“To serve the pleasure of those who want to enjoy reading.” It was with this phrase that the fetishist poet Glauco Mattoso defined the experience of organizing the first Sadomasochist Anthology of Brazilian Literature, a publication by Dix Editorial / Editora Annablume, at the invitation of professor Antonio Vicente Seraphim Pietroforte, from USP.
The idea came up in an email conversation and, less than a year later, the anthology was created with a selection of classic and contemporary texts by 44 writers, including short story writers and poets, from Machado de Assis to João Silvério Trevisan and Marcelo Mirisola, to the delight of both practitioners of sadomasochism (SM) and those interested in fiction and poetry on this topic.
According to Antonio Vicente, the anthology shows how SM appears dispersed in Machado de Assis, José de Alencar, João do Rio, Cruz e Sousa and Monteiro Lobato. “No one is claiming that these writers are SMs, but the theme appears among their writings. “Negrinha”, by Monteiro Lobato – which was not included in the Anthology due to copyright issues – is a narrative of extreme cruelty, in which a lady mercilessly tortures a black child to death. Fortunato, Machado's character, is undoubtedly a monstrous sadist – the man builds a small health home just to see other people's suffering. Emília, from Alencar, is a fascinating masochist”, he explains.
Glauco, who wrote an unpublished short story for the book, states that the result was not more complete because many nineteenth-century authors, dead and alive, have their editorial rights tied up in the hands of third parties. “Even so, we found good material, enough for a tasty sample, which suggests, soon, a second volume”, he anticipates.
To further explore the universe of dominators and dominated, little discussed in Brazil, texts were chosen from several writers of contemporary Brazilian literature, such as the short story “Vênus de Cetim”, by Wilma Azevedo – with the help of Eva Batlichova, as well as materials by Mario Bortolotto and Marcelino Freire, among others. With such diversity, even the most prudish will feel the desire to at least take a peek at the anthology.
For Antonio, the idea is to awaken in readers, first of all, humor, and then, interest in reading José de Alencar and Machado de Assis from other points of view, in addition to publishing new names in Brazilian literature. “Show the sadomasochism behind the leather mask? Nothing so tragic,” he says. “A book, however, is always a message in a bottle, ready to give you ideas”, he urges.
The fetishist poet Glauco states that, because he is masochistic and homosexual, he wants to encourage the reader's cruelty. “I want him to have fun knowing that I had to work to serve him... (laughs) Vicente, who is heterosexual and sadistic, I think he is having fun with the suffering of the readers who dream of going through the punishments narrated in the book and who struggle in the agony of desire… (more laughter)”.
Sadomasochist Anthology of Brazilian Literature
Dix Editorial / Editora Annablume
Organizers: Antonio Vicente Seraphim Pietroforte and Glauco Mattoso
How much: R$ 30,00
