The Hour of the Star (Week 8)

I am so excited for this week! I had actually already read this novel when I took a Latin American literature class with Jon last year and since then, I've basically forced a lot of my friends and family to read it. It's one of my favourite books and I'm so excited to talk about it again. 

Whenever I get into conversations with some of my friends about this novella there are always two themes that we end up discussing: feminism and poverty. One of the most striking things about this book that makes it so interesting to me is that it is told from the perspective/narration of a man. While some may think that this doesn't necessarily scream feminism, I actually argue that it does since it illustrates a point about how women are not often given their own voices to tell their own stories. What makes this even more meta is how Lispector's own place within the novel as the narrator is also told by a man. Not only silencing Macabea, but Lispector herself. 

This book also takes it even further to note how the narrator is uncomfortable talking about poverty. Given this, I want to focus on how this book builds on one beginning line in particular: "This book is a silence. This book is a question" (8). What a fantastic line!

Let's start by considering the role of silence in this novel. Firstly, there's a silencing of Macabea by having her words and actions interpreted by someone else as I've already mentioned. However, I believe the silence also speaks to the role that poverty plays in the novel, particularly regarding the narrator's uncertainty about Macabea's story/future and the role that the privileged play in continuing this cycle of poverty. Having the narrator not part of this world, yet telling its story continues a silencing of those in poverty, with an additional silence on their future. There is such an amazing last line in the book when questioning what Macabea's future could have been: "The sleek cat mangling some dirty rat, life eats life" (75). Additionally "the silence is such that not even thought thinks" (77). Both of these lines at the end of the novel make a statement to me about how the privileged continue to consume, ignoring those who are less fortunate. Yet it is through this consumption that they are becoming loud, silencing those unable to consume as well. 

There seems to be such a separation between the privileged (i.e. consuming) society and the impoverished in this novel in a way that I think is fantastically written. Lispector's touch of having a radio create a veil between these two worlds is brilliant. There is a real desire to be part of the "other" throughout the novel which is a very layered concept since the narrator ultimately creating Macabea's story is already a part of this world that Macabea so desires. It is also interesting how it seems that the main characteristic of this privileged world is that of racial whiteness and the desire for the blonde and blue-eye aesthetic. As mentioned in the lecture, Lispector's own role as a blonde, white immigrant writing herself about an impoverished racialized woman just adds another layer to this insane dynamic. 

I think even Lispector's role in writing this as part of consumable media is also pretty meta. I asked my Brazilian boyfriend (who is from a poorer area) if he had ever read Lispector and he said he never got the opportunity to in his education. Meanwhile, his white girlfriend is taking a university class on it learning about a culture that isn't even her own. I'm learning about his culture in a way that he never had access to, through Lispector's novel which in a way acts as her own metaphorical radio existing between these two worlds, except where I get to look at poverty, where Macabea was looking towards privilege. 

This brings me to what this book is trying to ask. I think this book is ultimately making a statement about our roles in generating and continuing this cycle of poverty. I think it is asking how we view poverty, how we view women in poverty, and how we view the aesthetic of poverty. The final word being an answer to a question (i.e "yes") is also just brilliant and gives me goosebumps every time. My mind is always so blown by this novel.      

Question for the class: What question do you think this book is about? What is it trying to ask of the reader?