Many are the examples of beautiful works that were only started late, but it is rare to find a great writer who did not venture into writing long before he was able to produce something worthwhile. In fact, to be able to do this is precisely to practice until mastery is acquired, to experiment, make mistakes and learn. What is not acquired through this is the baggage of study and experience; but through this, and only through this, is acquired the ability to write well.
Tag: literature
The Commitment Not to Give Up…
The commitment not to give up is the beginning and the harbinger of literary work. Without it, what is done does not become a work, but merely something fleeting and equally disposable. It is only this commitment that will sustain the effort when circumstances sabotage it, when the will to write itself fails. It is this that motivates habit, and it is only this that restores normality when habit, violated, transmutes a state of productive inertia into absolute torpor.
It Is Really Impressive to Contrast…
It is really impressive to contrast the harmless appearance of letters with their marvelous power of evocation. In fact, their ability to describe precisely and in detail is unparalleled, allowing the mind to produce vivid images that can always be recalled. It is enough to think back to Dostoevsky’s Petersburg, dark and snow-covered, with open taverns and coachmen passing to and fro; the Brazilian hinterland, the suburbs of London, Lisbon and the Alto Minho… all of this appears with impressive vividness, accompanied by the emotional charge coming from the setting evoked. The numerous characters, their choices and their mishaps, the ever particular atmosphere that emanates from each work… It is, in fact, thanks to letters, a life created, mentally lived and assimilated, whose impressions are remembered forever. And all of this is unsuspected by anyone who does not read.
The Impossibility of Making Money…
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.