The Brazilian today grows up without a shared cultural environment. He grows up not knowing, for example, what literature is. And if, by chance, he discovers it, if a miracle awakens his curiosity about it and he looks for the place where the great authors write, where the great critics are presenting and criticizing literary works, disseminating the best that has been written and is being written, he does not find it, because that place does not exist. What is good are yellowed and faded pages that can be bought second-hand. And it is very curious to note that today, even what is written about literature is not written, but talked about: the format of any literary criticism that remains, compelled by the audience, is video. Books and letters have become unpalatable. This staggering cultural failure, the cause of an even greater human failure, would never occur in a country that had at least one educated elite, because if it were truly educated, it would take it upon itself to do something for culture, to do something for the country. But no, no… the best thing now is not to instigate it at all, because the possible patron is an already existing and disgracefully distorted patron.
Some Experience in Literature Reveals…
Some experience in literature reveals the unpleasant truth that the most productive periods, the most fruitful inspirations, occur always and exactly during periods of greatest inner tension. The best art is made when the mind is in turmoil, often on the verge of collapse. Themes emerge, words appear and, above all, one cannot stand the imperative need to write. What a thing!
What Is Most Discouraging…
What is most discouraging is to see that, in the end, the dream of stability is vain… There will always be a day when, for unknown reasons, the world dawns sour, disruptive, unpleasant, and then effort, progress and reason will be questioned. And the conclusion will always be the same, that there is only full stability in what does not move, that life is antagonistic to peace…
To Specialize in Everyday Life…
To specialize in everyday life is to specialize in having an immediate opinion about everything, either ill-formed or poorly meditated on. In a very short time, the brain gets used to the poverty of criteria and even convinces itself that meditation is unnecessary, because it cannot add anything. Of course, often one has an accurate intuition of the facts, an intuition that no amount of meditation can replace. But when it comes to everyday life, what is presented as a “fact” is almost always a falsification of a fact or, at most, the fact itself unrecognizable because covered by a deceitful package designed to misrepresent it. As such, and as it is often tedious and difficult to remove the wrapping, the best thing to do, unless a sense of duty manifests itself, is to let it go.