I am so glad this course introduced me to Clarice Lispector- an author who seems to be relatively unknown in the Anglo-sphere- as I can confidently say the writing in The Hour of the Star was my favourite of all the books I’ve read for SPAN312. My edition contained a translator’s note describing Lispector’s word choice and syntax as “weird” and “strange” (132), but I found it compellingly charming. The translator continues to note the peculiarity of The Hour of the Star, a book he claims to be more easily read in Portuguese by a learner rather than a native speaker. Personally, the eccentricity of the prose kept me on my toes and provided meaningful emphasis and pause.
As discussed in the lecture, the role of the narrator is also quite unusual for Western literature: The Hour of the Star is told by a man who laments the burden of telling the story of the protagonist, Macabéa. I still am not certain if this man ever met Macabéa, but he observes her entire life up until her unceremonious death and even claims that “Macabéa killed me” (114). I honestly cannot tell if the narrator constitutes an elaborate metaphor, perhaps my classmates could help me here? I am breaking precedence by asking the question earlier in the blog: who do you think the narrator in The Hour of the Star is? How does his life intersect with Macabéa’s, if it does at all?
The Hour of the Star is tragic, but not at all unrealistic. Not many books focus on the most unfortunate in such an honest and uncensored manner, and even fewer deliver their protagonists an irredeemable end. The novel is named after the glory of death, when a person “becomes a shining movie star” (42)- in the case of Macabéa, a Brazilian Marilyn Monroe- but its protagonist dies a death of a forgotten extra. People like Macabéa never receive their deserved fate. Throughout her life, Macabéa is belittled and teased, tossed around like dust. “It seems to me that her life was a long meditation on nothing” (44), notes the narrator. The interjection (explode) frequently used in the book implies a sort of dramatic destruction, yet Macabéa remains composed until her death. Does a star always have to be obnoxiously bright? There are many stars who (excuse the cliché) never shine only because of the shadows cast by their surroundings. If Macabéa were simply born in better circumstances, would her brightness be visible and not dampened?
I think that several of the questions and concerns that arose after reading the novel can be answered if you watch again at the interview with Sonia Roncador. The Lispector specialist gives us several clues, but some she mentions only in passing, it’s true. By creating Rodrigo, the narrator, Lispector establishes an even greater distance from the story she tells. What will be the purpose of this? I think we could talk about all your hypothesis in class.
Personally I felt that Macabea awasa. victim in her own life, ot necesarely that it was he own doing but she, as you said, did not shine. So I would like to think she had been born and/or given more opportunities her “brightnes” would be very present and recognized.
-Montserrat Avendano.
I’m with you on loving Clarice Lispector’s writing. I like that you put it as “compellingly charming” because that’s exactly how I felt as well. I had never really put these thoughts together of ‘movie star’, shining bright, and the (explosions) that are in the book – I like the way you put it as it brought new ideas to me. Personally, I thought the (explosions) were a kind of poetic tool, becoming more frequent and frequent, brighter and brighter until the end when Macabéa died. I don’t think Macabéa’s star was obnoxiously bright, but it sustained through all her misery. Then when she died, that was her brightest moment as a star, being perceived and seen by so many others as she had not ever been before – I think, for a moment, she was no longer anonymous.