Why This World
Page 57
21. Answering her sister, who thought chapter 11, “The First Deserters,” superfluous, it shows “the connection of Perseu with the rest, is that he didn’t need, like Lucrécia, to go out in search of reality, he was part of the truth. … Perseu was what Lucrécia couldn’t manage to be.” Letter to Tania Lispector Kaufmann, November 5, 1948, Lispector and Montero, Correspondências, 177.
22. Lispector, Cidade sitiada, 20.
23. Ibid., 91.
24. Ibid., 18.
25. Lispector, “Perfil de um ser eleito,” in Descoberta, 416, quoted in Regina Lucia Pontieri, Clarice Lispector: Uma poética do olhar (São Paulo: Ateliê Editorial, 1999), 17.
Chapter 20
1. Lispector et al., “Conversas com P.,” in Outros escritos, 87.
2. Lispector, “Lembrança de uma fonte, de uma cidade,” in Descoberta, 286.
3. Lispector, “A entrevista alegre,” in Descoberta, 56.
4. Lispector, “As três experiências,” in Descoberta.
5. Ibid.
6. Lispector, letter to Elisa Lispector and Tania Lispector Kaufmann, September 11, 1948, in Minhas queridas, 198.
7. Lispector, letter to Elisa Lispector and Tania Lispector Kaufmann, September 21, 1948, in Minhas queridas, 201.
8. Letter to Zuza and Mozart Gurgel Valente Sr., September 25, 1948, in Gotlib, Clarice, 260.
9. Quoted in Ferreira, Eu sou, 154.
10. Lispector and Montero, letter to Tania Lispector Kaufmann, November 5, 1948, Correspondências, 177.
11. Lispector, “Virgem em todas as mulheres,” in Descoberta, 163.
12. Lispector, “Hoje nasce um menino,” in Descoberta, 424.
13. Lesser, Welcoming, 2.
14. Wainer, Minha razão, 133–34.
15. E. Lispector, Exílio, 7–8.
16. The birth of the State of Israel was not the immediate impulse for writing the book, however, which was complete by the middle of 1947 and published the next year, when Elisa added the preface.
17. Renard Perez, “Lembrança de Elisa Lispector,” (1996), 2. Unpublished typescript, author’s collection.
18. “Os novos: Elisa Lispector,” Revista Panorama, August 1947.
19. According to the errata attached to the first edition.
20. Elisa Lispector, Além da fronteira (1945; Rio de Janeiro: Leitura, 1988), 4.
21. Ibid., 7.
22. Antonio Carlos Villaça, on flap copy of 1988 edition.
23. E. Lispector, Além da fronteira, 42.
24. Via Ivan Lessa. Maria Alice Barroso recalled another lover with whom Elisa occasionally traveled (interview, Rio de Janeiro, May 10, 2007).
25. Perez, “Lembrança de Elisa Lispector,” 4.
26. Clarice Lispector, A hora da estrela (Rio de Janeiro: Livraria J. Olympio Editora, 1977), 51.
27. Elisa Lispector, Corpo a corpo (Rio de Janeiro: Edições Antares, 1983), 43.
28. E. Lispector, Além da fronteira, 20, 13, 43.
29. Quoted in Ferreira, Eu sou, 150.
30. Letter to Tania Lispector Kaufmann, July 7, 1948, in Gotlib, Clarice, 258.
31. Lispector and Montero, letter to Tania Lispector Kaufmann, November 5, 1948, Correspondências, 177.
32. Lispector, letter to Tania Lispector Kaufmann and Elisa Lispector, February 19, 1949, in Minhas queridas, 214–15.
33. Gotlib, Clarice, 262.
34. Lispector and Montero, letter to Tania Lispector Kaufmann, November 5, 1948, Correspondências, 177.
35. Interviews with Cecília Lipka and Eliane Gurgel Valente, Rio de Janeiro, July 29, 2006, and Paris, December 3, 2007.
36. Quoted in Gotlib, Clarice, 257–58.
37. Letter to Elisa Lispector and Tania Lispector Kaufmann, March 25, 1949, in ibid., 262.
38. Lispector, “Viajando por mar (1a parte),” Descoberta, 377.
39. Quoted in Gotlib, Clarice, 480.
40. Ribeiro, “Tentativa de explicação”; Ferreira, Eu sou, 159.
41. Lispector and Montero, letter from Bluma Wainer, April 3, 1947, Correspondências, 123.
42. Letter from Bluma Wainer, March 24, 1948, CLA.
43. Lispector and Montero, letter from Bluma Wainer, October 2, 1947, Correspondências, 155.
44. Lispector and Montero, letter from Bluma Wainer, July 15, 1947, Correspondências, 137.
45. Lispector and Montero, letter from Bluma Wainer, March 3, 1948, Correspondências, 168.
Chapter 21
1. Lispector and Montero, letter from Lúcio Cardoso, July 26, 1947, Correspondências, 144.
2. Octávio de Faria, quoted in Carelli, Corcel, 54.
3. See Thomas E. Skidmore, Black into White: Race and Nationality in Brazilian Thought (1974; New York: Oxford University Press, 1993).
4. M. H. Cardoso, Vida-vida, 231.
5. Lispector and Montero, letter to Lúcio Cardoso, August 13, 1947, Correspondências, 147.
6. Letter, October 20, 1947, in Carelli, Corcel, 55.
7. Ferreira, Eu sou, 42.
8. Octávio de Faria, quoted in Carelli, Corcel, 55.
9. M. H. Cardoso, Vida-vida, 42.
10. Lispector and Montero, letter from João Cabral de Melo Neto, February 15, 1949, Correspondências, 186.
11. Lispector, “A pecadora queimada e os anjos harmoniosos,” in Legião, 179–92.
12. The first review was on September 1. On September 4, 1949, the book was written about in O Jornal.
13. Marly de Oliveira quoted in Pontieri, Poética, 37.
14. Sérgio Milliet, Diário crítico de Sérgio Milliet (1953; São Paulo: Martins, 1982), 7:33–34, quoted in Pontieri, Poética, 38–39.
15. Varin and Lispector, Rencontres, 99.
16. João Gaspar Simões, “Clarice Lispector ‘Existencialista’ ou ‘Supra-realista,’ ” Diário Carioca, May 28, 1950, in Vilma Arêas and Berta Waldman, eds., Clarice Lispector: Remate de Males, vol. 9, Revista do Departamento de Teoria Literária (Campinas: Universidade Estadual de Campinas, 1989), 178, quoted in Pontieri, Poética, 41–46. Simões was one of the Portuguese cultural figures whom Clarice had met and impressed in Lisbon in 1944.
17. For this interview (1976) for the Fundação Museu de Imagem e do Som, see Lispector et al., Outros escritos, 135–71. See also Lispector, “Carta atrasada,” in Descoberta, 288–89; Jornal de Letras, interview, September 1960, quoted in Sousa, Figuras, 72.
18. Interview, Fundação Museu de Imagem e do Som, 1976, in Lispector et al., Outros escritos. See also Lispector, “Carta atrasada,” in Descoberta, 288–89.
19. Quoted in Gotlib, Clarice, 269.
20. Lispector, “O caso da caneta de ouro,” in Descoberta, 53.
21. Lispector and Montero, letter to Tania Lispector Kaufmann, October 23, 1950, Correspondências, 191.
22. Letter to Tania Lispector Kaufmann and Elisa Lispector, November 1950, quoted in Gotlib, Clarice, 276.
23. Lispector and Montero, letter to Tania Lispector Kaufmann, October 23, 1950, Correspondências, 191.
24. Letter to Tania Lispector Kaufmann and Elisa Lispector, November 1950, quoted in Gotlib, Clarice, 276.
25. Ibid., 192.
26. Lispector and Montero, letter to Tania Lispector Kaufmann and Elisa Lispector, November 28, 1950, Correspondências, 233–34.
27. Lispector, “As pontes de Londres,” in Descoberta, 418.
28. Coutinho, Criaturas, 170. It seems, from this interview and from other hints, that she was planning to name this child João.
29. Lispector, G. H., 150.
30. Interview with Marco Antonio de Carvalho and Ana Luisa Chafir, Rio de Janeiro, August 1, 2006.
31. Carvalho, Braga, 286.
32. Rubem Braga, “O gêsso,” in A cidade e a roça (Rio de Janeiro: Livraria José Olympio Editôra, 1957), 178.
33. Skidmore, Politics, 79–81.
34. Quoted in ibid., 79.
35. Wainer, Minha razão, 190.
36. A. M. Nunes, Jornalista, 132–33.
37. Ibid., 133.
39. Columns of May 15, 1952, and May 22, 1952, quoted in Clarice Lispector and Aparecida Maria Nunes, Correio feminino (Rio de Janeiro: Rocco, 2006), 56, 59.
40. From Jornal do Brasil but not included in Descoberta, quoted in A. M. Nunes, Jornalista, 137.
41. Column of September 5, 1952, quoted in Lispector and Nunes, Correio, 120–21.
42. Column of May 22, 1952, quoted in Lispector and Nunes, Correio, 125.
Chapter 22
1. Clarice Lispector, “Amor,” in Alguns contos, Os Cadernos de Cultura ed. (Rio de Janeiro: Ministério da Educação e Saúde, Serviço de Documentação 1952), 34.
2. Ibid., 32–33.
3. “Amor,” in Laços de família, 26.
4. Lispector, “Brain Storm,” in Descoberta, 261.
5. “Amor,” in Laços de família, 27, 30, 31.
6. For this reading I am indebted to Manzo, Era uma vez, 46.
7. “Amor,” in Laços de família, 29.
8. Sabino and Lispector, Cartas, 124n.
9. Manzo, Era uma vez, 44. When Family Ties appeared in 1960, one newspaper wrote that Clarice had finally returned to Brazilian letters, after having published no books for more than ten years (i.e., since The Besieged City of 1949).
10. This piece was published in A Manhã in October 1946.
11. Lispector, Alguns contos, 42.
12. “Amor,” in Laços de família, 34, 35, 36.
13. “Amor,” in Laços de família, 36.
14. Lispector, “Viajando por mar (1a parte),” in Descoberta, 377. The name of this woman was Avani Cardoso Ferreira dos Santos, according to Ferreira, Eu sou, 185.
15. Sabino and Lispector, letter to Helena Valladares Sabino and Fernando Sabino, February 2, 1953, Cartas, 91.
16. Wainer, Minha razão, 221–22.
17. Quoted in Gotlib, Clarice, 285.
18. Lispector, letter to Elisa Lispector, February 21, 1953, in Minhas queridas, 241.
19. Perez, Escritores brasileiros contemporâneos, 152.
20. Verissimo, Brazilian Literature, 1.
21. Manchete, interview, January 4, 1969, in Instituto Moreira Salles, Cadernos de literatura brasileira: Erico Verissimo (São Paulo: Instituto Moreira Salles, 2003), 16:28–29.
22. Lispector, Onde, 115. This comment appears only in the first edition of the book, which carries the incorrect title Onde estivestes de noite?
23. Erico Verissimo, Solo de clarineta; Memórias (1973; Porto Alegre: Editora Globo, 2005), 1:290.
24. Ibid., 1:299.
25. Interview with Clarissa Verissimo Jaffe, Washington, June 12, 2007.
26. Luis Fernando Verissimo, “Clarice,” O Globo, undated clipping from author’s collection.
27. Ferreira, Eu sou, 187.
28. Mafalda Verissimo, interviewed by Vera Regina Morganti, in Vera Regina Morganti et al., Confissões do amor e da arte (Porto Alegre: Mercado Aberto, 1994), 142–43, quoted in Manzo, Era uma vez, 62–63.
29. Ibid. For the apposite quote from The Apple in the Dark I am also indebted to Manzo, Era uma vez, 63.
30. Lispector and Montero, letter from Rubem Braga, May 23, 1953, Correspondências, 196.
31. E. Lispector, Exílio.
32. See http://www.fortunecity.com/lavender/tomatoes/792/bloch4.htm.
33. Sabino and Lispector, letter to Fernando Sabino, July 28, 1953, Cartas, 99.
34. Sabino and Lispector, letters to Fernando Sabino, July 28, 1953, and from Fernando Sabino, August 30, 1953, September 10, 1953, October 5, October 21, October 27, 1953, Cartas.
35. Lispector, letter to Tania Lispector Kaufmann and Elisa Lispector, May 10, 1954, Minhas queridas, 253.
36. Letter to Pierre de Lescure, May 6, 1954, CLA.
37. Ibid.
38. Varin, Langues, 32.
39. Letter to Pierre de Lescure, June 20, 1954, CLA. She regretted her unkind words about the translation (by Denise-Teresa Moutonnier), which eventually did incorporate her improvements. The book came out with a bright cover designed by Henri Matisse and a preface by Paulo Mendes Campos. Three years later (May 14, 1957) she was still apologizing for her behavior: “Je ne saurai m’excuser de mon mauvais temperament,” she wrote Lescure.
Chapter 23
1. Wainer, Minha razão, 231.
2. Ibid., 254.
3. Ibid., 261.
4. Skidmore, Politics, 142.
5. Lispector and Montero, letter to Mafalda Verissimo, August 14, 1954, Correspondências, 204.
6. The address was Rua Marquês de Abrantes, 126/1004, Flamengo.
7. Sabino and Lispector, letter to Fernando Sabino, September 25, 1954, Cartas, 118.
8. Sabino and Lispector, letter to Fernando Sabino, August 30, 1953, Cartas, 104.
9. Paulo Gurgel Valente, “Entrevista comigo mesmo: Clarice,” in Clarice Lispector, Dez contos selecionados de Clarice Lispector (Brasília: Confraria dos Bibliófilos do Brasil, 2004), i.
10. Quoted in Gotlib, Clarice, 312.
11. Interview in Lispector et al., Outros escritos, 161.
12. Lispector, “Crônica social,” in Descoberta, 199.
13. Interview with Eliane Gurgel Valente, Paris, December 3, 2007.
14. Lispector, “Trechos,” in Descoberta, 405.
15. In 1937, as Rio’s federal interventor, Amaral Peixoto visited a Jewish agricultural colony, and “what he seemed to find ‘very agreeable’ was that there were few Jews actually living there.” Lesser, Welcoming, 87. With what degree of conviction he held these views is unclear; at the very least, like so many other highly placed people, he did not resist the anti-Semitic views then prevailing. The result was to block the escape paths of the Jews of Europe. As neither Alzira Vargas nor Hélène Moreira Salles were widowed at the time Clarice wrote this piece, the person in question was likely Yvonne Muniz, whose husband, the Esperantist and atomic energy advocate João Carlos Muniz, was in Washington from 1953 to 1956.
16. Ferreira, Eu sou, 188.
17. Undated letter from Alzira Vargas do Amaral Peixoto to Clarice Lispector, CLA. The book was published in 1960.
18. Ferreira, Eu sou, 197.
19. Valmiki Villela Guimarães, “Clarice Lispector em duas histórias,” Minas Gerais Suplemento Literário, December 19, 1987.
20. Ferreira, Eu sou, 198.
21. Ibid., 198–99; interview with Maria Bonomi, Amsterdam, October 18, 2006.
22. João Cabral de Melo Neto, Agrestes: Poesia (1981–1985) (Rio de Janeiro: Editora Nova Fronteira, 1985). According to Teresa Cristina Montero Ferreira, this poem describes a true event in Washington.
23. Quoted in Coutinho, Criaturas, 170.
24. Lispector et al., “Conversas com P.,” in Outros escritos, 83.
25. Quoted in Gotlib, Clarice, 287.
26. Quoted in Ferreira, Eu sou, 183, 86.
27. Interview with Sara Escorel de Moraes, Rio de Janeiro, October 5, 2007.
28. Lispector et al., Outros escritos, 84.
29. Lispector and Montero, letter to Elisa Lispector and Tania Lispector Kaufmann, April 23, 1957, Correspondências, 230.
30. Lispector, letter to Elisa Lispector and Tania Lispector Kaufmann, November 27, 1953, in Minhas queridas, 248.
Chapter 24
1. Lispector, “Estado de graça–Trecho,” in Descoberta, 91. This phrase is also used in the long passage An Apprenticeship when Lori enters the state of grace (156).
2. Lispector, Maçã, 32.
3. Lispector, “As grandes punições,” November 4, 1967, in Descoberta, 36.
4. Lispector, Maçã, 264.
5. Spinoza, Collected Works, 1:543.
6. Lispector, Maçã, 200.
7. Spinoza, Collected Works, preface to part IV, Ethica.
8. Lispector, Lustre, p. 103.
9. Lispector, Maçã, 11.
10. Ibid., 20, 21.
11. Ibid., 24.
12. Ibid., 28–29, 30–31.
13. Ibid., 29.
14. Ibid., 39, 44.
15. Ibid., 52, 61.
16. Ibid., 62, 76.
17. Ibid., 89, 83.
18. Ibid., 88, 89, 100–101.
19. Ibid., 102, 104.
20. Ibid., 121. “Originally, everything was conceived as one great whole, and the life of the Creator pulsated without hindrance or disguise in that of his creatures. Everything stood in direct mystical rapport with everything else, and its unity could have been apprehended directly and without the help of symbols. Only the Fall has caused God to become ‘transcendent.’ ” Scholem, Major Trends, 224.
21. Lispector, Maçã, 143, 163–64.
22. Ibid., 168–69.
23. Ibid., 129.
24. Lispector, “O maior elogio que recebi,” in Descoberta, 79.
25. Lispector, Sopro, 11.
26. Lispector, Maçã, 305.
27. Ibid., 163–64.
28. Ibid., 213.
29. Ibid., 164.
30. Ibid., 211.
31. Scholem, Major Trends, 132.
32. Lispector et al., Outros escritos, 45.
33. Scholem, Major Trends, 25, 217.
34. The book contains other concepts that resemble earlier Jewish mystical writings. There is the attitude that sexuality is close to the original life of God; there is the mystical equation of God and Nothing; there is the idea, so prominent in the Zohar, that the development of language is related to the process of life in God. Most of these ideas have precedents in Clarice’s earlier work and seem to have developed from her own insights, not from any prolonged study of other writers.
35. Ribeiro, “Tentativa de explicação.”
36. Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell, letter from Elizabeth Bishop to Robert Lowell, July 2, 1963, in Words in Air: The Complete Correspondence between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell, ed. Thomas Travisano with Saskia Hamilton (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008), 479.
37. Letter to Natércia Freire, August 27, 1945, Biblioteca Nacional, Lisbon.
38. Scholem, Major Trends, 24.
39. Lispector, Maçã, 214.
40. Ibid.
41. Ibid.
42. Quoted in Chayim Bloch, The Golem: Legends of the Ghetto of Prague (Vienna: The Golem, 1925), 26–27.
Chapter 25