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Although I have done it all these thirty years or more, although I live my life surrounded by other people who are always doing it, still I think that there are few activities so worthy of inspection as the reading of novels.

— Juan Gabriel Várgas


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READIN

READIN started out as a place for me to keep track of what I am reading, and to learn (slowly, slowly) how to design a web site.

There has been some mission drift here and there, but in general that's still what it is. Some of the main things I write about here are reading books, listening to (and playing) music, and watching the movies. Also I write about the work I do with my hands and with my head; and of course about bringing up Sylvia.

The site is a bit of a work in progress. New features will come on-line now and then; and you will occasionally get error messages in place of the blog, for the forseeable future. Cut me some slack, I'm just doing it for fun! And if you see an error message you think I should know about, please drop me a line. READIN source code is PHP and CSS, and available on request, in case you want to see how it works.

See my reading list for what I'm interested in this year.

READIN has been visited approximately 236,737 times since October, 2007.

🦋 La literatura del Norte grande

So right now I'm reading Ariel Dorfman's Desert Memories -- a fantastic book, one I recommend highly though I have yet to write anything about it -- it is making me think I should start keeping a bibliography of books dealing with northern Chile. This book will serve as the jumping-off point I think, for one thing because this bibliography would be directed towards an English reading audience and the book is written in English (and Dorfman seems like a marvelously interesting figure, certainly worth seeking out the rest of his work); all of Rivera Letelier's work will be on the list with big stars next to it indicating it ought to be published in translation; what else?

  • I expect The Motorcycle Diaries includes a lot of time riding through the Atacama and probably belongs on the list.
  • Juan Ignacio Molina's Geographical, Natural and Civil History of Chili should be present as background information.
  • Andrés Sabella Gálvez's Norte grande.
  • The work of José Joaquín Vallejo Boscoski (Jotabeche) appears to be seminal to the literature of salitreras.
  • Escritores desde el límite describes itself as a blog dedicated to the literature and history of northern Chile; I have not looked at it any further yet.
  • Another potential source of information is this article on El salitre en la literatura, from rionegro.com.
  • Lessie Jo Frazier's Salt in the Sand. And Dr. Frazier's bibliography is quite huge, and could mostly be incorporated.
  • Sergio González Miranda's Ofrenda a una masacre: La emancipación pampina de 1907.
  • Wars are popular subjects for fiction and history -- I'm sure there is a good deal of reading to be done about the War of the Pacific.
  • Parra's Sermones y prédicas del Cristo de Elqui.
What else? If you've done any reading about the north of Chile, fiction or history ot otherwise, please post in comments. Movies too! (imdb gives me an Argentine film from 1959 called Salitre and a Portuguese short from 2005 of the same title, and a brand-new Mexican documentary called El salitre, esbozo de una historia en fuga. And Patricio Guzmán's Nostalgia de la luz looks well worth watching.)

posted afternoon of Sunday, January 23rd, 2011
➳ More posts about Desert Memories
➳ More posts about Ariel Dorfman
➳ More posts about Readings

Did you know around 10 years ago TVN (chilean national television), broadcasted Pampa Ilusión, a very well produced soap opera based on the last years of the salitreras?
I never saw the whole thing, but it marked great ratings and its last chapter (with the closing of the salitrera) was quite good, as far as I remember!

posted evening of February 10th, 2011 by Jorge López

In part of Desert Memories, Dorfman is touring Humberstone, the former salitrera that is being opened as a museum, and where Pampa Ilusión was filmed; some teenage girls come and ask where the house of Mr. Flack is -- after directing them to where it is, the museum director complains to Dorfman that the telenovela gave a false vision of life on the pampa, did "more harm than good."

posted morning of February 11th, 2011 by Jeremy

...Looks like Pampa Ilusión is not on either Hulu or Netflix. There are many clips from it on YouTube though.

posted morning of February 11th, 2011 by Jeremy

AFAIK it had *some* social commentary, but it was a soap opera after all!
I think you can find most of it on youtube, though I'm not sure if it's really worth it

posted morning of February 11th, 2011 by Jorge López

You may be interested in checking out:
- Caliche sangriento (about the Guerra del Pacifico)
- Cronica del Salitre (documentary)

I haven't seen them, but they may be worth the search!

posted morning of February 11th, 2011 by Jorge López

Thanks!

posted morning of February 11th, 2011 by Jeremy

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Check out Ellen's writing at Patch.com.

What's of interest:

➪ Christopher Bell of The Playlist has the rundown on some exciting new films that will be coming out this year.
➪ Uncle Eddie takes a look at Robert Clampett's 1938 animation Porky in Wackyland side-by-side with the 1949 color remake, Dough for the Do-Do.
➪ At Grasp the Universe, watch time-lapse footage of a research expedition sailing from Capetown to Antarctica in 2008 aboard the Академик Фёдоров. (Thanks for the link, Matt!)
(Other links of interest at my Google+ page. It's recommended!)

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