“Sorry but that sounds like a disease, a skin disease.“
Reading this book, I initially felt like it was going to be quite the challenge as the author wrote about how he wanted to write about this Northeastern Brazilian girl, and how he was going to write it simply (he did not). However as I got past the initial part about him talking about himself and using a lot of words I admit I don’t know, the book became quite charming and funny. I was quick to realize why this fictional author was so fascinated with this supposed unappealing, lackluster Northeastern girl. The detailed account of Macabéa’s life is full a little details that I loved reading, and it illustrated how much this fictional author looked down on her impoverished way of life. I loved reading it not because I wanted to laugh at her circumstance like the author at times, but because these elements that he included serve to make her more alive. The encounter with her boss or how she loved to listen to ads on the radio made her so much more real, and I’m not sure how to exactly describe it but this book does an amazing job of capturing the essence of living.
The subject matter of the Rodrigo’s book is quite obviously depressing as Macabéa’s life is full of the struggles of an impoverished girl, but it also goes past that to illustrate the effect of men on the women of that time as well. While in ‘The Time of the Doves’, the author Mercè Rodoreda does well to give the audience perspective on the powerlessness of women in that time, the author here (Clarice Lispector) takes a much different approach. I feel by creating this male persona Rodrigo, learn from the perspective of a man who is constantly observing and narrating Macabéa’s experiences. He even eventually goes to show sympathy towards her as a victim of her abusive partner, saying how he wished he could “cause her to wake up and find simply the great luxury of living.”
Rather than the very descriptive and visual imagery that many authors include in many of the other books that I’ve read in this course, Lispector does not go to the detailed extent that the other authors do, but allows us as the reader to take more of her ideas and build around them with our own imagination. 4.6/5
My question for everyone this week is, why do the life of women in these books have to be so sad? Do you think it’s just the books chosen for us to read or is that the reality of women in these societies?
Hey Jonathan! I really liked your quote from this week haha- Rodrigo really went in and roasted her hard and as awful as the insults were they were sort of clever and I guess charming in a certain sense (hair in soup etc.). I think that definitely these characters are meant to reveal a lot more of the lives of those in the sociocultural contexts that they are in- but I also think that beyond it just being a lesson in history etc. I guess sad stories overall seem to be the most interesting to write about. Sort of similar to the way many of the authors in these books choose a younger character to start off so convey the affects of growing up. I guess all that is to say that there are a lot more unique things you can do with such mediums.
“this book does an amazing job of capturing the essence of living.”
That’s high praise! Although of course, at times it’s as though Macabéa isn’t even really living… she’s “playing at” existing. (But don’t we all feel that way sometimes?)