Guy Davenport’s Book of Everything

1981. MTV, THE SPACE SHUTTLE, AN EXPLOSION in the personal computing market. The People’s Republic of China welcomed its first Coca-Cola plant and its first American arms deals, the New York Native ran the first news story about the disease that would eventually be called AIDS, and a former labor leader and sometime actor was sworn in as president of the United States. The public library of Jaffna, Sri Lanka—one of the largest in Asia—was burned to the ground by a Sinhalese mob with the cooperation of local police. Guernica finally arrived in Madrid, in accordance with its creator’s wishes that it not come to Spain until democracy had. Albert Speer died—having lived as a free man for fifteen years—as did Jacques Lacan, Will Durant, and Hoagy Carmichael. Midnight’s Children, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, and Simulacres et Simulation were published. Helen DeWitt was studying at Oxford, David Foster Wallace matriculated at Amherst, Anne Carson received a Ph.D. from Toronto, and the uncredentialed Chilean expat Roberto Bolaño was in Catalonia, writing the earliest of his published novels.