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Jorge Luis Borges had the soapbox and the authority to complain about this myopic understanding of the duty of Latin American writers

Adam Morris

The Brazilian national identity is not one of João Gilberto Noll primary concerns. This does not mean social critique is absent: race, gender, and class relations are considered in Quiet Creature.
ADAM MORRIS

Concern Country Identity Mean National Primary Reading
I don’t think there’s anything that I would call essentially Brazilian in João Gilberto Noll work. In that regard, it translates very well to a cosmopolitan audience.
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Anything Audience Cosmopolitan Essentially Noll Regard Think Translate Work
Noll is highly respected in Brazil, and at the same time divisive, somewhat like Hilda Hilst. Neither of them enjoys the universal acclaim you might associate with Clarice Lispector, whom everyone adores, myself included.
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Adore Claim Country Divisive Enjoy Injustice Somewhat Time Tremendous Universal
I translated the novel and still it remains a mystery as to how exactly how this works. Noll thinks more like an experimental filmmaker than a novelist.
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Exactly Experience Filmmaker Mystery Novelist Think Translate Work
The authors I prefer are all very different and are not limited to certain genres or even certain time periods.
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Author Certain Different Genre Limited Period Prefer
The main reason I decided to study Latin American literature was because I’d gotten somewhat bored by the American fiction I was reading. I am not drawn to a specific style or aesthetic.
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Bored Country Decided Latin Literature Main Reading Reason Thinking
I realized I had some cultural capital to spend, and I wanted to use it to introduce another author who might be considered a risk by conventional publishers. Michael Noll was at the top of my list.
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Author Capital Considered Cultural Introduce List Outset Realized Spend Top
Borges, in part to legitimize his own Europhilia, correctly pointed out that expecting writers to engage with these romantic nationalist tropes was arbitrary and limiting, a genre that was demonstrative of its own artificiality.
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Artificially Borge Correctly Country Demonstrative Engage Expecting Legitimize Past
This neglect of a very important Brazilian writer is, in my view, the result of Brazil’s relative isolation from what metropolitan tastemakers.
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Important Isolation Neglect Relative Result Writer Writing
I primarily write nonfiction. Research, reflection, and spending time with ideas are important to me. So, this is how I spend most of my time writing – in thought.
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Important Nonfiction Primarily Reflection Research Spending Writing
If João Gilberto Noll were writing in French or German or even Russian, it’s likely he’d be more broadly translated.
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Broadly Country Likely Noll People Translated Writing
Dreamlike sequencing is perhaps one of João Gilberto Noll’s most remarkable triumphs in Quiet Creature on the Corner.
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Creature Dreamlike Most Mystery Quiet Quite Remarkable Sequencing Thinking
Some critics have commented that understanding the specific Brazilian political context of the novel is helpful for reading Quiet Creature. This may be true, but it’s not prerequisite for understanding it.
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Context Critic Helpful Novel Political Prerequisite True Understanding
When I think about literature, I think about it in the three languages I read easily – English, Spanish, and Portuguese.
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Country English Language Literature Portuguese Spanish Think Three
With My Dog-Eyes by Hilda Hilst got more exposure and reached far more readers than I ever expected.
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Expected Exposure Far House Latin Reached Reader Risk
Still, I considered it a tremendous injustice that Noll had not been more widely translated and was determined to rectify it.
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Considered Determined Injustice Noll Rectify Translated Tremendous Widely

Jorge Luis Borges had the soapbox and the authority to complain about this myopic understanding of the duty of Latin American writers

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Jorge Luis Borges had the soapbox and the authority to complain about this myopic understanding of the duty of Latin American writers

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