The Ever so Elite Group of Bahian Literature Aficionados

Having served a mission in Brazil in the state of Bahia I was privileged with exposure to an extremely vibrant literary world. Our at least a literary world that had been vibrant once upon a time. Due to a variety of factors (many of which I will discuss in later posts) the people of Bahia have very little interest in their own literature. Yet  I can't put too much blame on them for no one else seems to have an interest in their literature either. In fact most of the books I purchased by native authors were from used book stores.  Now the fame of Castro Alves and Jorge Amado does give me hope. At least they remember them! Alves is still recognized as one of Brazil's great poets with important places named after him galore in Bahia, and Amado was the best selling Brazilian author of the 20th century so I suppose even the non-literary have reasons to have heard of them. Having served in Itabuna and Ilheus, the cities where Jorge was born and raised respectively, I was right in the midst of Amado fame.

The problem is that for most  people they are the only Bahian literary figures they have heard of. Having learned to love Adonias Filho, Telmo Padilha, Cyro de Matos, Helio Polvora, and Sosigenes Costa just to name a few, I consider this general ignorance to be a shame to say the very least. As may be gleaned from the above links, the majority of the Bahian masters don't even have pages on wikipedia!* I have noticed a distinct ignorance of those otherwise fond of Latin American literature when it comes to the literature of Brazil. And among those fond of Brazilian literature I have noticed a distinct ignorance of the literature of Bahia. What is to be done? I don't know. Perhaps I'll have to remain being ever so elite in my minority literary tastes. I'm actually okay with that as it helps keep aflame my feelings of pretentious superiority and whatnot. Though I suppose I could do something. Starting next time I am going to begin slowly posting the poems of Sosigenes Costa. I was lucky enough to find a volume of his complete work, and as his verse is not even available online perhaps I can provide an avenue for at least a few others to come to appreciate one of the tragically forgotten giants of Brazilian Symbolist poetry. And if you don't speak Portuguese, well, now's as good a time to learn as any!'

*'Well why don't you make Wikipedia pages for them instead of whining about it?' The reader may be tempted to ask. That is a very good question. Maybe I'll get around to it someday.