In 1926: living at the edge of time - Monoskop

REPORTERS 189
Germany, and the United States, a comparable advance is evident in the
metropolitan centers of Latin America. On May 15, 0 Jornal do Brasil,
a daily paper in Rio de Janeiro, publishes a long interview with the
Italian poet Filippo Marinetti. Despite his obvious reservations about
Marinetti's Fascist politics, the interviewer, a young journalist named
Sergio Buarque de Holanda, presents the visitor's views without any
critical comments: "We prefer to hear the political Marinetti, because for
him politics is a pure form of poetry. In his politics and in his poetry, we
find the same contradictions, incoherences, and lightning-flashes of
beauty. These qualities make him an intriguing and exceptional person
in the general confusion of the twentieth century" (Buarque de Holanda,
76). It is less Marinetti's opinions than his contradictions that render him
an interesting topic for the newspapers, and being interesting is a good
enough reason for 0 Jornal do Brasil to invite him for a second interview
after he has visited Sao Paulo, Montevideo, and Buenos Aires. This time,
Buarque de Holanda presents Marinetti as if his famous guest were
himself a reporter. Marinetti appears as a traveler whose perceptions
have been sharpened by the countries he visits: "I return to Brazil full of
enthusiasm. Rio de Janeiro in particular has offered me many lively and
extremely pleasant impressions. This city has stimulated my physical and
intellectual sensibility in the most beautiful and festive way" (79).
The interventions of censorship, which are a big concern (and a big
opportunity for self-stylization) among intellectuals and artists [see
Movie Palaces], may occasionally interest reporters as a topic but do not
particularly hinder their journalistic activities. After all, the reporter
strives to fascinate readers with lived experience, rather than to persuade
them of the rightness of his own opinions. In Ramon del Valle-Inchin's
novel Tirana Banderas, there is a scene in which an editor-in-chief explains
to a young journalist that his report on a rally held by the political
opposition is too favorable to be published. The editor suggests replacing
the discursive mode of political commentary with the tonality of lived
experience. According to him, the government will benefit if the opposition's
rally is depicted as a circus show: "Here's an idea which, if successfully
developed, would assure you professional success: write the
article as if you were describing a circus act, with trained parrots. Emphasize
their harangues. Begin with the most courteous congratulations
to the Harris Brothers Company" (Valle-Inchin, 57). Far from protesting
this strategy of political manipulation, the young reporter responds with