Due to a strange confluence of events, my life has recently become dominated by all things Portuguese. All of my professional interactions and personal friendships lately appear to revolve around Portugal itself, Brazil, or lusaphone Africa.
The universe, I have decided, is telling me something. Ahead of a trip to Brazil which I will be taking in the coming year, I have been quite earnestly learning Portuguese on duolingo and enjoying the experience. And this has made me curious about fantasy (also SF) literature in Portuguese.
I know that there are Brazilian readers of this blog, and perhaps also from other parts of the Portuguese-speaking world. While I by no means suggest I could easily tackle a Portuguese-language novel, I am curious about what is out there by way of fantasy literature and would love some recommendations from my readers. For clarity: I am not interested in literature that has been translated into English, but 'native' work that will help me practice and learn the language better.
Brazilian here, but sadly not the biggest reader of national literature. One recommendation you'll see around a lot is Machado de Assis, specially "Dom Casmurro" and "Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas" i've read Dom casmurro and enjoyed it quite a bit, its fairly short too, tough i cant tell how easy it is for a non native reader.
ReplyDeletebtw i've been reading you for a while and love Yoon Suin.
Divirta-se aqui no Brasil e tente não ser roubado!
Thanks! I will be safe I hope...I have Brazilian colleagues to protect me. ;)
DeleteTo be completely irrelevant: "Lusaphone fantasy" scans perfectly in the song "Dear Mr. Fantasy"
ReplyDeleteThere's a Stephen Malkmus song it works well with too. 'Now I've got some Lusaphone fantasies...'
DeletePerhaps you've heard of this, which looks pretty tasty?
ReplyDeletehttps://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/177740/malandros
It does! I may well download and review.
DeleteMachado de Assis, definitely, try "O Alienista", "A Cartomante" which you can probably read for free. Not exactly fantasy but some fantastic realism in the vein of Borges.
ReplyDeleteConto alexandrino is awesome and creepy.
“What, my dear Stroibus! No, impossible. Never, ever will anyone believe that rat’s blood, given to a man to drink, could make the man a thief.”
https://machado.byu.edu/text/conto-alexandrino/
(This is in the original old Portuguese)
(BTW if you like Book of Imaginary Beings, the best to get on Brazilian folklore is "Abecedário de personagens do folclore brasileiro" by Januária Cristina Alves. And here are some monsters from Brazilian folklore FWIW:
https://methodsetmadness.blogspot.com/2021/12/brazilian-monster-sketches-rick-troula.html)
Or read Augusto dos Anjos for some wild poetry.
Some modern fantasy - not quite as awesome but should be easier to read - is André Vianco (vampires) and Eduardo Spohr (angels and demons).
Nice, thanks. Yes, I did some googling and found out about Os Sete (by Vianco). That sounds up my alley.
DeleteAlso, there are some cool OSR games here, including free ones, such as Old Dragon 2, Arcana Primária and Caves and Hexes. Since you're familiar with the terms, could be an easy way to learn.
ReplyDeleteOh, cool, thanks for this too.
DeleteThere is "The Lusiads", a 16th century Portuguese epic poem about the journey of Vasco da Gama. It is not exactly fantasy, but it is inspired by the Odyssey and the Aeneid and includes some elements of the Graeco-Roman mythology. Once I've read a part of it (translated from Portuguese into my native Russian language), however in my opinion it is pretty boring. On the other hand, it might be a good inspiration for some fantasy about the Age of Exploration.
ReplyDeleteAlways wanted to read it, never had time; Os Lusíadas is regarded as the foundational text of Portuguese (similarly to what The Divine Comedy is for Italian language).
DeleteVery interesting. It occurs to me the original explorers must have written lots of accounts of their journeys.
DeleteI read these when I was young and never again. They're both children's books so YMMV:
ReplyDeletehttps://ia803205.us.archive.org/11/items/colecaovagalume_202407/16.%20As%20Aventuras%20de%20Xisto%20-%20L%C3%BAcia%20Machado%20de%20Almeida%20%281982%29_text.pdf
And there's also this, which is VERY Brazilian / Amazonian folklore mostly:
https://ia601706.us.archive.org/35/items/somanlu-o-viajante-da-estrela/Somanlu%2C%20o%20viajante%20da%20estrela%20_text.pdf
If you're interested in SF and can find any of his books, Fausto Cunha is a great writer.
Fabulous. Thanks. This is great - I started reading the Adventures of Xisto and it's a nice level for me.
Deletehttps://ia601706.us.archive.org/35/items/somanlu-o-viajante-da-estrela/Somanlu%2C%20o%20viajante%20da%20estrela%20_text.pdf
ReplyDeleteA couple of children's fantasy books; I read them when I was a kid so YMMV: "Aventuras de Xisto", de Lúcia Machado de Almeida; "Somanlu o Viajante da Estrela" de Abguar Bastos. For SF I'd recommend Fausto Cunha if you can find anything - his books seem to be out of print unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteThank you! Lots of similar recommendations to others. I can just about parse the Aventuras de Xisto. I might print that one out and see if I can read it as a project for the next few months.
DeleteNice recommendations above -- I might check out some of them as well!
ReplyDeleteI recently bought "Viagem pelo Brasil em 52 Histórias", a collection of legends and traditional tales. It has a lot of sidenotes and a overview of each of Brazil's regions, which you may find interesting.
Fantasy fiction, at least in Brazil, is generally aimed towards children's books -- Monteiro Lobato's stories set in the ficcional Sítio do Picapau Amarelo are among the most famous of them, heavily drawing inspiration from folklore and fairy tales.
I also recommend "O Guarani", a typical work of the Romantic period, similar to Kalevala in the sense that the author intended to create a kind of foundational myth of Brazil.
Thanks so much. The Viagem pelo Brasil em 52 Histórias sounds great.
DeleteA Lição de Prático, it's a 1998 sci-fi book by brazilian author Maurício Luz. You can read the sinopses from this link (in portuguese).
ReplyDeletehttps://www.amazon.com.br/Li%C3%A7%C3%A3o-Do-Pratico-Mauricio-Luz/dp/8532509150
Nice, thanks
DeleteBrasileiro aqui.
ReplyDeleteJá fui um leitor mais assíduo do seu blog e hoje voltei para recapitular os posts sobre TSRan e sobre campanhas de cavaleiros (acho que pelo Hype de A Knight of The Seven Kingdoms). E tive essa agradável surpresa. Como você está buscando a experiência lusófona, vou escrever em português.
Pessoalmente eu fugiria do tal do realismo mágico, eu acho simplesmente... chato. É do tipo fábulas de Esopo encontram crítica social temporal, mas sem a impessoalidade dos animais e sem a perenidade e universalidade que os grandes autores têm. Parece uma tentativa de sair da sombra das fontes européias e não vai a lugar nenhum, uma tentativa frustrada de emancipação para confraternização local. A maioria dos autores que os irmãos te indicaram aí não escrevem boa fantasia,. acho que só pegaram bons autores brasileiros mas esqueceram da fantasia. Para um gringo, é diferente e pode ser interessante, mas não é mítico.
O imaginário lusófono começa com Os Lusíadas, como já foi dito. Indispensável e dialoga com a grande tradição Ocidental.
Se quiser conhecer grandes contos e fábulas tradicionais do Brasil, vá nas coletâneas "Lendas e Fábulas do Brasil" por Ruth Guimarães e "Contos e Fábulas do Brasil" por Marco Haurélio.
Se quiser um autor contemporâneo que pisa no terreno comum que une nossos povos (medievo), Eduardo C. Spohr é uma indicação segura.
Haha. Obrigada pelas recomendações, e pelo comentário gentil. Eu vou ler Os Lusiadas!
DeleteUma retificação: Há boas indicações nos outros comentários também, mas meu alerta em relação a realismo fantástico (mágico) se mantém.
ReplyDeleteYes, I am wary of magical realism in fiction, although I do love Borges, if you would classify him that way. Mario Vargas Llosa I like too. I don't know the Portuguese language magical realism at all, though.
DeleteHey it's me again. As The Seeker recommended, Monteiro Lobato wrote the Sítio do Picapau Amarelo series of children's books. They're easy to read, keeping in mind that the quality of the books is uneven and it's very dated in some aspects, particularly regarding attitudes towards race. That said, the best ones can be really good. Personal favorites: Os 12 Trabalhos de Hércules, O Minotauro, Viagem ao Céu, A Chave do Tamanho, O Saci
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