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BRAZILIAN BILINGUAL BOOK CLUB| DALTON TREVISAN | O VAMPIRO DE CURITIBA|16TH MAR, 6.30-9 PM 2017- the year of #lovetoreadBrazil DALTON TREVISAN (1925- ) O Vampiro de Curitiba (1964/5) translated into English as The Vampire of Curitiba and other stories (1972) 1 The Vampire of Curitiba is one of the best-known masterpieces by a recluse author, who does not give interviews, seek publicity & yet continues to be (re-)read voraciously! Dalton Trevisan: a man of unsual genius, a master of the art of literary ventriloquism, a cursed author, ironically prurient and epigrammatic, forging some of the most accomplished minimalist insights into the workings of the human mind, emotions and behaviours. No real vampires in this chain of haiku-like microstories! (Trevisan coined the term ‘microstory’) Is The Vampire of Curitiba an early experimental novel disguised as a set of short or rather micro stories? Is the narrator a misanthrope? Or is he affected by some neurological or bipolar disorder? There is even a relatively recent paper (2014) in a medical journal about Dalton Trevisan’s acute capacity to record neurological events in his narrative! You will never forget Nelsinho! A sleazy but fetching guy and a scoundrel too, who obsessively pursues different women in each microstory-chapter! The accounts of women’s lives, mores and challenges evoke pictures of hell… DETAILS OF AVAILABLE PUBLICATIONS: ENGLISH The vampire of Curitiba and other stories (1972) ISBN-10: 0394466454 ISBN-13: 9780394466453 Also available at https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Vampire_of_Curitiba_and_Oth er_Storie.html?id=SPsdAQAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y PORTUGUESE 2 O vampiro de Curitiba (1964/5) ISBN-10: 85010136331 ISBN-13: 978-8501013637 Various editions Free download: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8CgHMVEFuyOZkdfTHBnVFozRFE/edit SHORT HISTORY OF THE BOOK AND TRANSLATIONS The publication of O vampiro de Curitiba has an inordinate history and dates back to 1964. Dalton Trevisan likes to do things in his own way. At the time, he approached the Oficinas Gráficas de Papelaria Requião to publish his first version of O vampiro de Curitiba and chose a Cordel format, which has been a trademark of his books. This was a kind of preview editions with six of the fifteen microstories of the 1965 edition. 3 Dalton Trevisan had enjoyed the sponsorship of Papelaria Requião for the years he was publishing the journal Joaquim (Apr 1946-Dec 1948, 21 issues). Papelaria Requião started as a bookshop, printer, stationer as Livraria Econômica, located on Rua XV de Novembro, in 1900, and in the 1920s it was renamed as Papelaria Requião and moved to a nearby iconic address Alameda Dr. Muricy in 1942 and operated there until 2004, when it was wound up. At the peak if its heyday, it was a meeting place, a hub for authors, artists, intellectuals and public figures or even celebrities in the centre of Curitiba. His attitude to writing is rather idiosyncratic as he tends to rewrite or revise his stories punctiliously for each edition. In most of the existing book histories and biographies, the 1965 edition of O Vampiro de Curitiba appears as the original, published by one of the most notable publishing houses in Brazil, Livraria José Olympio Editora (1931 – 2001 & since 2001 Grupo Editorial Record). José Olympio, both a publisher and a bookshop originated in S. Paulo, and launched the writing careers of various distinguished Brazilian authors. By the time that O vampiro de Curitiba was published, Dalton Trevisan had already gained some national recognition as he had already published two masterpieces Novelas nada exemplares and Cemitério de elefantes. However, it would be O vampiro de Curitiba, which would give him immense international acclaim. In addition, ‘The Vampire of Curitiba’ has become his sobriquet. Dalton Trevisan fictionalizes the city of Curitiba, one of the oldest cities in Brazil founded on 29th March 1693, the capital of the state of Paraná. It has accrued a set of celebrated nicknames, such as, the Flower City, the Smiles City, and the University City (the first full university was founded in Curitiba on 19th Dec 1912, out of 1892 proposal by author and abolitionist José Francisco da Rocha Pombo (1857-1933) ) and the Ecological City (1992, UN model green city). Curitiba has a huge amount of green spaces with 33 parks and woodlands, 4,42% of the city area and it was one of the first cities in Brazil to 4 create forest conservation areas in the heart of the city; the Barigui Park preserves parts of the Atlantic Forest with its flora and fauna; sheep ecologically ‘mow’ the lawns. The streets in Curitiba are traditionally lined with trees and flower beds. It has long been a vibrant cultural hub, with some of the oldest book fairs in Brazil, its architecture embraces the legacies brought by over 26 major immigrant groups, who have settled in the city bringing multifarious cultural practices with them and is probably of the largest linguistic melting pot in the world. It has one of the oldest and largest public libraries in Brazil, founded in 1857 and some of the oldest and most prestigious traditional schools and high schools established in the 19th century. Curitiba hosts various classical music, theatre, opera, mime festivals. There are various thriving theatres in the city, the main of which is the Guaíra Theatre Cultural Centre, it is also the largest. Guaíra Theatre is the home of the symphony orchestra, ballet, comedy theatre, experimental theatre, children’s theatre, and it was conceived of in the 19th century (originally as Theatro São Theodoro). The current imposing premises, were the result of solid lobbying of the Paraná Academy of Letters back in the 1940s, inaugurated in 1954, it the largest theatre in South America with three auditoria, the largest of which accommodates 2,173 spectators. Various famous theatre and opera directors held performances at the theatre. One of the auditoria with a capacity for 504 spectators; it is dedidacted to the pioneering theatre director and actor, Salvador de Ferrante (1892-1935). The theatre hosts the yearly ‘Festival Folclórico e de Etnias do Paraná’, the 2017 festival is the 55th edition of this traditional event. Play adaptations of Dalton Trevisan’s short stories have been part of the regular repertoire of the Guaíra Theatre. Having offered his brief glimpse of the almost 324-year-old city, in Dalton Trevisan, Curitiba gains an added dimension. His narratives paint a picture of an invisible underbelly of the city, which has both provincial features and large city paranoias. He has an ironic wit and through highly condensed sentences creates amazing scenes of the mundane life permeated with a semi- clinical psychological analysis. Although the styles differ widely, Peter Ackroyd (1949 - ) matches the tone in his accounts of the London we don’t often see in, for example, his London Under (2012). Dalton Trevisan has become a trademark for the same in Curitiba. The author started writing about Curitiba in the journal Joaquim (issue no. 6, 1945), one of his first stories is inspired by Machado de Assis. Dalton Trevisan is one of the most accomplished disciples of Machado de Assis’s style in short story narrative. As the author, walks the city and knows all of its nooks and crannies, the characters emerge from the woodwork in such a manner that they could well be part of an ancient, medieval or other grotesque painting or sculpture scene. Subsequently, he publishes the story Em busca de Curitiba perdida, which becomes the name of the homonymous book in 1992. Assiduous 5 Trevisan’s readers, realize that his hometown Curitiba, an imaginary place, acts as a kind of distorted character shaping much in his works. Therefore, the question is what has inspired the author to write O vampiro de Curitiba? A bit of background is required again. Another meeting place of mytical dimensions in the centre of Curitiba is a place called Boca Maldita, litteraly, ‘Accursed Mouth’. Located around a coffee bar and the pavement with a newsagent’s kiosk (pedestrianized since the 1970s), which used to be called Avenida Luiz Xavier, now Rua das Flores, close to Generoso Marques Square, in the heart of the city. Boca Maldita is the headquarters of a Brotherhood - Cavaleiros da Boca Maldita de Curitiba (The Knights of the Accursed Mouth of Curitiba). Recently, in December 2016, the brotherhood celebrated its 60th anniversary with much pomp and glory; it has some 2,500 ‘knights’. Boca Maldita is a place to come and debate anything current or relevant, in an off- the-record type of gathering, to amass ‘intelligence’ on all sorts of affairs. Entrepeneurs, professionals, artists, authors, journalists and any curious passer- by can join in, sip a lovely cafezinho and debate anything relevant until late hours in the morning of the next day. As it is a man’s only brotherhood, the women in Curitiba created a counterpoint, a Sisterhood, the Boca Rouge, a creative name with a pun on the coulour and cosmetic rouge & the sound of ‘ruge’ – a lion’s roar - Rouge/Roaring Mouth, launched in 1983, conferring ‘Dame/Lady Rouge’ titles, a counterpoint to all those men from the Boca Maldita. Boca Maldita is a place, which Dalton Trevisan would patronize regularly, especially to listen to the accounts or juicy stories appropriating them subsequently. Nelsinho, the protagonist in O Vampiro de Curitiba, was inspired by a journalist and poet Mauri Furtado (1938-1964), who died prematurely (drowned at the beach). Mauri Furtado used to work for the newspaper Última Hora, who used to cover the bohemian life in Curitiba and was a gifted writer. Nelsinho is loosely based on him, the fictional Nelsinho is unforgettable.

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