The excerpt from the late Roberto Bolano’s The Savage Detectives just has me in stitches, and I bet he wasn’t looking for that response. It’s based on real-life thugs, otherwise known as the “infrarealists” (or some variation thereof) break up poetry readings and mock Octavio Paz. Gangsters hell bent on changing the poetry world.

That is simply hilarious.

Meanwhile, Slate is referring to the new Spiderman as “Emo Parker.”

HAHAHAHAHAHA! Awww, Spidey! Turn that frown upside down, man!

I was thinking the other day about what I miss most about the U.S. You know what that is? My goddamn immune system. Yesterday, I went through another hellish, painful ailment that involved an emergency visit to the doctor, the lab, the pharmacy, and now all kinds of French meds. And I mean, so much pain, I couldn’t speak English, much less French. And we’d just finished a major Vitamin C + Royal Jelly run prescribed by the pharmacist, too. You want a gangster poem? I got yer gangster poem right here, Roberto:

Fucking France
I’m always sick here
La grippe
Le rhume
La gastro
Not to mention
All sorts of other
Damned things
I never get at home
You know
I love Provence
And Paris more
But fuck this
I bet I’ll
Catch a cold
On the plane
Home

I’m going to mock me some Paz now and rest some more. Good night, and good health.