Fernando Pessoa: Office Worker, Occultist, Galaxy of Writers
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Re: Fernando Pessoa: Office Worker, Occultist, Galaxy of Writers
#2Re: Fernando Pessoa: Office Worker, Occultist, Galaxy of Writers
#3Why is a paywalled NYT article being highlighted on HN?
Re: Fernando Pessoa: Office Worker, Occultist, Galaxy of Writers
#4I won't read NYT, but I do recommend the Book of Disquiet to anyone with a soul
Re: Fernando Pessoa: Office Worker, Occultist, Galaxy of Writers
#5Thank you. This guy seems quite interesting.
A review of one of his most popular books - "The Book of Disquiet" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAsMYhmuyhU https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40881621-the-book-of-dis...
Re: Fernando Pessoa: Office Worker, Occultist, Galaxy of Writers
#6There is a huge archive effort of Pessoa's poems in:
Most of it is in original Portuguese but there is an English poems section 'Poesia Inglesa'.
To be fair I think as with most poetry it is worth reading in the native language to fully appreciate it.
Re: Fernando Pessoa: Office Worker, Occultist, Galaxy of Writers
#7Honestly this guy seems in denial with his depresssion, at least if I look him with the lens of contemporary culture.
Everything is in his head, fantasy is elevated as a higher value. According to today's "here and now" attitude his lifestyle is not healthy at all.
Re: Fernando Pessoa: Office Worker, Occultist, Galaxy of Writers
#8Honestly this guy seems in denial with his depresssion, at least if I look him with the lens of contemporary culture. Everything is in his head, fantasy is elevated as a higher value. According to today's "here and now" attitude his lifestyle is not healthy at all.
Pessoa dealt with several major depressions during his lifetime and was very aware of them. If anything he wallowed in his depressions. This is all documented. I love his books so I'm biased, but this is too much of a dismissive comment about a writer with a great body of work. If anything I think his struggles improved his writing which can help people deal with their own depressive moods, even if it prevented him from leading a happy life himself.
Re: Fernando Pessoa: Office Worker, Occultist, Galaxy of Writers
#9Honestly this guy seems in denial with his depresssion, at least if I look him with the lens of contemporary culture. Everything is in his head, fantasy is elevated as a higher value. According to today's "here and now" attitude his lifestyle is not healthy at all.
Most famous artists of the past lived lifestyles that would not meet the approval of our present-day corporate overlords.
Possibly with the exception of commercially-minded artists like Bouguereau, a 19th century French painter who spent his considerable talent on churning out endless canvases of cute baby angels. He is supposed to have said: “I lose 100 francs every time I have to stop painting to take a piss.” — Clearly a model of contemporary productivity.
Re: Fernando Pessoa: Office Worker, Occultist, Galaxy of Writers
#10There is a huge archive effort of Pessoa's poems in: http://arquivopessoa.net/ Most of it is in original Portuguese but there is an English poems section 'Poesia Inglesa'. To be fair I think as with most poetry it is worth reading in the native language to fully appreciate it.
To clarify, Pessoa did write also in English and French. His poems in English are not translations, he did write in those languages.
If I'm not mistaken, his famous "Give me some more wine, because life is nothing"[1] was originally written in english.
[1] https://disquietthoughts.blogspot.com/2007/11/there-are-dise...