By FRANCISCO DE OLIVEIRA BARROS JUNIOR*
Rodriguiana's tragedy is not just for Rio de Janeiro, but extends to all the north and south areas, villages and hamlets of Brazil
From theater to cinema
Theatrical lyrics in film adaptations. In the English language, William Shakespeare's dramaturgy is exemplary. Hamlet is one of his works adapted for cinema, a universal language. The aforementioned theatrical play has already received several film readings. To be or not to be. In Brazil, Nelson Rodrigues' theatrical plays are examples to be cited when we talk about artistic transpositions from stage to screen. English and Portuguese are the languages used by the two writers mentioned. Both seen as classics, dramaturgical references in generational transitions.
Today, they continue to be produced due to the timeliness and gravity of their texts. The ambiguities of the human being, beautiful and ordinary, sacred and profane, their highness and lowness, shadows and lights, were deeply studied and thought about by them. From a Rodriguian perspective, mine, yours, our destiny is to sin. The life of pornographic angels as it is. Family albums reveal multicolored and secret images. Penetrating writings beneath the wedding dress. The human potential to love and kill, in literary nakedness.
This is one of the reasons for the timelessness of the aforementioned playwrights. How can we not consider them thinkers? The sociologist praises literature by observing that “novel authors join filmmakers and visual artists at the forefront of public reflection, debate and awareness” (BAUMAN & MAZZEO, 2020, p.14).
Through the keyhole
Being “a pornographic angel”. There are crooked and exterminating angels. Pornography suits an angelic creature? Mine, yours, our demons. In Nelson Rodrigues' presentation of himself, we understand the meaning of the adjective to the celestial figure. His “fiction writer's perspective” comes from his childhood, whose vision goes through the “keyhole”. This is a focal point from where the writer reveals our secrets within four walls. Peeps behind the scenes of the living rooms and bedrooms of the sweet homes of the holy families.
I remembered the verb breech. Living in coercive, vigilant and punitive societies, we hide practices seen as violating current moral and religious standards. Our caves, what we do in the backlight, in the little hells and darkness of our everyday lives. The lady of the night that is hidden inside each of us. Puritans and moralists, guardians of order, hide objectionable facets. Hypocritical stone-throwers. Who can throw them? Our side underground is recorded in the pages written by playwrights who know our depths, capabilities, desires and motivations.
“My hate is love.” Phrase by the closeted Aprígio, in his jealousy of Arandir, his daughter's husband, for whom he hid a loving, homosexual feeling. From the censors' perspective, homosexuality is seen as a disease, immorality, crime, sin, shamelessness, and they use the term homosexuality. Affective and emotional complexities unveiled by our “pornographic angel”. The revealing writing of Nelson Rodrigues stimulates Freudian interpretations of his provocative lyrics (CASTRO, 2022).
The Kiss on the Asphalt supports multiple readings. A psychoanalyst would shed light on the answer to the following question: why did Aprígio, Selminha's father, never call his son-in-law (Arandir) by his name? The spectacularization and sensationalism surrounding the “kiss” given by Arandir to the man killed after being run over stimulates the sociological imagination focused on the violent news market in the society of the spectacle. Dramatization promoted by the “very scandalous” newspaper, according to D. Matilde.
“A Kiss of Pity” is transformed “into a sinister, loving affair between two men”. Scandalous “pederasty” in public space. In the marketing objective of “selling the newspaper and stopping the city”, witnesses are forged in the construction of the news put together by the cunning and stupid minds of an unethical reporter and an unethical delegate. Their amorality and lack of scruples wreak deadly havoc on the lives of their victims. A Kafkaesque touch to the impactful and “offensive” theatrical piece (CASTRO, 2022, p.314).
The criminalized kiss
What is the relevance of Nelson Rodrigues to sociological thought? A “pornographic angel”, a controversial writer, playwright on stage and projected on screen. Someone who sees “life as it is” through the “keyhole”. What is hidden, what we do “behind the scenes” so no one knows, in tune with popular music, is of sociological interest. Unveiling social masks is an objective of critical sociology. I believe that Pierre Bourdieu would find sociological virtues in the company of Nelson Rodrigues' lyrics.
In literary praise, I select a film version of The Kiss on the Asphalt, a Rio tragedy in three acts. Rodriguiano's theatrical text, from 1961, is still current. The spectacle of violence, the sensationalism and the dramatization of our everyday barbarities, produced by the media, continue to generate high ratings. Blood makes a splash, goes viral. Sad and shameful. Disappointing. Testify against us. How is our level of civility? The macabre and the grotesque, evocative of medieval temporalities, gain new visual treatments in the society of risks and electrified walls. Little Red Riding Hood turned yellow, in Chico Buarque's writing. A glass of water turns into a storm when the focus is on violent acts.
Violence is real, multicolored, structural, symbolic, has complex causes and is generated by multiple factors. What are its deep roots? Someone becomes a thief, not being born a criminal. For example, Marquinho Cabeção, whose career was narrated by the sound of MV Bill. We are social constructions, just like the manipulation of news.
From the fact that occurred, to its arrival in the voice of the news presenter, many hands interfere in what will be reported. In the network society, in the information age, news about crimes, robberies, neighbor fights, football fan fights and other everyday fights take up most of the time in Telanic newspapers. Programs and police cases accompany the spoonfuls placed in our mouths at meal times. In the midst of the shootings, those responsible for the journalistic agenda paid no attention to the Shakespearean show that was on display in the city.
Could we talk about an “industry of violence”? Another opportunity to enrich ourselves at the expense of our miseries? Does producing fear generate profits? What would Jean Delumeau, the historian of fearful humanity, say? The drought, in the past, on northeastern soils, produced many millionaire colonels. We are hubs of multiple industries, including those based on the exploration of our ordinary sides, masterfully studied by the classics of our drama.
Making money at the expense of the painful woes of sufferers. Arandir's kiss ended in his death, after so much fake news built by the baseness of the alliance between a delegate and a reporter, willing to do anything to clean their bars and sell newspapers. From the text by Nelson Rodrigues, in his theatrical and cinematographic productions, to think about what is hidden behind the “keyhole” of our daily woes.
Violated daily, in multiple ways, we ask: who is profiting from so many “lost bullets”? Why don't they go beyond palliative solutions, those that are far from touching our serious and old wounds, linked to unemployment, income concentration, scandalous and immoral inequalities and divisions of everyday life lived in a slum society, like that of our Brazils. Rodriguiana's tragedy is not just for Rio de Janeiro, but extends to all the north and south areas, villages and hamlets of Brazil. The kiss, given in Nelson's text, reaches our days and continues to raise questions. Arteirices of someone who is a classical thinker.
*Francisco de Oliveira Barros Junior Professor at the Department of Social Sciences at the Federal University of Piauí (UFPI).
References
BAUMAN, Zygmunt & MAZZEO, Riccardo. The praise of literature. Rio de Janeiro, Zahar, 2020.
CASTRO, Ruy. The pornographic angel: the life of Nelson Rodrigues. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2022.
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