Pereira Declares

     In the United States we are fortunate to have a government that is based on democracy and allows for personal liberties and freedom.  The first amendment in the U. S. Constitution provides for the freedom of speech, allowing citizens to express their beliefs and ideas with government restrictions.  The story, Pereira Declares, by Antonio Tabucchi, addresses the freedom of expression or lack thereof as well as its consequences.  This book takes place in Portugal, at a time, when the country is under the control of an authoritarian regime.   Their main objective is to keep people from questioning their motives and limiting the literature available to its people.   The main character, a man named Pereira, writes for a newspaper called the Libosa.  As a writer, under such restrictions he is limited to what he can write.

“Then do something about it. Such as what?, asked Pereira. Well, said Senhora Delgado, you’re intellectual, tell people what’s going on in Europe, tell them your honest opinion, just get on and do something” (Tabucchi 45).

     In this particular quote Senhora Delgado is trying to convince Pereira to share his opinions in his writing.  He responds to her by saying, “I’ll do my best Senhora Delgado, but it isn’t easy to do one’s best in a country like this for a person like me” (45).  Pereira is afraid of the consequences that come with sharing his views in the paper.    This notion of limiting expression has been apparent throughout history.  A notorious example of this occurred in Germany during World War II when the Nazis burned a plethora of books in an attempt to control others.  The Nazis were aware of the power of written word and went to drastic measures to eliminate it.  Pereira understands that if he were to write his own opinions, he would become an enemy of the government.  No matter how much he wants to tell the truth, he is unable to because he would run the risk of putting himself in harm’s way.  Pereira Declares has further opened my eyes to the importance of writing and the significance of my first amendment right.

If on a winter's night a traveler

If on a winter’s night a traveler is a novel written by Italo Calvino. Although I really enjoyed the writing style and through that the author’s use of second-person narration was very interesting and enjoyable, I found myself very confused several times while in the process of reading the novel. Italo Calvino is an author who uses post-modernist writing, a style that is experimental and abstract. This is apparent throughout the novel. In chapter eight, Calvino tells the reader that he believes the process of writing makes it impossible to write the novel that they author intends to create: “all the elements that make what I write recognizable as mine seem to me a cage that restricts my possibilities…if I were only a hand, a severed hand that grasps the pen and writes…Who would move this hand?” (171). Calvino acknowledge that it is impossible for a writer to keep his or her own biases out of the novel they are writing, and so even non-fiction writing has some fictional aspects in it. I related this back to the article in the DePauw magazine, which talked about a program that was created to write creative stories without the need of an author. This may worry some people that the value of literature will diminish once computers are able to write our books for us, but I on the other hand, and perhaps Calvino would agree, that this new developments offers a unique opportunity to see what kind of literature could be creative without the influence of a human author.

Response to If on a Winter's Night a Traveler

             Not unlike Invisible Cities with its post-modern approach and complex narration, Calvino’s If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler is a piece of meta fiction.  The novel questions, at its heart, the meaning of writing.  It does so by exploring the implications and limitations of writing and language.  Calvino includes the beginnings of ten stories as a way to demonstrate to the reader the impossibility of a single, universal meaning—following suit with his post-modern approach to literature.  But it is really in his chapters in which he addresses the readers that Calvino’s complexity of narration is made more evident.  One of the most interesting concepts that Calvino introduces is the value of a piece of work after it is written.  In chapter eight, Calvino seems to be saying that the art of writing is restricting: “all the elements that make what I write recognizable as mine seem to me a cage that restricts my possibilities…if I were only a hand, a severed hand that grasps the pen and writes…Who would move this hand?” (Calvino 171).  Here Calvino questions the written world in comparison to the unwritten world: “the book should be the written counterpart of the unwritten world” (Calvino 172).  He feels restricted by his writing because it can be tied back to him.  His published writing has created for him an identity to which all future writing will be held accountable.  The idea of “a severed hand” questions the relationship between author and work—creator and art.  Calvino seems to be saying that there is a certain value in an unfinished work, hence the title of the novel “IF on a Winter’s Night a Traveler,” and his inclusion of ten unfinished stories.   

Response to Pereira Maintains

Pereirra--he himself being widowed--spends much of his adult life thinking of death, feeling remorseful of his present and past. A constant obsession with the past makes Pereira indifferent to the present until “it seems to [him] that the whole world is dead or on the point of death” (Tabucchi 11).  In making the reader aware of Pereira's obsession with death, Tabucchi sets up a stark contrast between Pereira and his mentee Rossi, who is first introduced as possessing an interest not in death but in life. Pereira senses Monteiro Rossi’s political enthusiasm, but attempts to stifle it.  But Rossi's political views take on a strength incomparable to Pereira’s censorship.  Even Marta challenges Pereira’s complacency by instructing him to “do something about it”--it being his sensible unhappiness. As writers, both characters have responsibilities to print the truth, but Tabucchi instills within each of them different definitions of responsibility.  As Pereira tells Rossi, “journalism nowadays in Portugal has no place for either irresponsibility or troublemaking” (Tabucchi 33).  Yet Pereira says this because, as the reader comes to find, he experiences an incongruity between what he says and what he thinks—an incongruity conditioned by the political censorship he experiences as a writer and an incongruity that Pereira himself wishes to execute by printing the truth.

Response to The Little Virtues

           
             Despite its surface-level simplicity of language and somewhat colloquial nature, Natalia Ginzburg’s The Little Virtues delves in to highly philosophical problems resulting in her harsh critiques on society and human nature.  Especially in the short story titled “England: Eulogy and Lament,” Ginzburg makes no effort to desensitize her critiques on England.  Yet, her short stories should not be viewed as criticisms alone because it is the ability of her short stories to exist as separate lessons that gives the collection a certain wisdom.  Among her harshest criticisms of the English is their melancholy which Ginzburg believes is the result of their lack imagination and authenticity.  She believes that the English have unknowingly lost their authenticity.  She says “nothing is the world is sadder than an English conversation, in which everyone is careful to keep to superficialities and never touch on anything essential” (Ginzburg 25).  Considering her history as a writer who has no qualms about speaking out against postwar political constructs and recession, it can be said that her classification of England as “the most melancholy country in the world” has something to do with politics in postwar England.  The English lack imagination and are careful to keep their conversations in the realm of superficialities because they are victims of strict government control, which leaves the country in a state of melancholy.              

Pleasue

After reading most of Gabriele d’Annunizo’s book, Pleasure, I have become more familiar with the main character, Andrea Sperelli.  Art and Women are two of his greatest passions.  Andrea appears to be a lady’s man as is evident by his infatuation with one of his lovers, Elena.  In the first chapter, Andrea illustrates impatience while eagerly waiting for Elena.  After waiting a brief period of time he starts to worry she will not show resulting in a mini panic attack.  “She was not coming! And she was not coming!” (d’Annunizo 18).  In the following chapters, which are a flashback of their relationship, Andrea reveals an obsessive quality towards Elena.  In only their second encounter, Andrea confesses his love or Elena. He says, “I seem to have loved you for I don’t know how long.  The one, incessant thought of you, is now the life of my life” (72).  Andrea lays all his cards on the table in hopes Elena feels the same way about him.  Elena likes being chased and eventually succumbs to her desires for Andrea.

Andrea and Elena both desire each other for purposes of pleasure and pleasure alone.  I feel that they have confused love for lust.  “No; you did not love me, you do not love me!” (27). Having been dependent on her, he is now able to move on and realizes he no longer needs Elena in his life.  This results in the character development of Andrea. 

The use of flashbacks in this book keeps the reader intrigued. The flashback provides a lens into past events and helps develop these two characters.  Andrea seems desperate for love.  Although his relationship with Elena was not necessarily love, he is hopeful his encounter with Maria will be different.