[pornography and
homoeroticism]

The following excerpts were taken from chapter four ["'Cagar é uma
Licença Poética': The Anti-Aesthetic Aesthete and 'Turd World' Poetics
in Glauco Mattoso"] of Butterman's thesis [1], focusing on: (a)
"Manifesto Obsoneto;" (b) "Manifesto Pornô;" and (c) Homoeroticism in
the JORNAL DOBRABIL.



(a) "MANIFESTO OBSONETO"

Originally included in a series of sonnets entitled, "Sonettos
intalianos e sonnetos ingreses," the "Manifesto Obsoneto" subverts the
metrification of the poem by deliberately including verses in "pé
quebrado." In diverging from an established and consistent pattern of
metrification in the poem, the reader occasionally encounters an extra
syllable or an insufficiency of syllables that fall short of completing
the rhyme scheme. The manipulation of the "sílaba tônica" (the stressed
or accented syllable) provokes the reader to pause and consider whether
the poem is written in "pé quebrado." It is imperative to recall that,
in Mattoso's aesthetic of intelligent plagiarism, he is not attempting
to imitate the classical sonnet but rather to subvert and satirize it by
preserving the meter and rhyme schemes while liberating and displacing
the "sílaba tônica." It almost goes without saying that the sonnet is
thematically subversive. Whereas the other manifestos treated specific
themes such as plagiarism, parody, and/or the scatological, the
"Manifesto Obsoneto" provides a general treatise in favor of the
pornographic. Using images of excrement already explored in the
"Manifesto Coprofágico," Mattoso exploits other anti-hygienic images of
"bad taste" for their transgressive value: sexual fetishes,
sadomasochistic acts – which will be examined later in far more detail
– in addition to certain human secretions and bodily fluids and smells:


MANIFESTO OBSONETO [2.8] [1981]

(pros poetas ditos "sujos"
que nunca esquecem o modess
e trocam de meia
de meia em meia hora)


Isso não é poesia que se escreva,
é pornografia tipo Adão & Eva:
essa nunca passa, por mais que se atreva,
do que o Adão dá e do que a Eva leva.

Quero a poesia muito mais lasciva,
com chulé na língua, suor na saliva,
porra no pigarro, mijo na gengiva,
pinto em ponto morto, xota em carne viva!

Ranho, chico, cera, era o que faltava!
Sebo é na lambida, rabo não se lava!
Viva a sunga suja, fora a meia nova!

Pelo pelo na boca, jiló com uva!
Merda na piroca cai como uma luva!
Cago de pau duro! Nojo? Uma ova!

(JORNAL DOBRABIL 52)


An act of fellatio is evidenced by the presence of "porra no pigarro."
"Water sports" or "golden showers" are also included in this repertoire
of alternative sex acts, highlighted by the poetic voice's desire for
"mijo na gengiva." Mattoso elaborates not only the connection he feels
with Luso-Brazilian poetic precedents writing pornographically, but he
also espouses a notion of how the ideal poet-pornographer should compose
his verses. Symbolized by Mattoso's allusion to Adam and Eve and
subsequent criticism that the pornographic literature that has found its
way into the Western canon is heterosexist and of little intensity, the
poetic voice clearly laments the lack of "lasciva" and "saliva" of the
more explicit verses he charges himself to model. Clearly, the reference
to "o Adão dá, e a Eva leva" implies that Mattoso is not only critiquing
literature with diluted, censored, or inhibited sexuality but also the
stagnation and rigidity of the traditional machista male-female,
active-passive roles assumed during sexual intercourse.

In his "Manifesto Obsoneto," a neologism which juxtaposes sonnet
composition ("soneto") with obscenity ("obsceno") and obsolescence
("obsoleto"), Mattoso's thematic transgression most clearly parallels
his intent to transgress form and language. It is important to note that
the Manifesto is followed by an "emenda" – in which Mattoso articulates
a conscious process of subverting the stressed/accented syllables and
consequently the metrification in his verses. Yet, the language he
employs to describe such subversion consists of word games that connote
sexual acts: "um versificador mais atento / certamente notará que não
vou muito / atrás do assento, digo, do acento, / mas enfrento um
metrinho rijo, digo, / rígido, e fico em cima da rima." "Assento" is
indicative of "seat" in the sense of buttocks; "rijo" connotes an erect
penis; "metro" may convey the size of a penis in addition to poetic
preoccupations; and "em cima da rima," of course, connotes the active
role in sexual intercourse. Even the title "emenda" is subversive in
that it is not really a list of corrections as it portends to be but
rather a note of explanation regarding the subversive mechanisms
occurring in the poem at the formal level. The choice of "emenda" is
also ironic in that its connotation of correction, of rectifying flaws
or errors, is quite often associated with the repressive structures that
Mattoso's work seeks to undermine; i.e., "correct" codes of behavior;
"correct" aesthetic values; etc.

Pornography as a theme in Mattoso's poetry seems to echo, with
postmodern cynicism, disgust, and intensity, an observation that Susan
Sontag made about modernist writers over thirty years ago. In her 1967
essay, "The Pornographic Imagination," Sontag maintains that the modern
artist was constantly engaged in an attempt to "advance further in the
dialectic of outrage," to deliberately and painstakingly strive to
create literature that is "...repulsive, obscure, inaccessible; in
short, to give what is, or seems to be, NOT wanted" (45). Sontag makes
an important point, yet, by not acknowledging any ambiguity for the
subject who does not want to read such literature, she neglects to
perceive the opposite side of the coin. As Peter Stallybrass and Allon
White affirm in THE POLITICS AND POETICS OF TRANSGRESSION, "disgust
always bears the imprint of desire" (201). What is undesirable in the
eyes of those who dictate "good taste," or exercise aesthetic literary
judgment, may be intellectually and erotically gratifying from the
perspective of the Freudian "anal retentive" character – or any other
autonomous subject – who is liberated from institutionalized categories
of "good taste." Bombarding his readership with images that
simultaneously provoke repulsion and secret delight, Mattoso's poetry of
transgression transcends canonical classification and therefore does not
earn the deserved place for its inclusion as a valuable contribution.

In her analysis of the performance art of Annie Sprinkle, Linda Williams
asks a critical question: "What is the political value [...] of not
drawing a firm line between obscene pornography on the one hand and
legitimate art on the other?" (361). This question might be
appropriately re-phrased as: What is the difference between the
pornographic and the erotic? Pornography has justifiably and irrefutably
been accused of participating in the objectification of women as sex
objects. It is certainly a rare occasion when a writer acknowledges as
well the healthful effects of pornographic literature or even attributes
any positive value to its use.

According to the conception of Eliane R. Moraes and Sandra M. Lapeiz, in
O QUE É PORNOGRAFIA, pornography is defined as "o discurso por
excelência veiculador do obsceno: daquilo que se mostra e deveria ser
escondido" (9). [2] In this interpretation of pornography, there is an
intimate connection between material that is deemed pornographic and the
intent to transcend repression or censorship by uncovering what is not
socially acceptable to uncover, or, in other words, those images or
concepts deemed as taboos by an individual society. Interestingly, the
authors argue in favor of a somewhat utilitarian sense of pornography,
viewing the construct in categorical terms, as a sort of sub-heading of
classification that may be used to order the erotic, the transgressive,
the obscene, so that the sexuality of a given culture may be organized
and studied: "a pornografia talvez exista para ordenar [...] a desordem,
para restaurar a ordem cultural como uma forma de transgressão
organizada" (56). Can transgression, by the very nature of its
subversive intent, be contained and organized? Mattoso's poetry of
fetishism and sadomasochism demonstrates the possibility of such an
endeavor, a topic that will be explored in the fifth and final chapter
of this dissertation.


(b) "MANIFESTO PORNÔ"

Written in May 1980 and recited for the first time at Rio de Janeiro's
Cinelândia Poetry Circle in June, the "Manifesto Pornô" is faithfully
reproduced in the JORNAL DOBRABIL. Its authors are contemporaries and
colleagues of Glauco Mattoso: Cairo Assis Trindade, Eduardo Kac, Mano
Melo, Tanussi Cardoso, Aclyse de Mattos, and Claufe. Contrary to the
poetic verse Mattoso employed to construct his own manifestos analyzed
above, the "Manifesto Pornô" is closer to its Modernist precedents in
that it reads as a list of ten proposals, simultaneously satirical and
serious, and thus resembling the "Manifesto Antropófago" in form if not
in content. It reads as follows:


Antes de dominar a palavra escrita, o homem já desenhava sacanagem nas
paredes das cavernas.

Masturbação literária não gera porra nenhuma.

Arte é penetração e gozo.

Trepar, parir e criar fazem parte de um mesmo processo.

O Pornopoema vai pôr no poema.

Os caras do poder baixam o pau com medo de baixar as calças . . . e
acabar (rasurado) levando pau.

A rapaziada tá cagando pra Literatura Oficial.

Pela suruba literária: um processo concreto da praxis marginal na
sacanagem tropical, al, al.

O Poema Pornô taí pra abrir as pernas e as idéias.

Viva o BUM da poesia, em toda arte, em toda parte.

(JORNAL DOBRABIL 49)


In comparison to Mattoso's "Manifesto Obsoneto," the above declaration
reads as a far more theoretical treatise that speaks more specifically
to the artistic processes involved in poetic creation. However, its
proposals, while less explicit in their treatment, are not more innocent
in their intentions. "Sacanagem," once again, operates as a signifcant
term in this document.

At first, it is imbued with universal application, for primitive man did
not necessarily need bathroom walls to be able to compose graffiti. In
fact, according to the manifesto, he did not even need language. Images
of sexual objects or ideas could be graphically represented without
having to conceive the words used to name such erotica. The second time
the word "sacanagem" appears is in a far more specific context.
"sacanagem tropical, al, al" represents not only a Brazilian variety of
sexual transgression but also as literary Bacchanalia constituted of
marginalized poets. The attitude toward the repressive discourses that
the repressed "caras do poder" mandate as "Official Literature" is
clearly one of disdain, one that the boys in the club joyfully shit on.
In essence, this manifesto, which clearly echoes both the desire to
shock ("Viva o BUM da poesia, em toda arte, / em toda parte") and the
irreverence of the first generation of Brazilian Modernism in the 1920s,
argues for an inextricable link between artistic creation and sexual
intercourse. This is a notion that, in principle, Mattoso would most
likely endorse. However, when compared to Mattoso's far more explicit
"Manifesto Obsoneto" which also praises the pornographic, the "Manifesto
Pornô" suddenly seems quite conservative in its modest "sacanagem," for
it alludes to conventional sex roles, be they heterosexual or
homosexual, to transgress literary conventions: "penetração"; "trepar";
"parir"; "abrir as pernas"; etc. With Mattoso's repeated allusions to
specific sex acts widely regarded as dirty, anti-hygienic, and
grotesque, the door to a fuller and more permanent transgression swings
wide open, a process which will be viewed in far greater detail in the
following chapter. While this dissertation does not intend to evaluate
who can transgress best, it is important to assess the effectiveness of
sexual subversion when it begins from the standpoint of unconventional
or alternative sex and concludes on that same note.


(c) HOMOEROTICISM IN THE "JORNAL DOBRABIL"

In much of Mattoso's poetry, homoerotic themes are intimately connected
to subversion of categories of sexuality and gender in general.
Mattoso's gay-themed poetry emphasizes two aspects in particular: first,
the development of anti-phallocentric sexual ideals; and secondly, the
subversion of gender categories. Two poems effectively demonstrate these
important elements in Glauco Mattoso's revisionist eroticism: "Quem
diabo é deus?" and "Cera & Nata para Desdêmona."

A significant part of Glauco's project involves the subversion not only
of gender roles but even the social constructs of gender at their most
basic level of definition. Evidence of this strategy can be found in one
of the author's more ludic poems, "Cera & Nata para Desdêmona (pra não
dizerem que não canto as fêmeas."):


CERA & NATA PARA DESDÊMONA [1.20]

(pra não dizerem que não canto as fêmeas)

Oh minha doce amada,
minha goiabada,
tão conspícua
quão conspúcia,
inconstante e mamada,
desnaturada e desnatada!
Oh minha desdenhosa,
divina, demoníaca
diva doidivanas,
como amo
tuas anas
quando me envenenas
com teus ventos;
tuas xanas
planas e plenas
de corrimentos;
tua prepúcia
que não posso
arregaçar
e teu regaço
que não passo
sem cabaçar!

(REVISTA DEDO MINGO: JORNAL DOBRABIL, First Instalment, 1982)


The words "Cera & Nata," "wax" and "cream" or perhaps even the "cream of
the crop," in an alternate translation, when read quickly, merge to form
"serenata," the Romantic convention – or the chivalry – that this poem
attempts to subvert. The traditional image that a "serenade" evokes is
that of an archetypal woman – for she is the Shakespearean Desdemona –
elevated on a pedestal (usually a balcony), with the suitor down below
on the street, guitar in hand. The words enclosed in parentheses, "pra
não dizerem que não canto as fêmeas") can be read in a number of ways.
"So that they DON'T say that I DON'T "sing" or perhaps "flirt with" or
"seduce" females." In Brazilian Portuguese, the process of presenting a
"cantada" involves using language to seduce someone into having sex. The
object of conquest, "minha doce amada, / minha goiabada" recalls another
allusion to Shakespeare: "Romeu (the cheese) and Julieta (The sweet
guava jelly). In this rather "transsexual" poem about gender-fuck, a
significant transformation is taking place at the most basic level of
its language, the grammatical level of noun gender. Clearly, three
separate subversive processes are occurring. First, the feminization of
neutral and masculine nouns, like "anas" being the feminine form of
"ânus", as in the reverse of "bunda" becoming "bundo." Also: "tua
prepúcia," which inverts "prepúcio" (foreskin) to a feminine feature;
secondly, the pluralization of singular body parts, such as "tuas xanas"
(the equivalent of "your pussies" in Northeastern Brazilian slang used
by some lesbians); and thirdly, the concealment of a prefix in order to
invert a process by undoing what has already been done and cannot be
undone: "cabaçar" instead of "descabaçar" represents a process of
re-virginizing rather than loss of virginity. "Cabaçar," of course, does
not exist, but is rather an inversion whereby virginity is gained by
sexual experience rather than lost. The poem presents an ironic
inversion of gender constructs before such divisions can even possibly
be conceptualized; that is, at the anatomical level of human existence,
where body parts are almost surrealistically imbued with inverted
masculinity or femininity. Re-gendering takes place on such a ludicrous
level that the identity of the object of desire collapses and is
rendered gender-less.

Stylistically, the above poem demonstrates Mattoso's effective
employment of alliteration to enhance musicality as well as the
juxtaposing of ordinarily contradictory elements to form a new ambiguous
identity. For example, the consecutive succession of the terms,
"desdenhosa, / divina, demoníaca / diva doidivanas" is a well-rendered
play on words that exhibits three distinct aspects of the nature of
Desdemona's multi-faceted configuration: (S)he is, all at once,
portrayed to be disdainful, god-like ("divina"), diabolical
("demoníaca'), a mad fool or frivolous ("doidivanas"), and, in camp
terminology, extraordinarily talented, brash, and/or a prima donna (a
"diva"). [3]

In addition to relentlessly mocking heterosexual conventions, Mattoso
also satirizes conventional homosexual roles. In the JORNAL DOBRABIL,
the author makes clear his indifference to the penis as an object of
desire yet his own gayness is never called into question: "O que se
entende pela expressão 'consumar o ato'?" he asks. In this
semi-philosophical, semi-parodic rambling, the author challenges the
view that "penetration," whether vaginal or anal, is what constitutes a
sexual act. Mattoso proceeds to list a number of sexual activities
performed by two men and then questions why such intimate contact does
not "qualify" as sexual acts: "desde quando [...] o coito
heterossexual-nupcial-desvirginador-procriador-e-monogâmico foi
instituído como o único ato sexual legítimo?" He arrives, ultimately, at
the conclusion that "mulher não trepa [com outra mulher]" and then
self-identifies as lesbian, declaring, in solidarity, "[com] minhas
amigas," "Abaixo a erecção! Fora com a penetração!" JD, p. 37 (b)


ABAIXO A EREÇÃO! FORA COM A PENETRAÇÃO! [7.27] [1980]

O que se entende pela expressão "consumar o ato"?
O orgasmo?
Se o cara goza sem meter, alguém diz que foi "incompleto".
A penetração?
Se o cara mete mas não goza, vão falar que foi "coitus interruptus".
Às vezes o cara diz que foi pra cama com outro
mas "não treparam":
só se beijaram,
se abraçaram,
se despiram,
se esfregaram,
se amassaram,
se lamberam,
se chuparam,
se punhetaram
e se esporraram...
Ora, desde quando esporrar, meter,
ou mesmo ficar de pau duro
é condição sine-qua-non prum ato de amor
(ou "sexual", como queiram)?
Só se for desde o dia (ou a noite)
em que o coito
heterossexual-nupcial-desvirginador-procriador-e-monogâmico
foi instituído como o único ato sexual legítimo.
É por isso que os machões
e também as bichas
sempre se perguntam
"o que é que duas mulheres fazem na cama"
e chegam ao ápice, ao clímax
de dizer que "mulher não trepa".
Se é assim, minhas amigas,
declaro desde logo que
"dependência, nem morta!",
como diz dom Pedro o Podre.
Sou mais é LÉSBICO.
"Laços fora, soldados!"


In one of our interviews, Mattoso made clear that indifference to the
phallus stems as much – or perhaps more – from his personal desire for
sadomasochism and foot fetishism than for any feminist revisionism of
concepts of desire. But I do doubt that the two just coincidentally
overlap. He complains that he was discriminated from within the gay
community, particularly other colleagues in the group "Somos," merely
because his erotic impulses and attractions do not conform to the
mainstream menu of activities permitted. He was considered and labeled
"too eccentric." His poem, "Quem diabo é deus?" helps to shatter what
Mattoso calls, "o mito do pau grande."


QUEM DIABO É DEUS? [1.12] [1977]

deus não é a antimatéria
deus não é o anticristo
deus não é o caos
deus não é o cosmo
não é um campo magnético
não é um corpo magnífico
não é a voz do povo
não é a paz do papa
deus não é um sapo horrendo
do lodo do brejo nojento
nem o excremento fedorento
mas podia ser
se não fosse aquele garoto
que me deflora a boca
e me degusta a sola
quando trepa comigo.

(JORNAL DOBRABIL 16)


Mattoso's "deus" is defined precisely by what he is not. The figure of
"god" is portrayed as representing the desire of the one who pays homage
to him and not the collective projection of institutionalized religion,
for, as the poetic voice declares, "não é a voz do povo." God is
conceived, instead, as a subjective construction perceived by the
individual; his role is to encompass a series of contradictory and
infinite potentialities, all of which transcend value-laden concepts of
good or evil. The potential of this "god" to bring pleasure or to
inflict suffering is not limited by any definitions or categories that
are used to conceive him. The negative logic used to construct the poem
may be affirmed by restating "deus é a matéria" and "deus é o cristo,"
but such affirmations seem inaccurate translations of the
uncertainty – or, more precisely, indefinability – conveyed in the
negativity of such a conception. Is the essence of something defined
precisely by what it is NOT? For the poetic voice's sadistic god-demon
figure, he is the perfect accompaniment to the sadomasochistic desire to
submit himself or his human savior to the degradation and humiliation
that he so enjoys. Such degradation parallels the degradation of "deus"
into "aquele garoto," and results in an encounter so pleasurable that
the poetic voice attributes spiritual dimensions to it. In other words,
the poetic voice identifies "aquele garoto" with a god-like quality,
because he represents the maximum of his desire and therefore brings him
spiritual as well as sexual ecstasy.

"Romeu e eu" is one of Mattoso's less hermetic, more serious, and more
poignant poems, whose poetic voice conveys the innocent sentiments of a
child who does not understand why he is being denied access to his
friend. The poem's contents are overtly against political repression.
The musicality of the title produced by the repetition of "eu e eu"
creates the impression that "eu" is quite literally an extension of
"Romeu" and a narcissistic mirroring of the self (or a particular aspect
of the self) contained within the other that the poetic voice so
desires. The intensity of such desire may also be perceived in the
longing, the "saudade," that the echoing resonance of "Romeu e eu"
evokes.


ROMEU E EU [1.14] [1977]

(conto dialético e, ipso facto, poema romântico)

Eu quero brincar com você.
Papai não deixa.
O Diretor proíbe.
A Esquerda se opõe.

Você me chama
e eu morro de vontade.
Papai me ameaça.
O Diretor me intima.
A Esquerda me aterroriza.

Saio escondido,
procuro por você,
mas eles me acham.
Papai me bate.
O Diretor me põe de castigo.
A Esquerda atenta contra mim.

Fico esperando,
você me procura,
nos encontramos no escuro,
nos pegam em flagrante.
Papai me expulsa.
O Diretor me interna.
A Esquerda me seqüestra.

Escapo e sobrevivo,
mas você não está livre.
É filho de seu Papai.
Disciplinado ao seu Diretor.
Prosélito da sua Esquerda.

Vivo solitário, você prisioneiro,
e não podemos brincar.
Castram nossa infância
porque você é igual a mim,
sua vontade igual à minha,
mas nos fazem diferentes.

(JORNAL DOBRABIL 14)


Patriarchal control and repression is clearly conveyed by capitalized
words like, "O Diretor," "O Papai" and "A Esquerda." Images of
prohibition, punishment, and imprisonment are also abundant. The
critical first verse, "Eu quero brincar com você," is ambiguous, for as
Richard G. Parker correctly demonstrates in BODIES, PLEASURES, AND
PASSIONS: SEXUAL CULTURE IN CONTEMPORARY BRAZIL, on pages 141-3, the
operative verb "brincar" may have a connotation of innocent game-playing
conceived by the mentality of a child; for example, "brinquedos" are
toys or games that one may purchase in a store that carries supplies for
children. The alternate use of "brincar" is the erotic sense of sexual
play, a concept often used in conjunction with notions of "sacanagem,"
or a certain mischief or "naughtiness," we might say in English, that
deliciously transgresses societal, or in the case of this poem,
parental, expectations and regulations. With all the ingenuousness of
the poetic voice of a child, there appear to be no limits that restrict
"brincadeira" to either of its societally conferred definitions. The
point at which "brincar" enters into the realm of consciousness of the
sexual, and then the homosexual, and finally the transgressive is truly
never conceived by this child whose uncomplicated but sincere affective
connection to an Other is being threatened by the powers-that-be. The
poetic voice, in his innocence, is lucky even though he is deprived, for
he remains free from the guilt and negativity imposed upon the figure of
"Romeu," who apparently succumbs to parental control: "mas você não está
livre." The poetic voice fares better, in that his autonomous self is
preserved, avoiding colonization by external influences that would
censor and stifle his natural sexual development. However, the poem does
not offer a happy ending, either for the desired Other nor for the
poetic voice; at best, the poetic voice manages to flee from his
oppressors and survive: "Escapo e sobrevivo." However, since Romeu is
unable to transcend threats and beatings that he sustains, he ultimately
cannot achieve reconciliation with his own homosexuality and is
therefore forced to live out his days as a prisoner of his own
unattainable desires. The poetic voice, endlessly longing for his
unreachable companion, is condemned to a solitary albeit liberated
existence.

Before proceeding to examine representative works of Mattoso's concrete
and visual poetry, which in sheer numbers actually constitute the vast
majority of poems contained in the JORNAL DOBRABIL as opposed to their
discursive counterparts analyzed thus far, it is necessary to balance
the seriousness of "Romeu e eu" with a poem which couples the melancholy
of "Romeu e eu" with a homoerotic ecstasy that reaches a hallucinatory
intensity: "With a Little Helpmate." The entire poem is reproduced
below:


WITH A LITTLE HELPMATE [1.13] [1977]

noite alta
no ponto mais baixo
e acidentado
da topografia urbana
vou me embrenhar num beco
me embebedar num boteco
tropeçar num teco-teco
puxar papo co piloto
e sem brevê e sem paraqueda
o cara me convida pra bordo
pra fugir da cerração
um vôo sem plano
um ar do campo
um cheiro de mato
me traz a jato
me faz a cuca
e a cabeça

noite alta
no prédio mais alto
e deteriorado
da hipertrofia urbana
vou me esticar num velho leito
me amamentar num novo peito
rememorar um preconceito
apalpar o anfitrião
e sem pudor e sem etiqueta
o cara me convida pra dentro
um beijo de macho
uma fome de bicho
me deixa oco
me põe louco
me abre a boca
me faz a cuca
e a cabeça

(JORNAL DOBRABIL 18)


With a high degree of colloquialism reminiscent of Brazilian modernist
verse and an intense, hallucinogenic egocentrism characteristic of
(Ultra)Romanticism, Mattoso conveys a homoerotic encounter on a literary
canvas colored by urban loneliness. The poetic voice goes out on the
town in search of sex, and after many assumed rounds of drinking,
undergoes a series of encounters that are at once real and imaginary.
The images of a small airplane, into which he drunkenly stumbles, the
pilot, do not seem to be infused with surrealistic value; rather they
are objects and people that, for this inebriated poetic voice, become
transformed into romanticized images of his desire for masculinity and
power. The tiny airplane ("teco-teco") may well have been a barstool;
the pilot, any man who receives the sexual advances of the poetic voice.
The pilot's invitation to come aboard may be translated as his offer to
take him on a ride. As he participates in this erotic ride, the poetic
voice manages to escape the "cerração," a São Paulo phenomenon which
corresponds, roughly, to an intense fog. Ironically, the "cerração"
which he is escaping represents, in actuality, the sober reality of the
big city. As such, the poetic voice's hallucinatory "trip" seems more
lucid than the impersonal, lonely concrete jungle that he so desperately
yearns to flee. The last seven verses, with a few words dominated by
nouns and verbs, evoke a rather mechanical rendering of the sexual
encounter itself, the "macho"'s kiss emphasizing the stereotypical
active-passive role-playing in conventional "macho-bicha" gay male sex.
The "fome de bicho" is never satiated during or after the sexual
experience; rather, hunger or yearning is replaced with "oco" – a
hollowness; an emptiness, and the poetic voice goes "louco." Evidently,
this "loucura" is not characterized by desire and excitement but rather
confusion and bewilderment resulting from a sexual experience that was
induced by alcohol abuse and, for whatever reasons up to the judgment of
the reader, turned out to be profoundly unsatisfying.

Undoubtedly, the majority of poems that relate an empty sexual
experience, in Mattoso, are also typified by the assuming of
conventional sexual roles and acts; i.e., active penetration of passive
partner; the traditional "dar-e-comer" paradigm of straight and gay sex.
In the following chapter, I will elaborate an analysis of Mattoso's
latest book of poems, CENTOPÉIA: SONETOS NOJENTOS & QUEJANDOS, published
in 1999 as the first in a trilogy, a collection of one hundred sonnets
that address alternate homoerotic themes with a much more specific slant
that has always been an obsessive motif in Mattoso's poetic universe:
foot/boot fetishism and sadomasochism. [4]


[NOTES]

[1] See [SOURCES]. For Butterman's introduction and contents, see
[A TRANSGRESSOR AS CASE STUDY].

[2] O QUE É PORNOGRAFIA was published as part of Editora Brasiliense's
educational "O que é . . ." series ("coleção Primeiros Passos").
Mattoso's own O QUE É POESIA MARGINAL also belongs to the collection.
Click [THE ESSAYIST OF "TRANSGRESSIONISM"].

[3] The popular concept of "diva" has been brilliantly executed, for
example, in the role of "Divine" portrayed in John Waters' films as well
as in Pedro Almodóvar's recent film, "Todo sobre mi madre," a tribute to
the female performance artist. Linguistically, the term derived from
Latin, meaning the feminine of "divus" and has, in addition to its camp
meanings already mentioned, two other contemporary uses: "(1). A
principal female singer in an opera or concert organization; and (2). An
extremely sensitive, vain, or undisciplined person" (MERRIAM-WEBSTER
ONLINE, 1999). The word "diva," among other terms from "Cera & Nata para
Desdêmona," reappears in one of Mattoso's sonnets from the collection
PANACÉIA (2000), quoted as follows:


SONETO 374 NINFETA

Dedico-te esta dádiva, ó Dolores,
musa divina, diva doidivanas!
Recebe de presente estes sacanas
bichinhos de pelúcia chupadores!

Serão teus companheiros quando fores
brincar de bestialismo. Sem as xanas
de tuas amiguinhas ou das manas,
te sentes tão sozinha e tens tremores!

Coitada da Dolô! Quem dera fosse
dotada duma mansa passarinha!
Mas não! É uma ninfômana precoce!

Já desde pequenina se entretinha
em jogos. Ao invés da bala doce,
chupava e era chupada na tetinha.


[4] Gender categories, among other gay themes, are typical of the
Spanish-language poems which Mattoso attributes to his heteronym Garcia
Loca. Some of them are quoted below. Click [SCATOLOGY AND "COPROPHAGY"]
(note #2). Click also [PERFORMATIVE SADOMASOCHISM AND FETISHISM] and see
"The Performative Value of Repetition."


9.7.4 [1977]

Si no hubiera mujeres,
los homosexuales podrían vivir como dioses.
En cambio, si no hubiera hombres,
los homosexuales podrían vivir como hombres.
Gracias a Dios hay hombres y mujeres
y los homosexuales pueden vivir
como homosexuales.


9.7.6 [1979]

Hombre en el cual
hace efecto todo el tiempo
la heterosexualidad,
es hombre desarmado.
Homosexual en el cual
hace efecto de cuando en cuando
la heterosexualidad,
es el peor de los delincuentes,
armado hasta los dientes.


9.7.8 [1979]

La homosexualidad erige un tribunal
mucho más alto y temible
que el de la virilidad.
Sus órdenes no se satisfacen
con sólo que honremos el carajo,
sino que prescriben
que lo honremos como al nuestro culo;
no sólo que parezcamos hombres,
sino que lo seamos mutuamente.
Porque ella, la homosexualidad,
no se funda en la estimación pública,
a la que es posible engañar,
sino en nuestra propia excitación,
que jamás nos engaña.


9.7.9 [1979]

En efecto, es necesario
que la mariconería se ajuste,
en cierta medida,
a las convenciones y conveniencias
y que, como decía mi compañero,
sea perceptible solamente para los varones
que la evitan.
Mas es preciso que ella sea
siempre más tentadora
que los varones.


9.7.10 [1979]

Los amantes de la mariconería
o de la pederastía
no pueden ocuparse de la política,
la cual, a su vez,
no se ocupa de la superficialidad
ni de la profundidad
de las cosas.


9.7.11 [1979]

Sin un culo contento
no hay carajo que valga,
así como con el culo alegre
no hay boca que pueda dañarnos
en este mundo tan ayuno
y tan onanista...


9.7.15 [1980]

Mientras haya homosexualidad
no existe el pecado.
Mientras tenga alguna tesonería,
me queda una razón para pecar
y eximirme de culpabilidad.
Solamente ha pecado
el que se arrepiente.


9.7.16 [1980]

Un hombre desmesurado
y con una hermosa barba
ha de decir un número muy grande de bestialidades
para que nos convenzamos de su idiotez.
Un homosexual menudito, por el contrario,
debe llevar los bolsillos
bien repletos de argumentos irrefutables
y de flores del genio
para que el mundo llegue apenas a decir de él:
"No está mal, aunque sea homosexual..."


9.7.17 [1980]

El homosexual es la salud
o la perdición de la familia.
Él lleva el destino de la misma
en las suelas de las botas de su uniforme
o en los pliegues de sus vestidos.


9.8.3 [1980]

Los franceses dicen
que hay tres sexos:
pene, vagina y ano.
¡Para la boca
no más que el olvido!


9.8.8 [1983]

La única
monogamia
es la
manogamia.


9.10.2 [1977]

Es menester poseer
un glande muy grande
y no utilizarlo casi nunca.
He ahí el misterio
de la mariconería.


9.10.7 [1979]

La homosexualidad del hombre
está grabada en todos sus actos,
sobre todo el tercero;
modela sus rasgos,
sobre todo el afectado;
y brilla en la mirada de sus ojos,
sobre todo en el sobresalto.


9.10.14 [1980]

El arte de socratizar
no es otra cosa que el arte
de despertar la curiosidad
de los carajos jóvenes,
para satisfacerla en seguida.


9.10.23 [1980]

Los hombres difieren entre sí,
a lo sumo, como el cielo y la tierra.
Mas los homosexuales,
los mejores y los peores,
como el cielo y el infierno.

° ° °