Are you a Chatwinian?

I'm a fourth year (senior, whatever you prefer to call it) and I'm taking a seminar course about Bruce Chatwin…have you ever heard of him? Ever read any of his work? There are seven students in the class which is pretty damn fantastic and the professor is, I want to say amazing, because he's extremely knowledgable and tells great stories (they usually involve some historical aspect and I usually find history lectures to be prosaic but not these).

Anyways, I've had to read all of Chatwin's work (which amounts to seven novels/books of essays). I got stuck, I mean having the privilege, of writing a reception history for The Viceroy of Ouidah. It's just okay.

Hands down my favorite Chatwin piece is On The Black Hill. It's a beautifully written, more traditional, novel. Each of his books (In Patagonia, The Songlines, The Viceroy of Ouidah, Utz) is set in a different part of the world (he was a 'wander,' believed a nomadic life is best) and each book falls into different genres (In Patagonia actually ended up in the travel section originally--which is why Chatwin was known as a travel writer, The Viceroy of Ouidah falls under historical fiction, The Songlines, according to Chatwin, is fiction and so is Utz). All the books are great, except The Viceroy of Oudiah…because it's just meh. But you might love it, don't let my lack of enthusiasm deter you from reading all of his work. The biography on Bruce Chatwin from 2000 (written by Nicholas Shakespeare) has great information and it's rather entertaining. Chatwin creates fantastic and quirky characters, much like himself.

As part of my research, I had to watch Cobra Verde (1988), a film directed by Werner Herzog which stars Klaus Kinski (it's actually the last film the two made together, they hated each other). Kinski as a Brazilian slave trader? I just didn't see Herzog's vision. I can still see Kinski's face… Needless to say, the film is a very very very freely adapted version of the book.