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Confabulations
'Language is a body, a living creature ... and this creature's home is the inarticulate as well as the articulate'. John Berger's work has revolutionized the way we understand visual language. In this new book he writes about language itself, and how it relates to thought, art, song, storytelling and political discourse today. Also containing Berger's own drawings, notes, memories and reflections on everything from Albert Camus to global capitalism, Confabulations takes us to what is 'true, essential and urgent'.
133 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 1, 2016
118 people are currently reading
3550 people want to read
About the author
John Berger
210 books2,458 followersJohn Peter Berger was an English art critic, novelist, painter and author. His novel G. won the 1972 Booker Prize, and his essay on art criticism Ways of Seeing, written as an accompaniment to a BBC series, is often used as a college text.
Later he was self exiled to continental Europe, living between the french Alps in summer and the suburbs of Paris in winter. Since then, his production has increased considerably, including a variety of genres, from novel to social essay, or poetry. One of the most common themes that appears on his books is the dialectics established between modernity and memory and loss,
Another of his most remarkable works has been the trilogy titled Into Their Labours, that includes the books Pig Earth (1979), Once In Europa (1983) Lilac And Flag (1990). With those books, Berger makes a meditation about the way of the peasant, that changes one poverty for another in the city. This theme is also observed in his novel King, but there his focus is more in the rural diaspora and the bitter side of the urban way of life.
Later he was self exiled to continental Europe, living between the french Alps in summer and the suburbs of Paris in winter. Since then, his production has increased considerably, including a variety of genres, from novel to social essay, or poetry. One of the most common themes that appears on his books is the dialectics established between modernity and memory and loss,
Another of his most remarkable works has been the trilogy titled Into Their Labours, that includes the books Pig Earth (1979), Once In Europa (1983) Lilac And Flag (1990). With those books, Berger makes a meditation about the way of the peasant, that changes one poverty for another in the city. This theme is also observed in his novel King, but there his focus is more in the rural diaspora and the bitter side of the urban way of life.
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June 7, 2018
Supposing writers and painters have their different ways of arriving at their understandings, in Berger we have both. One can expect a breadth and depth in his observations of the world, whether picture or text. He wrote this near the end of his long life and yet it is full of the artist's curiosity and thoughtfulness about life. He is is a philosopher, but totally committed to being a politicised one. It is impossible to imagine otherwise with Berger. Politicised and energetic, oh to be as connected with the world at that age. It's a slight work, but there should be more of those. It says a lot and enough.
He takes small things, the shape of a flower, deaf people signing on a train, and turns these into reflections of a grand scale, but most simply stated, about the world and our part in it. How we listen and act, use language, relate to music and God. And overarching all this, always there, the glue that connects everything in his understanding of the world, our position of slaves, the position of our masters.
And so, he may write of the song:
But at the same time, he has this limitless capacity to combine such observation of the world with political commentary which is ever strident, even though it can be elegant and moving as well.
Immediately I wonder if this should inform my reading of Le Guin's The Dispossessed. To read any Berger is to be given new armoury with which to set out into the world, new measures against which to weigh the words of those who claim to be the makers of our fortune.
History is important. Yes, Berger, thank you for insisting upon that, and for explaining that much we think is new now and disconnected to the past, is not.
All this comes together in his concluding piece called 'How to Resist a State of Forgetfulness.' It reads in part:
rest here: https://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpre...
He takes small things, the shape of a flower, deaf people signing on a train, and turns these into reflections of a grand scale, but most simply stated, about the world and our part in it. How we listen and act, use language, relate to music and God. And overarching all this, always there, the glue that connects everything in his understanding of the world, our position of slaves, the position of our masters.
And so, he may write of the song:
A song, as distinct from the bodies it takes over, is unfixed in time and place. A song narrates a past experience. When it is being sung it fills the present. Stories do the same. But songs have another dimension which is uniquely theirs. A song while filling the present hopes to reach a listening ear in some future somewhere. It leans forward, further and further.
But at the same time, he has this limitless capacity to combine such observation of the world with political commentary which is ever strident, even though it can be elegant and moving as well.
...today, the ever expanding human poverty and the ongoing pillaging of the planet are justified in the name of a utopia to be guaranteed by Market Forces, when they are unregulated and allowed to operate freely, a utopia in which, in Milton Friedman's words, 'each man can vote for the colour of the tie he wants.'
In any utopian vision happiness is obligatory. This means that in reality it's unobtainable. Within their utopian logic compassion is a weakness. Utopias despise the present. Utopias substitute Dogma for Hope. Dogmas are engraved; hopes flicker, by contrast, like the flame of a candle.
Immediately I wonder if this should inform my reading of Le Guin's The Dispossessed. To read any Berger is to be given new armoury with which to set out into the world, new measures against which to weigh the words of those who claim to be the makers of our fortune.
History is important. Yes, Berger, thank you for insisting upon that, and for explaining that much we think is new now and disconnected to the past, is not.
All this comes together in his concluding piece called 'How to Resist a State of Forgetfulness.' It reads in part:
rest here: https://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpre...
October 20, 2021
You stare at something long enough, something non-human, and your subjectivity, or your ego-boundary, begins to dissolve. Suddenly, you're not the one staring at it anymore, rather the object is staring at you. It comes alive. You molt. You melt. You meld. You're a part of it now. And you're glad that you are. The quivering almost wordless universe of the Not-I courses in your veins -- waiting to be given form, to be welcomed, to be formalised as, what Berger called, a "text of appearances." Language comes out screaming, bathed in your innards. Confabulations begin.
Confabulation is a disorder wherein made-up stories fill in any gaps in memory. John Berger, writing his last book in his late eighties, deliberately creates these fissures and gaps in his memories -- almost as if this allows the world to seep in, with all its innocence and dirt. And seep it does! An almost arcadian memory of a time well-spent in Sweden gives way to the vacuity of mainstream political language in the twenty-first century. Charlie Chaplin refusing to swat a fly gives way to the global tyranny of speculative financial capitalism. Reminiscing about an old Polish friend, Janine, who once bought six matchboxes, each labelled with a coloured engraving of a different song bird, gives way to the incessant mutiny that was Rosa Luxembourg's life. So on and so forth. Confabulations abound.
Unmoored from the past and the future, you exist in an incessant present - perpetually cocooned in the ceasless here and now. It has blurred the outlines of your person. A historical, civic amnesia. Catalysed by the pandemic, Experience is on the verge of being wiped out. But this book reinstates Experience itself. This book cradles you in its lap gently; paints your mind with a watercolor hue that is splotched at the edges; and it cools your burning eyes. In Arcadia, it exists.
Read it. It will bandage your brain, like it did mine.
Confabulation is a disorder wherein made-up stories fill in any gaps in memory. John Berger, writing his last book in his late eighties, deliberately creates these fissures and gaps in his memories -- almost as if this allows the world to seep in, with all its innocence and dirt. And seep it does! An almost arcadian memory of a time well-spent in Sweden gives way to the vacuity of mainstream political language in the twenty-first century. Charlie Chaplin refusing to swat a fly gives way to the global tyranny of speculative financial capitalism. Reminiscing about an old Polish friend, Janine, who once bought six matchboxes, each labelled with a coloured engraving of a different song bird, gives way to the incessant mutiny that was Rosa Luxembourg's life. So on and so forth. Confabulations abound.
Unmoored from the past and the future, you exist in an incessant present - perpetually cocooned in the ceasless here and now. It has blurred the outlines of your person. A historical, civic amnesia. Catalysed by the pandemic, Experience is on the verge of being wiped out. But this book reinstates Experience itself. This book cradles you in its lap gently; paints your mind with a watercolor hue that is splotched at the edges; and it cools your burning eyes. In Arcadia, it exists.
Read it. It will bandage your brain, like it did mine.
November 10, 2022
O pensamento de John Berger dispersa-se por todo o lado neste conjunto de ensaios sobre linguagem, pintura, música e literatura. Para ir de A a B, faz curvas e toma atalhos, como que em fluxo de consciência, o que nem sempre me parece a forma indicada de passar a mensagem.
São estas as minhas “Confabulações” preferidas, algumas das quais irão conduzir-me a outros livros, o que parece ser o leitmotiv das minhas leituras actualmente.
- Uma prenda para Rosa
Tu tinhas previsto isto, Rosa, os perigos implícitos no modo bolchevique de discutir todo o raciocínio: já o tinhas previsto em 1918, no teu comentário sobre a Revolução Russa. “Liberdade apenas para os membros do governo, para os membros do Partido – apesar de eles serem em grande número - não é liberdade. Liberdade é sempre a liberdade daquele que pensa de forma diferente.”
- Impertinência
Proponho uma conspiração de órfãos. (...) Mais de metade das estrelas do universo são estrelas-órfãs que não pertencem a qualquer constelação. E produzem mais luz do que todas as estrelas das constelações.
- Sobre vigilância
Como nadadores partilhamos uma espécie de anonimato igualitário. (...) A crueldade sem limites para com os nossos semelhantes, a crueldade de que somos capazes quando somos arregimentados ou doutrinados, é difícil de imaginar aqui ao darmos a volta para fazermos a nossa vigésima piscina.
- Um ponto de encontro
[Abdulkareem ]Kasid, e a tradição a que ele pertence como poeta, não tem nostalgia pelo passado e também não é utópico em relação ao futuro. Kasid frequenta a História- como se ela fosse um ponto de encontro – não para provar qualquer argumento – mas para encontrar companhia.
- Moedas de prata
Tenho de vos falar das cores. São sombrias; os pretos, cinzentos e sépias predominam, no entanto, têm muitas vezes reflexos de prata em resposta aos vislumbres vivos de outras cores.
São estas as minhas “Confabulações” preferidas, algumas das quais irão conduzir-me a outros livros, o que parece ser o leitmotiv das minhas leituras actualmente.
- Uma prenda para Rosa
Tu tinhas previsto isto, Rosa, os perigos implícitos no modo bolchevique de discutir todo o raciocínio: já o tinhas previsto em 1918, no teu comentário sobre a Revolução Russa. “Liberdade apenas para os membros do governo, para os membros do Partido – apesar de eles serem em grande número - não é liberdade. Liberdade é sempre a liberdade daquele que pensa de forma diferente.”
- Impertinência
Proponho uma conspiração de órfãos. (...) Mais de metade das estrelas do universo são estrelas-órfãs que não pertencem a qualquer constelação. E produzem mais luz do que todas as estrelas das constelações.
- Sobre vigilância
Como nadadores partilhamos uma espécie de anonimato igualitário. (...) A crueldade sem limites para com os nossos semelhantes, a crueldade de que somos capazes quando somos arregimentados ou doutrinados, é difícil de imaginar aqui ao darmos a volta para fazermos a nossa vigésima piscina.
- Um ponto de encontro
[Abdulkareem ]Kasid, e a tradição a que ele pertence como poeta, não tem nostalgia pelo passado e também não é utópico em relação ao futuro. Kasid frequenta a História- como se ela fosse um ponto de encontro – não para provar qualquer argumento – mas para encontrar companhia.
- Moedas de prata
Tenho de vos falar das cores. São sombrias; os pretos, cinzentos e sépias predominam, no entanto, têm muitas vezes reflexos de prata em resposta aos vislumbres vivos de outras cores.
November 24, 2021
First Berger; and it certainly won't be my last. The sheer brilliance of Berger is evident in these pages. His attention to words, and the world around him. I'm brimming with admiration. Why did it take me so long to read Berger? I need more Bergers in my life. RTC.
December 7, 2020
Haha, bir kitabın ismi ancak bu kadar isabetli olur. Ve bir insan John Berger ile "hoşbeş" yapma fırsatını nasıl tepebilir ki?
Bazı insanlar vardır onları dinlerken, okurken içinizde daha fazla okumaya, araştırmaya, öğrenmeye dair şiddetli bir arzu oluşur. Yanıp tutuşmaya başlarsınız. Berger işte bu muhteşem insanların başında geliyor benim için.
Tadımlık,
Rosa'ya Armağan
Düşme Sanatına Dair
Konuyu Chaplin üzerinden ele alıyor, bence bahsettikleri bir anlamda yaşama sanatı,
Şarkıya Dair Notlar
Bu yazıya bayıldım, bayıldım! Bütün yazıyı alıntılayabilirim. Öyle yapmayayım, siz bir fırsatını bulup muhakkak okuyun. Notlar diyerek yazar çok mütevazı davranmış, ışıl ışılım şu an!
Kayıtsızlığa Karşı Nasıl Direnmeli?
Başlık yeterince açıklayıcı, konu ilginizi çektiyse ayrıca Mine Söğüt'ün "Gergedan: Büyük Küfür Kitabı" nı da tavsiye ederim. Konuyu daha sarsıcı bir biçimde ele alıyor kendisi.
Bir de son olarak John Berger ile tanışma kitabım olan "Görme Biçimleri"ne şu şekil bir giriş yaptıydım, o kitabı & yazımı da tavsiye ederim. Şimdi pek yazasım yok, ama o yazım güzeldi. :)
"Berger’in düşünme biçimine, üslubuna, tezlerini temellendirme & derinleştirme tarzına bayıldım. Ne yazmışsa okumak, ne anlatmışsa dinlemek istiyorum. Bana daha çok Berger verin, üzerime Berger atın, beni Berger'e boğun. 🤓🤓🤗🤗 Bu nidalar ile okudum ve tamamladım bu kitabı…"
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Bazı insanlar vardır onları dinlerken, okurken içinizde daha fazla okumaya, araştırmaya, öğrenmeye dair şiddetli bir arzu oluşur. Yanıp tutuşmaya başlarsınız. Berger işte bu muhteşem insanların başında geliyor benim için.
Tadımlık,
Rosa'ya Armağan
O halde, insan kalmaya bak. Temel mesele, insan olmak demek, evet, herkese ve her şeye rağmen neşeli olmak, çünkü sızlanmak zayıfların işidir . Insan olmak demek, gerektiğinde tüm hayatını seve seve kaderin büyük terazisine koymak, fakat aynı anda her aydınlık gine ve her güzel buluta sevinmek demektir.(17)
Düşme Sanatına Dair
Konuyu Chaplin üzerinden ele alıyor, bence bahsettikleri bir anlamda yaşama sanatı,
Soytarı hayatın acımasız olduğunu biliyordu. Kadim şaklabanın rengarenk kostümü, olağan melankolisini şakaya döküyordu. Soytarı kaybetmeye alışkındır. Kayıptan yola çıkar.
Chaplin’in maskaralıklarının enerjisinin kendini yineliyor ve kademeli olarak arttırıyordu. Her düştüğünde yeni bir adam olarak doğruluyordu ayakları üstünde. Bir yandan aynı, diğer yandan farklı olan yeni bir adam. Ayakta kalabilmesinin sırrı çokkatmanlı olmasıydı.
Her ne kadar umutlarının tekrar tekrar tuz buz olmasına alışmış olsa da, aynı çokkatmanlılık onun bir sonraki umuduna sarılmasını sağlıyordu. (37)
Chaplin’in dünyasında Gülme ölümsüzlüğün diğer adıydı. (38)
Şarkıya Dair Notlar
Bu yazıya bayıldım, bayıldım! Bütün yazıyı alıntılayabilirim. Öyle yapmayayım, siz bir fırsatını bulup muhakkak okuyun. Notlar diyerek yazar çok mütevazı davranmış, ışıl ışılım şu an!
Bir şarkı söylendiğinde ve çalındığında beden kazanır. Bunu da mevcut bedenlere el koyup onlara kısa süreliğine sahip olarak yapar… Şarkı tekrar tekrar şarkıcının bedenini ele geçirir. Ardından da şarkıyı dinleyen, ona mimikleriyle tepki veren, geçmişi hatırlayan ve geleceği hayal eden dinleyicilerin bedenlerini. (68)
'Kendimi bir şarkının sıcak kozasına sarıp’, demiş John Cash, 'her yere gidebilirim; kimse beni yenemezdi.'(71)
Kayıtsızlığa Karşı Nasıl Direnmeli?
Başlık yeterince açıklayıcı, konu ilginizi çektiyse ayrıca Mine Söğüt'ün "Gergedan: Büyük Küfür Kitabı" nı da tavsiye ederim. Konuyu daha sarsıcı bir biçimde ele alıyor kendisi.
Bombardımanı altında olduğumuz haberlerin bir başka faslındaysa dünyanın herhangi bir yerindeki şaşırtıcı, şoke edici, şiddet olayları ağırlıkta. Soygunlar, depremler, batan tekneler, ayaklanmalar, katliamlar. Bir kez gösterilenin yerini hemen bir başkası alıyor; duyarsızlaştırıcı bir art ardalıkla içerikleri boşaltılıyor. Hikayeler olarak değil, şoklar halinde geliyorlar. Başımıza geleceklerin önceden kestirilemeyeceğini hatırlatıyorlar, hayattaki tehdit unsurlarını önümüze seriyorlar. (100)
Bir de son olarak John Berger ile tanışma kitabım olan "Görme Biçimleri"ne şu şekil bir giriş yaptıydım, o kitabı & yazımı da tavsiye ederim. Şimdi pek yazasım yok, ama o yazım güzeldi. :)
"Berger’in düşünme biçimine, üslubuna, tezlerini temellendirme & derinleştirme tarzına bayıldım. Ne yazmışsa okumak, ne anlatmışsa dinlemek istiyorum. Bana daha çok Berger verin, üzerime Berger atın, beni Berger'e boğun. 🤓🤓🤗🤗 Bu nidalar ile okudum ve tamamladım bu kitabı…"
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
February 5, 2017
Berger'in hayatı damıttığı notlarından bir tane ..
'Chaplin'in 80 yaşlarındayken çekilmiş fotoğrafları var. Bir gün bu fotoğraflara bakarken yüzündeki ifade tanıdık geldi..... Yüzündeki ifade Rembrandt'ın son otoportresindeki ifadeye benziyordu: Gülen Filozof veya Demokritos olarak otoportre.'
'Chaplin'in 80 yaşlarındayken çekilmiş fotoğrafları var. Bir gün bu fotoğraflara bakarken yüzündeki ifade tanıdık geldi..... Yüzündeki ifade Rembrandt'ın son otoportresindeki ifadeye benziyordu: Gülen Filozof veya Demokritos olarak otoportre.'
July 29, 2018
"Berger ensina-nos a pensar, a sentir."
— Arundhaty Roy
Esta frase da Senhora Roy pôs-me a pensar...
— no Senhor Kapa Leitor com formação superior em Letras e leitor compulsivo desde a infância. Já leu quase todos os autores clássicos e muitos muitos dos outros. Meio a sério meio a brincar costumo dizer que já leu todos os livros do mundo. Além de em Literatura, tem vastos conhecimentos ao nível da Música, Pintura, História, Política,... enfim, uma enciclopédia com pernas. Possui um Conhecimento assombroso, no entanto, a Sabedoria é mínima. A sua capacidade verbal é de fazer inveja a um não invejoso mas o conteúdo do discurso vai sempre parar ao mesmo, o que torna impossível ao ouvinte controlar os bocejos e a impaciência; e ele nem se dá conta, tal é o deslumbramento consigo próprio.
— na Senhora Esse Leitora que carrega um cartaz onde faz a apologia da sua refinada cultura; preocupação com os problemas do mundo e da humanidade; indignação pela falta de respeito pelo próximo - enquanto vai entoando o mantra: "os livros ensinam-nos a pensar". No entanto, as suas acções desmentem o cartaz e o mantra, porque quando abre boca geralmente sai asneira.
— na Senhora Jota Não Leitora possuidora de uma generosidade sem limites e de um conhecimento - dos problemas políticos, sociais e do ser humano - como vi em raras pessoas durante a minha já longa vida. É enriquecedor e nunca cansativo conversar com ela durante horas e horas. Nada aprendeu nos livros porque é analfabeta (começou a trabalhar em criança). A sua imensa sabedoria vem-lhe dos genes, da sua grande inteligência e da curiosidade infinita pelo mundo. Escuta, observa as pessoas, vê televisão - não telenovelas, mas programas que a instruam e satisfaçam a sua sede infinita de conhecimento.
Eu, leitora compulsiva, penso que os livros nos distraem e nos proporcionam conhecimento; que são panaceia para o mau da vida. Mas tenho dúvidas que nos ensinem a pensar, porque essa capacidade é inata ao ser humano. Toda a gente pensa (aliás, eu estou convencida que até o meu gato pensa). A menos que quem lê tenha pensamentos profundos e bem estruturados e quem não lê tenha o miolo numa confusão porque não sabe como pensar - neste caso, a maioria da população mundial vive baralhada. Ou será que aprender a pensar com os livros é fortuna de génios iluminados? Pode ser. Já não sei o que pensar.
Como não acredito na expressão: "sábio é um burro carregado de livros", consequentemente, não acredito que os livros nos ensinem a pensar.
Passando das minhas "confabulações" para as de Berger...
(Não sei o que e como pensar porque na verdade não percebi grande coisa)
Há um texto em que começa a falar da Rosa (que penso ser a Luxemburgo) e depois passa para a Janine que comprou uma caixa de fósforos com passarinhos.
Noutro diz que leu um livro de Albert Camus, salta para os Natais da sua infância e acaba numa conspiração de órfãos.
O seguinte inicia-se com vários axiomas que levam ao amigo pintor (Michel Quanne - gostei dos quadros) e termina com Charlie Chaplin.
Há mais uns quantos textos sobre poetas, cantores, bailarinas, pintores,... alguns enfeitados com desenhos de Berger.
Em vários dos textos, John Berger introduz as suas ideias sobre política, economia, emigração, aquecimento global, injusta distribuição de riqueza, capitalismo, etc. Tudo assuntos em que todos pensam, mesmo os que não lêem, e que já ouvi debater vezes sem conta. Portanto, nada de novo para pensar.
"A HISTÓRIA DA MORAL
Você tem-me cavalgado,
seu safado!
Você tem-me cavalgado,
mas nem por isso me pôs
a pensar como você.
Que uma coisa pensa o cavalo;
outra quem está a montá-lo."
— Alexandre O'Neill (Poesias Completas, De Ombro na Ombreira, página 259)
— Arundhaty Roy
Esta frase da Senhora Roy pôs-me a pensar...
— no Senhor Kapa Leitor com formação superior em Letras e leitor compulsivo desde a infância. Já leu quase todos os autores clássicos e muitos muitos dos outros. Meio a sério meio a brincar costumo dizer que já leu todos os livros do mundo. Além de em Literatura, tem vastos conhecimentos ao nível da Música, Pintura, História, Política,... enfim, uma enciclopédia com pernas. Possui um Conhecimento assombroso, no entanto, a Sabedoria é mínima. A sua capacidade verbal é de fazer inveja a um não invejoso mas o conteúdo do discurso vai sempre parar ao mesmo, o que torna impossível ao ouvinte controlar os bocejos e a impaciência; e ele nem se dá conta, tal é o deslumbramento consigo próprio.
— na Senhora Esse Leitora que carrega um cartaz onde faz a apologia da sua refinada cultura; preocupação com os problemas do mundo e da humanidade; indignação pela falta de respeito pelo próximo - enquanto vai entoando o mantra: "os livros ensinam-nos a pensar". No entanto, as suas acções desmentem o cartaz e o mantra, porque quando abre boca geralmente sai asneira.
— na Senhora Jota Não Leitora possuidora de uma generosidade sem limites e de um conhecimento - dos problemas políticos, sociais e do ser humano - como vi em raras pessoas durante a minha já longa vida. É enriquecedor e nunca cansativo conversar com ela durante horas e horas. Nada aprendeu nos livros porque é analfabeta (começou a trabalhar em criança). A sua imensa sabedoria vem-lhe dos genes, da sua grande inteligência e da curiosidade infinita pelo mundo. Escuta, observa as pessoas, vê televisão - não telenovelas, mas programas que a instruam e satisfaçam a sua sede infinita de conhecimento.
Eu, leitora compulsiva, penso que os livros nos distraem e nos proporcionam conhecimento; que são panaceia para o mau da vida. Mas tenho dúvidas que nos ensinem a pensar, porque essa capacidade é inata ao ser humano. Toda a gente pensa (aliás, eu estou convencida que até o meu gato pensa). A menos que quem lê tenha pensamentos profundos e bem estruturados e quem não lê tenha o miolo numa confusão porque não sabe como pensar - neste caso, a maioria da população mundial vive baralhada. Ou será que aprender a pensar com os livros é fortuna de génios iluminados? Pode ser. Já não sei o que pensar.
Como não acredito na expressão: "sábio é um burro carregado de livros", consequentemente, não acredito que os livros nos ensinem a pensar.
Passando das minhas "confabulações" para as de Berger...
(Não sei o que e como pensar porque na verdade não percebi grande coisa)
Há um texto em que começa a falar da Rosa (que penso ser a Luxemburgo) e depois passa para a Janine que comprou uma caixa de fósforos com passarinhos.
Noutro diz que leu um livro de Albert Camus, salta para os Natais da sua infância e acaba numa conspiração de órfãos.
O seguinte inicia-se com vários axiomas que levam ao amigo pintor (Michel Quanne - gostei dos quadros) e termina com Charlie Chaplin.
Há mais uns quantos textos sobre poetas, cantores, bailarinas, pintores,... alguns enfeitados com desenhos de Berger.
Em vários dos textos, John Berger introduz as suas ideias sobre política, economia, emigração, aquecimento global, injusta distribuição de riqueza, capitalismo, etc. Tudo assuntos em que todos pensam, mesmo os que não lêem, e que já ouvi debater vezes sem conta. Portanto, nada de novo para pensar.
"A HISTÓRIA DA MORAL
Você tem-me cavalgado,
seu safado!
Você tem-me cavalgado,
mas nem por isso me pôs
a pensar como você.
Que uma coisa pensa o cavalo;
outra quem está a montá-lo."
— Alexandre O'Neill (Poesias Completas, De Ombro na Ombreira, página 259)
April 27, 2022
'If I'm a storyteller, it's because I listen,' Berger said once—and listen he did. We find him here, in this collection of notes and essays written towards the close of his life, listening to the world around him to fill up the gaps created by the tyranny of the narrow, the verbal, the neoliberal.
The connection he draws—between a collectors' box of matches and the flame that was Rosa Luxembourg's life, between forms of nature, mother tongues, and our civilisational impasse, between forgetfulness, the past, the future, and music, and so on—are connections that do exist, though rendered strange, disorderly, and perhaps less intelligible today by an impoverishment, our lack of a suitable vocabulary. And so, what emerges from having read these confabulations is the idea that perhaps we should all confabulate as a way out of the predicament of our age (and do so without any pretenses, as Berger does, without once laying claim).
Some may say that the pieces in this volume do not have much to do with language, but to me, this is entirely what they are about: Confabulations is an exercise in establishing a grip on how language relates today with art, thought, memory, politics, and the world itself—how it translates and transforms these and is translated and transformed by them in return. It is about finding the 'living creature' of language at home, 'in the inarticulate as well as the articulate,' and pronouncing upon things that have no form—such as death, which exists only insofar as it erases, and indeed was omniscient for the author as he wove it through observations about life in the winter of his own. Death, then, keeps silent watch throughout this volume, allowed to speak only when Berger's notes descend into politics. This is a descent I quite enjoyed, especially in "How To Resist A State of Forgetfulness," and more obliquely in "A Gift for Rosa." What I liked most amongst Berger's confabulations, however, were his notes about Song (music as languages as worldview). This I will keep, a gift to myself.
3.5 stars
The connection he draws—between a collectors' box of matches and the flame that was Rosa Luxembourg's life, between forms of nature, mother tongues, and our civilisational impasse, between forgetfulness, the past, the future, and music, and so on—are connections that do exist, though rendered strange, disorderly, and perhaps less intelligible today by an impoverishment, our lack of a suitable vocabulary. And so, what emerges from having read these confabulations is the idea that perhaps we should all confabulate as a way out of the predicament of our age (and do so without any pretenses, as Berger does, without once laying claim).
Some may say that the pieces in this volume do not have much to do with language, but to me, this is entirely what they are about: Confabulations is an exercise in establishing a grip on how language relates today with art, thought, memory, politics, and the world itself—how it translates and transforms these and is translated and transformed by them in return. It is about finding the 'living creature' of language at home, 'in the inarticulate as well as the articulate,' and pronouncing upon things that have no form—such as death, which exists only insofar as it erases, and indeed was omniscient for the author as he wove it through observations about life in the winter of his own. Death, then, keeps silent watch throughout this volume, allowed to speak only when Berger's notes descend into politics. This is a descent I quite enjoyed, especially in "How To Resist A State of Forgetfulness," and more obliquely in "A Gift for Rosa." What I liked most amongst Berger's confabulations, however, were his notes about Song (music as languages as worldview). This I will keep, a gift to myself.
3.5 stars
May 4, 2022
John Berger sadece bir düşünür sadece bir sanatçı sadece bir edebi dil ustası olmanın ötesinde bunların üçünün karışımından oluşan "BİR ŞEYİN" üstadı; ben buna SENTEZ diyorum. Kafa açıcı farklı açılar, bakışlar, yaklaşımlar. Her kitabını seviyorum. Seviyorum fakat bu kitap bu amaçla başlayanlar için bir nebze hayal kırıklığı olabilir. Fakat bu kitap gerçekten hatıralar adına bir "HoşBeş" olsa da yine sanat, yine sanatçıların etkileşimi ile alakalı. Bir de oldukça kısa. Bunlar düşük not vermeme sebep oldu. Bu bir anlamda da benim beklentim ve bulduğum ile alakalı.
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November 8, 2018John Berger okurken eksikliğini hissettiğim tek şey, cevap veremiyor, hoşbeşe katılamıyor oluşum. İçimden dışımdan çok seviyorum yazdıklarını okumayı. Düşüncelerini, mini çizimlerini, dertlerini ve neşelerini, kurduğu bağlantıları takip etmek çok zevkli. Umarım o da müthiş sezgileriyle ona verdiğim cevapları bir şekilde duyuyordur.
February 25, 2017
John Berger is a storyteller even when he writes critiques or paints a painting! He writes to simultaneously deny writing and praise it! To refer us to the pre-verbal state and to create the unachievable state of intimacy wrapped in a simple nod or smile! He is a magician and a true visionary! and this is what makes this book, not an exception among his others, but a sweat small taste of his world! I just love it!
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August 24, 2020A joyous reread. I'll be coming back to this again; but next time I probably won't wait for 3 years to do so.
first read in 2017:
Reading an excellent thinker and writer and knowing that what was his latest book just days ago is now his last book. Surreal feeling. Anyway; a great, great!, selection of essays or pages of a diary, felt like a journey in various parts of his brain.
first read in 2017:
Reading an excellent thinker and writer and knowing that what was his latest book just days ago is now his last book. Surreal feeling. Anyway; a great, great!, selection of essays or pages of a diary, felt like a journey in various parts of his brain.
May 10, 2024
Bir Berger nasıl anlatılır insan bilemiyor. Berger benim için hep bir karşılaşmadır ve sonra bu karşılaşmanın kendisi sığınmaya dönüşür. Yazdığı her şey insanı kucaklar. Kaleminden yaşam parça parça akar, akarken bir anda donar :) Bir ağacın yanından nasıl geçileceğini, bir kuşa nasıl hayranlıkla bakılacağını, sirüs bulutlarının ihtişamını hatırlarız okudukça. Özlem duyduğumuz ne varsa bizi kavuşturur. İyi ki geçmiş bu dünyadan..
February 9, 2021
John Berger escribe sobre todo: arte, política, belleza, amistad, muerte, esperanza. Es lúcido y sincero. Escribe con una humanidad tan grande que emociona.
Decidí leerlo sin subrayar ni marcar citas, sólo entregándome a la experiencia de habitar esas páginas y esas fotos e ilustraciones que acompañan algunos capítulos. Lo hice así también porque sé que volveré a él.
Decidí leerlo sin subrayar ni marcar citas, sólo entregándome a la experiencia de habitar esas páginas y esas fotos e ilustraciones que acompañan algunos capítulos. Lo hice así también porque sé que volveré a él.
May 23, 2017
I was in London last week and picked up this short paper back from a table at the National Portrait Gallery. I have read a great deal of Berger, and I am always happy to come across another title to add to the long shelf of his works I already own. Why? Unfailingly I find something that enlightens me and enriches my life in some way. It may be a small observation on life, the title of an interesting work of art I have never seen or simply a startlingly obvious point about art or life which I had previously missed or rushed past.
Berger is a seer, by which I mean he sees things that other do not. From his early days of Ways Of Seeing right up to this work from 2016, he is still teaching us how to look more deeply at the world around us.
Confabulations is a book of some 150 pages containing eleven short pieces. All are interesting, each one will teach you something new. I particularly liked “Some notes about Song”, which starts with Shenandoah, a song he remembers his mother singing to him as a young boy, but also the name of a Native American chief and a river in Missouri. We drift from there into Flamenco dance and el duende, a quality or force that possesses or inhabits a performer coming from outside their own self. Spanish poet Garcia Lorca described it as working on the dancer’s body like wind on sand. Already in a few short pages I have learned so much I knew nothing of before. The story continues with Berger’s own painting of an iris and how it looks identical to a photograph of a Spanish Flamenco dancer. And so we weave, following a flow through art and narrative, reminiscences of personal life and mediaeval art. All woven in a magical, uninterrupted flow that only a genius can create.
I hope that helps you understand why I love the books of John Berger so much.
Berger is a seer, by which I mean he sees things that other do not. From his early days of Ways Of Seeing right up to this work from 2016, he is still teaching us how to look more deeply at the world around us.
Confabulations is a book of some 150 pages containing eleven short pieces. All are interesting, each one will teach you something new. I particularly liked “Some notes about Song”, which starts with Shenandoah, a song he remembers his mother singing to him as a young boy, but also the name of a Native American chief and a river in Missouri. We drift from there into Flamenco dance and el duende, a quality or force that possesses or inhabits a performer coming from outside their own self. Spanish poet Garcia Lorca described it as working on the dancer’s body like wind on sand. Already in a few short pages I have learned so much I knew nothing of before. The story continues with Berger’s own painting of an iris and how it looks identical to a photograph of a Spanish Flamenco dancer. And so we weave, following a flow through art and narrative, reminiscences of personal life and mediaeval art. All woven in a magical, uninterrupted flow that only a genius can create.
I hope that helps you understand why I love the books of John Berger so much.
February 23, 2017
Doksan yıllık yaşamının seksen yılı boyunca önce mektup, sonra şiir ve konuşma, sonra hikaye, makale, kitap yazan Berger'den bir özeleştiri niteliğinde başlayan, kendisini evrendeki hiçbir takımyıdıza ait olmayan ama takımyıldızların hepsinden daha fazla ışık veren yetim bir yıldıza benzeten, "bütün şarkılar yolculuklara dairdir" diyen, ne olursa olsun insan kalmaya bakmayı öğütleyen, her aydınlık güne ve her güzel buluta sevinen Rosa Luxemburg'u, Chaplin'in soytarı olarak dehasını, anlaşılmaz hayatlarımızın şarkısını söyleyen dik başlı, inatçı ve sabıkalı Cesaria Evora'yı anmadan, yolun kenarında bir yetim gibi oturup geçmişinin ve geleceğinin yasını tutan Iraklı şair Abdülkerim Kasid'i dizeleriyle ortaya çıkarmadan, tarihi tümüyle gözardı ettiği ve bu yüzden uzun vadeli bir siyasi vizyonu olmadığı için de Fransa Cumhurbaşkanı'na dokundurmadan geçmeyen, hayatımızı bugünün, benzeri görülmemiş küresel kapitalist düzenin Anlık Açgözlülüğü ile kesilip atılan bir çizgi üzerindeki noktalar değil, de, atalarımızın Taş Devri'nden beri miras bıraktığı dolayısıyla kendimizi kendi dairelerimizin merkezleri olarak görmemizi ve bu sayede dayanışma içinde direnmemizi öğütleyen 2017'nin başlarında kaybettiğimiz John Berger'in bu dünyadan geçmiş olmasının okuyucu için ne büyük bir şans olduğunu hatırlatan hepsi birbirinden değerli deneme yazılarını okumanızı salık veririm.
April 8, 2017
Yazarın böyle bir kitabı yok aslında. John Berger'in kitaplarını yayınlayan Metis'ten Berger'le tanışıklığı da olan çevirmen- editör hayranlarının yarattığı bir kitap "Hoşbeş". Denemelerinden ve çizimlerinden seçkilerle oluşturulmuş bir toplama, bir sohbet kitabı, adı da bu nedenle " hoşbeş". Berger'in dünyaya sol pencereden baktığını, savaş karşıtlığını, sanatla olan ilgisini ve en başta insancıl kişiliğini kitabı okuyunca anlıyorsunuz. Ancak sanırım John Berger'i kendi kitaplarından okumak daha zevkli olur.
April 8, 2017
Dogmalara değil umuda ihtiyacımızın olduğu bu günlerde okuduğum en iyi şeydi
November 6, 2022
Injected with chaos. Refined with beauty. And poetic text that embraces paintings.
Such is art,my friends!
“In my hands
From past and future
I’ll grab two stones
And run with them.
Even in the lightest breeze I’ll fly,
Summon a wind, to come
And wipe out every trace
And I’ll sit like an orphan
By the roadside, mourning
My two stones.”
You write or you scribble down anecdotes. You exaggerate,you put gaps in the middle, you play with rhythm a bit and it becomes something else. You change, you hide your face behind a painting, you watch your hand while writing and then you become someone else in the other's imagination. You are captured in a lonely desert of a soul.
With Jhon Berger,something similar might have happened i guess. He was writing about the late capital political crisis,history or what not and it became a lover letter to human life. Such is the beauty of the intentionality that diverts us. Such is the joy of having a language that can become limited or senseless to indicate a transcendental realm where we understand the world through gestures and signs. Supposes you try to talk about everything serious and heavy, suddenly you find yourself indulged in the mechanism of songs. You fly. You play with words. You make a song. Jhon Berger writes of song:
“In every song there is distance. The song is not distant, but distance is one of its ingredients, just as presence is an ingredient of any graphic image. This has been true from the beginning of songs and the beginning of images.”
Enjoy art. One day you will die. Enjoy art. One day you might find heaven in your art.
The implicit slogan of Berger and mine.
Such is art,my friends!
“In my hands
From past and future
I’ll grab two stones
And run with them.
Even in the lightest breeze I’ll fly,
Summon a wind, to come
And wipe out every trace
And I’ll sit like an orphan
By the roadside, mourning
My two stones.”
You write or you scribble down anecdotes. You exaggerate,you put gaps in the middle, you play with rhythm a bit and it becomes something else. You change, you hide your face behind a painting, you watch your hand while writing and then you become someone else in the other's imagination. You are captured in a lonely desert of a soul.
With Jhon Berger,something similar might have happened i guess. He was writing about the late capital political crisis,history or what not and it became a lover letter to human life. Such is the beauty of the intentionality that diverts us. Such is the joy of having a language that can become limited or senseless to indicate a transcendental realm where we understand the world through gestures and signs. Supposes you try to talk about everything serious and heavy, suddenly you find yourself indulged in the mechanism of songs. You fly. You play with words. You make a song. Jhon Berger writes of song:
“In every song there is distance. The song is not distant, but distance is one of its ingredients, just as presence is an ingredient of any graphic image. This has been true from the beginning of songs and the beginning of images.”
Enjoy art. One day you will die. Enjoy art. One day you might find heaven in your art.
The implicit slogan of Berger and mine.
May 18, 2024
Finished it minutes before flight departs for Boston. Meditative and beautiful. Introspection is the most noble wisdom. Owe this one to Barb.
May 30, 2024
I just finished re-reading this book. During fraught times, which my country is passing through and I feel a deep sense of dread, some books can bring comfort. They can do so because they point out how eternally beautiful art is, nature is, how we can find perhaps some respite, from beautiful things. It may be painting, song, dance, film, music or the way we choose to live. Words which found an echo within me.
February 6, 2017
Kültürel hayatımıza katkısını inkar edemeyeceğimiz John amcamızla bir veda hoşbeşi yaptık, güzeldi...
March 25, 2017
Such a small compact little volume that is full of a variety of gems in the form of notes and jottings on life.
I think I sought this title out after reading mention of John Berger in amongst one of the amazing Brain Pickings blog posts from www.brainpickings.org and then saw the title Confabulations in a library new titles update I received. Synchronicity perhaps?
It's a funny word "confabulation" one that I don't recall featuring in my mind until recently. Then I began a journey with a family member travelling the dementia road and this word confabulation kept appearing within his assessment notes. I looked at it and realised it was a word I could recall my late mother using at odd times (she did have the ability to lob amazing vocab bombs into conversations for maximum effect) and I actually thought it was a word she had made up. But once I grasped its meaning and its new position of prominence in my life I have come to appreciate its worth.
This is a special little collection, more so perhaps because I understand it was published not long prior to John Berger passing.
But the absolute gem for me is the final wee chapter called HOW TO RESIST A STATE OF FORGETFULNESS, which I have had to revisit and note.
I shall be searching out more of John Bergers work now I have found him
I think I sought this title out after reading mention of John Berger in amongst one of the amazing Brain Pickings blog posts from www.brainpickings.org and then saw the title Confabulations in a library new titles update I received. Synchronicity perhaps?
It's a funny word "confabulation" one that I don't recall featuring in my mind until recently. Then I began a journey with a family member travelling the dementia road and this word confabulation kept appearing within his assessment notes. I looked at it and realised it was a word I could recall my late mother using at odd times (she did have the ability to lob amazing vocab bombs into conversations for maximum effect) and I actually thought it was a word she had made up. But once I grasped its meaning and its new position of prominence in my life I have come to appreciate its worth.
This is a special little collection, more so perhaps because I understand it was published not long prior to John Berger passing.
But the absolute gem for me is the final wee chapter called HOW TO RESIST A STATE OF FORGETFULNESS, which I have had to revisit and note.
I shall be searching out more of John Bergers work now I have found him
May 30, 2021
A fairly light collection of Berger's thoughts and well, confabulations. I love his artwork throughout, so loose and free and I like how clearly he expresses his concerns about the way our political systems have devolved because of neo-liberalism. His description of the mosaic tesserae at Classe's Basilica of Sant 'Apollinare is beautiful and ... I completely understand why he did the side trip from Ravenna to see them: ''These tiny cubic pieces of glass, marble and mineral generate, because of how they are placed together, an extraordinary visual energy. How do they do this? [They] vary in their different tints of the same colours. No two are quite the same. The angle at which they were inserted into the mortar fourteen centuries ago also varies, sector by sector, and this means that the light they reflect is in places bright and in other places opaque - as happens in nature, when light is reflected off moving water. And, finally, the lines of the tesserae - the convoys in which they proceed across the curved mosaic - are never straight but always more or less serpentine. They proceed like eels.'' Amazing.
May 16, 2024
Being deaf as a child gave language, and interaction a whole new meaning to me. I spent most of my childhood, and some of my adulthood being afraid of words and speaking. I would observe the world, and capture each line of it and the relationship between myself and people around me. Whet I could see and how I felt, but could never vocally describe the sensations and effect the world had on me. I embodied it all, and loaded it into my human vessel. I could communicate with everything I saw and heard, but yet the way the world required me to speak and write never summed up what was held within me physically. Berger describes the world and meetings of places and friends through his life beautifully. How each interaction whether music, people, environment or past bears witness to our memory and experience of it, and its affect on the body. Words are needed, but often things are best described without them. Often by the softness of our face, or the reaching out of a hand. By the memory of the body.
July 23, 2020
tres estrellitas porque me flipa cómo escribe y su thought process, pero igual por ser temas tan variados me descolocaba un poquito y hay algunas más memorables que otras (para mí, y también porque la premisa mola mucho y sigue hablando de arte y me encanta la teoría sobre el lenguaje pero lo de la cohesión es lo que me falla lo siento john lo siento)
September 3, 2024
hoşbeş ne hoş bir kelime.. karşılaşmanın ilk dakikalarında, hâl hatır sormak için kullanılıyormuş.
ne kadar da doluydu, çok beğendim. huş ağaçlarının arasından geçtim, tuzlu su kıyısında yetişen ağaçların yapraklarından çıkan özel sesi dinledim.
şimdi merak ve heyecanla yasemin hamdan’ı dinleyeceğim, shenandoah’ı ve dahasını. çok mutluyum.. :’)
ne kadar da doluydu, çok beğendim. huş ağaçlarının arasından geçtim, tuzlu su kıyısında yetişen ağaçların yapraklarından çıkan özel sesi dinledim.
şimdi merak ve heyecanla yasemin hamdan’ı dinleyeceğim, shenandoah’ı ve dahasını. çok mutluyum.. :’)
July 10, 2021
3.5 stars.
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February 12, 2025I love the way John Berger strings thoughts together. I felt like his anxieties and passions really coincided with my own. I can't wait to read more of his work.
February 13, 2025
Loved this little collection. I think the essay on, or really to, Rosa Luxemburg is one of my favourite essays of all time. Just supremely sweet and human
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