Clarice Lispector’s article is indeed very obscure for someone like me who doesn’t have much exposure to literature. In the article, she asked herself “could I now start thinking”? But the whole book is full of profound and philosophical thinking, making readers unable to help thinking along the author’s words. She discusses every little detail of what she sees, thinks, and even feels, and seeks to understand and define herself. She connects her hand to happiness, and what is it like when a person doesn’t experience happiness? There may be fears, and desires for the good, which may be something one needs to experience, or think about, in the face of adversity. Many mantras often lead to the meaning behind the appearance by discovering the phenomenon and asking questions. Literary works that portray uniqueness, such as this one, can help us learn more about the world and the events that occur around us. When the author recalls G’H entering the maid’s chamber, he is horrified, but the encounter also turns out to be a process of self-seeking. There are sharp lines cutting the ceiling, empty space and crazy figures on the wall. Through the maid description, just like Lispector words knowing herself from others. And “the drawing is not a decoration it a writing” just like In GH’s eyes, the maid’s evaluation of her was reflected in the lines on the wall. Clarice Lispector’s writing style is inconsistent; her chapters are disjointed, and some of the incidents are even more odd. Is this, like the dissection of a cockroach’s body, a process of building one’s own identity? The description of the environment is also combined with the mapping of mentality, as if it was written on page 82, “No dark, just lightless, I then perceived that the room existed in itself.” The combination of people and the environment deepens the interpretation of metaphysics. This process is full of violence, turmoil, and absurdity. She talks about the cockroach, and at the same time brings up the accidents in her life, such as her pregnancy. Her experiences, her disability, have shaped her unique writing style, living in joy with pain, discovering her own existence. Every chapter and every shot she describes is like a dream, dazed and unrealistic, and it can trigger her thinking. Even a safe can remind her of darkness, hell and pain.
I can’t help but ask my classmates who have read this book, can you understand it? Will this style of writing give readers a sense of humiliation?
Hello! Thanks for an insightful blog post! I think it’s interesting that you found the structure of the book “inconsistent” and “disjointed”. I thought the complete opposite! I found the structure fairly continuous, and that because of her repetitions of lines from the previous section, I was able to have an understanding or hint at what the next section may hold.
It’s interesting to see, through these blog posts, how people read and interpret books differently! Thanks!!
Hey! Great post! I definitely agree that Lispector’s writing is all over the place–I found it very hard to follow and am still unsure as to whether I comprehended any of it. I especially liked your point about the writing mirroring a sort of dissection of a cockroaches’ body and simultaneously building ones own identity. Interesting stuff!
I found some of the writing disjointed, and I wrote a bit about how the philosophy flows into her vivid imagery in my post. I think its a book where you can overthink every line and over analyze, but most of the ideas she is saying in a page or two can be found more simply in one of the lines on the page.
Hey!
I appreciate your close readings of the text! I too, found this hard to follow along. I agree with some comments that the main ideas could be found in only a few sentences, but dragged on throughout the novel. We got some glimpses of her life like her pregnancy, but to me, the novel remained a bit disjointed and I found that it didn’t really leave any kind of an impact on me!