• Portuguese Author Jose Saramago, 87, Dies
    18 replies, posted
[quote](LISBON, Portugal) — Jose Saramago, who became the first Portuguese-language winner of the Nobel Literature prize although his popularity at home was dampened by his unflinching support for Communism, blunt manner and sometimes difficult prose style, died Friday. Saramago, 87, died at his home in Lanzarote, one of Spain's Canary Islands, of multi-organ failure after a long illness, the Jose Saramago Foundation said. "The writer died in the company of his family, saying goodbye in a serene and placid way," the foundation said. See the 100 best novels of all time. Saramago was an outspoken man who antagonized many, and moved to the Canary Islands after a public spat with the Portuguese government in 1992. His 1998 Nobel accolade was nonetheless widely cheered in his homeland after decades of the award eluding writers of a language used by some 170 million people around the world. "People used to say about me, 'He's good but he's a Communist.' Now they say, 'He's a Communist but he's good,'" he said in a 1998 interview with The Associated Press. Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates said Saramago was "one of our great cultural figures and his disappearance has left our culture poorer." Born Nov. 16, 1922 in the town of Azinhaga near Lisbon, Saramago was raised in the capital. From a poor family, he never finished university but continued to study part-time while supporting himself as a metalworker. His first novel published in 1947 — "Terra do Pecado," or "Country of Sin" — was a tale of peasants in moral crisis. It sold badly but won Saramago enough recognition to allow him jump from the welder's shop to a job on a literary magazine. But for the next 18 years Saramago published only a few travel and poetry books while he worked as a journalist. "I suppose I came to the conclusion I had nothing worth telling," he said of that period. He returned to fiction only after the four-decade dictatorship created by Antonio Salazar was toppled by a military uprising in 1974. Saramago often found himself going against the tide of popular opinion. Portugal's membership of the European Union is overwhelmingly appreciated in his homeland, a country of 10.6 million people which despite EU development aid is still western Europe's poorest country. Saramago, however, disagreed. "First of all I'm Portuguese, then Iberian, and then, if I feel like it, I'm European," he once told the AP. He left a wife, Spanish journalist Pilar del Rio, and a daughter from his first marriage. Daniel Woolls contributed to this story from Madrid Read more: [url]http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1997793,00.html#ixzz0rJDgxa9j[/url][/quote] [url]http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1997793,00.html[/url] [img]http://static.publico.clix.pt/docs/cmf/autores/joseSaramago/Saramago2.jpg[/img] Jose Saramago, born in my home country, was a writer who own the Nobel prize in 1998. He was a communist and atheist. "Saramago was an outspoken man who antagonized many, and moved to the Canary Islands after a public spat with the Portuguese government in 1992" He had an unique writing style, which is somehow hard to explain. Here's a quote from wikipedia about it: "Saramago's experimental style often features long sentences, at times more than a page long. He uses periods sparingly, choosing instead a loose flow of clauses joined by commas. Many of his paragraphs extend for pages without pausing for dialog, which Saramago chooses not to delimit by quotation marks; when the speaker changes, Saramago capitalizes the first letter of the new speaker's clause. In his novel Blindness, Saramago completely abandons the use of proper nouns instead choosing to refer to characters simply by some unique characteristic, an example of his use of style to enhance the recurring themes of identity and meaning found throughout his work." The death of this great writer deeply saddens me. He didn't hesitate when it came to expressing what he felt, no matter the consequences. Hated by many, loved by some, like me. This post is my tribute to this person I admire. His death most likely means nothing to most of you, but I felt I should to something to honour his death. "Words were not given to man in order to conceal his thoughts."
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8DHO7XFVkI&feature=related[/media] That's Spanish though, not Portuguese. fuck embedding disabled by request
Who is he?
[QUOTE=BagMinge101;22730858]Who is he?[/QUOTE] He died.
In before retarded Americans who will think he's automatically Mexican because he has a Hispanic name
Who is he, really? [QUOTE=CivilProtection;22739724]In before retarded Americans who will think he's automatically Mexican because he has a Hispanic name[/QUOTE] In before "I bet they won't read the title!" thanks to CivilProtection.
lol butthurt american [highlight](User was banned for this post ("Dumb xenophobic crap" - SteveUK))[/highlight]
He has quite some books. I'm going to have to read "Memorial do Convento" for Grade 12 this year.
Filthy book written commie. In all seriousness I don't think I've ever heard of this man or what he's done.
[img]http://errur.com/New/Uploads/309.gif[/img]
[QUOTE=CivilProtection;22739776]lol butthurt american[/QUOTE] You're a really bad troll.
I read his book Blindness for my Gr. 12 English class. His writing style can get a little annoying, mainly because of the breathless quotationless sentences. But it's still a really good book. The movie based on the book isn't bad either.
[QUOTE=CivilProtection;22739776]lol butthurt american[/QUOTE] Your being too obvious,
Portugal :D:D
[QUOTE=ZpankR;22740154][img]http://errur.com/New/Uploads/309.gif[/img][/QUOTE] uh, who is that? José Sócrates?
You may know his work with the book called "Blindness", it was made famous because of the movie. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqpdIioeN9A&feature=related&fmt=22&fmt=18[/media]
[QUOTE=CivilProtection;22739776]lol butthurt american[/QUOTE] -Snip- What a troll
[QUOTE=*Freezorg*;22748993]uh, who is that? José Sócrates?[/QUOTE] Yeah, that douche.
[QUOTE=ZpankR;22766121]Yeah, that douche.[/QUOTE] I thought he was cool when he legalized gay marriage, but he still fucks up alot of the economy...
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