The Exploded Word in Three Novels by Bernardo Carvalho

Critics have commented on the power of writing—the biblical Word as creation—in Bernardo Carvalho’s work. It forges connections through words between others who are out of place, searching for order in what appears to be chaos. However, this motif from both Genesis and the New Testament is also mediated by another creation narrative: the Big Bang or Initial Singularity. Like the undeliverable letters in Rubem Braga’s “O pessoal,” rupturing bonds made of words can be as unpredictable as splitting an atom. A singularity as simple as a letter’s altered trajectory can result in something new and unexpected at the point of disconnection—such as Braga’s crônica. As we examine three novels by Carvalho, Nove noites, Mongólia, and O sol se põe em São Paulo, what emerges is that the same process occurs when the undelivered letters of Manoel Perna, the Westerner, and Michiyo fall into the hands of the books’ narrators. On one hand, the progressive entropy in the system can be said to “explode” the Word. However, the narrators then take up the Word to write new realities. By appropriating its power and reinventing how it is used, they explode the Word a second time.