God! So much life in these lines! Yet… it is pitiful. A remarkable spirit struggling, eroding and crumbling amidst fifth-rate yearnings. Clouded by passions that divert his focus and sap his energy, Cesare Pavese exposes, in this diary entitled This Business of Living, an atrocious inner conflict that arouses, at the same time, empathy and pity. Terrible, terrible torments; and the motives unjustifiable, unworthy of the poet’s lineage. On one note, the prudence: “maturità è l’isolation che basta a se stesso”, shortly after, the relapse: “la massima sventura è la solitudine”—manifestations of a spirit that has succumbed to the weaknesses of the race. Too bad, too bad…
Tag: literature
The Artist Must Use All the Means at His Disposal…
It has been said—by Pessoa?—that the artist must use all the means at his disposal to give light to his own work. Otherwise, the difficulties will not be overcome and, probably, the work will not come out. It is necessary for the artist to build a favorable environment, to mold his life around the central objective; to have a daily schedule reserved for his work, a schedule that represents the core of his routine and to which he arrives every day in his best disposition. This for years, for as long as he lives—always aware, as Pessoa himself was, of inhabiting the present while belonging fully to the future.
Nelson Rodrigues Is One of the Rare Brazilian Authors…
Nelson Rodrigues is one of the rare Brazilian authors whose literature has universal value. This is simply because Nelson does not play at creating stories, he does not just say how bright the sun has risen or how sad a character is. Nelson judges, the world and the man, and exposes a personal interpretation of existence. Here lies the distinctive feature that most Brazilian authors seem to lack. In other words, one could say: Nelson’s literature contains a particular philosophy.
More About Dostoevsky’s Style…
Let’s return to Dostoevsky’s style. For many, prolix, defective—and so they conclude that his work lacks technique. Children… The inaccuracy of this verdict derives from its superficiality: it only considers external aspects. What can be perceived in Dostoevsky is that, structurally, his narratives contain dramatic arcs very well prepared—and for this reason, but quoting another, Nabokov said that Dostoevsky would have been a great playwright. Going deeper into his narratives, that is, analyzing his characters individually, we notice that they, too, have arcs and transform themselves throughout the story, following the chain of events that will lead to the ending and give meaning to the work. The violence with which feelings are experienced and the impression of continuous aggravation that we get when we go through Dostoevsky’s pages would never occur if Dostoevsky did not conduct the narrative intelligently, fulfilling a methodical structural planning conceived precisely to enhance and dramatize the elements of the story. To say that Dostoevsky lacks technique is to assert, not fearing ridicule, that several of the most moving works of universal literature have come out of luck.