⠀⠀⠀𝐂𝐋𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐎𝐑 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐏𝐓𝐒. ♡
⠀⠀⠀clarice lispector was a ukrainian-born brazilian novelist and short story writer. her innovative, idiosyncratic works explore a variety of narrative styles with themes of intimacy and introspection, and have subsequently been internationally acclaimed.
"Am I a monster or is this what it means to be a person?"
"I want vast distances."
"I only achieve simplicity with enormous effort"
"And I want to be held down."
"I don't know what to do with the horrifying freedom that can destroy me."
"Do you ever suddenly find it strange to be yourself?"
"Do not mourn the dead. They know what they are doing."
"I write as if to save somebody’s life."
"And it's inside myself that I must create someone who will understand."
"You don't understand music: you hear it. So hear me with your whole body."
"I've never been free in my whole life."
"I'm seemingly free, but I'm a prisoner inside of me."
"I do not know much. But there are certain advantages in not knowing."
"Holding someone's hand was always my idea of joy."
"And when even then I can't find the courage, then I dream."
"I go on speaking to you, risking disconnection"
"But don't forget, in the meantime, that this is the season for strawberries."
"Oh, living is so uncomfortable."
"I work only with lost and founds."
"Where does music go when it’s not playing?"
"I am only true when I’m alone."
"Never suffer because you are not something or because you are."
"To think is an act. To feel is a fact."
"I’m restless and harsh and despairing."
"I just don’t know how to use love."
"I’m in danger, as is everyone who’s alive."
"I’m searching, I’m searching. I’m trying to understand."
"The word is my fourth dimension."
"Freedom isn't enough. What I desire doesn't have a name yet."
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Me: picks "Hilda Furacão", by Roberto Drummond up to read thinking it'll be a fun little story, with dashes of feminism, tragedy and angst, taking place in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, in the early 60s.
Me, two tiny chapters in, entirely not ready for the intimate and intricate details about pre-dictatorship politics explained better than school could ever do, but also catholic guilt, the dangers and privileges of beauty, a fight between left and right ideals personified in a young, beautiful prostitute (Hilda) and a young friar who wants to be a saint (Malthus) who are destined to be together, comunism and more: holy shit.
Seriously, what a read! I keep talking about it to my friends, hoping that they'll read it too...
Ps: it doesn't hurt that, in the miniseries adaptation, Hilda and Malthus are played by Ana Paula Arosio and Rodrigo Santoro.... like... really:
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I've never been free in my whole life. Inside I've always chased myself. I've become intolerable to myself. I live in a lacerating duality. I'm seemingly free, but I'm a prisoner inside of me.
Clarice Lispector, from A Breath of Life, 1978
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“And from deep down inside herself, after a moment of silence and abandonment, it rose up, at first pale and hesitant, then stronger and more painful: from the depths I call thee... from the depths I call thee... from the depths I call thee... She remained unmoving for a few more moments, her face expressionless, slack and tired as if she’d had a child. Little by little she was reborn, slowly opened her eyes and returned to the daylight. Fragile, breathing lightly, happy like a convalescent receiving her first breeze.”
Near To The Wild Heart — Clarice Lispector.
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She loved the world, loved what had been created—she loved with nausea.
— Clarice Lispector, “Love”; from The Complete Stories (tr. Katrina Dodson)
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Translated Works of Clarice Lispector
The Hour of the Star - An eccentric narrator tells the tragic and strange story of a young woman crushed by poverty. Goodreads summary here.
Near to the Wild Heart - Lispector's debut novel, centers around the childhood and early adulthood of a woman named Joana. Goodreads summary here.
A Breath of Life - A dialogue between a godlike male author and his creation. Goodreads summary.
Água Viva- A plot-less novel, often described as a "prose poem". Goodreads summary here.
The Collected Stories - A compilation of 85 short stories, including those published on Family Ties (with recurring themes of marriage, love and domesticity), Covert Joy and The Via Crucis of the Body (which focuses on sex, loneliness and taboos associated with the human body)
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