Damatta revises his opinion on the poet Temer.

247 - Unhappy with criticism he received from anthropologist Roberto DaMatta regarding his poetry, Vice President Michel Temer wrote a letter, which was made public by the intellectual. In it, the letter suggests that the politician not simply "kill off" the poet. Read below:

An avalanche of events - ROBERTO DAMATTA

The Vice President's book of poems is a collection of perplexities and anxieties stemming from his primary field of activity: politics.

We have been living through an avalanche of events. From Chávez's death to the disagreements over oil royalties, whose consequences will change the political landscape. Not to mention the resignation and now election of a new pontiff and the breaking of a truce by North Korea. All of this weighs heavily on an increasingly smaller world.

On the insignificant level of the columnist's work, there is the distinguished letter I received from the Vice-President of the Republic, Mr. Michel Temer — signed as Michel Temer — complaining about the way he is mentioned in the column "I don't accept it," published on February 6th.

Mr. Michel Temer was hurt by what he interpreted as censorship of his poetry. Now, it's not every day that a man who has taught, read, written, and researched for roughly 50 years; a madman who studied indigenous peoples and transformed joys like Carnival and football into theoretical tedium; who constantly denounces friendship and patronage as essential values ​​in the public sphere; in short, a professor, a profession so highly valued in Brazil, receives a letter accompanied by three books from a Vice-President of the Republic, a person extremely busy with national problems and with an enviable public career. That is why—out of deference to Michel Temer and out of respect for the role he holds (which doesn't entirely belong to him)—I am making public a relatively private matter.

I note that Mr. Michel Temer's name appears in my column in the role of a poet. And a healthy poet at that (healthy, for those who don't know, means sound!). I also note that my column is permeated with irony, which manifests itself in the images I used to highlight my disillusionment with the national political dynamic. The concrete fact, however, is that I never abandoned anything. Quite the contrary, I am deeply involved in Brazil and, due to circumstances I did not invent, I have been traveling much more inward than outward. At the moment, I am learning to live with less.

Michel Temer writes to me discussing his poetic vocation and explains that he only published his thoughts at the urging of loyal friends who, incidentally, are admirable individuals. He then speaks of his trajectory as an academic in the field of Constitutional Law, whose success was undeniable, and expresses, not without a good and fair dose of sarcasm, his resentment at my having condemned his poetry. He concludes by stating a truth: “Perhaps what influenced him is my political side. I doubt that you are one of those who discourage 'newcomers' who dare to push themselves through sentimental writing.”

The poet in the vice-president is right. After reading his book “Anonymous Intimacy,” I understand his reaction. Michel Temer is a divided man, like myself. He is a fellow believer in literature and mediumship, a passion that politics has hidden and, I hope, hasn't completely eliminated. In the letter he deigned to address to me, Michel Temer places me on the Olympus of national literary life. A grave mistake, Michel. I live in Niterói and I am certain, as are many who have criticized my work, that I am a minor, misguided, or superficial specialist, struggling to balance my accounts by practicing an outdated form of anthropology.

In that column, I expressed my indignation not against his poetry, but against the appointment as president of the Senate of a politician against whom serious accusations weigh. A parliamentarian who, among other things, holds the record for secret acts and yet, or perhaps because of that, gave a lesson in "ethics." If the poet Michel Temer rereads my column, he will see that his name appears because he is the second person in the Republic and His Excellency, the president of the Senate, Mr. Renan Calheiros, who belongs to his party, is the third. Whether one likes it or not, the vice-president is part of a government in which politics has been derailed by the exchange of favors and scandals that shame me—the reason for my outburst.

I didn't judge him as a poet, but I witnessed, through reading his book, the anguish contained in the poetry scribbled on airplane napkins as he left Brasília.

I see that it is a mixture of perplexities and anxieties caused by the field of his main activity: politics—precisely the dimension that motivated my column. Reading his anxieties, I can well imagine the depth of the consternations that mark his biography. In his book, I saw the purging that a few can do in the face of such a, with all due respect, depressing political landscape. If we partly do the same, how could I censure him as a poet? I regret the misunderstanding and apologize for it.

But I would like to take this opportunity to say how much I wish your poetic side were closer to your professional political side and—I dare suggest, in a fraternal spirit—that I could hear this literary side of you more often. It was unforgivable to have ignored you as a poet, and I pray that your poetry may illuminate—with the agony and uncertainties inherent in every poem—this Brazil of ours whose political stage produces such shameless dramas without any embarrassment.

PS: Here's an invitation for a meeting at my home in the Olympus called Niterói. It would be a pleasure to personally meet the poet who is the Vice-President of the Republic and a leader of the government's base.