Abril - 2010

Night World 1 - L. J. Smith.

(Secret Vampire; Daughters of Darkness; Spellbinder).

“It was like a song, one of those sweet, wrenching songs that makes the hair on your arms stand up. That makes you want to throw yourself on the floor and just bawl. Or fall backward and surrender to the music utterly. One of those songs.” (Secret Vampire, p. 184.).

Blue Moon - Alyson Noël.

(The immortals, vol. 2).

Como disse antes, li antes do primeiro da série, Evermore. Gostei, não demais, mas é uma história legal.

The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger

Li de uma sentada. E adorei. Genial.

“I’m quite illiterate, but I read a lot.”(p. 18).

“I hate the movies like poison, but I get a bang imitating them.”(p. 29).

“The goddam movies. They can ruin you. I`m not kidding.”(p. 104).

"Oh, Romeo and Juliet! Lovely! Didn’t you just love it?”She certainly didn’t sound like a nun.

“Yes. I did. I liked it a lot. There were a few things I didn`t like about it, but it was quite moving, on the whole.”

“What didn`t you like abut it? Can you remember?”To tell you the truth, it was sort of embarrassing, in a way, to be talking about Romeo and Juliet with her. I mean that play gets pretty sexy in some parts, and she was a nun and all, but she asked me, so I discussed it with her for a while. “Well, I`m not too crazy about Romeo and Juliet,”I said. “I mean I like them, but – I don’t know. They get pretty annoying sometimes. I mean I felt much sorrier when old Mercutio got killed then when Romeo and Juliet did. The thing is, I never liked Romeo too much after Mercutio gets stabbed by that other man – Juliet’s cousin – what’s his name?”(p. 111).

Nigh World 2 - L. J. Smith.

(Dark Angel, The Chosen, Soulmate).

“A tone that was to sound what perfect light was to vision.”(Dark Angel, p. 26).

After Dark - Haruki Murakami.

Amo Haruki Murakami, uma dívida eterna a Rita, amiga querida, que me apresentou a ele com Minha Querida Sputnik (e a muitos outros autores maravilhosos!!!). Se fosse pensar que gostaria, aqui, de citar partes legais e maravilhosas do livro, teria de colocar todos os diálogos entre Mari e Takahashi. Preferi não colocar muitos dialogos, porque penso que correria um tremendo risco de diminuir tudo o que eles têm de incrível. Mas trouxe um trecho que acho muitomuitomuito legal. As primeiras paginas são maravilhosas também, os narradores são olhares externos, como o de uma câmera (para mim, claro, a do cinema) ou a do espectador (de um filme). Ou a do leitor.

“Takahashi asks her, “ Have you ever seen Love Story? It’s an old movie.”
Mari shakes her head. “They had this on TV the other day. It’s pretty good. (…) after Ryan O’Neal has slaved away to become a lawyer, they never give the audience any idea of what kind of work he does. All we know is he joins this top law firm and pulls in a salary that would make anybody envious. He lives in a fancy Manhattan high-rise with a doorman out front, joins a WASP sports club, and plays squash with his yuppie friends. That’s all we know.”

Takahashi drinks his water.

“So what happens after that?” Mari asks.

Takahashi looks upwards, recalling the plot. “Happy ending. The two live happily ever after. Love conquers all. It’s like: we used to be miserable, but now everything’s great. They drive a shinny new Jaguar, he plays squash, and sometimes in winter they throw snowballs. Meanwhile, the father who disowned Ryan O’Neal comes down with diabetes, cirrhosis of the liver, and Meniere’s disease and dies a lonely, miserable death.”

“ I don’t get it. What’s so good about a story like that?”

Takahashi cocks his head. “Hmm, what did I like about it? I can’t remember. I had stuff to do, so I didn’t watch the last part very closely…” (pp. 101/102).

“In this world, there are things you can only do alone, and things you can only do with somebody else. It’s important to combine the two in just the right amount.” (p. 167).

"All of a sudden out of nowhere I can bring back things I haven’t thought about for years. It’s pretty interesting. Memory is so crazy! It’s like we’ve got this drawers crammed of tons of useless stuff. meanwhile, all the really important things we just keep forgetting, one after the other.”Korogi stands there, holding the remote control.“You know what I think?” She says. “That people memories are maybe the fuel they burn do stay alive. Whether those memories have any actual importance or not it doesn’t matter as far as the maintenance of life is concerned. They’re all just fuel. Advertising fillers in the newspaper, philosophy books, dirty pictures in a magazine, a bundle of ten-thousand-yen bills: when you feed’em to the fire, they’re all just paper. The fire isn’t thinking, ‘Oh, this is Kant’, or ‘Oh, this is the Yomiuri evening edition’, or ‘Nice tits’, while it burns. To the fire, They’re nothing but scraps of paper. It’s the exact same thing. Important memories, not-so-important memories, totally useless memories: there’s no distinction – they’re all just fuel.”

Night World v. 3 - L. J. Smith.

Huntress, Black Down, Witchlight)

“The night world isn’t a place. It’s all around us. The creatures of Night World are beautiful and deadly and irresistible to humans. Your best friend could be one – so could your crush.” (contra-capa).

Kitchen - Banana Yoshimoto.

O prefácio do livro e os agradecimentos já são incríveis, um trailer bonito para o que o livro traz depois. Foi o primeiro que li da autora, também indicada pela Rita, e eu amei. São duas histórias, Kitchen e Moonlight Shadow. O legal é que é tão novo para mim, o modo como ela escreve; ao mesmo tempo, no prefácio ela coloca como é novo para ela escrever um romance, e, no entanto, já passaram 22 anos desde então. E foi estranho pensar que ela agora não é mais a autora iniciante do prefácio, já tem mais idade, outros livros escritos... a novidade permanece e está impressa nesse primeiro livro, mesmo que já não faça mais parte da autora...

“Growth and the overcoming of obstacles are inscribed on a person’s soul. If I have become any better at fighting my daily battles, be they violent or quiet, I know it is only thanks to my many friends and acquaintances. (…)Finally, to all the readers who do not know me personally, who were kind enough to take the trouble to read my small effort, I know no greater happiness than that it may have cheered you, even a little. Surely we will meet someday, and until that day, I pray that you will live happily.” (Prefácio, pp. vii/viii).

“The place I like best in this world is the kitchen. No matter where it is, no matter what kind, if it’s a kitchen, if it’s a place where they make food, it’s fine with me. Ideally it should be well broken in. Lots of tea towels, dry and immaculate. Where tile catching the light (ting! Ting!)” (p. 3).

"When was it I realized that, on this truly dark and solitary path we all walk, the only way we can light is our own? Although I was raised with love, I was always alone.” (p. 21).

“In retrospect I realize that fate was a ladder on which, at the time, I could not afford to miss a single rung. To skip out on even one scene would have meant never making it to the top, although it would have been by far the easier choice. What motivated me was probably that little light still left in my half-dead heart, glittering in the darkness. Yet without it, perhaps, I might have slept better.” (p. 127 do segundo conto, Moonlight Shadow).

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running - Haruki Murakami.

Incrível como ele consegue transformar notas aleatórias, escritas em épocas e lugares diferentes - embora a respeito do mesmo tema, correr -, em uma narrativa tão concisa, com certo suspense até. É a boa montage em ação.

“Somerset Maugham once wrote that in each shave lies a philosophy. I couldn’t agree more. No matter how mundane some action might appear, keep at it long enough and it becomes a contemplative, even meditative act. (…) Perhaps I’m just too painstaking a type of person, but I can’t grasp much of anything without putting down my thoughts in writing, so I had to actually get my hands working and write these words. Otherwise, I’d never know what running means to me.” (p. vi).

”I’m the kind of person who likes to be by himself. To put a finer point on it, I’m the type of person who doesn’t find it painful to be alone. I find spending an hour or two every day running alone, not speaking to anyone, as well as four or five hours alone at my desk, to be neither difficult nor boring. I’ve had this tendency ever since I was young, when, given a choice, I much preferred reading books on my own or concentrating on listening to music over being with someone else. I could always think of things to do by myself” (p. 15).

“Emotional hurt is the price a person has to pay in order to be independent.” (p. 19).

"Sometimes, however, this sense of isolation, like acid spilling out of a bottle, can unconsciously eat away at a person’s heart and dissolve it.” (p. 20).

“Everybody uses their mind when they think. But a writer puts on an outfit called narrative and thinks with his entire being, and for the novelist that process requires putting into play all your physical reserve, often to the point of overexertion.” (p. 80).

A Elegância do Ouriço - Muriel Barbery.

Incrível.

“Como sempre, sou salva pela incapacidade dos seres humanos de acreditar naquilo que explode às molduras de seus pequenos hábitos mentais.” (p. 14).

“Como já evoquei, passei cada segundo de minha vida que consegui subtrair ao trabalho lendo, vendo filmes e ouvindo música. Mas achava que esse frenesi de devorar objetos culturais padecia de uma falta de gosto maior, o que consiste em misturar brutalmente obras respeitáveis e outras muito menos. É sem dúvida no campo da leitura que meu ecletismo é menor (...) Li livros de história, filosofia, economia política, sociologia, psicologia, pedagogia, psicanálise e, é claro, acima de tudo, literatura. As primeiras me interessam; a última é toda a minha vida. (...) No capítulo cinematográfico, em compensação, meu ecletismo desabrocha. Gosto dos blockbusters americanos e dos filmes de autor. Na verdade, por muito tempo consumi de preferência o cinema de entretenimento americano ou inglês, com exceção de algumas obras sérias que julgava com meu olhar estetizante, pois o olhar passional e empático só tem boas relações com o divertimento.” (pp. 73/74).

“... e eu bebo chocolate lendo os mangás. Atualmente, leio os mangás de Taniguchi, um gênio que me ensina muitas coisas sobre os homens. (...) Chá e mangá contra café e jornal: a elegância e o encantamento contra a triste agressividade dos jogos de poder adultos” (pp. 100/101, Paloma).

“Viram Chuva negra? Porque, se não viram Chuva negra - ou, pelo menos, Blade runner -, será forçosamente difícil compreender por que, quando entramos no restaurante, tenho a sensação de penetrar num filme de Ridley Scott. Há aquela cena de Blade runner, no bar da mulher-serpente, de onde Deckard chama Rachel por um videofone mural. Há também o bar de call-girls em Chuva negra, com os cabelos louros e as costas nuas de Kate Capshaw. E há aqueles planos sob a luz do vitral e na claridade de catedral cercados por toda a penumbra dos Infernos."Adoro luz", digo a Kakuro ao me sentar.Levaram-nos até uma salinha tranqüila, banhada num clarão solar cingido de sombras cintilantes. Como a sombra pode cintilar? Ela cintila, e ponto final. "Viu Chuva negra?", pergunta-me Kakuro.Nunca imaginei que pudesse existir entre duas criaturas uma tal concordância de gostos e de encaminhamentos psíquicos."Vi", digo, "pelo menos uma dúzia de vezes." (p. 328).

Duas pessoas que se reconhecem pelos filmes que vêem, músicas que ouvem, livros que lêem... quando vejo isso, fico boba. Amo.

Filmes

Remember me - again, com a Pati. 

Direito de Amar (A Single Man). Tom Ford, US, 2009. Totalmente in love. Rendeu um panfleto em Degraus de Amélie.

Soul Kitchen. Fatih Akin, Alemanha, 2009. AMEI AMEI AMEI. Segunda história publicada em Degraus de Amélie, Movie Kitchen.

Alice no País das Maravilhas (Alice in Wonderland). Tim Burton, US, 2010. Johnny Depp pode fazer o que ele quiser nessa vida, incrível.