True artists and true philosophers have in common that their work is the result of reflection on experience. From this, in both, springs the need for expression which, in each, is realized differently. In other words: it is through reflection that they discover what to say, and afterwards that they experience the sensation of having to say it. The rest is how to do it – the least important thing. But this initial impulse that unites them attests to the truth of what they do and sets them apart from all those who, for the most diverse reasons, perpetuate falsification.
Twentieth-Century Literature Discovered…
Twentieth-century literature discovered that, in order to win over the common man, it is infinitely easier to descend to his level rather than elevate him. It is a remarkable discovery. When one says the greatest conceivable banality in the most prosaic way imaginable, something impressive, almost magical, happens and brings the common man to his knees. Finally, with his eyes sparkling, he experiences the sensation of understanding what he is reading! It is an infallible formula, and to it is added the pleasure of curiosity in seeing the spectacle of artists who, as if inside a sanctuary, behave as if they were at a fair. It is undoubtedly a kind of literature that can exert an unparalleled fascination on the ordinary man.
Brazilian Modernism
Brazilian Modernism did literature a great service by proving once and for all how dull, uninteresting and tedious the futile is, and how impossible it is to change it, even for creative minds. It is ordinary poetry, intended for ordinary people, but poetry that does not uplift them, stimulate them or make them think. False intellectuals, it is true, find infinite innovations in it and are delighted—but they end up, at the end of as many verses as they can read, exactly as they were before reading them. As for those who are accustomed to great art, it is impossible for them to endure more than a few pages of these frivolities that only distract from the one blatant truth: the mind that conceived them had nothing interesting to say.
“Misanthropy Is Limited to Men”
The distinguished Marquis de Maricá says that “misanthropy is limited to men, it doesn’t include women”. Another mistake… Perhaps the maxim applies to recreational misanthropy, misanthropy when cultivated as a hobby; but not at all to genuine, professional misanthropy. This targets, or rather reacts to, human behavior, which is clearly different from that of a stone or a dog, and is present in both men and women. If a woman behaves like a stone, it is true that the misanthrope will spare her. But as long as, oh God, as long as she speaks, as long as she is capable of vibrating the strings and sonorizing a human voice, as long as she is capable of directing a word to another soul, and therefore forcing, impelling, constraining a communicative act and claiming attention for herself, the woman will inevitably be included in the list, the marquis is wrong and there is nothing to be done.