Poetic, Alyosha. I've just enjoyed reading both of your intelligent posts. Welcome to the Forum .Forgive my aphoristic tone, friends; darkness has descended like some terrible otter, and I am alone.
It seems that the Western consumerism seeks to sustain the saudade by continuing to move the goal posts and extending the carrot out further. Interesting to me how Portugal has come into my personal view of late. I very recently bought at a thrift store an album indicated as "STEREO" on the Monitor label and simply titled "Portugal" ~ the narrow street scene showing the four, youngish boys [11-13 y.o.a., I'd guess], the woman opposite them dressed up for the evening and leaning against the wall with her hands clasped, and the man in pants, suit jacket, and hat, carrying something that looks electronic, walking up the streetway from behind her... the scene was so appealing and the notation of "Portugese Fados and Folk Songs" on the front led me to the back, where it went into a somewhat lengthy description of saudade.
The first two paragraphs are:
I can see how this word would also be used to describe the Western obsession with consumption, causing people to fall in 'love' with their belongings and to feel they must work as hard to get or to keep them, as they might a romantic partner. A love of stuff and the feeling of longing and missing something [as though something very important has or may be lost] if you don't have it. A very powerful tool of manipulation.If you would understand the fado, and for that matter the Portugese people, you must first know about saudade.
Pronounced sou~da~de, this distinctively Portugese word means yearning or longing. But in the Portugese language saudade has a deeper meaning that permeates the whole Portugese attitude toward the past. It is a kind of wistful nostalgia for old and fondly remembered things now lost. Saudade touches on the full range of human emotions, but love -- usually a lost love -- is always the underlying theme.
~ Lizzy