I do not wish to get too deeply into the Paulo Coelho controversy, not having read or wanted to read any of his books. I will say, however, that I do question the notion that critics of a popular or successful artist must surely be motivated solely by jealousy. We hear the same thing all the time whenever someone dares to criticize Tolkein, Stephen King, or even Dan Brown or the Harry Potter novels. I will agree that the degree of criticism they receive is certainly motivated by their success... but not so much out of jealousy... but rather an indignant feeling that one is sick of continually hearing about an artist of essentially mediocre abilities far more than many others who are far more worthy of attention. Certainly there are hundred/thousands of other writers/artists just as mediocre... but they have never attained a level of success and never been acclaimed by anyone as being anything more than mediocre. Having said that much, I must also question the criticisms of Plato:
"The greek philosopher, Plato, was a terrible writer too (too long sentences, confuse, not very creative with vocabullary)"
I don't know what constitutes a sentence that is "too long" but I'm guessing that Proust, Joyce, Melville, and many others would be found equally guilty of this "fault"... and yet somehow I don't find them to be bad writers. Confusing? The fault there might lie more with the reader than the writer... at least in Plato's instance. Not very creative with vocabulary? Well... he's certainly not a sensual, poetic linguist. Not Proust... but then again neither was Hemingway, Borges, Racine, Kafka, etc... Personally I find his language quite well suited to what he is attempting to convey (form follows function). But let's return to the discussion of some of the other literature from Brazil that is surely far more worthy of attention. I read Amado's Sea of Death some 15 years ago and only remember it vaguely... but I was very much impressed with Machado de Assis' Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas, and I have been looking for some of his other works.



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