For a long time the country remained faithful to the three F, a number that hit just right with its three syllables, the most peaceful traditions enjoying the beautiful view of the sea. But the get going of time, that with some wandering if there are changing, was also forced to the old wills alargassem. Today perhaps already one can say that Portugal secured the acquisition of fourth F. We now therefore the same Fado, Football and Fatima, to which are added the Festivals. Most of the year, of every kind and shape, to make people in droves. And when it comes to literature, the currents d’Written takes the crown.
In the season that is about to start, and that by the end of the year will feature a dozen literary festivals is that of Povoa de Varzim the largest, one that is already more packed, demanding greater tradition. It’s just why is this to give the starting gun. Its 17th edition starts today and runs until February 27, from 4 to 5 days, with a program that once again promises to strive to promote the book, reading, meeting and discussion with writers. The event had its beginnings in the indented 2000 – to get an idea, even Facebook was four years of being released and mobile phones were just a brick in the hands of yuppies and homebuilders – the, and then it was evident crossing a family reunion with a tupperware party. There were few guest writers, 23 in all, which were distributed by 5 tables and 7 sessions in schools and colleges of the famous northern city for its beautiful view of the sea. Back to the future, the program of the celebrations this year has the participation of more than 70 writers of 11 nationalities. And how many new? 20 newcomers join the family of chains, as is “affectionately dubbed” the event. But it is not only the family that grows from year to year, as noted by Luis Diamantino, Councilman Chamber of Culture of Povoa de Varzim, the chains fell from a 70-seat hall, in the first edition, to a room with 700 always crowded .
Since the Casino da Povoa to the Cine-Teatro Garrett, the event has gone through over the years, several rooms and places in Povoa de Varzim, helping to boost the tourist industry in the county. According to the municipality, the currents attracts thousands of people to the city, and this is done with a budget of 50,000 euros, which includes a share of the Tourism Fund. It’s a paltry sum compared to the 600 billion euro investment for the first edition (2015) Folio – International Festival of Literature Obidos – with hundreds of guests and a few sessions canceled due to lack of audience. And Diamantino ensures that “the compensation in terms of visibility in the media nationwide would cost much more than is done in the investment Chain d’Writing.”
So it’s one of those situations where everyone wins. But the return, it is assumed, does not stop merely by the impact of the tourist level, but still have a component of support to the authors, the Portuguese publishers, and the book as an entity that, despite the thousand and one the country’s crisis, maintains his aura in the kingdom. The assumption, therefore, is that these festivals are doing fire sales of books in Portugal. Only it’s not so. Despite the commitment of the heads of public bodies such as the Directorate General of Book, Archives and Libraries (DGLAB) and, more particularly, local authorities, the most recent surveys continue to make it clear that the Portuguese do not like to combine sun and sea with books. Between EU citizens continue to be those who show less interest in reading. The decline in book sales goes beyond the break of the economic cycle, and a study commissioned by APEL two years ago revealed that there are fewer and fewer bookstores publishers.
It is possible that the culture of festivals has not yet caught the whole country, it is possible that 10 festivals is still little, it is possible that Portugal Future is already there ahead, waiting for us. This country “where the pure bird’s possible.” We already warned that “may be small as east / west having sea and spain east” but at least “everything in it is new from the branches to the root.”
Maybe this is the “possible country” by which here continues to languish, waiting. Or maybe instead of Ruy Belo, maybe we we should bail out before another poet David Mourao-Ferreira, and the verses of the poem “The Literadura” which speaks thus: “The literaduros The literadonos / With shouts and blows up lead fools // What the wind puffs. Nobody Ihes resists / O literadunas O literadiques // Go has alliances entering stunts / with literadamas with literadúbios // Each time ever thinner wiser / Literadurázios Literadurinhos // As literadoces literadurázios / You seem to others in their courtyards rich // As literadoutos literadurinhos / Pity all literadormindo. “
With two more festivals in April – the Literary Festival Madeira and the Border, in White Castle – and three others in May – Books west in Lourinhã; the Encontradouro in Sabrosa, and Literature Trip, in Matosinhos -, which was still follow the Belmonte, Viseu, Cascais, the second edition of the Folio in Obidos, the Escritaria in Penafiel, and a new advertised festival for the country’s birthplace, Guimaraes, yet unnamed, to go through this list in the article signed yesterday in the “DN”, that John Heaven and Silva wonders before “this effervescent Festival Goer world” is “whether there is sufficient Portuguese writers for many literary evocations “. But soon those responsible for the new F guarantee “does not lack for choice” in the midst of so much desire to promote culture, meetings and debates, which no one seems willing to do is to question the model itself.
Paulo Ferreira, the Booktailors a major contributor to the attempt to create the country a “network” of literary festivals, not rounded the simple evidence that there is not only writers to so many festivals but that there can not by itself “draw viewers to the sessions.” This requires creativity of the organizers, said, “so we had to mix authors with other personalities from the world of culture”.
In revealing answers that gives the “DN”, Paulo Ferreira does not hide the hybrid nature, let us say, these events, adding that the people that they adhere “like watching a debate as they are on the table the Pedro Abrunhosa and Valter Hugo Mother. This model meets and extends the public spectrum that want to attend the festivals, “he concludes.
And this is where gain preponderance reservations that that has been the most vehement detractor of triumphant background wave that went up the priority level of cultural policies, especially in the effort to improve read rates, the literary critic Antonio Warrior. In his chronicles of “Public” does not lose opportunity to seek such a discussion that both estimate these agents. Interestingly it has been always unanswered. And there is a particular concern warning in its analysis of the matter, namely that all this “ideology of promoting ‘festivaleira’ ‘that is indistinguishable from most servile” obedience to the dictates of’ cultural capitalism ‘ “does more than give” means cultural mediocrity “by amplifying it. It also says that “the public that mobilizes to these events is not satisfied with the pure entertainment, feel legitimized by the belief that deals with important problems and apparently sophisticated”.
The culture of festivals based on a rhetoric that makes them go through major cultural events. But, from the point of view that does not give the transformation of literature and “literary life” in mere entertainment, you can tell they have a redundant effect on the business logic, leveraging the market winds, serving as mere platforms for their marketing and performance strategies. In this respect, the festival accompanying the problem rather than impose themselves as islands in the chain.
diogo.pinto@ionline.pt
No comments:
Post a Comment