http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,22163823-23210,00.html Brazil presents 'Copa 2014" - From correspondents in Paris
July 31, 2007 BRAZIL, the only candidate bidding to host the 2014 World Cup, is set to officially present its case at FIFA headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland tonight (AEST). The South American delegation, headed by Brazil federation (CBF) president Ricardo Teixeira and including famous author Paulo Coelho and 1994 World Cup star Romario, is set to declare it has agreed to all the guarantees demanded by FIFA to host the event. This first administrative step will put the bid, for what the Brazilians want to call "Copa 2014," officially into the FIFA system. The Cup was last staged in Brazil in 1950, when it lost the final to Uruguay, a defeat which still rankles. Brazil, which also hopes to host the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, wants to follow in the footsteps of Germany (1972 Olympic Games, 1974 World Cup), and Mexico (1968 Olympic Games, 1970 World Cup). However, a senior European Interntaional Olympic Committee (IOC) member said last week that Rio is unlikely to be awarded the Olympics. "IOC members don't like feeling they are the pudding, ie coming after another major sporting occasion," he said. Agence France-Presse Laurence Fishburne and A-Mark Entertainment have acquired the film rights to the best-selling novel "The Alchemist" from Warner Bros. Pictures with the intent of making the movie themselves. Warners acquired author Paulo Coelho's philosophical book - about a traveler journeying the world during the Inquisition in order to find man's purpose in the world - in 2003 as a Fishburne vehicle. Since its debut in 1988, the book has been translated into 56 languages and has sold more than 40 million copies in more than 150 countries. The road to the screen, however, has been almost as arduous as the traveler's journey. Fishburne wrote the screenplay for the film and also is set to direct. Barrie Osborne ("The Lord of the Rings") is producing alongside "Akeelah and the Bee" producers Fishburne and Helen Sugland.
The filmmakers' take is described as "Harry Potter meets Indiana Jones," with a sweeping adventure centering on a young Spaniard who embarks on a quest to find a hidden treasure within the Egyptian pyramids and ends up discovering a personal treasure that eclipses his wildest expectations.
A-Mark, an independent finance and production company, this year saw the release of its first picture, "Alpha Dog." It also is prepping the World War II epic "Dragonfly," a love story set in Japanese -occupied Indonesia, and is co-producing Warren Zide's "American Summer" and "Autopsy," shooting in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, La., respectively.
The Experimental Witch
Throughout my career as a writer, I’ve met people that trusted me without knowing me well and they have helped me, enabling me to follow my dreams. I’ve been visiting the pages of readers this last year and I’ve seen excellent works by actresses & actors, musicians, directors, etc. That’s why I thought: why not make a movie together? I would retain the rights of the film based on my latest book The Witch of Portobello while developing this partnership. From then onwards, I’ve developed the following project, already registered: 1. The book, The Witch of Portobello, is divided into 15 narrators/perspectives. Most of them – 13 – directly interact with Athena, the main character. 2.You may register and choose your character (the registration is limited to 100 filmmakers) at the bottom of this page. I would like that each filmmaker chooses a character and film his/her perspective. Since the number of applications is restricted, we will choose the filmmakers on the basis of “first come, first served”. You will receive an email reply confirming your registration and if your character of choice is still available. 3. Those that wish to participate will have to record a video and upload it into their youtube account (of course the original version has to be in high definition and with perfect sound). This filmmaker will have to illustrate the scenes where the narrator interacts with Athena. Since there will be a myriad of projects, I am aware that Athena will always be a different person (Caucasian, Africain, Asian, etc). This plurality is welcomed since Athena’s character is supposed to be “fleeting”. The filmmaker that chooses a narrator’s perspective will have to make all the scenes of the book in which this narrator interacts with Athena, not merely one chapter. I would prefer that the filmmakers stay close to the scenes of the book (for instance, if a filmmaker chooses to narrate the story of Athena from the perspective of the priest Giancarlo Fontana, he/she will have to illustrate the scene where Athena is refused the communion after her divorce). 4. Once the filmmaker has done all the scenes that involve their character of choice, he has to create an youtube account and upload their version into this youtube page for selection. When creating this youtube account, please set your videos to private and send us the link. We demand of our participants not to show this to others during the competition. How do I join to youtube? http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?answer=57337&topic=10510How do I confirm my email address to youtube after signing up? http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?answer=57707&topic=10510How do I make my video private? http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?answer=59208&topic=105195. Once we select the best videos our lawyer will get in touch with you and will send you the contract and the address to which you will have to send your original HD material. There will be a 3 000 € prize for the filmmakers that are selected. The rights of image will be entirely given to us. 6. Once this selection is made and the original HD material sent to us, our professional editor will use them in order to recreate the book. We will make all the efforts in order to show the final version in film festivals throughout the world and equally sell the right to distributors (even though this may be very difficult). 7. We also invite musicians from Myspace to create themes for each narrator or character. In this specific case, we will pay 1,500 € for each theme and the artist will have to sign a contract in which he will be granting us the rights for the film (but not for the disc). For the musicians, please up-load your song into your myspace profile and send a message to Paulo Coelho’s myspace profile: http://www.myspace.com/paulocoelho . 8. The rushes can be recorded in English. Do not worry about eventual accents because most characters have a foreign accent. 9. The deadline for inscriptions is the 25th of July 2008 and the results will be known by the 24th of August 2008. You may be asking yourself, what’s the advantage of all this? From my point of view, while retaining authorship rights, I’ll be diving into a new experience and seeing before hand the plurality of views about my book. From the contestant’s perspective, if we manage to close the deal with big festivals and/or distributors, they will acquire a wider visibility. Last but not least, we would be doing a bit of cinematographic history together: a film directed by its narrators! I hope you like the idea. Take into consideration that if we don’t receive materials that are up to our standards the project will be cancelled. All those that wish to participate, please registe below. We wish for this to happen. And here is the first film made by its participants! Love Paulo ........................................................................................................................................................ The witch of Portobello: Paulo Coelho 5:00PM Sunday June 03, 2007
By Susan Jacobs Despite 85 million book sales worldwide, it is still hard to explain the astonishing appeal of prolific Brazilian author Paulo Coelho. Of course, in our angst-ridden world, his message about finding one's purpose and fulfilling one's dreams is seductive. His most popular work, The Alchemist has a star-studded readership, including Bill Clinton and, unsurprisingly, Madonna. Although dismissed by one critic as "Yuppie esoteric narrative', Coelho's books sell best in Iran, Israel and India. Coelho seems to have the knack of borrowing bits of wisdom from various cultures and reproducing them in a homogenous blend. So what to make of his latest work, that he himself says is about the awakening of female energy in men and women? Hmm. Signs, visitations, witchcraft, the Great Mother, mysticism, meditation and magic are among the ingredients. I have no quarrel with these, but I wish he had wrapped them in a more coherent story. The titular character of Athena, who we learn at the beginning is dead, is portrayed through the testimonies of various people who knew her. Among them are her adoptive mother, her biological gypsy mother, a journalist, an actress and a Bedouin. This structure allows for many different points of view and shows us the various trajectories of her unusual path, but Athena, even at second hand, is just plain irritating and ultimately unconvincing. Bent on awakening, she discovers she has special powers over others but never develops beyond being a figurehead for her creator's strong New Age beliefs. The book is set in London, Lebanon, Transylvania and Dubai (where Athena sold real estate and where, incidentally, the book was launched), but these places merely add to the sense of narrative confusion. To my mind, the real witch is the philanthropic Coelho, who with utter sincerity can cook up a hotchpotch of the spiritual and inspirational and sell it to millions. A bit like Oprah. *Harper Collins, $36.99 | Jun. 1st, 2007 11:15 am The story of the pencil by Paulo Coelho The story of the pencil by Paulo Coelho The story of the pencil February 17, 2007 A boy was watching his grandmother write a letter. At one point he asked: ‘Are you writing a story about what we’ve done? Is it a story about me?’ His grandmother stopped writing her letter and said to her grandson: ‘I am writing about you, actually, but more important than the words is the pencil I’m using. I hope you will be like this pencil when you grow up.’ Intrigued, the boy looked at the pencil. It didn’t seem very special. ‘But it’s just like any other pencil I’ve ever seen!’ ‘That depends on how you look at things. It has five qualities which, if you manage to hang on them, will make you a person who is always at peace with the world.’ ‘First quality: you are capable of great things, but you must never forget that there is a hand guiding your steps. We call that hand God, and He always guides us according to His will.’ ‘Second quality: now and then, I have to stop writing and use a sharpner. That makes the pencil suffer a little, but afterwards, he’s much sharper. So you, too, must learn to bear certain pains and sorrows, because they will make you a better person. ‘Third quality: the pencil always allows us to use an eraser to rub out any mistakes. This means that correcting something we did is not necessarily a bad thing; it helps to keep us on the road to justice.’ ‘Fourth quality: what really matters in a pencil is not its wooden exterior, but the graphite inside. So always pay attention to what is happening inside you.’ ‘Finally, the pencil’s fifth quality: it always leaves a mark. in just the same way, you should know that everything you do in life will leave a mark, so try to be conscious of that in your every action’ Source: Like the Flowing River by Paulo Coelho | | 
"The Witch of Portobello" (HarperCollins. 268 Pages. $25) By Paulo Coelho.
Like his other novels, Coelho's latest is an incredibly beautiful read. Like many of his other novels, it features an unusual and complicated main character.
In this case, she's a woman born in Transylvania to a Gypsy mother who's later adopted by a wealthy Lebanese couple. As a child, Sherine Khalil renames herself Athena. She shows a strong religious vocation and reports seeing angels and saints, which both impresses and worries her parents.
Athena's life story is told in the form of interviews, which seem a distraction until readers grasp the pace at which the tale unfolds. As the book begins, Athena is dead -- "she managed to get herself brutally murdered," a journalist tells us in the opening pages. How she ended up that way creates the intrigue that attempts to sustain the book.
thena marries young and bears a son, she leaves her husband, even sells real estate in Dubai for a time, all the while searching for her true self. Things really start picking up when she meets her mentor, Edda, who teaches her to harness her spiritual powers.
Coelho's vast skills as a writer manage to keep the tale from lapsing too far over the edge into new agey cliches.
Angela Doland, Canadian PressPublished: Friday, May 11, 2007
Coelho, 59, came to novel-writing after many twists and turns. When he was 18, his parents put him in a psychiatric hospital for shock treatments. "I was not the typical good student who wants to follow his father's career, so they thought I was crazy," he said. He has forgiven them, saying they were only trying to help him.
In the 1970s, Coelho founded an alternative magazine and wrote music lyrics. Considered subversive by Brazil's military government at the time, he briefly went to jail. From there, Coelho says, he was snatched by paramilitaries and tortured.
In 1987, he hiked a pilgrimage route between France and Spain, inspiring his first book, "The Pilgrimage." A year later came "The Alchemist," a fable about a shepherd boy on a quest. Other best sellers, including "Veronika Decides to Die" and "Eleven Minutes," followed.
Coelho writes one novel every two years. In Rio de Janeiro, where he spends most of the year, he has an institute that cares for 430 poor children. He does something he calls "blitz signings" - dropping in to a city to do a signing with only a day's notice. And of course, he's on the Internet, where he has posted a third of "The Witch of Portobello" on his blog, http://paulocoelhoblog.com.
Coelho also posts random photographs from his life - one shows him shaving. His devoted readers use the blog to pour out their feelings on topics like marriage and grief.
Online, Coelho recently invited 10 readers to his annual party in Spain. People from all over the world sent him e-mails, and though he had to explain later that he wasn't paying for their plane tickets or hotels, the first 10 bidders came anyway, he says, from as far away as Venezuela and Japan.
When he's not on the Internet, he's travelling, waiting for inspiration to strike. He doesn't have an idea for his next book, so he's living life to the fullest - a process he compares to "making love, trying to get pregnant."
"I have to have this innocence, I have to have this excitement," he said. "I could be easily paralyzed by my success. Thank God, this is not the case."
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Tuesday, May 08, 2007
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Statutes for life
1] All men are different. And should do everything possible to continue to be so.
2] Each human being has been granted two courses of action: that of deed and that of contemplation. Both lead to the same place.
3] Each human being has been granted two qualities: power and gift. Power drives man to meet his destiny, his gift obliges him to share with others that which is good in him. A man must know when to use his power, and when to use his gift.
4] Each human being has been granted a virtue: the capacity to choose. For he who does not use this virtue, it becomes a curse - and others will always choose for him.
5] Each human being has the right to two blessings, which are: the blessing to do right, and the blessing to err. In the latter case, there is always a path of learning leading to the right way.
6] Each human being has his own sexual profile, and should exercise it without guilt - provided he does not oblige others to exercise it with him.
7] Each human being has his own Personal Legend to be fulfilled, and this is the reason he is in the world. The Personal Legend is manifest in his enthusiasm for what he does.
8] The Personal Legend may be abandoned for a certain time, provided one does not forget it and returns as soon as possible.
9] Each man has a feminine side, and each woman has a masculine side. It is necessary to use discipline with intuition, and to use intuition objectively.
10] Each human being must know two languages: the language of society and the language of the omens. The first serves for communication with others. The second serves to interpret messages from God.
11] Each human being has the right to seek out joy, joy being understood as something which makes one content - not necessarily that which makes others content.
12] Each human being must keep alight within him the sacred flame of madness. And must behave like a normal person.
13] The only faults considered grave are the following: not respecting the rights of one's neighbor, letting oneself be paralyzed by fear, feeling guilty, thinking one does not deserve the good and bad which occurs in life, and being a coward.
14] We shall love our adversaries, but not make alliances with them. They are placed in our way to test our sword, and deserve the respect of our fight.
15] We shall choose our adversaries, not the other way around.
16] All religions lead to the same God, and all deserve the same respect.
17] A man who chooses a religion is also choosing a collective manner of adoration and of sharing the mysteries. Nevertheless, he alone is responsible for his actions along the Way, and he has no right to transfer to religion the responsibility for his steps and his decisions.
18] We hereby declare the end to the wall dividing the sacred from the profane: from now on, all is sacred.
19] Everything which is done in the present, affects the future by consequence, and the past by redemption.
Free Distribution - you can have the e-cards by going to the photo album "Statutes for Life"
Copyright by Paulo Coelho
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Monday, May 07, 2007
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The World according to the Mexican Sorcerers
The great majority of spiritual traditions present in the Americas before Columbus's arrival, has managed - by some miracle! - to preserve its roots. In other words, they were stronger than the civilizations which were here, and which soon succumbed to the conquistadors. Among them, Mexican shamanism, which is still practiced by many local tribes, is one of the most widely studied; various anthropologists have carried out serious studies about the way in which the sorcerers understood God's presence and their spiritual search. Here are some of the aspects of this understanding of the universe, drawn from various sources:
1] The absence of the personal story: in order for magical rites to pass from generation to generation, the sorcerer (shaman) must forget all he learned before his initiation into magic. According to tradition, a man or women who is tied to his past, will in the end allow himself to be governed by his parents' way of thinking, or that of the society in which he lives. This is why all those who are initiated choose a new name and seek to free themselves from their memories, both good and bad.
2] The process of forgetting: in order to abandon the story he lived in, the sorcerer spends months on end remembering in detail each of the events of his life. Some traditions require him to spend hour after hour speaking out loud to a glass filled with water, reciting everything which happened at each meeting with each person; thus, the experience is removed from the memory and enters the water - which is then thrown into a river. In this way, the head is left "empty", and can begin to be filled with new things.
3] Interior silence: once free of his old thoughts, the sorcerer concentrates on his inner silence, and waits for the spirits to begin telling the true story of the Universe. This silence, together with the absence of memories of the past, gives the sorcerer the sensation of total freedom to understand a new world.
4] The web: when he begins understanding his new universe, he enters a sort of trance, and "sees" that everything around us is a giant web of luminous fibers, all linked - in other words, it is a unique object, and part of the same energy. Sometimes, these luminous fibers are condensed in an egg shape, and this means that there is the soul of a human being. (Carlos Castaneda explains this vision very well in his book A Separate Reality).
5] The encounter with power: looking at his own "egg of light", the sorcerer notices a point, which must join with the luminous fibers capable of conducting the energy of power. This energy, although it can be used by the sorcerer, cannot be manipulated - he must know how to gently lead it to his apprenticeship. Approaching this pointing of joining up is the most difficult work during initiation, and requires silence, meditation and perseverance.
6] The negative energy: some of these fibers of light conduct destructive fluid issued by other sorcerers - who seek not knowledge but control over the souls of others.
7] The "disturbance": there is always an event in our lives which is responsible for the fact that we ceased to progress. A trauma, an especially bitter defeat, an amorous disappointment, these all lead us towards a cowardly attitude, and we refuse to go on. The shaman, during the process of forgetting his personal history, must first free himself of this "disturbance point".
According to Mexican sorcerers (and also, curiously, to some Buddhist thinking), death enters through the region of the navel. At this moment, the "egg of light" disintegrates, and the fibers which were there blend with the energy of the universe, until they regroup again in a new form.
If you wish to reproduce this text (or to put a link) in your respective blogs, feel free to do so as long as you mention the author.
| The Magus
The astonishing appeal of Paulo Coelho.
by Dana Goodyear in May 7, 2007
Download the article from here : The Magus
Reflections of the Warrior of the Light
A warrior of the light does not only use his strength; he also uses his opponent's energy.
Upon entering a combat, all he possesses is his enthusiasm, and the moves he learned during training; as the fight progresses, he discovers that his enthusiasm and training are not enough to win: experience is necessary.
So he opens his heart to the Universe, and asks God to inspire him, so that each of the enemy's blows is also a lesson in defense for him.
His companions comment: "see how superstitious he is. He has stopped the fight in order to pray, and respects his adversary's tricks."
The warrior of the light pays these provocations no attention. He knows that without inspiration and experience, none of his training will bear fruit.
(The next text tomorrow)
If you wish to reproduce this text (or to put a link) in your respective blogs, feel free to do so as long as you mention the author.
Conversation with the master - sex (final part)
(continuation of the transcription of notes of my conversations with J., from 1982 to 1990)
- Given that we must change our attitude toward sex, what is the first step?
- As I said: giving oneself up. People think that, before allowing
themselves any pleasure, they must first solve all their problems,
which is not the case. People can only solve their problems if they
allow them to be themselves.
"However, there is a very curious
thing: during the sexual act we are extremely generous, and one's
greater concern is for the partner. We think we will not be able to
give the pleasure he or she deserves - and because of this, our
pleasure also diminishes, or disappears completely."
- Is that not an act of love, like you said?
- That depends. It is really an act of guilt, to believe one is beneath
the expectations of another. In a situation such as this, the word
"expectation" must be completely banished. If we are giving our best,
there is no reason for concern.
"One must be aware that when two
bodies meet, they are together entering an unknown territory. To
transform this into an everyday experience is to lose the wonder of
adventure.
"If, however, one allows oneself to be led on this journey, we will discover horizons we never imagined existed. "
- Is there a key?
- The first is: you are not alone. If the other person loves you, he or
she is having the same doubts, however secure you may seem. "The second
is: open the secret box of your fantasies, and do not be afraid to
accept them. There are no sexual standards, and you must find your own,
respecting only one restriction: never do anything without the other
person's consent.
"The third: give that which is sacred a sense of
sanctity. For this one must be as innocent as a child, and learn to
accept miracles as blessings. Be creative, purify your soul through
rituals you invent yourself - such as creating a sacred space, making
offerings, learning to laugh together, in order to break down the
barriers of inhibition. Understand that what you are doing is a
manifestation of God's energy.
"The fourth: explore your opposite side. If you are a man, seek at times to think and act like a woman - and vice versa.
"The fifth: understand that the physical orgasm is not exactly the only
objective of the sexual act, but a consequence, which may or may not
occur. Pleasure has nothing to do with the orgasm, but with the
encounter.
"The sixth: be like a river, flowing between opposite
banks, such as a mountain and sand. On one side, natural tension, on
the other, total relaxation.
"The seventh: identify your fears, and share them with your partner.
" And, finally, the eighth: allow yourself to have pleasure. Just as
you are anxious to give, the other person wants to do exactly the same.
If, when two bodies meet, both want to give and receive, any problems
vanish.
"Alexander Lowen said that man's natural behavior is open
to life and to love. However, our culture has led us to believe that
this is not so, that we must be closed and mistrustful. We think that
by acting in this way, we will not be hurt by life's surprises - but in
fact what happens is, we are not taking advantage of our lives."
(Next text tomorrow)
If
you wish to reproduce this text (or to put a link) in your respective
blogs, feel free to do so as long as you mention the author.
Conversation with the master - sex
(Here I have transcribed some notes on conversations with J. between 1982 and 1990)
- Why has sex become a taboo?
- Because it is a process of alchemy: it transforms a vast manifestation of spiritual energy, which is love, into a physical gesture.
"It is imposible to understand sex as we see it nowadays - a mere response to a few physical stimuli. In reality, it is far more than that, and carries with it man's and humanity's entire cultural burden. Each time we face a new experience, we bring with us all past experiences - both good and bad - as well as those concepts which civilization has made into rules.
"This is not right, and we must recondition the brain so that each sexual experience is unique, just as each loving experience is unique."
- Very difficult.
- Very. But one must try, because almost all human beings need to keep this energy in movement. So, the first thing one must understand is that it is made up of two extremes, which walk side-by-side during the entire act: relaxation and tension.
"How can one set these opposite states in harmony? There is only one way: through giving oneself completely. How does one give oneself? By forgetting the traumas of the past, and by not forming expectations about the future - in other words, the orgasm. How can one do this? Very simply: by not being afraid to err.
"In reality, what usually happens is that we begin a sexual relationship thinking that everything might go wrong. But even if it did, what importance would that have? One must merely be conscious of the fact that one must give one's best, and any wrongs immediately are put right.
"Once the search for pleasure is being carried out by giving oneself, with sincerity, one senses the body becoming tense, like the string of an archer's bow, while the mind becomes more and more relaxed, like the arrow being made ready to be fired. The brain no longer governs the process, which begins to be guided by the heart. And the heart uses the five senses to show itself to the other.
- The five senses?
- Touch, smell, sight, hearing, taste, all of them are involved. Oddly enough, in most sexual relations, people try using only touch and sight: acting thus, they diminish the fullness of the experience.
- Do both partners need to know all this?
- If one partner gives himself completely, he breaks down the barriers of the other, however strong they may be. Because the act of giving means: "I trust you". The other, who to begin with may feel rather intimidated, wanting to prove things which aren't even under discussion, is unarmed by the spontaneity of such an attitude, and relaxes. At that moment, true sexual energy comes into play.
"And this energy is not only present in those parts we call "erotic". It spreads throughout the entire body, into each strand of hair and expanse of skin. Each millimeter is now shining a different light, which is recognized by the other body, and which combines with the other.
"When this happens, we enter a sort of ancestral ritual, which is an opportunity for transformation. All rituals, in whatever form, demand that one be ready to allow oneself to be led to another perception of the world. It is this will which lends the ritual meaning."
- Isn't all this rather complicated?
- It is far more complicated to have the sex one sees being carried out nowadays, a mere mechanical act, causing tension during the act, and emptiness afterwards. Everything spiritual manifests itself visually, everything which is visual turns into spiritual energy, I don't think this is so difficult to grasp. After all, we are born knowing we have a body and a soul: why not understand that sex also has them?"
(continue tomorrow 1st of May 2007)
If you wish to reproduce this text (or to put a link) in your respective blogs, feel free to do so as long as you mention the author.
The Magus
The astonishing appeal of Paulo Coelho.
LIFE AND LETTERS about Brazilian novelist Paulo Coelho. Paulo Coelho wrote “The Alchemist” in two weeks, in 1987. The book has been translated into fifty-six languages and has sold over twenty million copies. In the upcoming movie version, Lawrence Fishburne will play the alchemist. Coelho’s books include eight novels, two memoirs, several collections of occasional writing, and a book of platitudes. Bellboys, waitresses, and policemen recognize his face. In his writings, Coelho, who is Catholic, presents himself as a searcher and a sage. His cosmology- which includes angels, devils, signs, omens, and a destiny for each person called Personal Legend-promises that whatever is sought can be readily obtained. His special talent seems to be his ability to speak to everyone at once. His plots tend to be allegorical, and Mario Maestri, a Brazilian critic, calls his work “yuppie esoteric narrative.” Coelho, aged fifty-nine, and his wife, Cristina Oiticica, a painter, have no children, but their 25-year-old niece lives with them in their apartment in Paris. Coelho also owns homes in the French Pyrenees and in Rio; he spends a few months of the year in each place, and the rest of his time in transit. In March, he left on a weeklong trip to Italy to promote his most recent novel, “The Witch of Portobello,” to booksellers. The illusion readers have that Coelho is talking directly to and about them is enhanced by the fact that he has often borrowed from their lives for his fiction. Mentions reporter Cristina Lamb. Coelho discussed a Swedish reader with a mysterious illness whom he’ll meet in Milan. “She’s not a stranger,” he said. “She knows my books, she knows my soul.” Mentions his first book, “The Pilgrimage” (1987). Coelho was born in 1947, in Rio. In the late sixties, he drifted away from his family, became a hippie and did lots of drugs. He was influenced by the English occultist Alistair Crowley, and he joined the Alternative Society, a sect that advocated drugs and practiced black magic. He also began writing songs for Raul Seixas, who soon became a star in Brazil. Coelho became famous, working in the music industry, writing TV bio-pics and soap operas, and travelling. In the early 1980s, he and Cristina traveled to Europe, where he met “J.,” a Jewish businessman, who inducted him into something he calls The Order of R.A.M. (Regnum Agnus Mundi). Meeting J. marked Coelho’s return to a self-invented form of Catholicism, with plenty of room for hocus-pocus. Describes Coelho’s stay in Milan and his spontaneous decision to schedule a signing at a Rizzoli bookstore there. The night after the signing in Milan, there was another one in Rome, which was attended by hundreds of people. There were white-haired ladies, businessmen, parents with young teen-agers, etc. “Maestro,” they called him. Whenever Coelho travels, he says a prayer that he’ll meet interesting people. Describes his attendance at a party in Puente de la Reina which featured a ceremony conducted by a witch named Jesus Jato.
Dana Goodyear, "The Magus," The New Yorker, May 7, 2007, p. 38
Friday, Apr 20
You Think Today's New Age Gurus Are Freaky?
 For years, whenever people complain to me that Paulo Coelho is a superstar all over the world but oh-so-sadly underappreciated in the United States, I've told them, "America already has a phony Latino mystic: Carlos Castaneda." Well, in last week's Salon, Robert Marshall decided to dig into the whole crazy saga of "the 20th century's most successful literary trickster," whose books can often be found next to Coelho's on the New Age shelves.
Readers of a certain age will recall The Teachings of Don Juan and A Separate Reality, and how those books and their sequels continued to make a vital contribution to Simon & Schuster's balance sheet even after being fairly well debunked (Nasdijj and James Frey had nothing on this guy!), but had you heard that the day after Castaneda died, four of the women in his inner circle vanished off the face of the earth? And that the skeleton of a fifth—"Patricia Partin, Castaneda's adopted daughter as well as his lover"—was found in Death Valley last year? Wild stuff, the sort of tale from Hollywood's underbelly that would make a great Bruce Wagner novel... if Wagner didn't actually have a small but significant part in the story. I don't know if there's any lessons for contemporary publishers to draw from all this: Dan Brown seems to have done exquisitely well for himself by spinning explicitly fictional webs around his mishmosh of occultism, without having to pretend It's All True. Then again, John Perkins seems to have done a pretty good job transforming himself from a minor New Age shaman-wannabe into a bestselling "economic hit man" by maintaining the same sort of hallucinatory relationship with reality that made Castaneda such a sensation... and then there's all the 2012 hoopla that hasn't even begun to peak yet...
Link : http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/authors/you_think_todays_new_age_gurus_are_freaky_57439.asp?c=rssHuman stains
Paulo Coelho's latest novel, The Witch of Portobello (published this week by HarperCollins) tells the story of Athena, known as a witch because of her apparent prophetic powers. After her dramatic disappearance, those who knew her are left to solve the mystery of her life and abrupt departure. The novel picks up the themes of destiny, freedom and morality familiar to fans of Coelho's work. To accompany its publication, Coelho wrote seven meditations on the definitions of the seven deadly sins, which are published for the first time in English here.
The seven cardinal sins were originally eight, organized at the advent of Christianity by the Greek monk Evágrio do Ponto, and defining humanity's principal negative inclinations. All of them were capable of consigning us to hell. In the 16th century, Pope Gregory made the first changes in the list, including "envy" but merging pride and vanity. In the 17th century the list was rewritten again, and "melancholy" ceased to be a sin, replaced by "sloth". Now we have today's list - lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride - and I will write about each of the sins according to their many definitions."
Link : http://books.guardian.co.uk/extracts/story/0,,2062052,00.html#article_continue
Rules for the signings in US (sent by Harper Collins)
DEAR READER:
Please understand that these rules are set by my publishing house in US, and all of us need to follow:
Barnes and Noble/NYC event:
- Paulo will sign for 280 people who will receive wristbands the day of the event.
- Each person will be required to buy the new book but nobody will be turned away if they don't
- We'll ask the bookstore to send 200 books to hotel for Paulo to sign
- Paulo will personalize 1 book per/person where requested
- This event will begin at 6pm. Paulo will do a 20 min. Q&A with the audience and then sign books. The whole event must end by 9:00pm due to store restrictions.
Borders/D.C.
- Paulo will sign books for 200 people
- Each person will be required to buy the new book but nobody will be turned away if they don't
- Store will deliver 100 copies of book to Paulo's hotel to pre-sign.
Harvard Bookshop/Boston:
- Paulo will sign for 200 people
- Store will send 100-200 to hotel to be pre-signed
Paulo Coelho talks of respect for Islam, passion for Mideast
By Riyasbabu
9 April 2007
DUBAI — The UAE is a great example of a place where different cultures can enjoy a peaceful coexistence, said Paulo Coelho, one of the most influential writers of our time.
Coelho, who is visiting the city for the international release of his latest book, The Witch of Portobello, told Khaleej Times that Dubai had always infused him with a special kind of energy. “The vibrancy of this city amazed me when I visited it last time. But I did not have any plan to include this city in my new book. It just happened!” said the Brazilian author.
“It’s a pleasure to visit Dubai as I have the opportunity to interact with people from across the globe in one place,” he added.
Regarding the ongoing political conflicts in the region, he stressed, “The Iraq invasion cannot be justified. The Western media are trying to exaggerate the situation by running manipulated stories.”
“I have great respect for Islam. That might be a reason for my passion for this region. There is a similarity between Latin America and the Middle East — the people in both regions are hard-working and cheerful,” said Coelho.
Asked about what made him popular, Coelho said, “I don’t follow a formula. I never plan what to write. Creation is a spontaneous process.”
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