sallie ford and the sound outside, roll around
from Turin Horse (original title: A torinoi lo)
a golem is an animated anthropomorphic being, created entirely from inanimate matter.
I found twenty dead birds on the beach today. Fresh, it seemed. Though I don’t know much about birds, or the sea. Or the people of this island, their salinity so at odds with my bloodline.
NERUDA: I don’t believe in symbols. They are simply material things. The sea, fish, birds exist for me in a material way. I take them into account, as I have to take daylight into account. The fact that some themes stand out in my poetry—are always appearing—is a matter of material presence.
INTERVIEWER: What do the dove and guitar signify?
NERUDA: The dove signifies the dove and the guitar signifies a musical instrument called the guitar.
INTERVIEWER: You mean that those who have tried to analyze these things—
NERUDA: When I see a dove, I call it a dove. The dove, whether it is present or not, has a form for me, either subjectively or objectively—but it doesn’t go beyond being a dove.
Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda’s remains were exhumed this week, four decades after his death. As we reported in February, the exhumation was approved by Judge Mario Carroza on a request by Chile’s Communist Party. The request rose in response to a magazine interview with Neruda’s chauffeur and body guard, Manuel Araya Osorio, who suggested Neruda did not die of natural causes.
On September 17, 1973, Neruda was admitted to the Santa Maria clinic in Santiago, suffering from prostate cancer, phlebitis, and a hip problem. He died in the clinic on September 23.
General Augusto Pinochet‘s military coup began on September 17. In the days after the coup, a Chilean warship was stationed off the coast, its cannons pointed directly at Neruda’s house, and authorities raided his home. Neruda reportedly said to them, “There is only one thing here that poses a danger to you: poetry.”
Bolaño compiles a virtual canon of writers no one reads—including, in no. 8, our beloved Marcel Schwob—in his advice for writers of short stories. (via invisiblestories & theparisreview)
