Hoje foi anunciada a vencedora do Man Booker 2013: Lydia Davis.
Este prémio inglês, bienal e no valor de 70 mil euros, escolheu uma escritora que eu desconhecia, mas que fiquei surpreendida por saber que se trata da primeira mulher de Paul Auster.
Lydia Davis nasceu em Northampton (MA, USA) em 1947 e é escritora de contos e tradutora de autores franceses como Marcel Proust ou Gustave Flaubert (o que lhe valeu uma Menção Honrosa do Governo de França em 1999). É ainda professora de escrita criativa na Universidade de Albany e foi escritora residente na casa de escrita criativa Lillian Vernon da Universidade de Nova Iorque.
Tem publicadas seis colectâneas de contos, como The Thirteenth Woman and Other Stories (1976) e Break It Down (1986), finalista do prémio PEN/Hemingway.
No ano passado, a editora portuguesa Relógio d’Água publicou os seus “Contos Completos”.
Lydia Davis é conhecida pela originalidade e brevidade da sua escrita. Escreve contos pequenos ou muito pequenos, faz observações e é capaz de nos relatar algo precioso de forma muito sucinta, como poderão ver através desta pequena história que aqui vos deixo e que foi publicada em Setembro de 2012 na revista literária The Coffin Factory.
Negative Emotions
A well-meaning teacher, inspired by a text he had been reading, once sent all the other teachers in his school a message about negative emotions. The message consisted entirely of advice quoted from a Vietnamese Buddhist monk:
Emotion, said the monk, is like a storm: it stays for a while and then it goes. Upon perceiving the emotion (like a coming storm), one should put oneself in a stable position. One should sit or lie down. One should focus on one’s abdomen. One should focus, specifically, on the area just below one’s navel, and practice mindful breathing. If one can identify the emotion as an emotion, it may then be easier to handle.
The other teachers were puzzled. They did not understand why their colleague had sent a message to them about negative emotions. They resented the message, and they resented their colleague. They thought he was accusing them of having negative emotions and needing advice about how to handle them. Some of them were, in fact, angry.
The teachers did not choose to regard their anger as a coming storm. They did not focus on their abdomens. They did not focus on the area just below their navels. Instead, they wrote back immediately, declaring that because they did not understand why he had sent it, his message had filled them with negative emotions. They told him that it would take a lot of practice for them to get over the negative emotions caused by his message. But, they went on, they did not intend to do this practice. Far from being troubled by their negative emotions, they said, they in fact liked having negative emotions, particularly about him and his message.
apelo literário 