Jose Saramago - the only Portuguese-language winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature

Jose Saramago

Jose Saramago was a Portuguese author, and the only Portuguese-language recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature. He was born on November 22^nd, 1922 in Azinhaga, a village in the province of Ribatejo, located about a hundred kilometers northeast of Lisbon. Born to Jose de Sousa and Maria de Piedade, his surname would have been de Sousa if it was not for the Registrar, who added “Saramago” to his name. Saramago, a wild plant whose leaves were served as nourishment to the poor, was his family’s nickname.

Saramago was a self-described good student, who managed to complete his third and fourth years classes in one year. He was moved to grammar school early, but due to his family’s lack of resources, his parents decided to place him at a technical school. It was there that he studied for five years to become a mechanic. To his surprise, though, the technical school required that he take a literature course. He credits that course with opening him to “literacy fruition”, and even in 1999, he could recite the poems he learned there. Upon graduating, he worked as a mechanic for two years, but not at the cost of his love for literature. He often frequented a public library in Lisbon, and says it was there that his taste for reading developed and was refined.

He married Ilda Reis, a typist with the Railway Company, in 1944. The couple had a daughter named Violante, in 1947, and it was during the year of his daughter’s birth that he published his first book, “The Land of Sin“. He wrote a second book, entitled “The Skylight”, and began work on a third, but published neither. In his own words, he felt that he had nothing to say. He took a 19 sabbatical from writing, in which time he switched jobs before ultimately taking a position at the publishing company Estudios Cor as a production manager. Though not writing, he befriended several authors during this period, and began translating works in his free time.

In 1966, he resumed writing and published a book of poetry entitled Possible Poems. During the next five years, he worked at the publishing company, became a literary critic, and published three more books: another collection of poetry called “Probably Joy”, and two collections of newspaper articles called “From This World And The Other” and “The Traveler’s Baggage.”

Saramago and his wife divorced in 1970, and he began dating Portuguese writer Isabel da Nobrega. From 1971 to 1973 Saramago worked at the evening newspaper Diario de Lisboa, as manager of cultural supplement and editor. In 1974 he published “The Opinions the DL Had”, which Saramago described “represent a very precise ‘reading’ of the last time of the dictatorship, which was to be toppled that April. ” In 1975 he became deputy director of the morning newspaper Diario de Noticias, and published three of his own books. He worked at the newspaper between April and November of that year; however, he lost his job due to the aftermath of political and military coup on November 25^th.

From that point, Saramago dedicated himself to writing full-time. From 1976 to 1989 he published several of his best known books, such as “Baltazar and Blimunda”, “The Stone Raft”, and “The History of the Siege of Lisbon.” His relationship with Isabel da Nobrega ended in 1988, and he married Spanish journalist Pilar del Rio the same year.

In 1991 Saramago published his controversial work, “The Gospel According to Jesus Christ.” The novel, which depicted Jesus as living with Mary Magdalene without marrying her, as working as an apprentice to the devil, and even as attempting to thwart the divine plan, was vetoed by the Portuguese government in it’s consideration for the European Literary Prize. The conservative Portuguese government claimed that the book was offensive to Catholics. As a result, Saramago and his wife moved to the island of Lanzarote in the Spanish Canaries, where he spent the rest of his life. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1998, and he published 12 more works before his death on June 18^th, 2010.

Saramago was a member of the Portuguese Communist Party, and a self-described pessimist. Though novels such as “The Gospel According to Jesus Christ” generated controversy, he was very well respected in the literature community. Harold Bloom, American literary critic and Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University, heralded Saramago as “the greatest living novelist.” James Wood, Professor of the Practice of Literary Criticism at Harvard, also praised Saramago’s writing technique, stating that he wrote with a distinctive tone and that he narrated as if he was someone “both wise and ignorant”. Saramago’s funeral was held on June 20^th, 2010, in Lisbon, and attended by over 20,000 people. Portugal declared two days of mourning for his passing.

An unpublished book from 1953, “The Clairvoyant”, was released as Saramago’s “lost book” in 2011. An English translation has not been made available as of 2013.

Bibliography

Jose Saramago - Biographical, last accessed July 16, 2013, http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1998/saramago-bio.html


Jose Saramago, last accessed July 16, 2013, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Saramago

Joy Formidable: a live review.

Aw, and they're beautiful on the inside, too, probably. Nothing like seeing a chick rock out in a sun dress and a Stratocaster.
That was my sentiment, marking out at the Joy Formidable concert last week. I first heard about this band on the radio; you know, that antiquated form of broadcasting that consists of car commercials occasionally broken up by music. A snippet of the verse melody to “A Heavy Abacus”, played in a montage of songs promoting some multi-band concert, caught my ear. I heard it again about four more times without ever hearing what the hell song it was (which is never not infuriating) Eventually I Googled it out.

Turns out this three piece from North Wales had written a few of those “oh, so this is who did that song!” songs. “This Ladder is Ours” was all over the radio, and “Whirring” had received some airplay, too. I YouTube’d their videos and listened to their albums, ad thoroughly dug them enough to go see them at the House of Blues in Boston on Thursday, June 20th (postponed from April 19th, the week of Boston Marathon bombing).

Is that Ktulu? Hmm. Anyway, this is "The Big Roar". There are good songs on this. The openers were a local duo called You Won’t. Originally I thought that I was in for some Black Keys-esque, two-piece rock, but what I got was half an hour taste of what Andy Kaufman in a band would have been like. That’s not to say I wasn’t entertained. The singer played an electric-acoustic guitar plugged into an amp dialed in with a ton of distortion. The other guy played drums with one hand, keyboards with the other. Hearing songs about being 16 and too lazy to do stuff while the guitarist busted out a mellotron and the drummer played what was either a theremin or a band saw provided much entertainment. It was surf rock/alt rock with a Napoleon Dynamite vibe. And now that genre a thing.
Onto the main act! For an alternative rock band, the Joy Formidable got surprisingly heavy at times. Some of their riffs were very Black Sabbath. Front woman Ritzy Bryan headbanged and raged out in her previously mentioned sun dress and Stratocaster. Her sweet voice and polite demeanor juxtaposed nicely with her casual cursing; very sugar and spice. Her boyfriend, bassist Rhydian Dafydd, is one lucky dude. The two shared banter-with-the-audience duty, and were natural and funny, such as when drummer Matt Thomas randomly flung ping-pong balls at Rhydian. That turned into “he’s throwing his balls at me!”, and further turned into drummer jokes. Who doesn’t love that? “Just shaddup and count to four!” Thomas was a madman behind the kit. I didn’t expect it, but from first note to last, he played intensely, arms flailing everywhere, and because he set his kit sideway, he looked like a mad octopus.

Live from Wikipedia. They opened with “Cholla” and lead on into their first-ever single, “Austere”. Rityz led boys through a set that included “This Ladder is Ours”, the lullaby-like “Silent Treatment” (got a little moist-eyed), the super catchy “I Don’t Want to See You Like This”, the 8 minute “The Ever-Changing Spectrum of a Lie”, and closing with “Whirring”. A few of the songs had nice, long, insane finishes that lasted minutes, complete with smashed guitars and multiple bangs of a gong (a GONG!). While their music consists mostly of layered, atmospheric and melodic rock, they weren’t afraid to turn the aggression. It was never abrasive, though; rather, it was passionate and emotion driven, just as a rock band should be. If you missed this show, do yourselves a favor and go next time they come around. Next time is precisely Tuesday, July 8th, when they’ll be opening for the Black Keys in Hartford.

This is the newest album. Go illegally download it





buy it and support the band!