MUERTOS INCOMODOS

December 22, 2004 12:41 PM

"Writing a whodunit may sound like an odd thing to do when you are running an insurgency"... Nevertheless, Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos, the mysterious, offbeat leader of the Zapatistas, and Paco Ignacio Taibo II, a Mexican crime novelist, are coauthoring a mystery novel live--alternating chapters each week--in the pages of the Mexican newspaper, La Jornada. So far, they have finished chapters one, two and three (pdf) of Muertos Incomodos, (The Awkward Dead). Is there a precedent for this experiment? I love this sort of thing but, unfortunately, my Spanish is insufficient. Any Spanish speakers care to review?
posted by boo (13 comments total)

Inter Milan and the Zapatistas
This is a repost from the Guardian. It'll give you one more reason to hate Berlusconi's AC Milan and support Inter instead. Original article

Football clubs have been known to show their soft side, supporting the poor and helping the sick and handicapped. But it is not often that a top European club hands its shirt and its cash to an army of balaclava-wearing guerrillas demanding autonomy in a large chunk of their country.
Inter Milan has donated €5,000 (£3,475), an ambulance and the captain's No 4 black and blue team shirt to one of the last strongholds of the ragtag Zapatista army in a gesture of solidarity for the indigenous people of Chiapas in southern Mexico.
Argentinian star Javier Zanetti, the team captain, talked his club into donating its changing room fines for late arrival or using mobile phones to help villagers rebuild after the village of Zinacantán was reportedly attacked by government military forces in April. "We believe in a better world, in an unglobalised world, enriched by the cultural differences and customs of all the people. This is why we want to support you in this struggle to maintain your roots and fight for your ideals," Zanetti wrote in a note to the village, posted along with the first instalment of €2,500.
posted by matteo at 12:54 PM on December 22, 2004

photographic evidence here
posted by matteo at 12:56 PM on December 22, 2004

That's fantastic.

Subcomandante Marcos is certainly a better novelist than, say, this guy.
posted by Sidhedevil at 1:12 PM on December 22, 2004

This is great! Thanks boo! I'm reading the pdfs now and will look out for future chapters.
posted by vacapinta at 1:22 PM on December 22, 2004

SC Marcos wrote a children's book several years ago. It was only so-so as I recall.
posted by OmieWise at 1:26 PM on December 22, 2004

[this is good]
posted by By The Grace of God at 1:32 PM on December 22, 2004

I don't read many mysteries, but Taibo's No Happy Ending is a marvelous book. Not so much a mystery as a meditation on the mysteries of life in Mexico City. I read it just before an extended visit there and found myself thinking back to it frequently during my trip.

/semi off topic
posted by shotsy at 4:27 PM on December 22, 2004

Awesome. Paco Ignacio Taibo II's Returning as shadows was great.
posted by Utilitaritron at 4:29 PM on December 22, 2004

I read the Marcos collection, Our Word is Our Weapon awhile ago and found it fascinating. Truly a warrior poet, in the classical sense (as Dennis Hopper would say). I found the story of his arrival with the Zapatistas particularly touching. He was scared and tried on many occasions to give up and turn back from the quest he had set out on, but kept making wrong turns and ended up where he is today. Grudgingly, he came to accept his responsibility as a leader. It would be nice if more leaders could express this kind of humility. (And doing it with such eloquence would just be a cherry on top =)
posted by idontlikewords at 4:32 PM on December 22, 2004

Jaguares de Chiapas could use a few Inter Milan players too.

"Vamos vamos vamos, mis Jaguares..."
posted by First Post at 4:36 PM on December 22, 2004

See also the unreadable dreck that is "Michael: A Novel" by none other than Herr Dr. Joseph Goebbels.

Available (in time for christmas!) on Amazon, I tried reading this a few years ago. I was hoping that it would provide some sense that even the most horrific monsters in history were also men and women, with the same impulses and desires as the rest of us.

Turns out Goebbels was just a crappy writer, and maybe that's the one thing we all have most in common.
posted by cloudscratcher at 5:29 PM on December 22, 2004

by none other than Herr Dr. Joseph Goebbels.

Newt Gingrich has written a couple of novels as well..
posted by First Post at 6:58 PM on December 22, 2004

Paco Ignacio Taibo II's Return to the Same City was quite readable, I'll have to bookmark this for later.
posted by kamylyon at 6:20 AM on December 23, 2004