The Anthropophagist Manifesto (5)

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THE ANTHROPOPHAGIST MANIFESTO
(sections 21-26)

The Carib instinct. 

Death and life of hypotheticals. From the equation self part of the Cosmos to the axiom Cosmos part of the self. Subsistence. Awareness. Anthropophagy.

Down with the vegetable elites. In communication with the soil.

We were never catechized. What we did make was Carnaval. The Indian dressed as a senator of the Empire. Pretending to be Pitt. Or performing in Alencar’s operas full of good Portuguese sentiments.

We already had communism. We already had surrealist language. The golden age. Catiti Catiti Imara Notia Notia Imara Ipejú.*

Magic and life. We had the listing and distribution of tangible assets, of intangible assets, of royal assets. And we knew how to transpose mystery and death with the help of some grammatical forms.

*Outside the Manifesto, Oswald quotes a translation of this Tupi text by politician and ethnologist Couto de Magalhães in Portuguese: “Lua Nova, ó Lua Nova! assoprai em … lembranças de mim; eis-me aqui, estou em vossa presença; fazei com que eu tão somente ocupe seu coração.” (“New Moon, ah New Moon! blow memories of me into …; here I am, I’m before you; make it so that I am the only one in their heart.”)