Good morning, my well-read commentariat.
Today we’re revisiting what I think is one of the commentariat’s most-loved hoddles: What are you reading right now?
I’ve found many users on this site to enjoy reading, and there is a wide varray of tastes among you.
The last time I checked in with this hoddle I was roughly 370 pages into Richard Zenith’s biography of Fernando Pesso called Pessoa: A Biography.
I haven’t come across many biographies that are as well researched as this, which goes into a detailed biography of Portugal’s greatest writer who bore three of Portugal’s other greatest literary minds (Alberto Caeiro, Alvaro de Campos and Ricardo Reis).
Finally, finally I reached the point in this book where the heteronyms were revealed, as Pessoa described it in his “Triumphal Day”.
It’s a truly sublime book, one that now wrestles with Pessoa’s complicated stances on the Great War and racism. Of course, Pessoa being Pessoa, his views for the most part are wildly inconsistent.
By page 500 we’ve been introduced to Orpheu 1 and Orpheu 2, the former in which Pessoa and Caeiro introduced themselves to Portugal as two of the leading figures in a new literary movement.
There are still plenty of pages left (400), but I am looking forward to discovering more about this labrynthine writer who left indelible marks on poetry, prose, politics, astrology and so much more.
Fitzie’s track of the day: More of the Same, by Caroline Rose
And now for your links:
You want a loanee roundup? You got it, from Alasdair Gold
The Athletic ($$) asks why the Premier League’s elites’ levels have dropped
Gary Lineker to stop hosting Match of the Day
The seven most iconic Portuguese writers, from this Portuguese travel guide
