The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa - Book Chat
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- Опубликовано: 14 окт 2024
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I chat about my experience of The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa. The author's description of a consciousness experiencing what we call "life" is genius. To Pessoa the so-called "dream" world is just as valid as the so-called "real" world. It made me think of what Pessoa might say about the virtual worlds of today's internet age. Shoutout to Better than Food Book Reviews for bringing this book to my attention and his excellent review is here... • Fernando Pessoa - The ...
A video chat on A Little Larger than the Entire Universe: Selected Poems by Fernando Pessoa is here • A Little Larger than t...
Sometimes, when life is getting really overwhelming, I'll pick up this book and start reading random passages. It doesn't calm me down per se, but it takes me somewhere far from my issues. It takes me inward to foreign places in my soul. I've never been a huge poetry fan, but there's something engulfing about the dreamscapes he crafts. If someone has not read this and is considering picking it up, do yourself a favour, pick it up. It's an experience that can't be defined by others.
just smoke some weed
AFAIK it was always meant to be a book, because Pessoa itself (or Bernardo) had a note with the planned structure of the book and many manuscrits had a note indicating it was meant for this book. But maybe we really neaver meant to publish the book and just wait if to be discovered and maybe appreciated in the future. Some text suggest that. It's a fascinating author for us, portuguese, but also to all lovers of literature. The man was a genious writer, poet, philosopher, etc.
You've selected a wonderful passage. The roadside inn also symbolizes how, in spite of what we think we own, accomplish, possess...we are all just sojourners here.
I really enjoyed your review.
Thanks!
Yes I agree and I just love the analogy of the roadside inn. Thanks!
Yes indeed, I seconded that, great review and insight!
I just recently received my copy and I enjoyed the selected passage read. I resonate with your response and I look forward to my own takeaway. First book purchase of 2023 and 55th year of Life! 💚*🙏🏼
Have just ordered this “book”. I am intrigued/excited.
I feel this book deep in my soul, it's one of the few that's had me bawling. I really can't explain why, it just touches me in such a way.
There's something very deep and intimate about this book... great stuff!
Ok, doomer.
My initial experience with this book was rather cerebral and it really moved me. But as I continued to read it, it started to become a little pedantic and aimless. Like I was reading someone's diary. Have to admit this man's ability to coin a phrase was spectacular. But then everything started to sound the same. Leaving the a little flat. He even went out of his way to describe his own style.
I'm reading this book for my English class in college. Sadly, I have difficulty understanding what it's about from the pages I've read so far, as I can't make sense of what I am reading, but your review/analysis really helps understand it more! I thought it had a plot to it for a while and I was confused on if it was written by two authors or not.
I know what you mean about searching for a plot. I did that at first as well and then I realized it's really more like a diary where someone is writing down their thoughts. I just think it's a beautiful book!
What would you recommned to someone who usually hates reading books/non-reader who loved this book (only bumped into it because im portuguese)? I used to read essays by Emerson and they were different but had a somewhat similar impact in that the quality of the thoughts themselves jumped out at you (funnilly enough both Emerson and Pessoa were involved with theosophy I believe).
I'm sure there is reading material out there I'd enjoy in the world, but between being fed up with most subject matters and having a short attention span it's tough to justify investing in reading a book these days. Most classics bore me, 99% of books do. But Disquiet is a different beast and I'm open to explore anything even remotely similar in terms of impact. Thank you :)
Great book, great review, keep it up!
Thank you!
This book is absolutely amazing, I listened first and then red. It’s based on daily observations. To me it’s romantic seul
What would you think is the right way of reading this book?
At first when I was reading the book, I kept trying to make sense of it as far as a typical novel...getting to know the characters, looking for a plot, etc. However, I realized that is not a good way to read the book since there's not actually a plot. I think a good way to read the book is to think of it more as a journal or a diary where someone is writing down their thoughts. Reading it in that way allows you to focus on each segment and what the author is trying to say section to section, as they often don't really relate to each other in the sense of telling a story.
There is only one way to read this book and experience it to the fullest. And it have a particular ritual that you have to follow. Any other way you just can't experience the book to his potencial. The ritual is like this:
1) open the book in a random page
2) read
3) close the book
Do it as much as you want, in any time, any place. You don't think about it. You just read it, a few words of a time, and it will punch you in the gut everytime.
Ideally,
If it could be orchestrated,
Book of Disquiet
could
or should
be read in a condition of personal alienation
:
for example
:
Fling yourself into a far flung place of which you (might) have no personal interest and very limited knowledge of the language spoken in that place.
.
Make sure that the surroundings are (mostly) uninteresting and nothing particular to see (or) do in the area
[no distractions]
..
Rent a mundane room or apartment in a Neither Here-nor-There area of the city, preferably with access to a vast field of some kind, preferably of agricultural use.
-a rail line within hearing distance might be nice.
...
Choose a season to read the book.
3 months is fine
but 6 would be better
Sept through March seems best if city chosen is in Bielorrusia (fx)
Make it the center of your day
The rest of which being spent walking silently around *not* meeting/talking to people
...
Etcetcetc.
....
Might be a life altering project
territories unknown and all that.
.....
Come home
(if any)
and write a book about your time elsewhere
perhaps occasionally mentioning the Book of Disquiet
-perhaps pepper the text with fragments of the BoD
Etc .
Sound good?
*GET ON IT!*
This is my favorite book of Pessoa.However,it is very difficult to read and understand him,especially in this book.What do you recommend to feel and understand him?
I would recommend approaching the book more like it is a series of thoughts and feelings like perhaps a diary rather than a story narrative in the traditional sense. Almost every paragraph has some kind of deep or beautiful though so just take your time and let the book speak to you. It's the kind of book that can be read in pieces over a long period of time so just be patient with yourself and take your time. Hope this helps! :)
Very good chat. Yea gaming analogy is good
We are just running on a pc program with our eyes looking at the icons for cues
We construct our reality but it's not reality at all
Basically we could be a brain in a vat and would never know?
Which translator would you suggest??
You've reviewed my favorite non-fiction book--this very thing--and my favorite fiction book--Stoner. You have a fantastic taste!
The Book of Disquiet is probably my favorite book too! I recently read A Little Larger than the Entire Universe: Selected Poems by Fernando Pessoa and it's now my favorite book of poetry (as you can tell, I'm a big Pessoa fan). Stoner is awesome as well and I'm planning on re-reading it this December, during my month of re-reading. Thanks for the comment!
EarnestlyEston, my God, I'm dying to get 'A Little Larger', but it's sadly out of print here in Brazil.
You are from Brazil? Lucky you that you can read Pessoa in the original Portuguese. Have you read his works in both English and Portuguese? If so, what is your opinion on how it translates?
EarnestlyEston, I've done so. And it does make a difference--rather big sometimes--; for example, there are passages in the Book of Disquiet where he plays with the gender pronouns and demonstrative ones, calling a person "Aquela rapaz" ("aquela" being a feminine demonstrative pronoun and "rapaz" a masculine pronoun), not even to mention the difference in the poetry where language demands even more precision than prose. Lucky enough, he has written in English, so not all is lost.
Vinicius Ferreira da Silva, that is an excellent example of something that would be lost in an English translation!! I love the multiplicity of being that was Fernando Pessoa. I believe that he was a century ahead of his time and belongs more with us in the 21st. His style of writing in English was also unique and not appreciated enough during his life. Sadly, he died far too young as well. I've studied Portuguese in the past - I need to pick it up again if for no other reason than to be able to read a little of his work in the original.
Collin Robinson
I like to think he would be a weeb.
Ha! Could be :)
it's pronounced like the spanish "Suarez" haha
Is not Suarez....... But SOARES
@@fernaodias2591 tu não percebeste o que eu disse...
@@TheGabrielPT Well you are still wrong. It's closer to Suarez, but it ain't Suarez. That's the point.