the Volcano Books, an English language book store in Mexico City, and I've slowly been dipping into it ever since. It's the kind of book you can gobble up quickly or just taste every once and awhile, I think it's even readable out of order. But having traveled with me through Mexico, Cuba, Colombia, Ecuador and Northern Peru, the poor old paperback has nearly disintegrated. They wouldn't accept it when I tried to exchange it for a Flann O'Brien book at Cafe Fuisones in Chachapoyas, Peru, saying it would make their library look too ugly. Anyway, the book is a remarkably fun survey of hoaxes throughout history. Because it was published in the 40s and revised in the 50s, it tends focus on the early 20th century and for me it was particularly enjoyable to read about hoaxes of this period from the perspective of the early 21st century. It also has some great overlaps with Banvard's Folly by Tom Colli

Great Man Theories

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This novel reads like an extended Bill Brasky sketch. Like can you believe what a wild man bad ass Simón Bolívar was? “One time Bolívar slept the whole ride to Peru while sitting upright on a horse, and when he got there he conquered everything and they were so grateful they crowned him emperor and asked him to make love to the most beautiful young maiden in all the land!” Okay, that´s not a direct quote, but it´s close. Márquez is ostensibly writing about the final months of Bolívar´s life, yet that often feels like a pretext to roil up the mists of the man´s legend with frequent flashbacks to earlier moments of infamy. To make another reference to Tim Meadows, it occasionally feels like that moment near the beginning of the movie Walk Hard: the Dewey Cox Story - “You're gonna have to give him a moment, son. Simón Bolívar needs to think about his entire life before he dies.” To make a long story short, the book is plenty amusing and often quite beautiful but it leans pretty

Wikipedia Pages I Have Created

Sometimes I make Wikipedia articles. Usually I just write a few lines, and then other people who I don't even know will add stuff to make the articles better. Here are the Wikipedia articles I have made: Hob Broun  - Novelist who wrote his last two books by blowing air through a tube Elspeth Davie - Writer and wife of philosopher George Elder Davie Rafael Bernal - Mexican Crime Novelist At Night We Walk in Circles - Novel by Daniel Alarcón Megan Ellison - Film producer & daughter of Oracle founder Larry Ellison Carole Shammas  - Historian & mother of musician Julia Holter Change Nothing  - Documentary about French Singer Woes of the True Policeman  - Novel by Roberto Bolaño We the Animals  - Novel by Justin Torres Barravento  - Directorial debut of Brazilian auteur Glauber Rocha Wainy Days  - Absurdist Web Series Tim and Eric Nite Live!  - Surreal Talk Show Web Series ChronoZoom  - Interactive Timeline Generativity  - Concept from philosophy and tec