هذه رواية تشذّ عن أسلوب ساراماجو صاحب الكتابات الفانتازية. وربما تكون هي أول رواية بالمعنى المتفق عليه للروايات. فالشخصيات عمومًا في الكتابات السابقة لساراماجو هي مجرد واجهات لعرض الفكرة؛ فعند ساراماجو الفكرة هي البطلة دائمًا، ثم يليها أي شئ آخر.

ولإن ساراماجو مختلف دائمًا، فمن المتوقع أن يتناول الشخصيات -عندما يقرر أن يوليها بعض الإهتمام أخيرًا- بطريقة مميزة للغاية. وربما السبب هو أن القصة هنا إنسانية بحتة، ويُمكن تأويل أحداثها الصغيرة بأشكال متعددة.

لا تتوقع أن تقرأ نصًا لاهثًا محمومًا بالأحداث. النص هنا هادئ ويتأمل في الطبيعة البشرية.

إذا لم تطّلع على الغلاف الخلفي للكتاب، فلن تعرف قبل آخر ثلاثين صفحة سبب تسمية الرواية بالكهف. وإذا اطّلعت -كما هو متوقع- فستقرأ أن للرواية علاقة بفكرة (كهف أفلاطون) الفلسفية، لكن التشابه فقط في مشهد الأشخاص المقيدين في الكهف لكن الهدف من الرواية مختلف إلى حد كبير عن فكرة كهف أفلاطون.

لمن لا يعرف (كهف أفلاطون)، إليكم:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrLSa6...

The Cave is a tender novel about the love between a father, his daughter, son-in-law and dog whose simple way of life is threatened by "The Center." It is also a scathing indictment of consumer culture. Like the prisoners in Plato's cave, the residents of the nearby Center experience only the flat outlines of real life.

Saramago writes with few paragraph breaks and no quotation marks. Although I found the blocks of text difficult at first, soon, I was pulled into this lovely, scary novel. I finished this a couple days ago and can't stop thinking about it.

Ilustração Inspector Pepe

“A Caverna” é um romance do escritor português José Saramago (1922 – 2010) publicado em 2000.
”O homem que conduz a camioneta chama-se Cipriano Algor, é oleiro de profissão e tem sessenta e quatro anos,… O homem que está sentado ao lado dele é o genro, chama-se Marçal Gacho, e ainda não chegou aos trinta.… Como já se terá reparado, tanto um como outro levam colados ao nome próprio uns apelidos insólitos cuja origem, significado e motivo desconhecem.… Uma família que fica completa com “A filha de Cipriano, que se chama Marta, de apelidos Isasca, por parte da mãe já falecida, e Algor, por parte do pai…”
Cipriano Algor é um oleiro, uma tradição familiar com origens ancestrais, uma “arte” e um “forno” que se transmite de geração em geração, que produz utensílios de barro, pratos, copos, cântaros,… que vende para o Centro, uma rotina que começa pelo trajecto que tem que fazer e pelas precauções que tem que tomar, passando pela Cintura Agrícola, pela Cintura Verde e pela Cintura Industrial. O Centro - um complexo comercial e residencial, uma sociedade artificial, vigiada e hermética – é o único cliente da olaria de Cipriano Algor.
Num dia o “inesperado” acontece e Cipriano tem que enfrentar novos desafios, uma nova realidade, que não compreende, entre várias vertentes; uma delas que domina, o trabalho e a produção manual, mas existem muitas outras que não domina, a lei da oferta e da procura, a concorrência de novos produtos (o plástico), a inovação tecnológica e os novos métodos da comercialização (os inquéritos aos consumidores) – um homem angustiado, que começa a viver dominado pela incerteza, pelas normas e pelos padrões da produção – mas a mudança pode acontecer e pode estar associada, primeiro à sua filha Marta e, mais tarde, ao seu genro Marçal Gacho, que é guarda no Centro e à sua promoção.
Depois há duas personagens secundárias o fiel cão “Achado” e a vizinha viúva Isaura Estudiosa ou Isaura Madruga verdadeiramente inesquecíveis.
Num período de grandes transformações tecnológicas a expansão da industrialização domina o crescimento económico, subjugando e substituindo o trabalho artesanal pelo trabalho industrial. Uma mudança que configura, simultaneamente, profundas alterações sociais, que não se limitam, exclusivamente, à actividade laboral e ao seu modo de produção, mas que se reflectem na identidade e na vivência pessoal dos protagonistas, no seu modo de existência e subsistência, na sua vida e no seu lazer.
”A Caverna” é um excelente romance, uma alegoria, uma distopia, uma crítica subtil, vigorosa e contundente, que permite manter o leitor num suspense intenso, proporcionando uma profunda e individual reflexão sobre o mundo capitalista, dominado pela componente económica e pelas inovações tecnológicas, sem nenhum tipo de diferenciação existencial ou comportamental.
As 4 Estrelas reflectem uma ligeira desilusão; porque em determinadas partes achei a escrita e a narrativa excessivamente descritiva e repetitiva, e considero que a parte final poderia e deveria ser mais “desenvolvida”…

”… faça-se ao cedo o que se poderia fazer ao tarde… “ (Pág. 60)

”… há quem leve a vida inteira a ler sem nunca ter conseguido ir mais além da leitura, ficam pegados à página, não percebem que as palavras são como pedras postas a atravessar a corrente de um rio, se estão ali é para que possamos chegar à outra margem, a outra margem é que importa, A não ser, A não ser, quê, A não ser que esses tais rios não tenham duas margens, mas muitas, que cada pessoa que lê seja, ela, a sua própria margem, e que seja sua, e apenas sua, a margem a que terá de chegar,…” (Pág. 77)


José Saramago (1992 - 2010) e a sua mulher Pilar del Rio (n. 1950) - Lanzarote - Ilhas Canárias - Espanha (documentário de Miguel Gonçalves Mendes)

2 stars = Meh. Intriguing enough to finish, but not enough to like it.

It is true what people say, the young have the ability, but lack the wisdom, and the old have the wisdom, but lack the ability.

In my quest to become more familiar with Portuguese culture, I decided to read a book by José Saramago, one of the most popular novelists in Portugal and a Nobel prize winner. I was told this novel was a good place to start, and was drawn to the dystopian theme centered around the dangers of unfettered capitalism and the slave-like cage it encloses around workers.

The author at times has an incredible way with words - prose that makes you stop and ponder it for its brilliance and beauty before moving on in the story. But that is really the only positive thing I have to say.

... the best way of killing a rose is to force it open when it is still only the promise of a bud.

While some readers will not mind, I detested the format of the novel which did not include quotation marks or even new lines for new speakers, and only a miniscule number of paragraph breaks in the entire book. Mostly, it was 10-15 page chapters that consisted of one long unbroken paragraph, primarily in a stream of consciousness format. Paragraphs are chapter length, and sentences are paragraph length. It was utterly painful to read despite the interspersed lovely prose, as evidenced by the four months it took to complete this 320 page novel. For example, here is ONE sentence pulled from one of the paragraph chapters:

If simplicity really is a virtue, no idea could be more virtuous than this, as you will soon see, Sir, Cipriano Algor would say to the head of the buying department, I’ve been pondering what you said about having two weeks to remove the stock taking up space in the warehouse, it didn’t occur to me at the time, probably because of my excitement when I saw that there was a slight hope that I might be allowed to continue as a supplier to the Center, but then I started thinking about it and thinking about it, and I realized that it’s difficult, if not impossible, to fulfill two obligations at once, that is, to remove the crockery and make the dolls, yes, I know you haven’t yet put in a firm order for them, but just supposing that you did, it occurred to me, purely as a precaution, to suggest an alternative that would leave me free during the first week to get on with making the dolls, I would then remove half of the crockery in the second week, go back to the dolls during the third week, and remove the remaining crockery during the fourth week, I know, I know, you don’t have to tell me, I’m not pretending that there isn’t another option which would be to start with the crockery the first week and then alternately, in sequence, dolls, crockery, dolls, but I think, in this particular case, one should take into account the psychological factor, everyone knows how different the state of mind the creator is from that of the destroyer, of someone who destroys, and if I could start making the dolls, that is start with creation, especially in the excellent frame of mind in which I find myself now, I would face with renewed courage the hard task of having to destroy the fruits of my own labor, because having no one to sell them to or, worse still, not even being able to give them away, is tantamount to destroying them.

I also learned that I could not possibly care less about pottery or learning how pottery is made. I hope I never read a book about a potter or pottery ever again as this one provided more than enough fodder on this mind numbing subject for a lifetime.

There are some things that are only said once and never again and you hear those words in your head until the last days of your life.

While this one was unfortunately a dud for me, because of his talented way of putting words together, I would read another Saramago novel so long as it was in audio format to avoid the atrocious formatting, and if the plot never came close to discussing pottery at all, whatsoever.

... time is a master of ceremonies who always ends up putting us in our rightful place, we advance, stop, and retreat according to his orders, our mistake lies in imagining that we can catch him out.
-------------------------------------------
First Sentence: The man driving the truck is called Cipriano Algor, he is a potter by profession and is sixty-four years old, although he certainly does not look his age.

Favorite Quote: They say that time heals all wounds, but we never live long enough to test that theory.

A Caverna = The Cave, José Saramago

The Cave is a novel, by Portuguese author José Saramago. It was published in Portuguese in 2000 and in English in 2002.

The story concerns an elderly potter named Cipriano Algor, his daughter Marta, and his son-in-law Marçal. One day, the Center, literally the center of commerce in the story, cancels its order for Cipriano's pottery, leaving the elderly potter's future in doubt.

He and Marta decide to try their hand at making clay figurines and astonishingly the Center places an order for hundreds. But just as quickly, the order is cancelled and Cipriano, his daughter, and his son-in-law have no choice but to move to the Center where Marçal works as a security guard.

Before long, the mysterious sound of digging can be heard beneath the Center, and what the family discovers will change their lives forever.

تاریخ نخستین خوانش: اول سپتامبر سال2008میلادی

عنوان: دخمه؛ نویسنده: ژوزه ساراماگو؛ مترجم: کیومرث پارسای؛ تهران، روزگار، سال1384؛ در358ص؛ شابک9643740218؛ چاپ چهارم سال1384؛ چاپ پنجم سال1386؛ چاپ ششم سال1388؛ شابک9789643740214؛ چاپ هفتم سال1391؛ موضوع داستانهای نویسندگان پرتقال - سده 21م

رمان «دخمه»، داستان پیرمرد شصت و چهار ساله ای به نام «سیپریانو الگور» است؛ او در دهکده ای نزدیک شهری بزرگ، زندگی میکند؛ در آن شهر مکانی بنام مجتمع مرکزی وجود دارد، که خود، شهری بزرگتر و مرموزتر است؛ ساکنان بسیاری در مجتمع زندگی میکنند، که همه امکانات شهری و رفاهی برایشان فراهم است، و خیلیها آرزو دارند، در آن مجتمع زندگی کنند؛ مجتمعی که هر کس اجازه ی سکونت در آن را ندارد، و بوسیله ی نگهبانان بی‌شماری حفاظت و کنترل میشود؛ «سیپریانو» سازنده ی ظروف سفالینی است، که آنها را در کارگاه سفالگری اجدادیش میسازد، و با قراردادی که با مجتمع مرکزی دارد، آنها را برای فروش به ساکنان مجتمع، به انبار آنجا میبرد؛ از قضا شوهر تنها فرزند «سیپریانو»، یکی از نگهبانان مجتمع مرکزی است، و انتظار ترفیعی را میکشد، تا بتواند برای زندگی به یکی از آپارتمانهای کوچک مجتمع مرکزی، نقل مکان کند؛ ترفیعی که داماد «سیپریانو» و دخترش برای آن لحظه شماری میکنند، اما «سیپریانو» در دل از آن مجتمع بیزار است؛

همسر «سیپریانو» مدتی پیش درگذشته است، و دخترش میخواهد «سیپریانو»ی تنها و پیر را، با خود به مجتمع مرکزی ببرد؛ زندگی «سیپریانو» زمانی به هم میریزد، که مسئولین مجتمع مرکزی، با برهم زدن یکطرفه ی قرارداد، دیگر حاضر به خرید سفالهایش نیستند، و او مجبور است تنها کاری را هم که در این دنیا برایش باقیمانده بود، متوقف کند؛ از سوی دیگر، دامادش در آستانه ی گرفتن ترفیع قرار میگیرد؛ و «سیپریانو» مجبور است همراه آنها، به مجتمع مرکزی نقل مکان کند؛ «سیپریانو» اگر هم پیشتر از آنجا خوشش نمیآمد، اکنون برای اینکه از آنجا متنفر باشد، دلیل دارد؛ اینجاست که داستان ساده ی زندگی روزمره، و یکنواخت «سیپریانو»ی سفالفروش، به دغدغه های بیشمار پیرمردی تنها، و ناامید، تبدیل میشود، که نمیداند جدال اصلی اش، بیشتر با خود و خاطرات بگذشته اش است، یا با دختر و داماد و زندگی آینده اش در مجتمع مرکزی؛

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 09/10/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 22/08/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

Pećina je treći deo Saramagove distopijske trilogije, ne tako zanimljiv kao Slepilo, (roman Sva imena, drugi deo, nisam našao u biblioteci pa je zato nepročitan). Ima otvorenu ekološku i antiglobalističku nit koja se provlači kroz ceo roman, podsećajući na Orvelov Coming up for air, naročito po opisima nestajanja i uništavanja prirode, tj. jedne tihe jadikovke za uništenim šumama, poljima...

Radnja romana je dosta razvučena, stiče se utisak da je mogao biti značajno kraći, ali Saramago je verovatno namerno opisivao seosku idilu naspram gradske vreve i buke da bi dobio određeni slikoviti efekat kod čitalaca. Kao baza i naslov knjige uzet je Platonov mit o pećini koji ovde neću dodatno objasniti, da ne bi došlo do spoiler-a.

"bu da demek oluyor ki düşündüklerimiz konusunda hiçbir zaman emin olmamalıyız çünkü tam da o anda, bilmediğimiz birtakım olaylar, bizi düşündüğümüzün tam aksi yönüne yerleştirilmiş olabilir."

Saramago konusunda objektif olamıyorum. Yine çok güzel.

Hayatımıza yeni yeni giren avm'ler ve sıkışmış, arada kalmış insanlar...

انا شايف بعيدا عن الهرى بتاع العمق وامثولة افلاطون وانسان الحداثة

رواية الكهف تمثل ايقونة الرتابة والملل

زندگی باید اینگونه باشد. زمانی که فردی اعتماد به نفس خود را از دست می دهد، دیگری باید بیاید و با بحث درباره ی مشکلات، به او جرات بدهد


نميدونم چي باعث شد اينقدر زود تمومش كنم فقط ميدونم دوسش داشتم چون حين گفتن داستان ي مسائلي رو از ي زاويه بهم نشون ميداد ك جالب بود


غصه ها و دلتنگی ها را کنار بگذاریم ، چون تنها به خودمان زیان می رساند و باعث عقب ماندگی می شود . پیشرفت در همه جا بی وقفه ادامه دارد و لازم است ما هم با آن همراه شویم . وای بر کسانی که از ترس نگرانی های احتمالی آینده ، در کنار راه بنشینند و برای گذشته ای گریه کنند که هرگز بهتر از حال حاضر نبوده است

Making Words Visible

A love story for the elderly? A Lovecraftian fantasy? A documentary about craft pottery-making? A family saga of Portuguese modernity? Well actually The Cave is all of these and more as Saramago crosses genre boundaries with his usual and unique style to create a remarkably readable philosophical novel. What binds the book together is Saramago's lifelong concern about words. The Cave is an exploration of how much we can trust words. His answer is: Just about as far as we can throw them. Many of us are familiar with his suspicion of language, that...

"...vague obscure feeling of being part of something dangerously complex and, so to speak, full of slippery meanings, a whole made up of parts in which each individual is, simultaneously, both one of the parts and the whole of which he is a part."

The one-word description of how Saramago treats words is 'delicacy'. Not just delicacy in written description, but how we as human beings are delicate in our use of words with each other in everyday life. Delicacy is far too delicate for crude philosophical dialectic. In real relationships delicacy doesn't depend on conflict but on appreciation and the holding of conflict in suspension.

Patience not decisiveness is required for delicacy to emerge. It takes time to sweep in and collect what is said with what is unsaid. How so much unsaid in fact goes into making the words that are said. And how much of the unsaid is communicated very effectively indeed through what is said. Delicacy demands a sort of spiritual stance:

"...some people spend their entire lives reading but never get beyond reading the words on the page, they don't understand that the words are merely stepping stones placed across a fast flowing river, and the reason they're there is so that we can reach the farther shore, it's the other side that matters."

Dogs know this. Which is a good reason for making a dog one of The Cave's central characters. Dogs are able to reduce what are - to humans - complex patterns of speech to simple emotional conditions - happiness, meditativeness, anxiety, frustration - and leave it at that. Dogs have only a limited repertoire in responding to delicacy, however; mainly they just remain attentive to it. Human beings go the step beyond and, at their best, respond delicately to delicacy with remarkable finesse.

Human wordiness is the bridge of relationship, even when, perhaps especially when, words are withheld. Words obviously have power: to move, to instruct, to reconcile. In a sense they are the essence of humanness. Or rather, it is what we do with words that makes us human: we play:

".....what you call playing with words is just a way of making them more visible."

It is when words become invisible, that is indistinguishable from reality, that they become a danger to humanity, and to the rest of the world. Words used indelicately, even unintentionally, can hurt. They can distort what is real, especially by crudely mendacious mis-naming. They can cause unnecessary anxiety, even when they are meaningless, or especially when they are meaningless jargon. In the mouths of those who want to dominate us, they of course can be devastating, perhaps lethal. Saramago makes visible the nonsense of contemporary ad-speak:

"You're our best customer but don't tell your neighbour."

The skill required to make the power and limitations of verbal and written communication visible, and to make them in turn equal with the variety of other symbolic ways we express ourselves, to ourselves as well as to others, is immense:

"Human vocabulary is still not capable, and probably never will be of knowing, recognising and communicating everything that can be humanly experienced and felt."

Even greater skill is required to use words to describe these basic skills of controlling language. At this Saramago is an undisputed master. His guiding principle is clear:

"...we must never violate what constitutes the exclusive and essential character of a person, that is, his personality, his way of being, his own unmistakable nature. A character can be full of contradictions, but [it is ] never incoherent..."

It is this basic presumption, that human beings, always and everywhere, are pursuing purpose, even when they appear to be floundering, that is the core of Saramago's work, nowhere better stated than in The Cave. Thus he shows the profound connection between our appreciation of words, aesthetics; and our appreciation of other people, ethics. Remarkable indeed.

n  The Walln

COMING SOON, PUBLIC OPENING OF PLATO’S CAVE, AN EXCLUSIVE ATTRACTION, UNIQUE IN THE WORLD, BUY YOUR TICKET NOW.

I don’t know why the end of José Saramago’s novel reminded me of that old joke in which a child asks his father why the writers have got street names. In fact I know why – the apparently innocent question hints to the way of reasoning of an entire society whose values have no common point whatsoever with the culture anymore, a pragmatic society that sees the eternal ideas as simple curiosities projected on the wall for its amusement, that does not feel any metaphysical anxiety anymore and it is quite comfortable with the ropes around the neck and feet which keeps it firmly tied to the stone bench of the immediate, the concrete, the consumable. A society forever anchored in the immanence.

I think this is the main theme of The Cave: the chains of ignorance the modern man proudly rattles, deluding himself he freely gave up his past, his inner life, his humanity as liabilities in change for the comfort of civilisation where having is more important than being.

From this point of view, the story of Cipriano Algor, together with his daughter Marta and his son-in-law Marçal Gacho, is the story of the few who still had the curiosity to turn their head to see the light at the entrance of the cave – to realize their limits and to fight to surpass them. In fact, as the narrator informs us right from the beginning (in some ludic reply to Cratylus), ““algor” means the intense cold one feels in one’s body before a fever sets in, and… “gacho” is neither more or less than the part of an ox’s neck on which the yoke rests.” It is Cipriano Algor who will teach Marçal Gacho (as he taught his daughter) to think and see the world as it is, to shake off so to speak the yoke of ignorance and quit the cave.

Or the caves, for there are several, one for each misconception mankind carelessly built to foolishly worship it afterwards, mistaking it for eternal truth. First, there is the cave where Cipriano deposits his unwanted earthenware plates, mugs and dishes, jokingly imagining archaeologists’ controversies over their origin and utility upon its discovery in a distant future – for what is History God other than a bundle of suppositions based on some vestiges that could be no more than jetsam? Follow the cave in the hero’s dream, his kiln cave which reveals his creation dependent not on his skills but on supply and demand – transforming the artist into a slave of the Market God. Then the most frightening of all, the cave of the Centre, a building where everybody wants to live because in there everybody’s dreams of comfort became true and which can be accessed by crossing some “dark, evil-smelling waters” and entering deeply the belly of hell through a Dantesque funnel:

It’s morning, but very early, the sun is not yet up, the Green Belt will appear soon, then it will be the Industrial Belt, then the shantytown, then the no man’s land, then the buildings being constructed on the periphery, and at last the city, the broad avenue, and finally the Centre. Any road you take leads to the Centre.

That is, another god with feet of clay, the Civilisation God. Last but not least, Plato’s cave itself, desecrated in a material world in which it is supposed not to warn and teach but to provide intellectual exhibitionism, for the most powerful god, whose knot is most impossible to untie, is the Delusion God.

Finally, and encompassing all the others, there is the cave of the text the characters must escape from, in order to come and tell us their story, to warn us about another dangerous god, the God of Illusion. For enraptured with the story it is quite easy to overlook the fact that the said story is in fact the wall on which moves our destiny-shaped shadow Plato had already pointed out for everyone to see:

“What a strange scene you describe, and what strange prisoners, They are just like us.”

Just like us. And how many do still feel the need to break free? I don’t know whether José Saramago really shows us the exit, as Jonathan Keats believes in his excellent review. Or if he does, whether there is anybody left to care. It seems to me that more and more of us not only wear the chains with pride but ferociously fight for a place in the cave.

La Caverna, del gran nobel portugués José Saramago, publicada en 2000, es una meditación profunda sobre temas como la alienación, la globalización, el consumismo y la pérdida de identidad en la sociedad contemporánea.

Nos presenta a Cipriano Algor, un anciano ceramista que se enfrenta a los cambios en su vida y en su negocio debido a la llegada de un nuevo centro comercial a su ciudad. La trama se desarrolla en un ambiente distópico donde el progreso industrial y comercial ha eclipsado los valores tradicionales y las relaciones humanas auténticas.

Saramago utiliza su característico estilo narrativo, marcado por largas oraciones y diálogos sin signos de puntuación, para sumergir en la mente y las experiencias de los personajes. A través de la historia de Cipriano y su hija Marta, Saramago explora la lucha entre lo antiguo y lo nuevo, lo artesanal y lo industrial, lo humano y lo mecánico.

El centro comercial, símbolo de la modernidad y el consumismo desenfrenado, actúa como un espacio opresivo que amenaza con destruir la identidad y la autonomía de los habitantes que lo circundan. La caverna del título funciona como una metáfora tanto del refugio interior de los personajes como de la alienación y el aislamiento que experimentan en la sociedad moderna.

A medida que avanza la narrativa, Saramago examina las implicaciones éticas y sociales de la globalización y el capitalismo, así como la naturaleza del arte y la creatividad en un mundo dominado por la producción en masa y la uniformidad. La búsqueda de sentido y conexión humana en un entorno cada vez más impersonal y deshumanizado es otro tema central de la novela.

En general, la novela va de:

Alienación y aislamiento: Los personajes se sienten alienados y desconectados en un mundo dominado por la tecnología y el consumismo, lo que los lleva a buscar refugio en su propio interior.
Globalización y capitalismo: Saramago analiza los efectos destructivos de la globalización y el capitalismo desenfrenado en la vida cotidiana de las personas y en la identidad cultural.
Arte y creatividad: La novela reflexiona sobre el valor del arte y la creatividad en un mundo obsesionado con la producción en masa y la eficiencia económica.
Identidad y autenticidad: Los personajes luchan por mantener su identidad y autonomía en un entorno que valora la uniformidad y la conformidad.
Ética y Moralidad: Saramago plantea preguntas profundas sobre la ética y la moralidad en un mundo donde el beneficio económico a menudo se coloca por encima del bienestar humano.

La prosa magistral de Saramago, combinada con su aguda crítica social y su profundo sentido de la humanidad, hace de "La Caverna" una obra impactante y reflexiva que invita a cuestionar los valores y las prioridades de la sociedad contemporánea.

¿La recomiendo? Sí, sin duda. Y de repetir.