{"id":4102,"date":"2021-09-13T22:20:51","date_gmt":"2021-09-13T10:20:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/?p=4102"},"modified":"2023-10-12T22:06:22","modified_gmt":"2023-10-12T09:06:22","slug":"aunt-julia-and-the-scriptwriter-mario-vargas-llosa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/2021\/09\/13\/aunt-julia-and-the-scriptwriter-mario-vargas-llosa\/","title":{"rendered":"Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter &#8212; Mario Vargas Llosa"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/IMG_20210327_161308-1-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4107\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/IMG_20210327_161308-1-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/IMG_20210327_161308-1-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/IMG_20210327_161308-1-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/IMG_20210327_161308-1-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/IMG_20210327_161308-1-113x150.jpg 113w, https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/IMG_20210327_161308-1-1200x1600.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/IMG_20210327_161308-1-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>La Habanera dances in the streets<br \/>And like every night<br \/>Pedro Comacho sells peanuts<br \/>Outside the Tropicana Club<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>That lyric is from Yello\u2019s song <em>La Habanera<\/em>, with its exotic and slightly sleazy Latin American vibe as interpreted by a couple of eccentric Swiss musicians. It has been a favourite song of mine for many years. I also remember long ago seeing the film version of <em>Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter<\/em>, starring Peter Falk at his most brilliantly annoying, as the scriptwriter Pedro Carmichael. So it was a pleasant surprise to read the original book and find that the scriptwriter\u2019s original name is Pedro Camacho. (Close enough.) It added a depth of association to the book, at least for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And the book is really fun. Apparently is is based on Mario Vargas Llosa&#8217;s actual experiences, but it&#8217;s not actually autobiographical: it\u2019s the story of &#8220;Mario&#8221;\u2019s affair with his aunt Julia, and also of Pedro Camacho\u2019s tenure as a scriptwriter for a Peruvian radio station. Camacho\u2019s scripts are interleaved with the story and they do reflect it, but they are also amusingly outre and become more and more unhinged as things progress. Pedro Camacho has a great way with words and ideas and is definitely the star of the story(ies).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Pedro Comacho<br \/>The former informer of the secret police<br \/>Is still standing outside the club<br \/>Pretending to be blind<br \/>He watches the last plane to Miami<br \/>Disappearing in a flaming purple sky<br \/>Now he knows<br \/>He has been left behind<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-spotify wp-block-embed-spotify wp-embed-aspect-21-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Spotify Embed: La Habanera - Remastered 2005\" style=\"border-radius: 12px\" width=\"100%\" height=\"152\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/track\/0UehqpXX0NVobo6IqsZuZy?si=768b92ace1ce400d&#038;utm_source=oembed\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n<!-- wpsso rrssb get buttons: buttons on archive option not enabled -->\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>La Habanera dances in the streetsAnd like every nightPedro Comacho sells peanutsOutside the Tropicana Club That lyric is from Yello\u2019s song La Habanera, with its exotic and slightly sleazy Latin American vibe as interpreted by a couple of eccentric Swiss &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/2021\/09\/13\/aunt-julia-and-the-scriptwriter-mario-vargas-llosa\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4106,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,200,63,201],"class_list":["post-4102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-books","tag-mario-vargas-llosa","tag-novels","tag-yello"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4102"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4350,"href":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4102\/revisions\/4350"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderguy.com\/bennett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}