disquiet updates
reflections, recordings, and a reading
64. I weep over my imperfect pages, but if future generations read them, they will be more touched by my weeping than by any perfection I might have achieved, since perfection would have kept me from weeping and, therefore, from writing. Perfection never materializes. The saint weeps, and is human. God is silent. That is why we can love the saint but cannot love God. (The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa, tr. Richard Zenith)
I’m not sure what to say except that the time I have spent immersing myself in Pessoa for this project has been enormously gratifying, and it’s only just beginning!
Though I have a certain reverence for the format of the live internet radio broadcast, I understand if you cannot drop everything from 4-5 p.m. every Tuesday to listen. If you want to listen to Disquiet Radio at 1.5x speed while you do laundry or wash dishes at your leisure, it would still be the honor of my life.
The next episode will air live at 4 p.m. ET tomorrow (Tuesday) — you can stream it here. It will be added to the archive this Sunday. The first four episodes are all available to listen to here.
Episode 1: Introducing Disquiet Radio
In which I introduce the man, the myth(s), the poet(s): Fernando Pessoa. Featuring: Heteronyms 101, The Book of Disquiet, and crossing paths with Ghandi in South Africa. Musical interludes from Capitão Fausto's A Invenção do Dia Claro.
Episode 2: Imaginary Worlds
In which I plumb the depths of childhood's extraordinary imaginary worlds. Featuring the Chevalier de Pas, a history of the horse-drawn streetcar, my friends' imaginary friends, American Doll hierarchies, Calvin and Hobbes fanfiction juvenilia, and a ghost story.
Episode 3: College Dropout
In which I spend some time with teenage Fernando. Featuring heteronym Charles Robert Anon, anticlericalism, dropping out of college, quitting your job, wishing to be extraordinary, moral vertigo, trust funds, and regicide.
Episode 4: The Verlaines
In which I take a look at the ties between symbolist poet Paul Verlaine, swampist poet and collector of mystic books Fernando Pessoa, and collector of mystic books and Television frontman Tom Verlaine. Featuring The Lair of the White Worm, M.O.P.S., random.org, Madame Bovary, Jean Seul de Méluret, the École de Sadisme, an investigation into the sexual prurience of France, and Patti Smith.
To celebrate the launch of Disquiet Radio, I am hosting a reading of Fernando Pessoa’s work at Unnameable Books in Brooklyn on Friday, March 29th at 7 p.m. It is free and there will be Pessoa books for sale and I will also be handing out zines.
Bring your friends, lovers, enemies, and heteronyms. See you there :)
— L.G.
Congrats on this first run of episodes! I've really been enjoying them.