Emerson Lisboa, my (virtual) journalist friend, who has been representing me in several situations, gave another journalist my books as a gift. Then yesterday I received an email from the guy and my jaw dropped. Yes, of course one of the reasons was how much he spoke highly of DOMINAÇÃO, but the main reason was the "literary-critical" analysis he made. I'm not going to say anything more, his text says it all.
Ah, not that this matters in general, but in the specific case of my "work", I think it counts: Daniel Barbosa is straight, therefore, he didn't read the book for a "niche audience".
Dear Treppi, when I was presented with your books, I was also warned – by dear Emerson Lisboa – that I would be scared. Scared? Let's face it: it's always vital. And what I read sounded like a huge BU! – I was really scared.
In a literary world infested with impalpable fantasies, you are a Rodriguian paladin (sorry for the label). In a simple yet powerful and exciting narrative (in the general sense of the term), you reveal "life as it is." Without making up any conditions and committed to aligning desires within a torn frame – without plastic pretensions -; shamelessly exposes (and this is fantastic, as life really is shameless) real characters in a fictional sphere. The famous 'slap in the face of society': – "look here, bunch of repressed assholes, life is all that too!"
The greatest (very original) feature of "Domination" consists – with great happiness and insight – in the fact that you give up an arsenal of frills – "basic" elements at least in the majority of so-called "homoerotic" literature. The plot – no pun intended – requires no preliminaries; it is built with great excitement; full of humanly naked characters who scream – a scream that still lacks many decibels – that being in the human condition means precisely having the face, the soul, the heart and, in the case of his work, the dick and the ass to live what is happening. is and what desire – that misused spring that we carry within us – determines.
Boy, what capacity and talent is this to create such avid and vivid characters, tinged with a lot of euphoria – that thing that runs most through our veins? To the unprepared reader, this may sound like: "ah, he must be like that"; "I think he did or is doing this", and other superficial conceptions. All good. Yes, he has some of his kinks. But that's not much. You make art, and art, in my opinion, does not require empiricism.
I confess that, with each page, with each move, gestures and dialogue, I was very distressed. Surprises, surprises and more surprises... Precisely for this reason, I don't think it's worth discussing the plot (Hey, straight people fuck. Gays too! Naturally). It's richer to point out how you reveal the lives – for some, "the dark side" or "B" – of people who still live almost "south of nowhere" – as, perhaps, old Buk would say. (Not to be reductionist: gay is not just about sex). And because of a compass that still doesn't have much strength in direction, his literature is called "homoerotic". Very cool... even in art there is this thing called "segregation". (Look at me loading up on utopia! Will that ever change?). However, it's all nonsense. You write literature and that's it. Fuck anyone who disagrees. Perhaps for the contrarian troupe it would be more convenient to read Naturalist authors, like Adolfo Caminha, who back in the 19th century wrote "Bom-Criolo", said to be the first homoerotic novel in our literature - however, he made it very clear that the romantic/sexual involvement of characters were about illness, immorality. And literature does not exist to point out "pathologies"; it exists to shake, to impact, to cause cataclysms, to scare. And you, believable, mixing the poetic, the human, the "vulgar", you know, much more than any big bad wolf or bogeyman, to scare. Tai, sending another pun, your literature is dominating. Alive. Pulsating.
Hugs!
Daniel Barbosa | Journalist dbarbosa.jor@gmail.com
And then? It can't stay like this. a little cocky? lol Kisses!
