Author Mario Bellatín and Translator David Shook on Jacob the Mutant
Green Apple Books on the Park | 1231 9th Avenue | San Francisco, CA
On Monday, March 18, join us at Green Apple Books on the Park as we present Mario Bellatín and his publisher, David Shook (Phoneme Media). They’ll be in conversation with Two Lines Press’s own Scott Esposito, discussing Bellatín’s many fascinating projects, as well as Jacob the Mutant, which has just published from Phoneme Media in Jacob Steinberg’s translation.
Audio Table of Contents
0:00 Introductions
4:45 David Shook’s reasons for being drawn to Mario Bellatín’s books, and why he has wanted to work with him
6:40 The origins of Mario’s character, Shiki Nagaoka
9:00 How Mario describes the form his books take, and how Jacob the Mutant has changed as it has been translated into English
16:40 The maps that have been created for the English-language translation of Jacob the Mutant
19:45 The role of the intuitive in Mario’s work
22:00 The role of beginnings, endings, and transformations in Mario’s work, and how Mario works with contradiction to keep his books open-ended
27:30 Los Cien Mil Libros de Bellatín
31:35 How the ideas implicit in Mario’s work influence David as his publisher
33:30 Zsuzsanna’s favorite books of Bellatín’s and the ones she most likes to interact with
35:50 David’s translation of a book Mario has not yet written
40:25 Why Mario’s creativity works by building off of other things
44:20 How Mario’s distinctive work influences the translators David chooses to bring in on his books
47:10 Mario’s performance art vis a vis his books
1:00:00 Mario’s feelings on César Aira
Mario Bellatín is currently the director of the Dynamic School of Writers in Mexico City. Born in Mexico to Peruvian immigrants, he spent part of his childhood in Peru and studied film in Cuba. He is the author of several books, including Chinese Checkers, Beauty Salon, and Shiki Nagaoka: A Nose for Fiction (translated by David Shook). Bellatín was quoted in the New York Times as saying, “To me literature is a game, a search for ways to break through borders. But in my work the rules of the game are always obvious, the guts are exposed, and you can see what is being cooked up.”
Shook is a poet, translator, filmmaker, and editor whose work has spanned a wide range of languages and places. Their writing has appeared in Poetry, World Literature Today, the Guardian, and many other publications, as well as being translated into more than a dozen languages, including Isthmus Zapotec, Kurdish, and Uyghur.