excerpt
In these times when television has replaced conversation, the age-old rite of narrating has assumed new importance, and the writer tends to be a narrator, telling the intended reader why he set out on one path instead of another, the obstacles he encountered, and how he finally achieved his goal. In so doing, he brings us to understand that the act of writing is an adventure.
synopsis
A kaleidoscope of contemporary ideas, A força da palavra comprises interviews with foreign intellectuals and writers published in the major Brazilian print media. Twenty authors presented in all their originality thanks to the method of the interviewer, who starts out from a carefully organized script but allows herself to be guided by the interviewee, never forcing the conversation into a preconceived framework.
Jacques Derrida speaks of Marx and his ghosts. Michel Serres offers an apologia for racial amalgamation. Jean-Claude Carrière, coauthor of a book with the Dalai Lama, introduces us to Buddhism.
Besides philosophers and psychoanalysts, A força da palavra highlights poets and novelists. Octavio Paz says that love is a choice of freedom; Françoise Sagan, that a person is free only when he desires what is attainable; and Nathalie Sarraute, a historical name of the nouveau roman, that in literature there are no mentors.
history
Published by Record in 1996 and launched at the auditorium of the Folha de S. Paulo with a debate and the participation of various journalists. The book led to the author’s being invited to give addresses at numerous departments of journalism in Brazilian universities. When the book went out of print, the author prepared a revised and expanded second edition with an additional 11 interviews, conducted and published up to 2004, including one with the Brazilian sociologist Gilberto Freyre on the culture of play and two with outstanding Chinese writers: the novelist and playwright Gao Xingjian and the poet Bei Dao. The new edition has not yet appeared in print form.
opinion
BRAZIL
“A força da palavra could be called ‘The force of silence.’ Because, above all, Betty knows how to listen at the right moments an apparently simple secret but one that demands perception, control, and wisdom.”
Lector, September 1996
PORTUGAL
“The interviews are very stimulating. Brief but dense, full of reflective suggestions.”
Maria Isabel Barreno, letter,November 1996
areas of interest
Communications, Literature.
critical reaction
where to purchase
Saraiva (portuguese – printed) | Livraria Cultura (portuguese – printed) | Livraria Cultura (portuguese – e-book)