{"id":630,"date":"2019-12-10T09:13:08","date_gmt":"2019-12-10T09:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/?p=630"},"modified":"2019-12-10T11:00:45","modified_gmt":"2019-12-10T11:00:45","slug":"a-writer-and-his-house-of-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/2019\/12\/10\/a-writer-and-his-house-of-books\/","title":{"rendered":"A WRITER AND HIS HOUSE OF BOOKS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jos\u00e9 Saramago and a home in Tias<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The moment the tour guide invites you over the threshold of the place where Jos\u00e9 Saramago once lived, you know you are entering a house \u00a0of books; a house that was obviously his place of work, and also obviously his place of relaxation. To be shown round the premises is to take a stroll through the life of a writer who came here, to the island, to observe the rest of the world. He would say that, here, he could hear all the voices of the world but not its noise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was here that Jos\u00e9 would sit\nin his garden, on a lump of volcanic rock that he somehow found to be a\ncomfortable seat, looking down on hundreds of square nautical miles of the\nAtlantic ocean, tasting the wind and at one with nature. Here he would meet\nwith friends in the kitchen, in conversation over endless cups of Portuguese\ncoffee. Here he would sit in the library, inhabited by \u00b4books with people\ninside,\u00b4 and write his own last works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Lanzarote celebrates artists<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This literary walk will take\nyou not only through the house where Jos\u00e9 lived but also through the universal\nwriting he created, and you might even amble along some of the imagined\nSidetracks and Detours he himself followed all across the arts when writing his\npoetry and prose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lanzarote loves to commemorate\nand to celebrate its much-loved and successful artists. In fact, they even do\nso for artists who are not, strictly speaking, \u00b4theirs\u00b4 at all. The\nautobiography of this revered artist, a writer, reveals in its translated-to-English\nversion that although he wasn\u00b4t born on the island, he did enjoy his greatest\nsuccess here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, he tells us in his own\nwords that he \u00b4was\nborn in a family of landless peasants, in Azinhaga, a small village in the\nprovince of Ribatejo, on the right bank of the Almonda River, around a hundred\nkilometres north-east of Lisbon. My parents were Jos\u00e9 de Sousa and Maria da\nPiedade.\u00b4 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b4Jos\u00e9 de Sousa would have been my own name had\nnot the Registrar, on his own initiative added the nickname by which my\nfather\u2019s family was known in the village: Saramago. I should add that saramago<\/em> is a wild herbaceous plant, whose\nleaves in those times served at need as nourishment for the poor. Not until the\nage of seven, when I had to present an identification document at primary\nschool, was it realised that my full name was Jos\u00e9 de Sousa Saramago\u2026\u00b4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not only was Jos\u00e9\u00b4s full name not\ncorrectly registered but nor was his date of birth for reasons that were\nsomething to do with tax payments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, his autobiography\ntranslated into English by Fernando Rodrigues and Tim Crosfield <\/strong>makes fascinating reading, and in detailing his family\ntree, reveals elements of life in France and Portugal during the First World War\nand later discusses the living conditions he was brought up in with his parents\nand brother in Lisbon. There are some charming schoolboy memories, too, of how\nhe \u00b4learned hand-writing with no spelling mistakes\u00b4, which must have come in\nhandy during his adult life as writer and recipient of one of the most\nprestigious awards in the literary world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His autobiography also recalls his\nfirst forays into writing with poetry pamphlets entitled Possible Poems (1966)\nand Probably Joy in 1970. A collection of his newspaper articles was then\ncollated and published at the end of 1971. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The nineteen eighties were entirely\ndedicated to working on novels such as Baltazar and Blimunda,<\/em>\n1982, The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis,<\/em> 1984, The Stone Raft,<\/em> 1986, and The History of the Siege of\nLisbon,<\/em> 1989. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jos\u00e9\u00b4s work was no stranger to\ncontroversy, however and when the Portuguese government sought to impose censorship\non his work, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ<\/em> (1991), vetoing\nits presentation for the European Literary Prize, suggesting their reason for\ndoing so was that the book could be construed as offensive to Catholics, he and\nhis wife left Portugal to settle here on Lanzarote. It would be only five years\nlater that he was awarded\nthe Nobel Prize for Literature, the first ever award for works written in\nPortuguese.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Nobel Prize For Literature<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Nobel\nPrize in Literature is a Swedish literature prize awarded annually, since 1901,\nto an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish\nindustrialist Alfred Nobel, \u00b4produced in the field of literature the most\noutstanding work in an ideal direction\u00b4. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though individual\nworks are sometimes cited as being particularly noteworthy, the award is based\non an author’s body of work as a whole. The Swedish Academy decides who, if\nanyone, will receive the prize. The academy announces the name of the laureate\nin early October, and many readers will recall the media-contrived outcry of a\nfew years ago when the prize was awarded to Bob Dylan for his canon of lyrics,\npoetry, novels and short stories. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jos\u00e9 Saramago, on accepting his prize,\npromised he \u00b4would not\ntake on the duties of the Nobel as would the winner of a beauty contest, who\nhas to be shown off everywhere . . . I don\u2019t aspire to that kind of throne, nor\ncould I, of course.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And so it is that Jos\u00e9, who often\ncited Franz Kafka as being a major influence on his writing, is now\ncommemorated and celebrated on Lanzarote. Much of his fictional output has also\nbeen translated into several languages and so the Lanzarote house he once lived\nin is of interest to tourists and visitors who come to holiday on the island\nfrom many different countries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, the house he lived in has been\nturned into The Jos\u00e9 Saramago Home Museum. It was opened on 18th March 2011 and\nnow tourists and islanders alike have the opportunity to visit and wander\nthrough the writer’s work and leisure areas. The house is situated on the edge\nof Tias by a roadside and roundabout on which is placed an intriguing metalic sculpture\nthat is a flowing abstract design of his initials. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\ntour begins in the attractive, light and airy entrance hall which has a C\u00e9sar\nManrique engraving, and also includes work by Portuguese artists and Spanish\npieces by Pepe Damaso, Millares and others. \nIn the studio, visitors can see the simple pine desk at which he worked\nas well as family photos and his Nobel Prize for Literature !  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Dee Dutton, our photographer,in a section of Jose\u00b4s library
<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The\nmost eye-catching aspect of the house, though, is the collection of the fifteen\nthousand books Jos\u00e9 owned, all stacked and shelved in genre and catalogued\norder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nliving room was an area for relaxing and reading; and still contains some of Jos\u00e9\u00b4s\nfavourite pieces of art, including paintings by Tapi\u00e9s and Oscar Niemeyer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nkitchen, which remains a warm, pleasant room overlooking a charming garden, was\nwitness to the numerous meetings Jos\u00e9 held with fellow artists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\nwas in the library, built in 2006, that Jos\u00e9 Saramago wrote two final novels,\n“El Viaje del Elefante” and “Cain”.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nthe bedroom, where he died on 18th June 2010, a drawing by Rafael Alberti is\ndisplayed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nconference room, with an engraving of the Nobel Prize for Literature by Gao\nXingjian, is now used for conferences<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

All\nthese rooms can be viewed by those taking the tour, at the end of which there\nis an opportunity to visit the museum shop where souvenirs and Jos\u00e9 Saramago’s\nbooks can be purchased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\ntour costs only two euros for residents and eight euros for visitors to the\nisland. Those taking the tour are given a pretty impressive little hand held piece\nof technology which also enables them to hear a commentary in their own\nlanguage for any room or area they step inside. The walk through parties are usually\nquite small, and have their own guide and, on our tour, our guide was, like\nSara Hernandez at Salinas de Jabunio and arts curator and guide Estefania\nComojo, knowledgeable and enthusiastic and receptive to questions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During\na particularly charming part of the walk in which we were shown round the\nkitchen and then invited to sit on the terrace to enjoy a complimentary cup of\ncoffee, we learned that the young couple who were the other members of our\ngroup live on nearby Feurtaventure and had come over to Lanzarote for a five\nday visit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being\nof Portuguese origin, however, they were well familiar with Saramago\u00b4s work and\nwere huge fans. They gave us some interesting insights into how respected is\nhis work in his country of birth and said that his writing is still hugely\napplauded for its insightful social comment. The young lady herself is a writer,\ninfluenced by and sharing the attitude to life of Saramago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\nalso emerged during this chat that our guide had been working alongside Jos\u00e9\u00b4s\nwidow when they heard on the radio news the announcement of the Nobel award to\nBob Dylan. I asked whether our guide thought that Jos\u00e9, such a poet and social\nobserver himself, would have approved of this new recipient and his work. She\nreplied that his wife told her that he certainly would have done, and that he\nknew of and enjoyed Dylan\u00b4s work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout\nour conversation, though, we all lapsed into occasional silence, to admire what\nmust surely be one of the most wonderful views on the island. Sitting in this\nmature garden, with its strategically placed Olive and Palm trees, we could see\nall the way down to the coastline, stretching from Puerto Del Carmen down to\nPlaya Quemada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\ntour was a hugely enjoyable adventure and lasted for an hour and a quarter.\nThat didn\u00b4t include the half hour or so we then spent looking round the highly\nimpressive gift shop, buying an English translation of one of Jos\u00e9\u00b4s novels, as\nwell as a translation in pamphlet form of his Nobel Prize For Literature\nacceptance speech, and an impressive wooden reconstruction of the commemorative\nartwork that stands at the approach to the house. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These\nwill be sent over to our son who lives in South Korea and who told us during\nour first phone call to him after coming to live on Lanzarote, that  he had looked on a map of the island and\nreckoned we didn\u00b4t live far from the former home of an author he was interested\nin. \u00a8You should go and have a look, dad. It\u00b4ll be really interesting.\u00b4 We did,\nand it was, and we gained a real insight into the life and work of a prolific\nauthor of more than forty literary pieces in thirty years as a writer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyone\nthen still looking for even further information about a man who wrote for\ntheatre and also composed literature and fiction, as well as being a poet and\nsocial observer in his role as a journalist, can visit the on-line source of\ninformation that is http:\/\/www.Jos\u00e9saramago.org\/<\/a> or www.acasJos\u00e9saramanga.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nsite tells us that his skill as a writer saw him create more than twenty\nnovellas, five plays and four collections of poetry. This skill was developed\nfrom his own wide reading, in a public library in Lisbon. It was there, as he\nwould later recall in his autobiographical writing. \u00b4that, with no help or\nguidance except curiosity and the will to learn, my taste for reading developed\nand was refined.\u00b4
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jos\u00e9 Saramago and a home in Tias. The moment the tour guide invites you over the threshold of the place where Jos\u00e9 Saramago once lived, you know you are entering a house \u00a0of books; a house that was obviously his place of work, and also obviously his place of relaxation. To be shown round the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aata","category-literary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}