READIN

🦋 The writer as a character

I'm really interested to know more about what Raimundo's experience is like in writing his History -- he has never written a story before, what is going through his head as he composes? Is Saramago making reference to his own experiences first picking up the pen? I have a vague understanding (quite possibly mistaken) that he made a living doing technical writing for a long time before he wrote any fiction -- possibly there is room to extrapolate from there to Raimundo's life. I am feeling like it's difficult for me to get this novel without knowing much of anything about the historical events at the center of the novel -- I don't know where (besides the obvious point) Raimundo's History is at odds with the accepted history. It looks (from where I am right now, about halfway through) like he is trying to write a story in which that key decision goes the other way, but everything ends up the same -- this is an unusual approach to "alternate history".

...What a great line, from Saramago's description of Raimundo's reconstruction of the Portuguese riding to a summit with the Moorish leaders:

...Roger or Rogeiro joined the expedition as a chronicler, as becomes clear when he starts removing writing materials from his knapsack, only the stylus and writing-tablets, because the swaying of his mule would spill the ink and cause his lettering to sprawl, all of this, as you know, the mere speculation of a narrator concerned with verisimilitude rather than the truth, which he considers to be unattainable.

posted afternoon of Sunday, June 28th, 2009
➳ More posts about The History of the Siege of Lisbon
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