The Anarchist Banker Read online

  The

  ANARCHIST

  BANKER

  A new Interpretation

  and a new English Translation

  with the original Portuguese Edition

  GUERNICA WORLD EDITIONS 8

  FERNANDO PESSOA

  The

  ANARCHIST

  BANKER

  A new Interpretation

  and a new English Translation

  with the original Portuguese Edition

  Introduction and Translation by

  Richard Schain

  TORONTO • BUFFALO • LANCASTER (U.K.)

  2018

  Copyright © 2018, Richard Schain and Guernica Editions Inc.

  All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication, reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise stored in a retrieval system, without the prior consent of the publisher is an infringement of the copyright law.

  Michael Mirolla, editor

  Cover design: Allen Jomoc, Jr.

  Interior layout: Rafael Chimicatti

  Guernica Editions Inc.

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  Distributors:

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  First edition.

  Printed in Canada.

  Legal Deposit—Third Quarter

  Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2018938916

  Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

  Pessoa, Fernando, 1888-1935, author

  The anarchist banker : a new interpretation and a new English translation with the original Portuguese edition / Fernando Pessoa ; translated by Richard

  Schain. -- First edition.

  (Guernica world editions ; 8)

  Issued in print and electronic formats.

  Text in original Portuguese and in English translation.

  ISBN 978-1-77183-332-5 (softcover).--ISBN 978-1-77183-333-2 (EPUB).--

  ISBN 978-1-77183-334-9 (Kindle)

  I. Schain, Richard, translator II. Pessoa, Fernando, 1888-1935. Banqueiro anarquista. III. Pessoa, Fernando, 1888-1935. Banqueiro anarquista. English. IV. Title. V. Series: Guernica world editions ; 8

  PQ9261.P417B313 2018

  869.3'41

  C2018-901880-1

  C2018-901881-X

  CONTENTS

  •

  Introduction

  THE ANARCHIST BANKER

  O BANQUEIRO ANARQUISTA

  About the translator

  INTRODUCTION

  Prose writings can be divided into certain categories according to the effect they have upon readers. The most common of these may be regarded as diversional in nature, that is writings which entertain or distract the reader with matters that have little to do with his or her own existence. There is enormous variability in diversional writings, ranging from romantic novels to the belles lettres of political criticism. Action novels, detective stories, science fiction, horror stories, and celebrity biographies or autobiographies are some of the genres that fall into this category of writing. The common denominator of this type of literature is its goal to divert the reader from the tensions or boredom of his own life.

  A second type of literature is that designated as instructional since its purpose is to teach the reader something that will be useful in his life. Such are the so-called ‘how to’ books, which rival diversional writings in their attraction to the reading public. These may range from instruction in the care of household pets to sermons on spiritual development. The complexity of modern life along with the joining of commerce to information products has provided fertile fields for writers with a knack for this type of literary effort. Under this category fall all didactic writings with political, economic, or religious messages.

  A third category can be regarded as expressive in nature where the writer sets forth his feelings and ideas about human existence, existence in general, but primarily his own existence. Today, this is a rare genre, exposing the reader to a writer’s sense of the realities underlying surface appearances. It reveals the inner workings of the writer’s mind, of his soul if one may be permitted use of an archaic term. Reading expressive writings uncovers to the reader the writer’s soul, however one may conceive the nature of this mysterious entity.

  At first exposure, The Anarchist Banker, written by the then obscure Portuguese writer Fernando Pessoa, and published in 1922 in the first issue of the Portuguese literary magazine Contemporânea, would seem to fall into the first category. The Banker is presented as a one-dimensional personality, attached to logic to a degree that seems vaguely ludicrous. One wonders whether the author can be engaging in one of his famous blagues by creating a literary figure that is some kind of robotic being, acting upon his own unyielding logic without any acknowledgement of the ambiguities and uncertainties of human affairs.

  This impression is heightened by the datedness for modern readers of many of the Banker’s phrases, slogans, and arguments originating from the radicalism of that era. Outside of scholars and history buffs, there are few people interested in the debates conducted by the Iberian radical left before General Franco and Dr. Salazar finally put an end to them. Those who would like to put the views of the Banker in some historical perspective might view them as closer to those of the nineteenth century Berlin intellectual Max Stirner, who was a more radical anarchist than those of modern times. Also Stirner’s espousal of ‘egoism’ (The Ego and Its Own) closely resembles that of the Banker. To my knowledge, however, there is no mention of Stirner in Pessoa’s writings. (A similar situation exists with regard to the resemblance of Nietzsche’s thought to those of Stirner.)

  It would be erroneous, however, to think that Pessoa wrote this account for the entertainment, deception, or mystification of readers. This is a serious writing. In fact, it may be looked upon as a not so veiled commentary on the revolution in Russia, which had occurred a few years before Pessoa wrote this work. Like the Banker, Pessoa reveals in his unpublished prose writings a marked antipathy toward all collectivist movements. He does not distinguish much between political anarchism, socialism, and communism. He regarded them all as decadent influences, manifestations of “a society in full disintegration” (Obra de Fernando Pessoa, Vol. III Lello & Irmão, Porto, 1986, ed. António Quadros).

  The Banker, no doubt speaking for Pessoa, uncannily predicts the ultimate tyranny of the ‘Dictatorship of the Proletariat’ that had been recently created by the Bolshevik takeover of the Russian Revolution. There can be little doubt that his intention was to produce a scathing parody of the organized collectivist movements of his time. But Pessoa is not sympathetic with the Banker either, as evidenced in his English writings on Millionaires, especially American ones (Selected Prose of Fernando Pessoa, Grove Press, New York, 2001). In these, his virulence rises to heights not usually seen with Pessoa: “You are so completely a zoology of beasts that the gorge refuses to rise at you, out of direct organic contempt. You stink physically to the intellect. Your very philanthropy is an insult to those to whom you turn over, in checks, the leavings of the luck you have had.”

  However in spite of his dislike of millionaires, it is a sign of the complexity of Pessoa’s personality that many of his profoundest ideas seem to emerge in the arguments and personality of the affluent Banker. Above all, we are presented with an independent personality, someone who is capable of standing
alone and confronting and responding to the realities of living, no matter how unpalatable and unpopular they may be.

  The Banker exhibits a certain resemblance to the figure of Lucifer in Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost. (Pessoa was a great admirer of Milton.) Lucifers have always been more intriguing and significant figures than the heavenly hosts. There is something about the figure of the Banker that manages to evoke admiration, albeit grudgingly, and in spite of his tiresome drawn-out ‘logic’ by which he justifies his behavior. My judgment is that it is not political theories or hypocritical financiers that are the important issues in The Anarchist Banker. It is rather in depicting an individual finding his freedom in societies dominated by institutions, traditions, and cliques.

  Pessoa was quite interested in Nietzsche and wrote several short discussions about him that were discovered in the famous trunk containing his manuscripts. He may well have read Beyond Good and Evil, one of Nietzsche’s bestknown books. In that work can be found an extract from the correspondence of Stendhal, an author whom Nietzsche admired greatly: “Pour être bon philosophe,” says this last great psychologist, “il faut être sec, clair, sans illusion. Un banquier, qui a fait fortune, a une partie du caractère requis pour faire des découvertes en philosophie, c’est-à-dire pour voir clair dans ce qui est.”1 After all, what is anarchism but a philosophy in action, the philosophies of Max Stirner and Michael Bakunin applied to society. Pessoa has too many depths for ordinary literary analysis. Like many great poets, he requires philosophical perspectives for his full appreciation, whether with his poetry or prose.

  Many of the views of the Banker can be found in unpublished political writings of Pessoa, as well as in the Livro do Desassossego (Book of Discontent) translated into English as Book of Disquiet by Richard Zenith. (I prefer my own English title as more euphonious.) Certain ones among these (but not the only ones) are:

  1. The belief that the main task in life is obtaining freedom from the tyranny of ‘social fictions’. Money is the most important social fiction; one escapes its tyranny by acquiring it.

  2. The idea that freedom is only possible through individuals themselves overcoming the tyrannies and injustices inherent in bourgeois society with its social fictions. Those who cannot obtain this freedom by themselves become societal ‘slaves’.

  3. An aversion to producing a destructive effect on others by ‘helping’ them to escape injustices, because ‘help’ suppresses their ability to free themselves.

  4. Organized movements claiming to advance the cause of social equality inevitably create new and worse tyrannies than those of bourgeois societies.

  The forceful expression of these ideas makes Pessoa one of the most politically incorrect writers of modern times. One thing peculiar to the Banker is his idiosyncratic desire to destroy all the ‘social fictions,’ even extending to lumping portuguesismo (a ‘fiction’ dear to Pessoa himself) in with the rest of them. This maneuver is an example of Pessoan blague mixed in with important ideas.

  Of course, there is much exaggeration in the portrait of the Banker. He did not have to be so unscrupulous in acquiring all his money. Helping people may be justified under certain conditions. Acquiring freedom is not the only goal of political anarchism. And, no doubt, he was jabbing at the prevailing hypocrisy of plutocrats as well. However, a reader must look for the significant lessons for life underlying Pessoa’s hyperbole.

  Fernando Pessoa has become the first Portuguese writer to occupy an important position in modern European literature. He is widely regarded as one of the great literary figures of the twentieth century, on a par with Eliot, Joyce, and Rilke. In Portugal, critiques of his life and work have become a scholarly specialty within academic and literary circles. While his fame is largely due to the psychological and spiritual depth of his poetry, he is also the author of extensive prose writings, of which almost all, with the exception of The Anarchist Banker, were unpublished in his lifetime. What did appear were essays in vanguard Portuguese literary magazines and prefaces to books of his friends.

  The largest and most important of his prose writings, gathered together and published years after his death, is the Livro do Desassossego, a conglomerate of essays and personal reflections that he had hoped to publish himself. It has been translated into all major European languages. Pessoa was posthumously fortunate in having two young Portuguese avatars of modern literature, Armando Côrtes-Rodrigues and João Gaspar Simões, take an interest in his work and they were responsible for his posthumous fame. Simões has produced an encyclopedic account of Pessoa’s life and work (Vida e Obra de Fernando Pessoa, 1986, 5th ed.), which has been translated into Spanish by Angel Crespo.

  By and large, critics, even those most favorable to Pessoa, have seen The Anarchist Banker as a ridiculous story, admittedly with clever dialogue, yet really just another one of Pessoa’s blagues. Its main virtue is thought to be the fact that Pessoa completed and published it himself, a feat that he was never successful in accomplishing with his other extended prose writings. Even António Quadros, devoted as he was to Pessoa’s work, regarded it as “a splendid text of rationalizing prose,” but basically only a piece of “sophistic fiction” (Obras, ibid. Vol II). Elsewhere he opines the main feature of the writing is in its humor. Tellingly, Simões’ encyclopedic work does not discuss The Anarchist Banker anywhere in its over 600 pages and only lists it in the chronology of Pessoa’s writings. It is as if he would like to sweep this particular writing of Pessoa under the rug.

  I believe that critics have done Pessoa and his Anarchist Banker a disservice by not taking The Anarchist Banker seriously. Pessoa himself took it very seriously. It is known from a letter written by him shortly before his death that he was engaged in revising it, and in preparing an English translation.

  It is not enough to make a literary icon of Pessoa; his thoughts need to be taken seriously even if they run counter to the values of the times. Pessoa was a highly original thinker. All the thoughts of highly original thinkers deserve consideration, even those that are politically incorrect in the present world and even if the thinker engages in devious methods to express them. Just as the Banker thought himself to be the only true anarchist, so Pessoa might be regarded as the only truly free-thinker of modern times as evidenced by the lessons to be found in The Anarchist Banker. Pessoa’s depths have not yet been plumbed. They extend far beyond the world of Portugal. It is up to his posterity everywhere to uncover them.

  Brief Biography: Fernando Antonio Nogueira Pessoa was born in Lisbon on June 13th, 1888 of an ancient and distinguished lineage on his father’s side. His father, Joaquim de Seabra Pessoa, is said to have been a gifted music critic. Noteworthy is it that Pessoa himself claimed that these ancestors were a mixture of aristocrats and Jews. One of them, supposedly a converted Christian, was arrested by the Inquisition in 1706 and condemned to death at an Auto-da-Fé. Whether the sentence was carried out is not clear. His mother Maria Madalena Pinheiro Nogueira was of Azorean origin, also with a prominent lineage. She was highly educated, spoke French, German, and English, wrote poetry, and read widely. Pessoa identified with her all his life. It has been speculated that his distinguished lineage on both sides played an important role in his commitment to the destiny of Portugal.

  In 1893 his father died from pulmonary tuberculosis at 43 years of age. Two years later, his mother married again to João Miguel Rosa, a well-connected Lisboeta who soon after was appointed as the Portuguese consul in Durban, South Africa (then a British possession). In 1896, the new family moved to Durban in order for Pessoa’s stepfather to assume his new post. There, Fernando attended British schools, receiving a classical English education. He read widely in philosophy and English literature, and was regarded as an outstanding but introverted student. It was in the equivalent of American high schools that Fernando began writing stories, essays, and poems in English. For an adolescent, he was remarkably intellectually developed in his writings.

  At the age of 17 years, Pessoa sailed t
o Lisbon by himself, never to return to South Africa and only rarely leaving his natal city for short visits. He continued writing prose and poetry in English. In 1906 he matriculated at the University of Lisbon, but quickly became dissatisfied with the education offered there and dropped out the following year. During 1907 he received an inheritance from the death of his grandfather on which he lived for some time. He opened a commercial printing press, which soon closed, a pattern that was to be repeated in future years.

  During 1908, young Pessoa began working as ‘foreign correspondent’, not in the current sense of the term, but as a letter writer and translator of English and French correspondence for Portuguese firms. He supported himself in this way for the rest of his life. He moved about often in Lisbon, living in rented rooms or, at times, with family members. Pessoa was now largely writing in Portuguese although he continued with occasional poetry and prose in English and French. But he abandoned the dream of a literary career in the English-speaking world and entered into a lifelong commitment to Portuguese letters and the destiny of Portugal.

  Beginning in 1910, in collaboration with other vanguard writers, he began the founding of literary journals, which rarely lasted beyond a few issues. He was a prolific writer of poetry and prose for various journals, his own and others. He became known as a radically avant-garde Portuguese writer; at that time, no one would have guessed that after his death he would come to be regarded as the greatest Portuguese writer of the century, perhaps even surpassing in importance the iconic Luis de Camõens.

  Early on, even before returning to Lisbon, Pessoa began attributing writings to ‘heteronyms’, imaginary alter egos for whom Pessoa created names, biographies, special writing styles, philosophies, and discourses with his own self and with other alter egos. He created more than twenty of these heteronyms, the most important of which were Ricardo Reis, Alberto Caeiro, and Álvaro de Campos. All these were representations of different facets of Pessoa’s personality, although he claimed they had real existences. In my opinion, there is reason to think that the Banker was also a heteronym, one of the most significant, albeit an unpoetical and unliterary one. (I realize many Pessoa scholars may dispute this last statement.)