Themes, themes, themes :)

Because what I think doesnt match with what the author thinks (which kind of sucks, right), I am going to use a quote I have already used once. When Mr. Coelho was asked what the main themes are, he answered “We live in a world of standardised behaviour, standardised beauty, quality, intelligence, efficiency. We believe there is a standard for everything, and we believe, too, that if we stick to that standard we’ll be safe. Because of this, we have created a kind of ‘standardised sex’, which, in fact, consists of nothing but a string of lies: vaginal orgasm, virility above all else, that it's better to pretend than to disappoint your partner, etc. As a direct consequence of this, millions of people have been left feeling frustrated, unhappy and guilty. It also lies at the root of all kinds of aberrant behaviour, for example, paedophilia, incest and rape. Why do we behave in this way with something that is so important?”

Okay. In my opinion there are three main themes -sex,  dreams versus adventures and the, so called, ‘inner light’.

The sex theme is very clear, I suppose, since it is a story about a prostitute and Mr. Coelho describe her sexual practices and experiences in detail. The book describes what sex really is, what is bring to us and how to do it (yes, I am serious). In my opinion it also shows how it is misused – prostitution. For example when Marias client beats her up and she is still happy for the money she gets for sleeping with him because then she can send it to her poor parents in Brazil. It shows good and bad sides of sex. Actually, when I think about it, it only shows the good ones, but to me some of them seem bad…. Well, I guess every reader has to decide it themselves.

In the book there are also a few situations where the protagonist has to choose either to get what she dreams of to get in her life or do something crazy just for experience, money, change…. This one is a good example. In the beginning of the book Maria is a young girl who keeps waiting for her ‘Prince Charming’ who would come and take her to his big house and they would have kids together and all those things attached to a loving couple. After some time she gets disappointed because there is still no one there for her like this and she decides to go to Europe. She still hopes to fall in love inside her heart, but instead she chooses to work as a prostitute. Why? Maybe experience, money, adventure, excitement….

The book also concentrates on something that Paulo Coelho calls the ‘inner light’. According to the author it is something everyone has inside. We cannot define, nor see it. You just feel it. For example the inner light is the reason people fall in love. It doesn’t matter if you fall in love for the first sight or after ten years knowing each other. It is just something that attracts you to a person for no explainable reason. I think we all know this feeling, but the author has written it down J

Why 11 minutes?

Some of you may wonder why the book is called Eleven Minutes.... According to the protagonist, Maria, 11 minutes is the ideal duration of sex.... Just wanted to make it clear to you :)

Good night :)

http://ibrahim0116.deviantart.com/art/Kissing-Couple03-103270370

Critical moments in the book

Hey guys, today Im going to tell you about all the moments in the book that influenced the plot somehow. WARNING FOR THE ONES WHO HAVENT READ IT YET BUT WANT TO READ IT: If you read this post, you will know how it is going to end up, therefore it is not that interesting anymore.

So, chronologically.....

First of all Maria gets bored of her life in a teeny-tiny village in Brazil and so she makes an appointment with an European business representative in Rio de Janeiro. The agent likes her and gives her an oppurtunity to be a samba dancer in Geneva. So we move on to the point when she finally lives in Geneva.

While being a samba dancer she talks to her boss and Vivian, a cold Swiss woman, and those two  introduce her to Rue de Bern - a Swiss street in the red district of Geneva. Maria realizes how much more money she could be earning and quits her job. She becomes a high-class prostitute in a Copacabana bar. She gets absolutely devoted to sex with strangers and just enjoys her life and does what she likes - reads books, writes in her diary and works in the bar. She is much better than the other prostitutes, because she is extremely beautiful (something like the girl in my post called Characters) and she does not only please her clients physically, but she is also kind of therapist, she talks to them about their problems and helps them solve it. This all makes her really popular and wanted. She is happy, but deep inside her heart there is a tiny little hope for a true love.

One day Maria goes to a café and meets Ralf Hart, a Swiss artist, and they fall in love. He can see her 'inner light', as Paulo Coelho calls it, and she can see his too. They hang out together a few times and also spend a night together. Even though their relationship is the most amazing thing I have ever read about, Maria decides to leave Geneva and forget about this adventure (I wanna slap her in this part).  She goes back to Brazil.

This book is totally awesome, because there are many turning points and one can never predict what the next page is going to bring. So! One of those turning points is when Maria goes back to Brazil. Let’s go back to the night before she left. Ralf came to her house and they had amazing time – no need to tell you the detailsJ.  The second day she goes to Paris just to hang around the city for one day and then she is planning to take the plane to Rio de Janeiro.  Yes, I said she is planning to. It doesn’t work out though. When she arrives to Paris there is someone she loves waiting for her at the airport asking her to come back to Geneva. But before they go to see the Eiffel tower J.

These are the moments influence the plot of the book the most - at least according to what I think haha.

How is the book interconnected with today’s society?

Paulo Coelho does not mention what time period it takes place in. Anyways, when I read the book I imagine it to be happening in the end of the 1980’s. The story is quite contemporary though.

Why do I think the story is contemporary? Let me copy a small part of an interview with Paulo Coelho. He describes the main thought of the book. After you have read that, you all will agree with the story being contemporary.

“What is the central idea in Eleven Minutes?”

“We live in a world of standardised behaviour, standardised beauty, quality, intelligence, efficiency. We believe there is a standard for everything, and we believe, too, that if we stick to that standard we’ll be safe. Because of this, we have created a kind of ‘standardised sex’, which, in fact, consists of nothing but a string of lies: vaginal orgasm, virility above all else, that it's better to pretend than to disappoint your partner, etc. As a direct consequence of this, millions of people have been left feeling frustrated, unhappy and guilty. It also lies at the root of all kinds of aberrant behaviour, for example, paedophilia, incest and rape. Why do we behave in this way with something that is so important?”

/the text above was copied from http://www.harpercollins.com/author/microsite/readingguide.aspx?authorID=1858&isbn13=9780060589271&displayType=bookinterview/ /

The theme of the book – sex and prostitution - is just a metaphor for people’s prejudices, standards and daily routine.  The people look at you badly and don’t forget to judge you every single day if you differ a bit. Inside of them they dream about being different too, but they would never ever admit it. This is exactly the way it works in today’s society, therefore the book relates a lot to today’s world.

Characters

Each character will be posted with a picture of how I imagine them to look like :)

Maria, the protagonist, is the main character. She is a young Brazilian girl bored of living in the middle of nowhere in western Brazil. She keeps waiting for her “prince” to come to the village and take her away. She wants to truly love a guy and wants the love back from him, raise a few kids and live an ordinary life. By the years of waiting her opinion about love and guys generally gets bitter and she decides to go to Switzerland.  In Switzerland she becomes a high class prostitute, but then she falls in love……..  Maria is an especially beautiful, confident, adaptable, passionate feminist.

One of Maria’s beautiful quotes in the book. “At every moment of our lives we all have one foot in a fairy tale and the other in the abyss.” Paulo Coelho.

Heidi, the librarian, looks like a quite girl, but she is the one Maria comes to talk about sex to. She is not shy to ask or answer to Maria’s questions and they talk about sex in metaphors, so the people around don’t get it. They meet pretty often, since Maria is a voracious reader.

Nyah is a prostitute from the Philippines. When Maria starts working in Copacabana (the brothel/bar) she is the only one talking to her and giving her advice about how to treat the men and how to behave while being in Copacabana. She is Maria’s only friend, because the other girls are jealous of Marias physical perfection.  She is the one that helps Maria keep the job and become really good at it.

While living in Geneva Maria meets Ralf Hart, a painter, in a café. He is a nice, good-looking, smart, funny, sensitive 29-years old guy.  He was divorced twice, but now, that he met Maria he believes that his love-life can be great again. Maria meeting Ralf causes a critical change in the whole plot and Maria’s dream about true love comes true.

There are, of course more characters in the book, but these are the ones influencing the book somehow and I don’t consider the others very important.

Introduction

Nine years ago a very distinguished Brazilian author, Paulo Coelho, published a great story called Eleven Minutes. No wonder this book was translated into more than forty languages – even me, a person disgusted by reading, came back to this book three times and enjoyed it a lot. Coelho’s style of writing is very philosophical and it makes the reader think a lot. Therefore it is very likely to find something new we haven’t noticed before every single time reading it over again.

The book introduces us to a story about a girl from Brazil, Maria, who is bored with her ordinary life in a country she’s always lived in, so she decides to find her fortune in Switerland. For now, I am not going to say more, since the story is very interesting and there are many unexpected extracts in the book.  

Problem!

Hello, I have no idea whats going on or what book I should choose, so I cant really write anything and I am waiting for you to come and help me haha.... Enjoy your stay in Romania :)