The Hour of the Star, Clarice Lispector
Hello everyone! This week's book is The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector, a short text that follows the diary or stream of consciousness of a narrator, Rodrigo, writing about a girl he had seen, Macabéa. Frequently, the narrator would question his own writing, saying things like "I'm not a professional" (pg 9). Knowing a bit of Clarice Lispector's background from the introduction, I thought this could potentially be a manifestation of Lispector's own reservations, being a "self taught writer" (pg viii).
I found some parts of this reading almost comical, sometimes at the absurdity of what I was reading or the narrators thoughts. For example, when he said "but I suspect that all this chitchat is made just to put off the poverty of the story, because I'm scared" (pg 8-9) because it seems like procrastination, which is relatable. I also laughed when he said "now I want to speak of this northeastern girl" (pg 10), spoke about her for around two short paragraphs, then said "and I just got fearful when I put down words about the northeastern girl" (pg 10) and continued on writing about himself.
Upon completion of the reading, I found myself questioning whether to Rodrigo, Macabéa is real, or if he just used her as a means to explore his own philosophies about the world. The constant return to speaking of telling the truth made me question whether the narrator was trustworthy. An example of this is when Rodrigo says "she was subterranean and had never flowered. Im lying: she was grass" (pg 22). When Macabéa dies at the end, Rodrigo says "I just died with this girl" (pg 76), and I began to wonder whether she was just a made up character for him to question reality, death, the soul, and God throughout the whole book.
I found myself constantly questioning what was going on, and upon completion of the book I feel like very few of my questions were answered. One question that I am still perplexed by, which will be my question to you all for this week is: Why did the author Clarice Lispector choose to insert "(explosion)" all throughout the book, or for example on page 33? I originally thought it could be literal, and when writing Lispector heard explosions, or it was the narrator that was hearing explosions, but based on the setting of this book I think that that's not the answer. Could it be when a character is having a revelation or someone's mindset is changing?
Hey Samantha, I love how detailed your blog is, it was such a pleasure to read! I was confused by the "(explosion)' throughout the novel as well, but I think your theory of them meaning a revelation would be pretty interesting.
ReplyDelete"I found myself questioning whether to Rodrigo, Macabéa is real, or if he just used her as a means to explore his own philosophies about the world."
ReplyDeleteAh, and what does it *mean* for somebody to be "real" to someone else... Don't we often treat people, especially if only glimpsed on the street (like Macabéa) as cardboard cut-outs, stereotypes, a brief collection of characteristics, without being able to imagine them in their fullness? Isn't that Rodrigo's problem?
Hi Samantha! I really enjoyed reading your thoughts this week, you have some really insightful and interesting ideas that really got me thinking a lot. In response to your question, my complete and honest answer is I don't know. I think that was a common theme for me while reading this book, and I really struggled to grasp this writing style, but I really like your idea of them potentially meaning a revelation of some sort!
ReplyDeleteHi Samantha! I found your thoughts quite interesting and I agree that Rodrigo could be comical sometimes. As for the “explosion” throughout the book, I wondered the same on whether this was figurative or literal. At least now that I look back on it, it might be another way for Rodrigo to say “eureka” when he figured out how to fill in some of his blanks in writing.
ReplyDeleteHi, thanks for the post! I personally thought that the "explosion" was there to add to the separation of the narrator from the narrative. That being said, I wonder if it was just a stylistic choice, I'm unsure if it really had any deeper meaning. Glen
ReplyDeleteHey Samantha, great post! I agree, I found the question of Macbea's existence to be perplexing, especially since Rodrigo was so set on using plain language to describe her. Was this a real person, or was he just coming up with a character to be able to project his world views?
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