Tag: literature

Thinking of Tolstoy, I read dozens of pages by Valéry about Mallarmé. I say: thinking about Tolstoy’s severe criticism of the latter and his symbolist peers. Tolstoy says that the great art must be accessible and universal, and therefore obscure artists like Mallarmé pervert and falsify art. According to Valéry, Mallarmé was responsible for “introducing into art the obligation of spirit’s effort,” and artists like him are distinguished for creating value and beauty out of emptiness. What to say? Regrettably, and daily life only corroborates this, artistic sensibility has not been universally distributed, as Tolstoy believes. The master and his mujiks… Accessibility cannot be a qualitative criterion for an artistic work, otherwise, it would be subordinating it to the audience. Is it worth what an illiterate says about the quality of a book? The value of a work has nothing to do with who receives it. Billions have lived and continue to live devoid of any contact with art, most cities do not have an active and decent theater or orchestra: art, today, is reduced to the superfluous, it is seen only as entertainment. This, of course, by the majority, the same majority whose rise has subverted and practically annihilated the real social function of art. A great artistic work, powerful and sincere, is usually only seen by a select audience because the others are not interested in it either. Does art lose? Of course not… However, it is necessary to purge from the mind the notion that the collective is the sovereign arbiter: on an individual level, art will continue being what it has always been… In truth, the balance is quite positive. The world is a better place when the great art is not handed over to lazy people or used as a pastime by idiots.

What to say about this Maritime Ode? Without a doubt, the most powerful gust of a brilliant work. Fernando Pessoa, a master in poetic subtlety, in the ability to leave the meaning of his verses in the air, to stimulate infinite interpretations, to create a reflective, mystical, intriguing, and contradictory atmosphere, to meticulously represent the most diverse manifestations, makes his most vivid dimension burst out in this Maritime Ode, taking it to the extreme of euphoria. Structurally, a perfect dramatic construction, a progression whose climax is complete ecstasy and the ending returns to the initial reflective state, loading it with emotion. Technically, showy influence of Walt Whitman, in an almost exhaustion of images and triggers in order to fully engender the desired atmosphere. The poem grows and the reader shivers, feels his blood heat up, experiences adrenaline peaks. Very strong extremes, penetrating images in words that seem to stir on paper. How many works elicit a similar feeling? This Maritime Ode, a poem perhaps without equal in universal literature, is proof that the genius Fernando Pessoa is among the greatest artists of all time.

It is interesting to notice that two of the three fundamental elements of symbolism according to Valéry’s definition —stérilité, préciosité— sum up with great precision the work of Augusto dos Anjos. True, unlike Rimbaud, Verlaine, and Baudelaire, Augustos dos Anjos’ stérilité is the result of a premature death, and not of a voluntary act. In any case, it is admissible: sterility brought potency, either in the French or in Augusto—the latter, owner of perhaps the strongest images ever registered in Portuguese verse.

I have thought a lot, a lot about Nelson Rodrigues, the first and perhaps most important of my masters. The absence of retirement, the illnesses, the censures, the tragedies… all of this molding a conception of the world. The sad and thoughtful look at the corrupted nature of man. The unbelievable succession of misfortunes, the aging process accompanied by continuous breakups, the courage to walk towards death. And yet, the good humor, the immortal irony, and the ability to see light where there seems to be none.