Brief Second Life of an Idea, by Solemar Oliveira

I thought of comparing him to Jorge Luis Borges and imagined too pretentious. It may even be pretentious, but not too much, to compare “Brief Second Life of an Idea”, a book of short stories by Solemar Oliveira (Editora Novo Século), with Borgesian short stories, with a little more imagination. I was very impressed and I recommend it because there is excellence in his literature. These are very elaborate, linked stories that lead the reader into beautifully scabrous stories, particularly well constructed and with a language that captures and captures. Here we have one of those books of short stories that tend to stand out in Brazilian and, if you can be daring enough, world literature.

So I started a comment on social networks about Solemar’s “Brief”, as a first impression. It is no small thing to be inspired by Borges, whom he cites among his preferences in the “Explanatory Magnetic Preamble” that introduces some sort of explanation to readers. However, he mentions others as favorites, embodying what we delight in the magical mix of its construction: ETA Hoffmann, Humberto de Campos, HP Lovercraft, Lygia F. Teles, Silvina Ocampo, Edith Wharton, Edgar Allan Put.

In Solemar’s stories we are faced with the collapse of ordinary thinking. And that’s no small feat for anyone concerned with structuring (or destructuring) stories for the reader’s enjoyment. It runs away from simplification, but it does not academicize, and the sophistication is implicit in the aura that surrounds the characters and in the way of presenting them and making them move in a web that unfolds, attracts, imprisons, gives voice, delights and sinks. deep into those involved.adventure. Rest assured, reader, that you will embrace stumbling, knowing that without stumbling, no one gets anywhere.

Starting with the title, which gives rise to the existence of several lives for the ideas, all too apt to synthesize what the stories tell and discount, insinuate and distort, emphasize and override, punctuate and despise, give life and kill, beat and graze. The ear with which the author Lêda Selma wrote is of exceptional mastery, and I appropriate a part of it because I realize that it reflects the work: “Short stories, well plotted. Descriptions woven with poetic or barbed threads. Fantastic stories in any sense of the word. Expressive prosopopoeia, hyperbole, synesthesia, linguistic and semantic juggling, irony, criticism. The improbable almost believable. The mystic in interaction with the myth”.

It is a creepy book, in the sense that word has assumed in today’s youth jargon. Lovercraft would approve. When Solemar Oliveira did not want to die, he killed the gravedigger. And I, from funerals, like to party. And it also happened because the author revived an idea that I think will have a cat’s life. So be it. We are faced with a bid for literature which opens up the world and deserves our attention.