Award-winning writer from Rio Grande do Sul Marilice Costi invites readers to enter a universe of sensitivity and reflection in “The Caregiver’s Fable”. Inspired by literary classics and medieval romances, the story follows Edelweiss, a sensitive flower, and the Knight, bound by contracts and his own armor. Between disagreements and the search for meaning, the subtle narrative develops around the mutual care between the characters. With childish metaphors and striking characters, such as the loyal Fox and the welcoming Fernão, the work refers to classics such as “The Little Prince” and “Alice in Wonderland”. Marilice Costi, award-winning author of “Resurgemento”, presents us with a story that addresses themes such as understanding, acceptance and transformation, highlighting the need for a new look at the masculine in contemporary society.
How did the idea for “The Caregiver’s Fable” come about? Was there any specific inspiration that led to the creation of this story?
Yes, it started with my observation and keeping emails. Some of the characters I got playing with a friend. Some time passed, I reread the saved ones and I thought I could create based on the material. I wrote through metaphors that overlapped with my care experience. The text was built little by little, I shared it with people in the area, and the opinions made me question it. Storytelling is a constant in my history, in my family. Today my grandson tells stories to his sister who is almost 2 years old: she has fun, he likes to read. That was my foundation, what built me internally.
In my hometown, there were no therapists when I lived there. I took care of myself through words. Was it exhaust? For sure. Writing allowed me to realize my feelings. This comes out of us and observes us on the sheet of paper. So I receive insights , I create catharsis when rereading. Writing took care of me a lot.
Furthermore, I had Portuguese and Literature teachers who enchanted me. Loving the word starts with my mother. Certainly one of my books, Words and Care, demonstrates the power that writing has and how good this creative process is. You need to be careful when using words, written or spoken. Edelweiss, the flower from The Caregiver’s Fable , also expresses this. Currently, there is a lot of carelessness with words, I would even say it is disrespect towards oneself, expressing yourself well is a necessity. And when we read, we make unconscious projections, we give the text a tone of voice, we misinterpret it. The value in our communications needs to be recovered.
I am very critical of my writings. I post it on the blog, reread it many, many times and modify, cut, adjust, correct it permanently. Every day, more and more.
The characters in his story, such as Edelvais and the Knight, seem to carry deep meanings. Can you share more about the metaphors behind these characters?
The characters enable reflection on affective experiences. Reasons why are not established. Metaphors carry universal feelings. Therefore, Edelvais brings the necessary care for a bond of affection to be established: she tries, she carries the feminine feeling of someone who wants to love, but she exercises intermittent care. The flower is trapped in intermittent care, so how can it be freed? The dome is another metaphor – it reminds us of the Little Prince’s rose. The little stars bring the flower’s maternal care and feelings of guilt. She can’t survive without dreams. If you don’t go after them, what will happen?
The Knight seems free to him and carries part of the metaphor of the American fable “The Knight in Armor”. This book came into my life when I started working with Art Therapy. It was part of the treatment of a beautiful person, who was unaware of feelings of pain, and the treatment began with a book that was brought to me as a gift in the first session. Others came, including the American fable. This experience in my work was presented at one of the Brazilian Art Therapy congresses: literature to treat fear, which leads us to escape and more suffering. Writing and reading are fundamental in self-care.
Edelweiss and the Knight have their own pains and meanings for the reader. Separations create suffering. If the desires of one or the other have driven them apart, projecting our desire onto the other is putting an end to the relationship. Respect for individuality, as well as the freedom to choose one’s own paths, needs to be clear. Nobody changes anyone, the mind and brain are fundamental in our paths. There are records in DNA. The rest is dealing with our traumas, our unconscious. Acquiring experience and knowledge and learning lessons from our experiences can bring about the changes we need to be well. The basis of what we are and will be in old age began at the time of pregnancy, but the more I know about myself, about what moves me for good or bad, the less I will demand from others. These are joint projects that unite people, common interests. Not the other way around. As for those who care, which is in the book of the fable, being responsible for another person brings a lot of conflicts, the dream is saved. Anger, guilt, fear and loneliness complicate life. I have been repeating this since the last century. The flower represents this caregiver sickened by overload. The Knight and Edelweiss penetrate metaphors, when self-knowledge and personal fulfillment can be worked on.
You mention intertextuality with works like “The Little Prince” and “Alice in Wonderland”. How did these literary references influence the construction of “The Caregiver’s Fable”?
I started loving books and stories very early. My parents created a library at home, which was far from school. My mother welcomed book sellers into the room and chose them. Dad paid. My mother was a teacher before she got married and invented wonders with fabric, paper mache , paintings, painted potatoes became characters. Our cook Clarinda created stories, some of which were repetitions – I want to publish one of them – and made the characters out of bread dough and put bean seeds to make the eyes. Around the age of 3, I already defined my preferences in books and magazines. It’s in my baby book. I have a book of Christmas stories that I got from a sister. One of my favorites is on my YouTube channel. I sent it to my little ones, who live far away, one of the last Christmases.
Everything expanded my imagination: living in a house, taking care of animals, the tales of the Brothers Grimm and Andersen, La Fontaine’s fables, the Children’s World, period books. I had several books of short stories from different countries from Melhoramentos. I wouldn’t go to sleep without listening to a story or reading. I often hid with a small lamp under the sheets to read more. My father would wake up early and notice the light on in my room and he would get upset. Only as a teenager was I able to spend a little more time writing in the dining room. Even so, he would appear and ask me to lie down. The advertisement for Parayba Blankets on TV Piratini defined the time for children to go to bed. This imaginary was accessed in the writing of the book A fable of the caregiver . The little prince brought me the Fox, who supports the flower’s thoughts, is his therapist. I discovered Alice in Wonderland through a small vinyl record. After the bath, mom would turn on the electric guitar and we would listen to songs and stories before going to dinner. The story of Alice in Wonderland bothered me. When she falls into the hole and gets lost, everything changes size, and she accepts the challenges. How many times does this feeling pass through our lives? And how often is this a daily occurrence for those who care?
Loneliness, care and the search for meaning are themes addressed in his work. Can you discuss how these themes are fundamental to the narrative and why you decided to explore them?
These were my questions, conflicts that have plagued me many times in my life. Most of my writings exist because I needed to write, it has always been my way of expressing the life that pulses in me and in people. It started early. Stories, poetry… this will always be an internal need. Vital. Loneliness, care (I include self-care, because what they do most to women is teach them how to care for others, their husband, their children, their siblings and their parents, but not for themselves). Mothers of children with disorders or disabilities do not receive adequate encouragement for self-care. Many professionals don’t even want to look at this mother, they don’t know what to do with her. I know, I’m one of them, and I’ve been taking care of them with Art Therapy for decades.
Generally, my books are composed on my way. Looking back, mine was developed in this direction of care. My mother created APAE in Passo Fundo in the 60s. She was already worried about mothers at that time.
What was the creative process like when connecting chapter to chapter with phrases, poems and illustrations of your own? How do these elements intertwine in the narrative?
The poems existed, the metaphors had been inside me for a long time. Connecting was learning as a writer, a permanent exercise in writing. One of them was as editor-in-chief of the magazine O CULIVER in its 40 editions, which became an encyclopedia of care. As for the illustrations, I did them after the book was finished, with a pen and ink and the images were perhaps close to the children’s books I read. There were some illustrations on them. The characteristic of the capital letter in Gothic letters was intentional, the fable. Not everything I write is interpreted. Those who do this are literary critics based on their knowledge. The story came from feelings that I observe a lot in people who provide care, with a lot of work and time. It took two years of production.
How did you develop the other characters, such as Fox, Obvio and Fernão the seagull? What role do they play in Edelweiss’ journey?
The Fox came from the Little Prince, she brought the wisdom of those who observe, over time I realized that she was the therapist. The character helps the flower to think. I won O Obvio during a trip to São Paulo, when I was a finalist with the magazine O CULIVER in the Brasil Criativo Award. When leaving lunch, I saw a poor man carrying a huge bag full of things on his back. This reminded me of a figure from my childhood who sold tea and dressed in burlap, she scared children, because approaching strange adults was dangerous. The name chosen has to do with your role. He brings the obvious and the most necessary to that flower. What we all need. Without it, the flower would not allow itself to lose its roots and transform. He has a social, friendly role and his solidarity occurs in the Milky Way. Fernão has another meaning. It comes from Richard Bach’s classic book and carries the metaphor of flight. Who wouldn’t want to reach the heights? He plays a fundamental role in building Edelvais’ individuation and supports her in making the most difficult decision for someone caring for someone who is fragile, it is the support for her to move forward. Separating from her little stars generated a lot of feelings at Edelvais.
What is the central message you hope to convey to readers, especially regarding the need for a “second birth of the male”?
The book brings metaphors that can reflect on our feelings. Abandonment, very common among caregivers, and being a flower brings the woman’s delicacy and exhaustion, which is found in all situations of those who often have to choose between a child and themselves. Change in men has been occurring slowly. It is the result of education at home, of how women relate to all their children. Sharing activities at home needs to be taught, many families leave everything for schools, abandonment also occurs there. I hope that, every day, men will become more companions and participants alongside women.
Our society is very sick, which makes me sad. Life in itself is difficult, but currently we have an overload through stimuli and media mobilization, there is an excess of useless information, and algorithms don’t let us rest. We are bombarded all the time with offers and needs that we don’t need. Consumption is rampant in people’s minds. Women still need to share their maternal feelings of pain. If we observe, it is always mostly men who decide new conflicts and wars to dominate and control. Women are the ones who take care of the maimed people who return, the emotionally devastated children and husbands, they are the ones who maintain life. They are the ones who bear the most blame for things that are not decided by them. This is secular.
The world can be better if women, with their sensitivity, participate more in decisions, if they bring their humanity, collaborative and supportive spirit. The fable carries this, but the message will depend on the perception of each reader. My goal was to raise the issue of taking care of yourself and give you the courage to look for possibilities to make your personal dreams come true. The mother suffers when caring, emotionally and due to work overload. The solution needs to be collective. I have long been interested in these topics of care and self-care for invisible caregivers, who get sick a lot. I notice some signs, I assist caring parents, the Enem test brought the subject up in the newsroom and I see parents exposing themselves. However, there are more variables: social, economic, cultural, environmental, etc. There’s a lot to do. I will have to live other lives to continue this mission that moves me and makes me happy.
You are described as an “architect of words”. How has your background in architecture influenced your approach to writing?
The poems, the letters, the diaries, the stories I wrote shaped me as a person. Poetry has its own architecture, it is not just any word or phrase in verse form, it has to have a structure like an architectural project that catches our attention. Poetry needs the new, strangeness and breaking paradigms, composing with melody, rhythm and metaphors, it is technique, exercise. Ambiguity in metaphors makes us think, expands their signifier. Contrary to what we see in today’s world divided between opposites. We are all part of the universe. Opposition seems to be a permanent reason for conflict. I think it should give the start to mutual enrichment through listening and dialogue. Nobody wants to ponder anymore. This role belongs to thinkers. In fact, I don’t even know who people believe anymore, such is the movement to deconstruct logical, analytical thinking. Forget about dialectics.
Training in Architecture came when writing was already part of me. She brought me knowledge and skills. It took 5 years of study to become an urban planner and architect. It was there that I received encouragement from a professor, one of our great literary critics in RS, Antônio Holfeldt . I showed him a short story and he told me: send it to the competition, he showed me the way. This short story won first place. It was the starting point for me to have the courage to expose myself more.
This book The Caregiver’s Fable was a constructive work by someone who makes crafts with words, I embroidered the story stitch by stitch, I did the sewing. The period of maturation continued and was extended with each revision that the book underwent. Words exist to obtain a meaning, what the author wants to say and what the reader will interpret and understand. Simplifying language is a lifelong exercise for the writer. Simplifying doesn’t mean anything, but being able to remove excess text and make important changes.
Are there any future projects you are working on? Can you share something about your literary plans?
Many. My daughter one day said to me: When you are no longer here, I will close the door to your office and I will not come in again. Every day, I become more aware of how much I have to do. People don’t realize how hard it is to be a writer. Nothing happens by chance. Nor does the saint come down to enlighten us. It’s a process of tinkering and tinkering with our internal parts to create a whole – a book. It cannot be compared with architecture, despite what some authors say about the project, the composition, the creative process, the storytelling . When I want to write and I’m feeling good, it flows. I take care not to feel incapable of writing for fear of making mistakes and, if this happens, I need to delve deeper into my self-knowledge so that the creative process can be freed. I’ve been criticized a lot, and this is bad for the creative process, for our mental health, but I react and overcome it. I have to follow, the writer has no choice. It’s your emotional survival. I write motivated by feelings that plague me and only then does this creation establish itself in making and remaking the text, in waiting for the time of distance to be critical and achieve clarity, flow. Our language – Portuguese – is very rich and allows many ways of saying the same thing. However, in my books, I began to realize that there is the right word to gain the meaning I want, the appropriate connective that will establish the syntax and so on. If we are attached to the text in an affective way, touching it before it settles can hurt. I have been teaching this since the last century, to release the creative process, and then observe the details, this also occurs in my Art Therapy service. I always remember how much the drawer is a writer’s friend and how much the trash can needs to be used. I’m currently organizing a lot of material. I have always written and so far I have 9 books, many articles, poems, various texts. I’m organizing poetry, short stories, a book to support caregivers, a novel, memories… I want to do my best as long as I can and have the physical conditions.
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