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DONE WITH PART 4...I guess what Bolano tries to achieve with these reports on rape and murder is to create a sense of numbness toward the atrocity and takes that as part of his critique on the patriarchy but it is just so painful/dreadful/devastating to read. Near-impossible to follow the narrative when it is constantly interrupted by another murder report...

When the different editions of the same book (by the same author under the same title) are actually distinct titles...
The English book of the same name is a collection of poems (all by Bei Dao) while the Chinese book is a walk-through to the important poets and their work in the 20th century (None written by Bei Dao himself).

Part 4 is a real test on any sane reader...

Part 4 ,a collection of the murder and rape with not much story, is so horrifying and repetitive

Part 3: With an opening echoing the Camus' "The Stranger", this part brings us closer to the murders of women by following the protagonist, a Black US reporter, first to Detroit, then to Mexico, covering a wide range of topics from racism, boxing, unlikely romance between teenage girls and older men, nightlife in Mexico, and chance.

6)Books and visual arts play a big role in these parts
7)It's quite a fun read actually, up to this point. But 2666 is notorious for its darkness and cruelty aka its Pt 4
8)This novel is actually a collected volume of 5 interconnected novellas,

3)Pt 2: Another professor and the curious tale of his now disappeared wife.
4)Not hard to see why it appealed to fiction readers worldwide: academics from France, Italy, Spain, England and Mexico(and scenes in their respective countries) , all obsessed with 1 Nobel-worthy German author ?Hmm.
5)The (translated) writing is stylish, evocative and rightfully ominous

Some brief notes:
1)The parts here share the settings (time, location) and characters but they deal with very different subject matter. Pt I is a set-up but also a love triangle; the much shorter Pt II revolves around madness.
2) Pt 1 : a small group of literary professors, all fascinated by a mysterious, never-seen German writer, grow close with each other and decide to locate the author they are all researching

For most countries, the best rewards lay in building service facilities for international production (especially Hollywood’s) and making a few
successful domestic films each year. The highest-quality ones could find exposure on the growing festival circuit, which might lead to theatrical sales.

[Continued]
An industry producing many films had a chance of producing some good, even great ones. In Europe subsidies, investments, and international support kept the number of releases robust. Out of the churn emerged hundreds of films that added immensely to the artistic heritage of cinema.

Whatever the strategy, the economic outcome was the same. At the end of the 2000s, nearly all European filmmakers had failed to beat Hollywood in their domestic markets, win audiences in adjacent territories, or expand their niche in the United States. A cynic might conclude that the millions of euros spent on thousands of European films were wasted. Yet Hollywood had long proven that quantity boosted quality.

Box-office income surpassed a billion dollars in 2010, and
Russia became one of the world’s top ten film markets(cf: only approx 9 million in 1999).

This quote is just gold...

When Paramount Pictures asked Francis Ford Coppola to
make a film based on the novel The Godfather, he was in
despair. “They want me to direct this hunk of trash,” he
told his father. “I don’t want to do it. I want to do art
films.”

Very surprised to learn of the highly tumultuous past of Italy in the 70s. So at their peak, the Red Brigade could kidnapped, and later murdered, a former prime minister in the capital (in broad daylight), judges in their court and head of anti-terror unit at his home(which is not even in Italy).

And they were able to do they because they had enormous support from the public...?

Is this just how art people see chaos?

"McCarthy shies away from questions about meaning and reference. In keeping with the ... performance of ... Klein,we find it is mess in and for itself that commands center stage, the release of instinctual disorder from the constraining channels of sobriety and decorum."