By JOSÉ PAULO NETTO*

Tribute to the recently deceased journalist and writer

I have read several obituaries of Dênis de Moraes, reporting his death on February 6th and his cremation the following afternoon at the Caju Cemetery. All were complimentary and truthful: they recalled his career as a journalist with clear text, his impeccable academic background, his fruitful teaching at the Fluminense Federal University and mentioned his main works (with emphasis on his leading role in the field of communication theory and biography). In short: all lamented his death, when he was barely 70 years old, and highlighted the immense loss suffered by Brazilian intelligence.

I too, with the serenity that my advanced age has brought me, was surprised by the unexpected interruption of his journey among us. And on the afternoon of the 07th, when I said goodbye to him at the Caju crematorium, strong emotion brought me to tears.

We had been reading each other since the 1980s. We exchanged greetings and criticisms, which were few and rarely substantial. But we only became friends in the late 1990s, at a fun lunch on the UFRJ campus in Botafogo – with the lively participation of Carlos Nelson Coutinho. Since then, my personal relationship with Dênis has deepened and become something essential in our lives. Our personal bond has, from the beginning, had the characteristic mark of friendship among communists of the past: a continuous and permanent dialogue between peers, mutual help, self-criticism and projects. I must point out that I learned a lot from my relationship with Dênis de Moraes.

In this 2012st century, two great friends left me alone: ​​in 1960, Aloísio Teixeira and Carlos Nelson, my comrades since the second half of the XNUMXs. The first one left suddenly; the second one had a longer and more painful departure. How can one avoid blows like these, without the comfortable help of a religious belief in another world?

Well over fifty years ago, reading the poetry of César Vallejo, the notable and forgotten Peruvian, I remembered the lesson: There are blows in life, yo lo sé! But this wisdom never consoled me. As I grew older, however, I found a personal solution, which I recognize as artificial: I imagine that the friends who leave and leave me here, almost alone on a corner of life, are merely undertaking a long journey, a journey of no return. And even deprived of their physical presence, our dialogue continues.

So, I continue discussing with Aloísio Teixeira his pages on the Utopians, heretics and damned and debating with Carlos Nelson Coutinho his thesis on the compatibility between Antonio Gramsci and György Lukács. These are productive and ever-renewed conversations – we evaluate our past illusions and mistakes, our small victories and many of our failures, and we promise to continue studying to take firmer steps forward. And above all, these are gatherings filled with smiles: we preserve and refine our irony towards the world and ourselves.

This is how the journey initiated by Dênis de Moraes on February 6th will be for me. I will continue to tell him about my limited understanding of his theory of communication; we will continue to discuss the alternatives for the Marxist tradition in the coming times, the dramas and gains of socialism to which we have dedicated our youth and maturity, and our hope for the future; we will continue, uncompromisingly, faithful to our adherence to communist ideas.

We talked about all this, and more, in the last personal meeting we had, at my house, last November – the two of us, plus Leila and Milton Temer.

Dênis de Moraes and I, despite the physical distance that now separates us, will continue our essential dialogue. We will try to face together the problems that reality presents us, we will talk about the projects to be implemented and, as always, we will laugh a lot. I will have other opportunities to watch the respected academic stretch out, a glass of good sparkling wine between his fingers, in digressions – believe it or not! – about astrology and horoscopes (which delighted Leila). It was a sight to see that cultured and sophisticated English lord dissecting the enigmas of popular magic speculation…

Let's move on, Dênis. Let's revisit our ideas about the Brazilians whose exemplary biographies you have written (especially that of Graciliano Ramos, the one I like the most). We will return to discussing your contribution to the “monitored imaginary” and the relevance of the latter. Sartre and the press, which enchanted me.

And we will never have the final word on The left and the blow of 1964. For my part, I will listen more carefully, especially to your comments on my written presentations – which you recommended should be more fluent and light. The truth, let everyone know, is that my friend Dênis de Moraes did not die – like Aloísio Teixeira and Carlos Nelson Coutinho, he simply traveled.

* Jose Paulo Netto He is Professor Emeritus at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). Author, among other books, of Karl Marx – a biography (Boitempo).

Originally published on Boitempo's blog.

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