
.Juliet: Saints do not move, though grant for prayers’ sake.Romeo: Then move not, while my prayer’s effect I take…
.Juliet: Saints do not move, though grant for prayers’ sake.Romeo: Then move not, while my prayer’s effect I take…
Dear Diary,
It has been far too long since I wrote, and checking exactly how long, I find that my monthly Books Bought & Read section appears to be over 6 months out of date. That will all change in the coming months, when I: a) have my book finished and can get back to blogging and b) move to New York for the winter with little to do but make soup, and write.
Before that, though, I have just returned from an overnight visit to the glorious, medieval walled village of Óbidos an hour (exactly, by bus) north of Lisbon, and I wanted to tell you about the things I found there: fantastic accommodation, great music, and one of my modern literary heroes.
I took two days off work as my favourite living Portuguese writer was attending, and it just so happened that a great Mozambican author and the singer of 2014’s Portuguese album of the year were both going to be present on the same day, so I had little choice in the matter. Finding a room free at the best B&B in the entire region, however, was pure luck. Hosts Sharon and John have the cosiest house right by the train tracks complete with patio, swimming pool, the craziest life stories, and the greatest tea-drawer I have ever seen.
But I wasn’t in town for tea: I was there to attend the first Folio Literature Festival of Óbidos, and to meet Gonçalo M.Tavares. I had bought a ticket to see him in discussion with someone I had never heard of, not expecting to understand much of anything but simply hoping to meet him afterwards and get one of my books signed: in the end I sat through three sessions with him, and understood more than I’d expected to.
First, a packed standing-room-only 60-minute lesson he offered for free in the village hall based (extremely loosely) on Saramago’s ‘Blindness‘; then the talk, on his work in general; and finally a book launch for his latest work, the wonderfully titled ‘The Torcicologologista, Your Excellency.’
Here are the highlights I took from each:
On ‘Blindness’:
-There are so many billions of images today, we are always anxious, whatever we see, knowing how many more we are missing.
-There is a character in certain Japanese theatre pieces called ‘The Absent,’ who represents someone/something not there, but stands stage front and centre…and is the best paid of all, for being able to make the audience not see what is right in front of them.
-The talk focussed little on literature, instead showing Tavares‘ impressive breadth of interests: everything from John Cage’s infamous 4min 33seconds (of silence); a video of a man pushing a block of ice through the streets until it disappeared; and the fact that an image can become so commonplace as to be invisible, but there is always a new way to see it, exemplified by this stunning scene from master Russian film-maker Andrei Tarkovsky:
The Talk:
-Words have weight, and different weights for different people. The word ‘Lisbon’ will mean different things depending on a person’s experience of the city.
-‘Fuga,’ or ‘escape,’ has been a common thread in literature since the Greeks: we are all fleeing something, as are most of the characters in his works.
-If we were immortal, we could watch films until we saw a good one. Mortality means that time and choices weigh heavily on us, (similar to the earlier-mentioned feeling of the anxiety of missing out on all of the images around us)
-When you die, it is not the facts, not: ‘What did you do?” which will be important, but: “How much happiness did you put into, and take out of, the world?”
–Gonçalo’s definition of the pleasure to be derived from something as insignificant as playing football: “To do something ‘inútil‘ (useless) and to take pleasure in it is to undertake a revolutionary act”!
The Book Launch:
–Gonçalo’s books are all different, but with this newest one the humour is front and centre: humour is an integral part of playing with language, something which he clearly loves to do.
-He likes the ‘weight’ of words, especially Biblical words, old words: ‘pedra‘ (stone) is intrinsically more appealing than ‘computador‘ (computer). He prefers “words with experience.”
As you can see, I got to meet the man himself, and am well on my way to completing my collection of his complete works, two of them now signed and ready to be encased in glass if and when, as the great Saramago himself predicted, Mr.Tavares joins him as the second ever Portuguese Nobel Laureate in literature.
I later got to meet Mia Couto, a wonderful Mozambican author whose books I have been reading here and there, and who took the time to confirm for me a rumour I’d heard and which may be my new favourite anecdote on my tours: Mia was once invited to talk at a literary conference for black African women…despite only being African, and in no way either black or a woman!
As if all that wasn’t enough, the evening was rounded off with a fado performance from Gisela João, one of the hottest modern performers of this most traditional of Portuguese musical styles.
I leave you with one of the songs she played to end the evening, and wish you sweet Portuguese dreams.
This week I am in my hometown doing little but research and prepare the launch of a Kickstarter crowd-funding project to publish my first book: ‘Benfica to Brazil: a summer of football‘.
It was therefore fitting to wake up this morning and find an email from Unbound: a UK based crowd-funding publisher which was founded a few years ago by three British writers as a way for readers to have a more direct say in which books they want to read, and how they want to buy them.
I was at the official launch of the project at the ever-fantastic Hay Literature Festival, attracted mainly by ex-Monty Python Terry Jones being one of the original authors on their roster, and have funded a couple of books over the years, (selected authors ‘pitch’ a book idea to the public, and in traditional crowd-sourcing manner those which reach their funding level get written, printed, and sent to you…with your name in all future copies!)
Success stories include ‘The Wake,’ one of the dozen books long-listed for this year’s Booker Prize, and the incredibly gorgeous and fascinating ‘Letters of Note‘ (based on the website of the same name), which is one of the finest coffee-table books I have ever seen/read.
Elvis writes to President Nixon requesting to be made a Federal Agent
Being a past pledger, I receive regular emails from Unbound which don’t always grab my attention. Luckily this morning, tempted to skim through their latest correspondence, I decided to give it my full attention. I was rewarded with the news that not only had they had their one million pounds-worth of pledges but that to celebrate, anyone who has ever pledged towards a book was allowed to download any and all of their back catalogue in e-book form for a week.
As if I don’t have enough books to read right now!
I haven’t read a book on my computer, phone or iPad for a year or two now, but working my way through the past releases, numbering over 50, I found around a dozen on top of the ones I had already funded which sounded fun or interesting, covering everything from: museum pieces, the history of wine, the story of modern music, the geography of ‘places,’ and a book by Stephen Fry’s ‘wife,’ and I downloaded e-versions of them all.
As I promised that for every book I downloaded I would let one person know about Unbound, I hope this blog entry finds at least a dozen of you, and you check out their work. There’s few better feelings than knowing you are responsible for the creation of a piece of art: and you can do it with a £10 discount the first time you pledge, by entering ‘newcomer’ when you make your first order.
Maybe someday I’ll be on their books, too!