Art and Rebellion

Throughout the three novellas in Cowboy Graves, Bolaño thematically examines the relationship between art and rebellion. The author establishes his claim that art is inherently a tool for rebellion when Arturo ventures to the poet Nicanor Parra’s home. In the same manner that the narrator “suspects that it [will] be hard to get there and just as hard to get back”, the artist who chooses to pursue their creative endeavors chooses a life that is counter to social norms (23). Bolaño illustrates the multiple bus routes, arduous walking, and heaps of garbage, that Arturo must surmount to visit the poet, in order to assert that poetry, and vicariously all art, rebels against the path of comfort. If Arturo wants to pursue poetry, he must necessarily embrace cultural rejection, monetary disadvantages, and scrutiny.

Later on, in “French Comedy of Horrors” Bolaño furthers...