Status Updates From Dünya Sonu Savaşı

There’s been a time skip. Many of the key players from the first half of the book died during the big fight at Canudos, the Counselor’s settlement in the backlands. The colonel was soundly defeated, which caused an unlikely alliance to form between politicians back in the city.

Pensaba eso, que, aquí, algo distinto a la razón ordenaba las cosas, los hombres, el tiempo, la muerte, algo que sería injusto llamar locura y demasiado general llamar fe, superstición, desde la tarde en que oyó por primera vez al C, inmerso en esa multitud que al escuchar la voz profunda, alta, extrañamente impersonal, había adoptado una inmovilidad granítica, un silencio que podía tocarse.

The tracker has nearly killed the phrenologist twice now. The army of more than a thousand men has started attacking the town of the rebels. It feels like this is a climax but very early on so I don’t know if this battle is going to last a couple hundred pages or if there is going to be a new development to carry the story further.

The husband of the woman that the phrenologist abused is hunting him down across the backlands. A group of warriors bands together to personally defend the Counselor as the army draws near. The colonel that leads the army seeks to form a military dictatorship for the sake of forcing an equality of the classes of Brazil. He also has a seizure which sets the army’s progress back a bit. The circus group falls apart.

Creo que se acabó un estilo, una manera de hacer política-precisó el Barón Reconozco que me he quedado obsoleto. Yo funcionaba mejor en el viejo sistema, cuando se trataba de conseguir la obediencia de la gente hacia las Instituciones, de negociar, de persuadir, de usar la diplomacia y las formas. Eso se acabó, desde luego. Hemos entrado en la hora de la acción, de la audacia, de la violencia, incluso de los crímenes

The capital sent more than a thousand soldiers this time to quash the religious encampment at Canudos. They’re led by a general that has never lost. The red-headed phrenologist guy is hanging on to life by a string and while he is recovering under the watch of the traveling circus his death is faked to fool the local politicians.

First part done. This revolutionary Englishman trying to find the commune has turned out to be pretty depraved. He got into two separate fights with the authorities that had left him seriously wounded and he assaulted a woman afterwards. There have been a few more stories of people who joined the Counselor, including a deformed man almost burned alive. There was a big shootout between the military and the followers.

...lo que sí era constante en su vida, esa lealtad que nunca había incumplido, algo que podía dar un semblante de orden al desorden: su pasión revolucionaria, su gran odio a la infelicidad y la injusticia que padecían tantos hombres, su voluntad de contribuir de algún modo a que aquello cambiara. "Nada de lo que usted cree es cierto ni sus ideales tienen nada que ver con los que pasa en C" la frase vibró en sus oídos

The Counselor is said to be a saint, passing from town to town in southern Brazil preaching about the coming end times. When the monarchy is replaced by the Republic he claims the Republic is the devil’s institution and he leads his flock to found a town of worship in the mountains. There are a few asides about a few of his followers, including a runaway slave and a wandering woman that used to live in a cave.