The Existential and Pessimist Jose Saramago

Jose Saramago, a nobel literature prize winner and writer of one of my favorite novels "The Gospel according to Christ", "Baltazar and Blimunda" and "Blindness" recently gave some declarations from his home in Portugal. He stated: "Nothing is getting better, nothing changes"

Saramago was born in Portugal even though in the 1990s he sought political asylum in Spain (Canary Islands). The reason was his book on The Gospel according to Christ, a narration of the gospel from the point of view of Jesus Christ, as a completely normal human being. The book was thought to be heretic by Portuguese religious authorities. Saramago has been a member of the Portuguese Communist Party since 1969, as well as an atheist and self-described pessimist.

"I am not a pessimist; it is the world that is pessimist"

His views have aroused considerable controversy in Portugal, especially after the publication of The Gospel According to Jesus Christ. Members of the country's Catholic community were outraged by Saramago's representation of Jesus Christ as a fallible human being. Portugal's conservative government would not allow Saramago's work to compete for the European Literary Prize, arguing that it offended the Catholic community. As a result, Saramago and his wife moved to Lanzarote, an island in the Canaries (Spain).

He is publishing a new book, The Notebooks, which contain a collection of his blog entries dealing with several issues. Jose Saramago´s blog can be accessed here.

He ends this recent interview stating that "nothing is getting better, even the British democracy, which seemed untouchable, is now having Members of Parliament charging for their pets food, is a real shame." He furthers by saying that even tough humanity has seen some technical changes; morally things are getting worse than before. He even states that with the economic crisis they are trying to save some furniture, but capitalism will remain.

Saramago´s only hope is recently elected US President Barack Obama while at the end of his interview he categorically rejects the Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez by stating that it is dangerously close of being a totalitarian regime.