A multitude of examples show that if the author is sincere and true to his experience, true to his artistic motivation, the work he creates never fits into any model. It comes out, of course, with traces that more or less show his influences, but it also comes loaded with an ambiguity, a uniqueness that is quite special. Even if he fails to express himself, even if he lacks the verve to realize what he has planned, the work will always have that sincerity at its heart without which lasting art cannot be made. And that is the most important.
About Lima Barreto
Lima Barreto is one of the most commented Brazilian authors. And practically everything that is said about his work is false, or at least we have a radically different view of it when we simply read it, without the intermediaries. To say so would seem idle, were there not so many authors who survive on a fabricated image. With regard to Lima Barreto’s work, the alleged virtues are all designed to fit it into a simulated worldview; the defects serve no purpose other than to hide what is significant in it. Even his biography is falsified, which leaves no doubt as to the authenticity of his literary motivation, despite what else can be said. In the end, what needs to be done is to analyze what is sincere in his work; and when we do that, the conclusion is only one: Lima Barreto honors his profession as a writer.
It Has Been Rightly Said That…
It has been rightly said that all that remains of a biography is the character of the biographee. And we see this especially in examples that would seem to contradict the rule: in the biography of men who have left an intellectual legacy. Of these men, who made their mark by something other than practical actions, after analyzing their lives we retain the image of what they were like in the practical world, the decisions they made, their temperament and their daily lives. We remember how they lived. We remember the libertine, the consequent, the sullen and the scoundrel. All of this teaches us a lot and establishes an inseparable link between the imaginative and the real.
The Mind Really Does Have This Tendency…
The mind really does have this tendency to get irritated by small and large disturbances, prolonging the irritation indefinitely, often planning some reactive action, imagining its consequences and facing them on an imaginary level. What does not usually occur to it is that, once forgotten, the irritation stops. But if it really wants to overcome it, if it really wants to turn it into something positive and uplifting, all it takes is to crush the endless arguments of instinctive reasoning by manifesting benevolence towards the irritable in a concrete act. As if by magic, peace of mind emerges and irritation becomes a good feeling.