PREFACE
BY: CARLOS ALBERTO JR.
"In literature, I don't accept a system, I don't follow school, I don't unfurl flags: to entertain and to magnetize, these are my only rules…"
Alexandre Dumas
WHEN I REMEMBER the books I have read, I inevitably think of the pleasure or impact they gave me. I must admit, some books are able to offer both, so I keep the memory of works that were able to influence me, while exerting a magnetism on me.
Reading is also the pursuit of pleasure, not just knowledge and edification. Pleasure involves fun, fascination and the beautiful. When we read and are transported to each scenario, glimpsing the characters' actions and their thoughts, we experience each danger, each plot twist, as not mere readers, safe and safe from the elements in our chairs, but rather, as companions on the hero's journey..
We are transformed into acid observers of villainous attitudes, surprised observers of the creatures we see, whether human or not, that reflect so much the flaws and qualities that in our world we see in men, women, without, however, realizing the virtue and malice present In them. That is fascination.
There are works that attract us to Beauty. The fictional world created reveals the beauty in the virtues, in the magical, wonderful and fantastic elements present. The ugly is present as a shadow, a stain that must be fought. The beauty presented leads us to question the ugly that is in us, the stain on our actions, the false used in everyday life to soften our reaction to so many miseries. The beautiful offers we escape from our pains and regrets as well as comfort.
Beauty rescues all sorts of virtues that disappear in the world and that authors like Zygmunt Bauman, Roger Scruton and many others warned us about its importance and that continue to claim our attention, because real immortality is the legacy, we leave.
Fun. It can be a mere temporary pleasure, a wide and natural smile that we wear for minutes, hours of reading, but after we put the book away, putting it on the shelf, without promises to reread it, in a few days we forget it.
There are entertainments that, of course, provide fascination, presents us with the Beautiful, offering moral edification, books that when finished are eternal in our minds, crying out to be reread.
Much has been said and written about the so-called best-sellers and it is usually the same message: they are weak, superficial, and poorly written; there is nothing in them that point to immortalization. They are fatefully the opposite of the classic, the immortal.
There are exceptions. Often the literary critic falls into the abyss of ego, of elitism, wanting only to reread and write about the great classics, consecrated over the centuries. The books that the present offers us are not always enriching both in aesthetic construction and in content, but they are the books read by the new generation of readers and that is enough to find out the reason for their acceptance.
As a critic, I can't help but read the great immortals of literature, because I grew up in them, however, I can't help but follow the readings of young people. I have seen that some of the so-called classics are overrated readings, a lot of rhetoric and little literature, while some modern books present captivating stories and characters, which insist on populating the minds of new readers.
Twilight of the Gods is a book that, yes, deserves reading. Fun, light when humor is present, full of twists, far from deep psychological analysis (rich resource depending on the objective) and focused on delighting the reader with an ocean of adventures.
The short chapters appear like pieces of a puzzle, fragments of different actions that are happening simultaneously. This encourages the reader to set up the scenarios and discover the paths that each character will take.
The author's style is influenced by names like Sidney Sheldon and Dan Brown, which will distance some and delight many others.
What impresses me most is the author's boldness in seeking new scenarios for his adventures, always keeping in mind his objective of leaving the reader unable to stop reading the next page.
I believe that working more on the psychology of the characters and having the sensitivity to take longer at some points in the story, giving more body to the plot and blood to the characters, is a necessary next step in the evolution of this writer.
Independent, Rafael Zimichut is an author that I always look forward to on tedious, dark and melancholy days. It is impossible not to have fun with his writings and imagine a continuation for each of his works.
Good literature should not only be the one that challenges our minds, but the one that fills us with energy to face another day.