Arquivo de Notes | Page 247 of 286

Perhaps There Has Never Been a Profession as Prostituted as That of Writer

Being a man of letters is almost always a thankless task. And perhaps there has never been a profession as prostituted as that of writer. It is true, the distinction between the qualities of the great writer and the successful writer has always seemed very clear. But today, in a world where success is a sovereign qualitative criterion, it seems more than ever that the man of letters must adapt to the terrible reality that drives him to be, as well as an artist, a salesman—and refusal seems to be the certainty of oblivion. Well, it has never been so honorable to be ignored in life and to follow, obstinately, in the opposite direction of contemporary conventions. Penury! Contempt! And the unsubmissive spirit will know, alone, what it is to think out of chains.

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My Newspaper

I dreamed of creating a newspaper. The scene was the following: around a table, my team, very excited, started to discuss the editorial line of the periodical, when the spirits were exalted. We would fight the injustices of the world: of course, of course! And representativeness would be a must! Of whom, where? This is what the cries were trying to express. Everyone shouted their own opinion. I was silent, afraid to say what I thought—but I thought: “Oh, magnificent nonsense!”; and, obviously, to say it would be my ruin, since some opinions are socially forbidden…—Then, in the middle of the verbal war, when everything seemed irresolvable, they asked me for the word of the owner of the newspaper. Suddenly, having to express in a few words my opinion about which class was the most wronged of all times, about which guidelines I thought most noble for the newspaper, and taking care not to offend the team that I needed motivated, I answered: “Let’s do the following. All the guidelines are very important”—and I led them all to a crematorium. I asked for an interview with the oven operator; I asked him: “Explain to us, friend, what your work consists of”. Of course, my newspaper never published the first edition.

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The Human Being Lives in a Vegetative State

I believe it was Hegel who said that “one learns from history that man never learns from it.” Unquestionable truth. But only the symptom of a bigger problem. The human being lives in a vegetative state, although sometimes it seems the opposite. It is not only the lessons of history that he is incapable of grasping, but reality itself. Rationally, living seems an impossibility. If the human being reasoned and used the judgment he thinks to dispose to assimilate his existence, he would immediately put himself on the curb crying. But that is not what happens. It is necessary for a close friend, for a relative to die for him to awakens from the vegetative state and reason something like “it could have been me.” However, the impulse is fleeting: the consciousness awakens and, immediately afterward, puts itself once again into a heavy sleep. Then the being returns to his usual state, in evidence of the vicious character of his judgment. It is incredible! This seems to be an adaptive psychological mechanism, that is, if not plunged into deep unconsciousness, who would move a single straw? Would they build the Titanic, if they knew its end? And of life, the end is very clear… But we are already rambling. “One learns from history that man does not learn from it”: man, the being who ignores everything, the smiling blind being. And it seems the same mental programming that demands numbness to justify from individual stupidity to the collective foolishness of a world that, for more than half a century, has not faced a great war…

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Jude the Obscure, by Thomas Hardy

Jude the Obscure is Thomas Hardy’s latest novel. Received in hostility by the critics, some say that the epithets from “dirty” to “immoral” justified Hardy living little more than thirty years without publishing a new novel. The fact is that Hardy abandoned the genre exactly after the publication of a masterpiece. As for the criticism, Swift has well defined: “When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him”. And it is not possible today, far from the petty conveniences of Victorian society, not to classify the work as brilliant. Brilliant and inducer of the revolt: Jude the Obscure exposes the entrails of this repugnant organization called society. Jude, the protagonist, faces a freedom-limiting environment, oppressive against any manifestation of the individual. The masses, naturally, are presented as despicable, hostile to the diverse, incapable of accepting what does not replicate their mediocrity. Social organization based on conventions, almost always stupid, unnatural, and inductive of injustice; authoritarianism figuring as its essence and the very clear message: society is a filthy machine. It is difficult not to read the work and think that what is convenient is essentially unworthy. Jude, still young, aims at high culture, despite his very limited possibilities. For years he feeds a dream, when they see him, in the village where he lives, as a promising young man. Then they set him up. A girl seduces him, eager for ascension: she drags him into her own home, subjecting him to embarrassment assisted of her father. Jude is forced to judge that marriage is a requirement of honor and marries, even though he is unable to do so. Reality changes abruptly: Jude then sees his horizon crassly limited, with all his dreams blown away because of a compulsory need for money. Soon the marriage shows him its perverse face: his wife, dissatisfied, leaves him and changes country, but does not release him from the eternal commitment he made before the priest, forced by conventions. Then the narrative advances and Jude, falling in love with his cousin, feels in the flesh the curse of being born belonging to the human species. It is to read and feel the rebellion pulsing. Some depreciated the construction of Hardy’s characters, judging them hostages of a biological determinism; some said of several scenes “immoral”, “absurd” and many other things. But here is the truth: Hardy’s narrative convinces, the characters are alive and real, and Jude the Obscure‘s plot is conducted with an extreme skill. Time already seems to show how virtuous the conventions of Victorian society were. And it also seems to highlight this: Jude the Obscure is an immortal novel.

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