All Forms of Art

I decided to loosely translate this book’s title myself because it’s an interesting novel by the Portuguese author João Ricardo Pedro and hasn’t been translated into English. It definitely should be, though. The Context Much of Portuguese literature is marked by the oppressive government, the so-called “New State,” and this is one more such book.  The difference is that it isn’t about that time period, but rather about the following decades and how the political police and the lack of development the dictatorship gave the Portuguese people influenced the next generations. 3 Generations The book is about a family, telling us stories from 3 different generations, all of whom are somehow marked by the dictatorship and the colonial war.  The ones who lived it as adults, the ones who lived it as children, and the ones who just heard stories about it. All of them had their lives shaped by this reality. An Average Portuguese Family We have Chronicles about a t...

After all the scandal surrounding the first season of the show, we’re offered an introduction where the actors talk about the issues the show might raise and advise the viewers about the fact that the show might not be adequate for them, as well as cover how they should ask for help if any of these issues have crossed their mind.  I liked that part, but then the story begins to unfold, and I felt like the production team was just brushing off any potential future consequences that might land on their feet… That's the Wrong Way to Go Shockingly, in this season, Hanna Baker (Katherine Lanford, Savage River ) became a heroine. No matter how many times other characters would say that suicide was never a valid way out of any problems, the whole story is about the girl whose death was what it took to get everyone to step forward with their own troubles.  She had to die for others to begin addressing violence, to stop and think about the consequences of their actions...