/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.15095519]

Do you like Brazilian literature? If so, which book is your favorite, perhaps even your favorite author?

I wish a book from my nation gets at least one spot in the top 100 /lit/ recommended books in 2020.

[Anonymous No.15095628]

bump

[Anonymous No.15095637]

Should i read spanish or english translations of machado de asis?

[Anonymous No.15095646]

machado de assis and clarice lispector are both exit-level /lit/

[Anonymous No.15095798]

>>15095519
rec me some brazilian /lit/ that is very brazilian

[Anonymous No.15095874]

>>15095637
I don't know, I only read the portuguese ones, can't recommend something I didn't read. But I did listen to some favorable english reviews.
>>15095798
Machado is probably our best author to date, he's incredibly funny without trying to. But honestly we have some cool children's books here, a collection called Vaga-Lume, I liked them a lot, and they aren't long, I just don't know if they were translated unfortunately... Give Machado a chance though.

[Anonymous No.15095952]

>>15095874
Sounds good man, will do! Should I start with Epitaph of a Small Winter, or is there a better place to begin? Thanks for the help by the way, I was on a French /lit/ kick for a bit, then Russian /lit/ so I've been wanting a new style to explore.

[Anonymous No.15095991]

>>15095952
I myself haven't read as much as I make it sound, Epitaph is it's own work, so you most definitely can jump straight into it, he has some other books like Dom Casmurro which is better rated on GoodReads, Quincas Borba, O Alienista and A Cartomante are all very nice as well. I hope you enjoy it, I think our literature is extremely underrated.

[Anonymous No.15096004]

>>15095798
Machado de Assis is the best. But he is not very "Brazilian" in terms of style.
He is kind of "British" in some ways.

[Anonymous No.15096024]

Should I read Lispector?
She cute

[Anonymous No.15096060]

>>15096004
>>15095991

Thanks lads

[Anonymous No.15096103]

>>15096024
I never read her, probably because people here seem to want to sell her as some feminist super hero, yet her own style is pretty unique and she herself was an extremely reserved person. Her most popular book is probably The Hour Of The Star and pretty short (and even has a movie about it, which I watched and found it funny). Tell me later if you liked it and I might read it myself too :)
>>15096060
You're welcome, anon-kun

[Anonymous No.15096640]

bump

[Anonymous No.15096695]

>>15095646
What does exit-level mean?

[Anonymous No.15096723]

>>15096695
I also wanted to ask that

[Anonymous No.15096796]

machado and lispector are the only two good brazilian writers i've read.
nassar and armado are mid-tier.
ramos low-tier.

i can't find an english translation of rosa so can't judge him.

[Anonymous No.15096876]

>>15096796
Rosa's writing is really interesting, I think it's probably one of those things that don't do well translated, heck, even I can't understand much of what is being said.

[Keynes No.15096973]

>>15095519
I'm from brazil and I sort of hate my literature.

Machado de Assis' Epitaph is ok though; didn't bother finishing it.

>>15096695
It must be for when you finish reading it and leave /lit/ for good.

[Anonymous No.15097334]

>>15096973
That's fine too. We hate them mostly because school forces us to read them while we are not prepared to engage into the nuances of lifestyle and humor presented by these writers, which is a shame.

[Anonymous No.15097349]

>>15095519
Honest question: how do you even perceive the universe of Machado, as a foreigner? Like the characters and the setting.

[Anonymous No.15097424]

>>15097349
His works are old, but also modern in the literary sense, it's difficult to describe how necessarily I perceive it, so I can't imagine what a foreigner would. Try reading the reviews of Goodreads, it's probably where bulk of english reviews are found.

[Anonymous No.15097500]

>>15097424
I'll try to explain. Since I'm Brazilian, I know most of our respectable literature is about the mediocrity of our society. When I read Machado, several images of experiences that I had and how people still act exactly like this passes over my mind, even though me and the writer are separated by more than a hundred years. To a Brazilian reader, this works like a catharsis. I'm curious how such a regional literature could interest people from other countries.

[Anonymous No.15097560]

>>15095519
I love Grande Sertão Veredas, but it will never have an universal appeal due to the extremely difficult to translate usage of an "artificial" language. Same problem with Burzundagas and Macunaíma.

[Anonymous No.15097647]

>>15097500
I thought about this a lot reading russian literature recently. If I had to make a guess, I think works like "Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas" is more abou an archetype of a man without commitment to something really meningful, the decadence of an elite that previously held itself i high regards and now notice the cracks that a past nobility no longer sustains. It is not a strange feeling or exclusive to the Brazillian context and can be seen in the works of Dostoyevsky, Balzac and Flaubert for example.
If I could point a factor to why Machado is the unanimous Brazillian author in threads about Brazillian lit, it would be the realist style.

[Anonymous No.15098176]

>>15096876
you can say that with every single major writer yet we all read them in translation because good art transcends language and nation and petty provincialisms.

and why tf is this book so expensive? and why hasn't dalkey reprinted it yet

[Anonymous No.15098415]

>>15095646
>>15096695
Its literature that makes you want to kill yourself.
But its probably because of how simple they are, if you have any experience with great foreign authors youll find out that praise for these two is completely unfounded.
Only brazilian authors with any literary merit are Rosa, Suassuna, and Erico Verissimo. The first two are impossible for foreigners to read, because of how much is lost in translation. Everything else is a meme.

[Anonymous No.15098433]

>>15095519
Bout to read this actually. Dom Casmurro was pretty enjoyable even when it lulled. Something about the form of that book kept it going for me, almost like Rabelais or Cervantes. All SA /lit/ feels like soap opera to me though. Maybe I’m just a reductive asshole.

[Anonymous No.15098443]

>>15096723
What you take away when you leave. This is applicable on several levels of “leave.”

[Anonymous No.15098453]

>>15098415
>no guimarães rosa
Pleb detected

[Anonymous No.15098461]

>>15098453
Shit, im retarded. Ignore me

[Anonymous No.15098493]

>>15095519
The Passion According to GH by Clarice Lispector is one of my favorite novels.

I've also read Stella Manhattan by Silviano Santiago. It's a bit heavy handed but a decent psychological drama.

[Anonymous No.15098557]

>>15096695
it's the opposite of entry-level

it also means you're probably smart and well-read enough that you can get off this godforsaken chinese cartoon imageboard

[Anonymous No.15098828]

>>15098176
Ayy calm down, I'm not trying to sound like you can't understand it because you're a foreigner, just don't buy it if you don't want to, I could care less.

[Anonymous No.15098953]

>>15095798
Bro, what you need is
Machado de Assis:
-Posthumous memoirs of Bras Cubas
-Don Casmurro
Aluísio Azevedo:
-O Cortiço (the most Brazilian book ever, speaking as one)
Lima Barreto:
-Decline and fall of policarpo quaresma (our very own don quixote)
Euclides da Cunha:
-Os sertões

[Anonymous No.15099350]

>>15098953
O Cortiço is a tale of gentrification at it's finest.

[Anonymous No.15100531]

>>15099350
that's a retarded over simplification if i ever seen one... do you read books looking for the Wikipedia page and consider it done ?