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About a Paragraph Found in Madame Bovary

November 20, 2023

criticism, guest post, Igor Livramento, literature

Today’s post – “About a Paragraph Found in Madame Bovary” – is authored by Igor da Silva Livramento. He’s a fellow academic from UFSC, fellow author, fellow creative-writing advisor, and overall a great fellow. He’s also a composer, music theorist, and producer. You can find him on LinkedIn and here is his own blog.

As per the translation for Penguin (2011, Vintage series):

Emma Bovary is an avid reader of sentimental novels; brought up on a Normandy farm and convent-educated, she longs for the passion of romance. At first, Emma pins her hopes on marriage, but life with her well-meaning husband in the provinces leaves her bored and dissatisfied. She seeks escape through extravagant spending sprees and, eventually, adultery. As Emma pursues her impossible reverie she seals her own ruin and despair. Exquisite, moving, at times ferociously satirical and always psychologically acute, Madame Bovary remains one of the greatest, most beguiling novels ever written.

Knowing this novel that has made history (given its many film adaptations), I will analyze a paragraph to demonstrate that its superficial simplicity and perfect grammar conceal a creative and magnificent use of language in its powers of characterization, description, abstraction, concreteness and perspective.

We will find a representation of the dissolution of subjectivity through the accumulation of restless anguish, paired with existential reflection in the small actions of everyday life. This will demonstrate the technical mastery with which Flaubert wrote and from which we can learn to produce literature of high emotional impact, even when the scene we describe to the reader seems as static as a Renaissance painting.

Madame Bovary, painting made with Bing Image Creator — This is only an image made with Bing Image Creator, but it’s a serendipitous “choice” to place the character in front of the open window, the room behind her

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Individuality and Capitalism: Lessons From Remaking my Website

November 13, 2023

Home For Fiction, Programming, Society

capitalism, home for fiction, programming, society

For a long time I’ve been meaning to revamp Home for Fiction. When I put it together back in 2017, I was in the middle of defending my doctoral dissertation, and I had no time or energy for coding, so I simply picked a ready template. Recently, I finally decided to modify it, and the process was thoroughly revealing. From all things, it also taught me a thing or two about individuality, capitalism, and how society is becoming increasingly more dysfunctional.

Yeah, I know; all this from putting together some web pages?

But, in the end, that’s why we need to be experiencing the world around us before we write: in order to discover the connections that lie there unnoticed.

So, in this post, I’ll briefly explain my motivation in changing some things and, above all, what it taught me about individuality and capitalism. And we’ll begin precisely from this point.

individuality and capitalism – cartoon of Punning Walrus in front of computer — This image holds *meta-* value, because the inclusion of my **Punning Walrus cartoon** was one of the motivating factors behind modifying the Home for Fiction website

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Writing Violet Evergarden Style

November 6, 2023

Experiencing, Writing

creativity, experiencing, fiction, literature, writing

Violet Evergarden is a character in the eponymous Japanese light novel series – and subsequently anime. But what does “writing Violet Evergarden style” mean, and why should we care?

Well, as I’ve said before, finding connections in fiction is crucial for creating a cohesive, conceptually solid narrative. But there’s more: Finding connections in general leads to more knowledge, more productive imagination, more surprising paths.

To blow my own trumpet, one of the best compliments I was ever given in my academic life – in the official report accompanying my MA grading no less – was that I have “an uncanny ability in finding connections”.

And so, writing Violet Evergarden style – writing the way a character in a young adult anime writes – might sound like an odd thing to base a writing advice post on – probably not as odd, though, as pairing narrative diversions with a scantily dressed comic heroine. In any case, there are very, very important lessons here.

writing Violet Evergarden style – a typewriter against the sunset

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