Introduzindo Lenny Bruce "em substancia"

Uma pequena homenagem ao trabalhador de construcäo civil, "tired, honest, a bottle of beer in his left hand" (chegado ao país que sempre foi o seu) em Nova Yorque, que nunca logrei ser.

Escreveu John dos Passos (näo me hei decido até hoje por escrever a copula entre prenome e nome, o "DOS", com minuscula ou com maiuscula, como se a grafia repercutara sobre a personalidade que insinua, ou à qual refefe - dos Passos seria uma versäo alusitanada, que näo é correcta, porque é um autor americano, Dos Passos uma versäo americanizada, que também näo seria plenamente correcto - na hora da sua ultima despedida, ao envelher, quiz regressar às raizes e publicou a sua The Portugal Story - e eu opto pela näo decisäo, uma pequena homenagem a essas singelas raizes)... escreveu este dos Passos em 1957 um pequeno catálogo intitulado The Men Who Made the Nation (Os homens que fizeram a nacäo) que o tradutor alemäo optou por denominar: Amerikanische Porträts. Erfinder /Präsidenten /Rebellen (Retratos americanos: Inventores / Presidentes / Rebeldes)...
Se me encarregarem de escrever o segundo tomo desse catalogo elegirei exactamente o mesmo titulo "Aqueles que fizeram a nacäo", na versäo alemä alteraria no entanto algo, (Retratos americanos: Rebeldes / Inventores /Presidentes ...).
E, entre aqueles que fizeram a "nossa" Nacäo, terá especial mencäo certamente Lenny Bruce, um dos grandes "rebels". Por uma unica razäo, morreu defendendo a palavra, mais precisamente defendendo a näo-omissäo da palavra, ou em seus proprios termos: I was just trying to make a point, and that is that it's the suppression of the word that gives it the power, the violence, the viciousness (simplesmente tentei fazer o ponto da questäo, ou seja, que é a supressäo da palavra que lhe dá a sua forca, a sua violencia, a viciosidade).

Materiais & Left Links

Aqui, alguns achados de e sobre Lenny Bruce

“If Jesus had been killed twenty years ago, Catholic school children would
be wearing little electric chairs around their necks instead of crosses.” Lenny Bruce

Se Jesus tivesse sido matado vinte anos atrás, os alunos
católicos usariam cadeiras elecctricas em vez de cruzes em torno do seu
pescoco.

Lenny Bruce declares a truce and plays the other hand

Lenny Bruce insinua uma astucia e joga a outra mäo
Genesis: The lamb lies down on Broadway

MATERIALS & LEFT LINKS:

A Jew, in the dictionary, is one who is descended from the ancient tribes of
Judea, or one who is regarded as a descendant from that tribe. That's what it
says in the dictionary, but you and I know what a Jew is: One Who Killed Our
Lord... there should be a statute of limitations for that crime.
In Lenny Bruce Without Tears, 1972

Um judeu, num dicionário, é alguem que é descendente das tribos
antigas de Judeia, ou alguém que é visto como um descente desta tribo. Isto é o
que o dicionário diz, mas voces e eu, sabemos o que é um judeu: é alguém que
matou Nosso Senhor... deveria haver uma lei de limitacöes para esse
crime.

The Lenny Bruce Trials: http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/bruce/bruce.html

The Lenny Bruce FBI Act: http://www.fadetoblack.com/foi/lennybruce/

When you are eight years old, nothing is any of your business
Lenny Bruce about me, 1966

" It doesn't matter even if you're Catholic; if you live in New York
you're Jewish. If you live in Butte, Montana, you are going to be goyish if
you're Jewish." Lenny Bruce

Näo importa se até és católico; se vives em Nova Yorque és judeu. Se vives em Butte, Montana, vais ter que ser goi.

http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/lbruce.htm

Lenny Bruce, by Bob Dylan:

Lenny Bruce is dead but his ghost lives on and on

Never did get any Golden Globe award, never made it to Synanon.
He was an outlaw, that's for sure,
More of an outlaw than you ever were.
Lenny Bruce is gone but his spirit's livin' on and on.
Maybe he had some problems, maybe some things that he couldn't work out
But he sure was funny and he sure told the truth and he knew what he was talkin' about. Never robbed any churches nor cut off any babies' heads,
He just took the folks in high places and he shined a light in their beds.
He's on some other shore, he didn't wanna live anymore.
Lenny Bruce is dead but he didn't commit any crime
He just had the insight to rip off the lid before its time.
I rode with him in a taxi once, only for a mile and a half,
Seemed like it took a couple of months.
Lenny Bruce moved on and like the ones that killed him, gone.
They said that he was sick 'cause he didn't play by the rules
He just showed the wise men of his day to be nothing more than fools.
They stamped him and they labeled him like they do with pants and shirts,
He fought a war on a battlefield where every victory hurts.
Lenny Bruce was bad, he was the brother that you never had.
Copyright © 1981 Special Rider Music

Are There Any Niggers Tonight

Are there any niggers here tonight? Could you turn on the house lights, please, and could the waiters and waitresses just stop serving, just for a second? And turn off this spot. Now what did he say? "Are there any niggers here tonight?" I know there's one nigger, because I see him back there working. Let's see, there's two niggers. And between those two niggers sits a kike. And there's another kike— that's two kikes and three niggers. And there's a spic. Right? Hmm? There's another spic. Ooh, there's a wop; there's a polack; and, oh, a couple of greaseballs. And there's three lace-curtain Irish micks. And there's one, hip, thick, hunky, funky, boogie. Boogie boogie. Mm-hmm. I got three kikes here, do I hear five kikes? I got five kikes, do I hear six spics, I got six spics, do I hear seven niggers? I got seven niggers. Sold American. I pass with seven niggers, six spics, five micks, four kikes, three guineas, and one wop. Well, I was just trying to make a point, and that is that it's the suppression of the word that gives it the power, the violence, the viciousness. Dig: if President Kennedy would just go on television, and say, "I would like to introduce you to all the niggers in my cabinet," and if he'd just say "nigger nigger nigger nigger nigger" to every nigger he saw, "boogie boogie boogie boogie boogie," "nigger nigger nigger nigger nigger" 'til nigger didn't mean anything anymore, then you could never make some six-year-old black kid cry because somebody called him a nigger at school.
Lenny Bruce