Willian Rabelo

Territorio V – Raphael Draccon

Willian — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:17:03 +0000

Olá pessoal,

Já tem um tempo que não faço nenhuma avaliação de obra aqui, então queria citar Território V, organizado pelo Kizzy Ysatis.

Recebi, orgulhosamente, este exemplar de presente do grande escritor, e amigo, Israel Teles. Comentar o conto do meu amigo Israel não seria justo, mesmo porque eu conheci o conto em sua concepção e entendi o quão capcioso ele era, o quão profundo poderia chegar. Um conto singular e muito bom, e por mais que soe como propaganda, é a mais pura verdade; basta ler. Potencial grandioso.

Mas não é isso que pretendo comentar, tampouco falarei sobre a obra toda, apenas sobre um conto especificamente, me acompanhe…

Não gostei de todos os contos e, imagino, talvez existissem outros contos melhores para serem selecionados para a coletânea.

Entretanto, não desmereço a seleção de forma alguma; Entendo que a escolha feita pelo organizador deve ter sido bem difícil, além de trabalhosa.

Ainda assim, preciso ressaltar que, em sua grande maioria, os contos eram muito bons. Muito bem escolhidos, sem dúvida. Parabéns, mais uma vez, ao Kizzy pela coragem e pelo trabalho.

Desses muito bons, preciso destacar um.

O conto de Raphael Draccon.

Reli o conto umas quatro vezes, para ter certeza da forma que o conto havia me levado ao onírico. Minha opinião será sincera, então peguem os cajados, as pedras e vamos caçar um monstro…

Eu já havia feito a crítica de Dragões de Éter aqui, caso alguém se lembre.

Raphael Draccon é um autor interessante e, talvez por ser também roteirista, consegue enxergar as coisas de uma forma diferenciada. Qualidade rara.

É improvável que outro autor tivesse a pretensão ou audácia dele ao escrever um conto dessa forma.

Sim, ele foi pretensioso, MUITO pretensioso.

Mas não foi a pretensão tola, rebuscada, aquela que os ignorantes usam para esconder sua falta de aptidão para realizar uma tarefa. Não.

A pretensão dele foi aquela contida no sentido mais estrito que encontramos no dicionário; cito o Houaiss – “pretensão: desejo ambicioso e descabido; ambição” .

Ele foi ambicioso, descabidamente honesto em sua escrita e produziu um texto claro, direto e que não deixa dúvidas. Um conto fabuloso.

Uma história de amor, luta, traição, morte, arrependimento, desejo, repulsa, ódio e comprometimento, tudo em menos de 10 páginas. E o melhor, só através de diálogos.

Claro, sempre há os que dirão: “mas eu já imaginava o final na metade do conto” ou “foi previsível, não foi tão bom”. Preciso discordar. Não era o final que importava. Era o caminho todo.

Como na dança, os passos são apenas a parte técnica que te permite aproveitar a experiência em outro nível. Se você já sabia o final, estava tentando se antecipar ao autor, o que não é ruim, mas também não te permite aproveitar o texto completamente. É como comer um chocolate recheado, tentando chegar logo ao recheio. Não se aproveita totalmente o sabor do chocolate.

O conto foi tão previsível quanto o são as histórias de amor; não vejo problema nisso. Romeu e Julieta não deixou de ser o que é por ser “apenas” outra história de amor. Tristão e Isolda também não. Pense comigo…

O importante das histórias de amor não é como terminam os amantes ou "o que acontece no final", mas como se entregam, como conseguem deixar dilacerar seus corações em sofrimentos desconhecidos em busca do sentimento que será sua panacéia.

Raphael Draccon foi fantástico.

Apenas em diálogos ele mostrou a angustia, o desespero, a crença, a ausência de crença e, por fim, a redenção através do amor. O amor que liberta, que libera, que se desapega. O mesmo amor de Romeu. Para os mais recentes, o mesmo amor de Bella e Edward.

O que importa, principalmente em textos curtos, é como o autor te tira para dançar, como ele te conduz na valsa das palavras e, neste sentido, Raphael Draccon foi audaz, competente e sagaz.

Pretensioso desde o início, mas absoluta e inegavelmente bem sucedido.

Parabéns autor, outro conto fantástico.

Yes you can – NaNoWriMo again

Willian — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:53:50 +0000

Ok guys,

Reading The Hectic Attic (again, yes, I´m a fan), I found a text that Neil Gaiman wrote for the ~~nut-crazy-mad~~ people who decided to get into all this NaNoWriMo thing.

Here is the text:

Dear NaNoWriMo Author,

By now you're probably ready to give up. You're past that first fine furious rapture when every character and idea is new and entertaining. You're not yet at the momentous downhill slide to the end, when words and images tumble out of your head sometimes faster than you can get them down on paper. You're in the middle, a little past the half-way point. The glamour has faded, the magic has gone, your back hurts from all the typing, your family, friends and random email acquaintances have gone from being encouraging or at least accepting to now complaining that they never see you any more—and that even when they do you're preoccupied and no fun. You don't know why you started your novel, you no longer remember why you imagined that anyone would want to read it, and you're pretty sure that even if you finish it it won't have been worth the time or energy and every time you stop long enough to compare it to the thing that you had in your head when you began—a glittering, brilliant, wonderful novel, in which every word spits fire and burns, a book as good or better than the best book you ever read—it falls so painfully short that you're pretty sure that it would be a mercy simply to delete the whole thing.

Welcome to the club.

That's how novels get written.

You write. That's the hard bit that nobody sees. You write on the good days and you write on the lousy days. Like a shark, you have to keep moving forward or you die. Writing may or may not be your salvation; it might or might not be your destiny. But that does not matter. What matters right now are the words, one after another. Find the next word. Write it down. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

A dry-stone wall is a lovely thing when you see it bordering a field in the middle of nowhere but becomes more impressive when you realise that it was built without mortar, that the builder needed to choose each interlocking stone and fit it in. Writing is like building a wall. It's a continual search for the word that will fit in the text, in your mind, on the page. Plot and character and metaphor and style, all these become secondary to the words. The wall-builder erects her wall one rock at a time until she reaches the far end of the field. If she doesn't build it it won't be there. So she looks down at her pile of rocks, picks the one that looks like it will best suit her purpose, and puts it in.

The search for the word gets no easier but nobody else is going to write your novel for you.

The last novel I wrote (it was ANANSI BOYS, in case you were wondering) when I got three-quarters of the way through I called my agent. I told her how stupid I felt writing something no-one would ever want to read, how thin the characters were, how pointless the plot. I strongly suggested that I was ready to abandon this book and write something else instead, or perhaps I could abandon the book and take up a new life as a landscape gardener, bank-robber, short-order cook or marine biologist. And instead of sympathising or agreeing with me, or blasting me forward with a wave of enthusiasm—or even arguing with me—she simply said, suspiciously cheerfully, "Oh, you're at that part of the book, are you?"

I was shocked. "You mean I've done this before?"

"You don't remember?"

"Not really."

"Oh yes," she said. "You do this every time you write a novel. But so do all my other clients."

I didn't even get to feel unique in my despair.

So I put down the phone and drove down to the coffee house in which I was writing the book, filled my pen and carried on writing.

One word after another.

That's the only way that novels get written and, short of elves coming in the night and turning your jumbled notes into Chapter Nine, it's the only way to do it.

So keep on keeping on. Write another word and then another.

Pretty soon you'll be on the downward slide, and it's not impossible that soon you'll be at the end. Good luck…

Neil Gaiman

And here is the link, just click here.

Credits goes to The Hectic Attic, where I first saw this text.

Have fun!

NaNoWriMo – And other stuff

Willian — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:37:58 +0000

Hi fellows,

I´m writing to let you all know, or those who don´t know yet, that the NaNoWriMo has already started.

NaNoWriMo is the National Novel Writing Month where the goal is that each of the participants write a novel with 175 pages long, or – easier to understand – 50.000 words long.

The cool stuff is that you can upgrade as you write, make connections and see other people´s progress along this journey.

A friend of mine is on the rush – The owner of Hectic Attic – and her progress can be seen here.

If I´m in? No, I´m not.

If I´d like to? Yes, pretty much.

Then, why the heck am I off? Honestly, I don´t have a good enough answer to that. Procrastination would be my word of choice here.

If YOU can still get in? Sure, I don´t see why not…

Have fun and let me know if you decide to get on the boat!

Peace!

Fairy Tales – and your own world!

Willian — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:31:43 +0000

What would you do if you just happen to fall into some crazy-not-expected-but-now-true-oh-my-god-what-happened fairy tale?

Neil Gaiman created a guide, some time ago. I’m sorry to admit that it just came to my knowledge some days ago.

It’s not new that I’m a huge fan of Gaiman’s works; if you come here from time to time you probably know that by now. I’ve already talked about his work and, usually, I keep doing that all the time.

It happens that Neil Gaiman’s “Instructions” are far from just “good”. It could easily be tagged as fantastic, original, outstanding or, better than all together, fun.

Yes, you got it right, I said fun.

It happens that only fun can describe something that we usually forgot, you will understand in a bit.

It’s a fairy tale guide! Ask any child, they will agree with me.

Are you following me? Got a doubt? Keep reading…

The keys to the unknown, to all things that must not be remembered (but that we don’t quite know why it was forgotten to begin with) are strictly tied with the magic that is only possibly achieved by those who allow themselves to flight back to an age where they – and all of us, I’m afraid to confess – were able to touch the stars, to fight back the invading pirates, to ride the dragons, climb the mountains and enter the diamond castle.

The power of dreams, of the self-allowed-imagination-with-no-boundaries, is what can take you into some marvelous journeys. Getting deep into your mind will allow you to meet your heroes.

Actually, it doesn’t matter if your hero can fly, if he uses a red/blue cape/uniform. It doesn’t matter if you like the princess the best, or if that ugly, low profile, smelly villain is who can make you laugh. Having a good time is what you seek, no matter who will entertain you.

What DOES matter is that only having fun you can remember how good it is to take a ride into your imagination and let it make you experience places and people that you have never seen before; but you’ll see that they have been waiting for you all the time…

And here is the genius of Neil Gaiman’s Instructions. It’s a small poem that make you remember that fairy tales are great and that you should spend some time reading (and rereading for all that matters) them.

But to have a place where you can let your mind fly free is dangerous, for it set you apart. It makes you one of those Believers. That people that smile when they see the rain coming or those that look at thunders and see the giants over the clouds, fighting with their mighty clubs.

You must respect (and know) yourself pretty much to allow yourself to be immersed in some world that won’t be easily accessible for most people. And I tell you that because it will always be easier to talk about the stock market, the crisis, the new diet or even the new-ten-minutes-celebrity that just popped up than having a conversation with your dog or to laugh out a lot with your cat.

Read the poem, and then read a book. Any book that takes you away will do…

Let the fantasy fill your world.

And the next time that you see the rain coming, and you see thunders in the sky, you’ll open a smile.

And it will make you happy.

Vivo…

Willian — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 21:47:04 +0000

Não gente, não morri… mas não está dando pra escrever… volto depois…

Abraços