This book begins with one of the best opening lines I have read: "all the world began with a yes" (1). With this first line, Lispector introduces the perspectives of open-mindness, macro-thinking, and positivity required to read this novel. I also think this makes an important statement about how the world approaches love. Today, love can be broken down into a transactional exchange of sorts with one person needing to make the leap of faith required to ask the question, with the other (hopefully) answering "yes". This is what makes the narrator of this story so polarizing because he (or she?) never dares to ask the question in the first place. This reluctance from the narrator leaves me with two questions: who is the narrator and who is Macabea?
While reading the beginning of this book, I had an image of a stalker-like figure from the narrator. As if we are experiencing the perspective of someone that is peaking through a window. Upon continuing to read and having the character of the narrator more fleshed out, I began to question how we define and pursue love as I definitely related to the narrator during the beginning pages as he or she experienced an adoration that deemed themselves unfit or unworthy for Macabea's attention. This made me examine how we can create our own narratives when we are in love. We may create an idealized version of people and place them above ourselves.
As I continued to read further, I then began thinking that the narrator is a metaphorical author and Macabea is their metaphorical character. What I first took as creating independent narratives of others within ourselves, eventually led me to think that it was an author trying to create a real and complicated character in Macabea. Another thought I had, was perhaps Macabea was Lispector in fictional form. In her bio, she states that she was a wife of a diplomat which parallels the relationship between Macabea and Olimpico. The written relationship between Macabea and Olimpico shows a clash between the artist and the practical. The artist is consistently being minisculed by someone who holds more "practical" or "worldly" ideas. This portrays an important narrative that the reader is left to sympathize with the artist, showing the importance of the perspectives coming from artistic creatives.
By the end of the novel, my answers to the questions above had yet again changed. I now think that Macabea is a symbol of women in the world today. The examples of being constantly questioned and compared over her looks and her virginity, along with her hidden inner desire to not comply with the norms that those around her are placing, made me believe that this is more than a statement about love, it is a statement on feminism and the quest that women face trying to place themselves into a society that they did not form.
If poetry was written like a novel, this book would be the result of this experimentation. Lispector's prose is so imaginative and descriptive, all while maintaining a flow that is incredibly impactful. The sentence "she didn't know that she herself was a suicide although it had never crossed her mind to kill herself" (50) made me close the book and just sit there to ponder for ages. The Hour of the Star says everything and nothing all at the same time, which is all part of its magic.
Question for the class: Did you see parts of yourself in the narrator (or Macabea)? If so, what? What do you think Lispector was trying to represent through the narrator?
Ooh, I'm interested that you saw the book largely in terms of love. I have to admit that didn't really occur to me, but I see what you're saying.
ReplyDelete"The Hour of the Star says everything and nothing all at the same time."
Nice! Yes, I agree. There's a lot packed into these few pages... and yet there's also nothing much, too.
I was fascinated by the fact that (again, only over the course of 70 or so pages) you tell us you changed your mind at least twice as to how to think about this book.
But are all these examples of the ways in which we projects our own thoughts, desires, experiences on figures such as that of Macabéa? (As your concluding question also suggests.)
Hi Julia!
ReplyDeleteI loved your comments about being a woman, and how that kind of an experience mirrors Macabea's existence and her interactions with others. For me, it was as if I was reading about myself. The need and want to escape, live in the moment and enjoy the little things all at once was something I was very happy to see in writing!
^ - Nandita
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