I finished the 2nd volume of 2666 so I figured I'd come back to share some of my thoughts. I think I talked about borders in my first post, and I've started to grab a similar tangent that Bolano works from in the novel, that of experience. Looking at the characters, they're all people who live vicariously through the actions of others, a sort of secondhand livelihood. The scholars all talk about Archimboldi but never express anything artistic themselves. The professor teaches philosophy written by other people. The reporter reports what other people do. The police and investigators follow through on the actions (read: murders) of others. I'm coming up on the 5th book, which is the part about Archimboldi, and I'm not all that certain what path the book will take.
Archimboldi has definitely taken things into his own hands in prison and has proven to be decisive and a person who makes things happen, so I imagine Bolano is going to explore what makes a person who "calls the shots" in the world tick. But there's also the idea of unreality, and that even the writing of Archimboldi is secondhand because he's writing about someone else. Bolano is obviously exploring humanity and trying to comment on the human condition and human nature through a plural piece, but in some ways the novel hangs by a thread right now, totally under his command and ready to go down one of two fairly different but still linked paths, and it all depends on what he wants to say about the role of the artist.
There's probably plenty I've missed here, but the book is FUCKING DENSE and I'd need to reread it knowing what I know now to have a more comprehensive vantage point, because I wasn't really able to test these theories against the piece as I came up with them. Also, I don't know if I actually did cover the part about borders in my first post, so I may come back and recant that to y'all.
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