The impossibility of making money and the pointlessness, if not shame, of making a name for oneself in a supremely miserable cultural environment should mean that only those who cannot do otherwise should persist in writing. And that is a good thing. It is true that, in practice, this only happens as a trend; but it is something. A colossus like Mário Ferreira dos Santos serves to both drive away the shams and motivate the ideal ones.
Tag: literature
For the Artist, Just as Important…
For the artist, just as important, if not more so, than mastery of the medium of expression is mastery of the experience, because it is around this that his efforts will be concentrated and according to this that his work will be presented. Before shaping it, he must feel it and grasp it as much as possible, and the result of the effort depends entirely on the intensity with which he carries out these two operations.
It Would Be Very Amusing to Have a Book…
It would be very amusing to have a book, if it has not already been written, about the financial adventures of intellectuals over the last few centuries, as we often find them very curious in many biographies. It is fascinating to note that the most common type of intellectual, and above all the genius, is absolutely incapable of a prudent, moderate, intelligent financial life. We often see them in difficulties for long periods, most of the time, if not generated, made much worse by themselves; normally, the state they experience is one of dependence, at the mercy of fortune. There are great heirs, and more numerous ones who have piled up debts, loans and extravagances that only absolute irresponsibility or unjustifiable optimism or complete stupidity could allow. But very few are satisfied with a modest life, paid for by their own efforts, in line with their possibilities and, above all, one that improves as time goes on due to sensible behavior and not a sudden stroke of luck. It is certainly impressive.
This Frustrated Longing for Isolation…
It is hard to say, but this frustrated longing for isolation, which has to be accepted as unfeasible and fought over in an apparently hostile daily life, seems more beneficial to the artist than actual, full and consummate isolation. In the first case, we have a spirit energized by circumstance; in the second, an incentive to inertia. In the first case, an effort that renews and justifies the longing, which makes the artist value isolation much more when it is partially achieved—because this is the truth: his longing, at worst, can always be partially achieved, and to better advantage than one might suppose.