Tired of being ignored on its bench by the sea in Copacabana, the statue of Carlos Drummond de Andrade decides to set off on an extraordinary journey through the universe. This is the premise of the book Na linha do horizonte está escrever um universo (Na linha do horizonte is written a universe), by writer Lucianno Di Mendonça , which weaves together 14 stories interconnected by literary encounters and surprising characters, led by the enigmatic Velho Dru — a figure who traverses different lives and realities bringing poetry, reflections and, above all, literature.
By creating a literary universe where Drummond’s statue comes to life, you invite us to reflect on the solitude of works of art and our own. What was it like for you to give voice to something that, by its very nature, is inert?
Old Dru’s journey begins in solitude, just like many of the characters in the book, but as the narrative unfolds, the stories take a different direction. As for the statue of Drummond, everyone who takes a picture with it brings the statue to life by posing to “exchange ideas” with the sculpture. This is beautiful and poetic, but it reveals a contemporary loneliness. People posing to talk to the statue was something I imagine the artist who created it (Leo Santana) thought up. Note that the statue is on the right side, facing the empty bench, with its head tilted slightly more than in the photo. This suggests that someone is sitting down to talk. But if you look closely at the original photo (Rogério Reis) – which inspired the sculpture – Drummond is on the left side, with his back to the empty bench and his gaze distant. In other words, the poet did not want much conversation (just my interpretation, among many possible ones). So, when I took my photo, the journey was already engraved in bronze, all that was left was to give it life by carving it on paper.
You construct a spiral novel where characters migrate between stories, and nothing begins or ends in a linear fashion. How does this structure reflect the way you view your own life?
As far as I have researched, the term spiral novel did not exist, although in literature it is not uncommon, for example in the book: If on a winter’s night a traveler , by Italo Calvino. Life and the universe are spirals in many ways, from the attraction and separation of planets, stars and galaxies to a simple flutter of a butterfly’s wings, yesterday, on the other side of our street. On the horizon line is written a The universe is spiral in many ways: Borges’ epigraph that opens the book, the beginning and end of the novel, the characters, the chapters, Old Dru, the reader, the author. One of the central and most obscure chapters of the book: Sender: Recipient represents this in its first and last lines, but in a specific way: the spirality and presence of the past and the future in the same scene. My way of writing, even an opinion article, is spiral, my way of dialoguing, this interview, my way of finding connections not yet made (not recognized), etc. This is how I live and see life.
Old Dru, who takes on such diverse roles, is almost a spiritual guide for the characters – and perhaps also for the reader. How do you see yourself in the role of Old Dru: as an author, as an observer, or as a participant in this journey?
I have said that Old Dru is a postmodern Virgil (Divine Comedy), that is, he does not hold hands, does not offer protection, does not show paths, but is the spiral between the harshness of life on Earth and the poetry of the moon. Thus, in the spiral of romance and life, planet Earth is not distant, nor is it disconnected from the moon. On the contrary, the moon plays a direct and fundamental role in the life of the Earth, even though there is no life on it. Therefore , Old Dru represents the connection of things that many people consider distant, unattainable or even useless. I think that each human being can be an Old Dru in their own universes in connection with other people’s universes. Every reader is an Old Dru, just like you and I, Luca, two Old Luz, perhaps. In this way, you, I and the reader are not only the author, interviewer and co-author, we are participants in this journey.
In the book, you show how reading and literature can transform everyday life into fantasy, all you need to do is exercise your eye. What was the biggest challenge you faced when creating these connections between the extraordinary and the ordinary?
Kafka said that everything that is not literature bothered him, and this goes beyond graphic texts, of course. This is a fundamental question in the book (and in my life): “what is the limit between the extraordinary and the ordinary?”. Naturally, they are two different things, otherwise I would show strong signs of schizophrenia, but for me, there are no clear limits between the geopolitics of fiction and reality. The point is that many people leave the ordinary and go to the extraordinary, when reading a book, for example: “now I will abstract myself from reality and travel a little through a good story”; others take a different path: “now I will read a book to continue my journey with other companions”, that makes all the difference! When I finished reading Don Quixote I was in shock and it was difficult to get out of a depressive state in the days following the reading. Quixote, for me, is the greatest reference for this conflict between the ordinary and the extraordinary. On the horizon line it is written that a universe deals with this, but the chapter Interplanetary Literary Festival of the Hunchbacks is incisive about this issue of reality in fantasy through the gaze. So much so that, every time I reread it, I can’t hold back the tears, it’s as if I were reading this chapter for the first time and the author is someone else (and I really am). That said, I had great difficulty writing this book (it was my journey), but finding the connection between the factual and the fictional was not a challenge.
Intertextuality is a strong feature of the work, with references to Drummond, Borges, Shakespeare and other literary masters. Why do you believe it is important to revisit and pay homage to these classic voices in the midst of such a contemporary narrative?
In the poem Eterno , Drummond says: “Eternal is the flower that fades if it knows how to bloom”. This verse is the fusion between the ephemeral and the infinite: the uninterrupted transitory. Among countless characteristics, something that, for me, makes a book classic or canonical is that it is reproduced in other works, even if the people who wrote it (inspired by the classics) do not know where they got those ideas from. The reader can also learn about the idea of a classic without reading a classic. For example, watching a cartoon, someone can have access to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave through a character who lives in a cave and thinks that all reality in the world is what he sees and lives in the shadows. Thus, in some way, everyone encounters the classics at some point, so it is better to dedicate a little more time to the sources. I think that the more we read the classics and contemporary works (which are not copies of copies), the more we will be able to be unique in our creativity and languages. Thus, we can revere the classics and produce something unique at the same time. Ultimately, the classics help us to flourish and flourish.
At the end of the book, you present the references cited as an invitation for readers to continue exploring literature. Do you believe that each reader makes their own literary journey, and how do you hope your book inspires that movement?
There is no such thing as passive literary reading, so I like the word spiral that ends your question: “movement.” On the horizon line is written a universe that does not point to itself, its end is beyond the graphic horizons themselves, it extrapolates to the universe of other readings, of universal literature and of life mediated by fabulation – a term used by sociologist and literary critic Antonio Candido to refer to fiction as the core of life, around which all reality orbits. So, I am happy when someone praises my book, but if someone says that they became a reader of literature through my work, or wanted to read more, or created their own stories by telling them with me in the book, I understand that my “mission” as an author was achieved in them and in me. So, hypothetically, if a reader says that she loved my book and never read another book of literature again, I will have doubts about the nature of this love.
You use Old Dru to change the course of people’s lives through conversations, gestures, and advice. How do you think words—spoken or written—can actually transform the reality of those who read or hear them?
This question intrigues me, I have no objective answer to it. The fact is that reading literature changes lives, but how? Much has been said about this, perhaps enough has been said, but I still want to study more and write some more articles on this subject, which is why this was the subject of my master’s dissertation and I still intend to pursue a doctorate in the same area. On the other hand, I do not support reading, I am not a militant for literature, it does not need me, it does not need anyone. The banner of literature is life in a permanent state of wonder, even in the solitude shared between author (writer) and co-author (reader). I write literature out of pure ecstasy, and also because I cannot help but do it, I think this makes it lighter and more fun, both for me and for those who read and listen to me. Anyway, as Shakespeare said in Timon of Athens : “the world is but a word.” On the horizon line is written a universe; there is a scene in the chapter Blind Gardener , in which Borges, as a character, elucidates this. Therefore, reading literature, becoming a journey to words, characters and stories, is to transform oneself into what one is.
“A universe is written on the horizon” proposes a great journey into oneself. What do you hope the reader will find on this journey: answers, questions or, who knows, new horizons to start over?
I use the term journey to refer to Old Dru’s departure from the bank and his trip to the moon. However, the word crossing would be just as good, with the particularity of not strongly marking the idea of a beginning, middle and end. Crossing would fit better with the idea of a spiral, that is, something through which one can go and come back, but on the way back one is placed in a slightly different space-time, a little ahead or behind, above or below, somewhat expanded. Borges had a problem with the spiral, and this was reflected in his texts. Borges also reinvented the reader, giving him or her prominence in the work, even saying that the reader is co-author of what he or she reads. I attribute this to the spiral of reading or Borges’ spiral . Yes, each reader takes his or her own journey when reading the reality of other invented lives, a journey of the self to oneself, often an unknown or unexplored “self.” Finally, I do not propose, as a final purpose, questions or answers, although they do occur, my intention is much greater, unreasonable, delirious: I hope that the reader blossoms into the Drummondian flower, into the rose of the people, the eternal flower that fades, reduces in size, withers, amputates, cuts, bleeds, expands and multiplies because it has learned to bloom.
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