travelswithalice

January 06, 2017

The writing life: Neruda's houses

La Sebastiana was Pablo Neruda's house in Valparaíso. The entire structure suggests how the writer/poet/diplomat/politician/dissident/national treasure reportedly lived.

There's s metal chaise longue in the garden that suggests the lifestyle.

For Neruda, writing was his job. He worked on it according to a set routine.

In the morning, after breakfast, he read and did his correspondence. At lunchtime, friends came to join him for a meal. He hated to eat alone. After lunch, he went to his study and wrote for two hours. Afterwards, he went to his bedroom and slept for several hours. In the evening, friends came to join him for cocktails, which he loved to mix himself, and then dinner.

He enjoyed looking out to the ocean, from many vantage points in the multilevel house, but most especially sitting on "The Cloud," his nickname for his favorite leather chair.

Neruda: "The Pacific Ocean overflowed the map. There was no place to put it. It was so big, unruly and blue that it fitted nowhere. That's why they left it in front of my window."

It's a lifestyle I wouldn't find hard to get accustomed to myself.

La Chascona in Santiago, the second of three of the poet's houses, was built for his then secret lover and future third wife, Matilde. Its recurring design motif is a woman's head with wild flowing hair. Chascona means disheveled or ruffled. Matilde's wild mane of long curly red hair was said to have prompted Neruda to sometimes call her Medusa.

Like it's name suggests, this home is quirky, disorganized, and unmanageable. It's suggestive of carefree abandon and utter disregard for rules governing both interior design and social behavior. It was a love nest, a hideaway; private and personal.

Labels: Chascona, Neruda, Sebastiana

posted by Alice Dimalanta Jones # January 06, 2017

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