Gonçalo M. Tavares: Learning to Pray in the Age of Technique - part 1
29 Novembro 2016, 10:00 • Helena Carvalhão Buescu
A dialogue between Tavares' novel and Goethe's Faust as well as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus (and also Ridley Scott's movie Prometheus): the idea of knowledge as a means for creation but also as a kind of transgression; apprenticeship and the possibility of overcoming the master's figure; the tension between good knowledge and bad morals.
The importance of the German context: the evil "hero" (reference to Josef Mendele, a German physician in Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II who created more evil to "cure" evil) with a new darwinistic problem (now Man, instead of Nature, wants to keep the strongest and sacrifice the weakest); Kant's concept of the categoric imperative (the sacrifice of one in favor of many denies the nature of humanity) as opposed to Lenz Buchmann's choice; the threshold that the Holocaust has surpassed (to eliminate people without hesitation).
Meaning of the novel's title: a paradox between two worlds combined - a personal, small (kleine), useless and unexplainable one (praying) and a public, big (große), useful and explainable one (technique).