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My favorite things Brazil
1. Painter: Candido Portinari is the obvious choice, try this one, or here, but he is not well-represented on-line. Jose Antonio da Silva, the naive painter, is a personal favorite; here is one image, here are two more.
2. Movie: Black Orpheus, if seen on a big screen, is splendid from beginning to end. Imagine Rio with empty, unpopulated hills. More recently, I am fond of Central Station, and regard City of God as just a bit overrated.
3. Music: This topic needs a post all its own, and you will get one soon enough.
4. Novel: Brazil (or is it the translators?) is oddly weak in this category. I'll nominate Jorge Amado's Dona Flor, or Machado de Assis, his still underrated Epitaph of a Small Winner. Here are more authors, but I await your guidance. By the way, I think Paulo Coelho's Eleven Minutes is a good read but I haven't been able to finish any of the others by him.
5. Natural wonder: Iguassu is one of the best natural sights in the world. Imagine a big waterfall 17 km long, and with coatimundis, amazing butterflies, and churrascaria nearby.
6. Non-fiction books about: I love Nancy Scheper-Hughes's transcendent Death Without Weeping: The Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil. My runner-up pick would be Alex Shoumanoff, Capital of Hope, about Brasilia. The classic works of Gilbert Freyre are good background on the country, as is Brazil: Once and Future Country.
7. Sculptor: Avant-garde Helio Oiticica is all the rage these days. They put two of his works out at MOMA, a big Tropicalia show in the Bronx, plus a big solo show is coming to Houston, I hope to see it there. The on-line images destroy the angles and the content of the boxes, maybe try this one, but best to see it live.
8. Favorite food: The small towns near Curitiba, in the south, have the world's best beef plus amazing pasta.
The bottom line: Might Brazil be the best place, period? To visit, that is.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on December 23, 2006 at 05:21 AM in The Arts | Permalink
Comments
Novel: You need to read the works of Erico Verissimo, particularly "Incidente em Antares"
Music: Be sure to include the late Elis Regina
Non-Fiction Books About: Perhaps the definitive work about Brazil is the aptly named "The Brazilians" by Joseph A. Page
Posted by: Andrew at Dec 23, 2006 6:34:21 AM
Food... the state of Minas Gerais is Brazil's New Orleans when it comes to food, the best stuff in the country, but if you eat it regularly, you'll have a heart attack by age 14.
Non-fiction books... Brazil's greatest work is Os Sertoes by Euclides da Cunha. I have a translation of titled "Rebellion in the Backlands." It is excessively wordy and overblown, but its an amazing story - (I would imagine one would describe the Anabasis the same way), so much so that it keeps getting retold (e.g., "The War at the End of the World"). But the original goes into so much detail about the land, the drought, the people and the politics that you can envision it happening.
Posted by: cactus at Dec 23, 2006 9:05:34 AM
Natural wonder: Iguassu (only half Brazilian because it is shared with Argentina) is just one of them. The whole country is beautiful.
Posted by: lkatz at Dec 23, 2006 9:39:59 AM
Natural wonder: ahem... the AMAZON, anyone ??
Music: Don't forget the great Clara Nunes ! More good modern voices include Luciana Mello and Roberta Sa.
Food: Anything bought from a street vendor fried in palm oil in Salvador de Bahia...
Posted by: dfic at Dec 23, 2006 10:10:16 AM
Literature: Coelho is widely regarded as the one of our worst. All of Machado de Assis is great, but methinks you should try the short stories. Tyler would probably enjoy Guimarães Rosa, Lima Barreto, Erico Verissimo (the Time and Wind trilogy, especially) and, as mentioned above, Euclides da Cunha's Os Sertoes.
Movie: c'mon, it's Brazil we're talking about. Tyler should replace this category with "Soap Operas", even if some people (such as myself) thinks they are all trash. But if he insists on movies, how about "O Homem do Sputnik" (The Sputnik Man) or some other chanchada?
Posted by: Cisco at Dec 23, 2006 10:33:40 AM
literature:
machado de assis: "dom casmurro", "o alienista" and
"quincas borba"
graciliano ramos:"Barren Lives"
all the above available in Amazon.
you cannot find a translation of "grande sertao:veredas"
by guimaraes rosa. maybe it's impossible to translate....
But I guess these are the three most loved authors by the the academia in Brazil.
I personally like Rubem Fonseca, Ana Miranda and Joao Gilberto Noll. Noll lived and taught in Berkeley for a while and wrote a short story set in the city...i think.
Besides Paulo Coelho and Jorge Amado, who are internationally well known, Patricia Melo has a lot of her books translated to english, with "the killer" being a good starting point.
Posted by: luiedu at Dec 23, 2006 12:34:31 PM
Why didn't I think of Os Sertões. Outstanding story, and it takes place in Northeastern Brazil, where I live. (I live in the hometown of another Brazilian religious demagogue, Padre Cicero)
As for movies, I should have mentioned "O Auto da Compadecida", although it really has to be watched in Portuguese to be understood. Aside from being hilariously funny, it also provides interesting glimpses into Northeastern Brazilian culture, lifestyle, and even theology.
Cisco menioned soap operas. My favorite to date is "Chocolate com Pimenta", which is on it's second run. Interesting for it's portrayal of southern Brazil in the 1920's.
Posted by: Andrew at Dec 23, 2006 8:48:15 PM
Andrew: I'm 23 and I haven't followed a soap opera since "A Proxima Vitima". So my opinion of them is pretty low. But I do wonder what Tyler would make of the Coragem brothers struggling for a fabled diamond, only to shatter it at the end. Or Janete Claire deciding the soap she had took over had way too many characters and using the mother of all deus ex machina to solve the problem.
But I stand by "O Homem do Sputnik". Best "American speaking Portuguese" accent ever. Plus, KGB agents hiding Coca-cola in the cupboard!
Posted by: Cisco at Dec 23, 2006 10:13:11 PM
Brazil just makes me think of coffee and jiu-jitsu. (Outside of the obvious of course, the Amazon, Rio, etc.)
Posted by: Ray G at Dec 23, 2006 10:47:05 PM
Don't forget to try Brazilian chocolate - Garoto.
Posted by: yc at Dec 23, 2006 11:12:26 PM
Fiction: Moacyr Scliar is always very refreshing with his kind and perspicaceous humor.
Posted by: Jana at Dec 24, 2006 5:30:24 AM
Paulo Coelho? Argh! Sorry, but there is not a single Brazilian with 10 g of brain that likes what this man writes. Nevertheless, he's always a best-seller, also abroad! Please, stop the world! I want to run off!
Posted by: Old Oak at Dec 24, 2006 8:49:54 AM
Natural Wonders:
the beaches of northern Sao Paulo state like Ubatuba and Ilha Bela, and southern Rio de Janeiro state like Paraty and Angra dos Reis,
and also
Chapada Diamantina
Posted by: André Uratsuka Manoel at Dec 25, 2006 3:40:41 PM
Topic #...
2. Oh please, City of God was a sensational film!
3. Music: How about starting off with the kings and queens of Bossanova? And how about that Caetano Veloso? Veloso still rocks at age 62.
5. I've been to Iguacu:
http://www.themightywizard.com/BrazilArgentina/ALBUM7.HTML
It is awesome.
Places: Petropolis is a great town to visit for a day trip. It is just a couple of hours outside Rio.
Come on guys, what about those Brazilian women?
Posted by: Neal Meyer at Dec 27, 2006 5:44:27 PM
"Come on guys, what about those Brazilian women?"
Married one. Can't complain.
Posted by: Andrew at Dec 28, 2006 1:57:28 PM
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