Machado de Assis, the Brazilian Pyrrhonian

Chapter Four: The Revised Short Stories: Adjusting the Narrative to the Skeptical Point of View

Chapter Four The Revised Short Stories Adjusting the Narrative to the Skeptical Point of View Machado de Assis is a master ofthe short story. He wrote a very large number of them, mostly under his own name, but manyespecially the less elaborated early ones-under pseudonyms. The short stories served as a kind of laboratory in which he sketched and experimented with forms, themes, and characters. This procedure is most clearly seen in some short stories that he rewrote for republication. The most noticeable thing in this procedure is Machado's search for a narrative focus that best gives expression to the reflective dimension he develops throughout his fiction. Our first example brings together two very early pieces. "0 pais das quimeras" ("The country ofchimeras") is probably one of the earliest short stories written by Machado. In 1866, this story appears again as "Uma excursao milagrosa" ("A miraculous journey"). The plot is the same in both versions. Having just gone through a disillusioning love affair, a roving poet, Tito, "travels" to the very strange "country of chimeras." This "trip" takes place under an ambiguous state of consciousness: a transient state between sleep and waking. Not unlike Bras Cubas shortly before his death, Tito goes through a kind of delirium. There is indeed a parallel in their experiences. Bras Cubas returns to ordinary consciousness to find himself facing his cat (OC 1: 522). Tito, on returning from his "journey," is facing his dog (OC 2: 770). Tito's trip is a concrete and real exemplification of the "trips" (fancies) undergone by poets and people who are distracted from reality by chimeras (empty reflections and imaginations). One notes, however, Machado's philosophico-ontological point in that the "country of chimeras" is the place where the "real" chimeras of the social world are engineered. In the "country of chimeras," man's occupations 69 Chapter Four are unmasked as arbitrary, precarious, and formal. Those chimeras have a function: to make sure that individuals do not face their original nothingness. The following are some of Tito's observations about this strange but revealing country. 1. "[E 0 pais] para onde viaja tres quartas partes do genero humano" (OC 2: 765) ("It is a country visited by three-fourths of the human species"). Note that during this early period of Machado's fiction a minority ofpeople still do not travel to the "country ofchimeras." Tito returns wiser from his trip. He now can distinguish the chimerical, that is, the tolo, from those "que tern miolos na cabe~a" ("who have brains in their heads"), that is, the homens de espfrito. However, he returns also "unhappier and poorer," for this is "a sorte de todos quantos entendem dever dizer 0 que sabem; nem se compra por outro pre~o a liberdade de desmascarar a humanidade" (OC 2: 770) ("the fate ofall those who think they should tell what they know; and this is the price one has to pay for unmasking humanity"). Machado still conceives at this point of an essence beyond the false appearances of social life. Although chimerical, this appearance is strong enough to punish and to reduce to a minority those "who have brains in their heads." 2. The ontological fragility of social reality requires that the interactions be highly formalized and ritualized. oGenio das bagatelas ... estava sentado em urn trono de casquinha , tendo de omamento dois pavoes, urn de cada lado. . . . Todos aqueles pavoes, de minuto a minuto armavam-se, apavoneavam-se, e davam os guinchos de costume.... nao se dA naquele pais 0 ato mais insignificante sem que esta formalidade seja preenchida. (OC 2: 765; see Appendix 36) 3. Tito finally finds the room where the most important activity of the country takes place. . [M]uitos quimericos aroda de mesas discutiam os diferentes modos de inspirar aos diplomatas e diretores deste nosso mundo os pretextos para encher 0 tempo e apavorar os espiritos com futilidades e espantalhos. Esses homens tinham ares de finos e espertos. Havia ordem do soberano para nao entrar naquela sala em horas de trabalho; uma guarda estava aporta. A menor distra~ao daquele congresso seria considerada urna calamidade publica. (OC 2: 768; see Appendix 37) 70 The Revised Short Stories Making up amusements to occupy people's lives, no matter what, is a matter of existential security. The aim is to fill the void ofexistence. Pascal's influence here as elsewhere is clear: the sole cause...