Blog? Yes. With Old Man Online and Farfala working behind the scenes

Horácio Guimarães, the Old Man Online, relaxing with Botox, his faithful little dog.

Take off your shoes at the door, but leave your prejudices outside

My name is Horácio Guimarães. I’m 70 years old, with a creaky spine, and I have a dog named Botox who understands more about poetry than many influencers out there.

Here, you won’t find literary theory stuffed with words that feel like back pain. Nor unnecessary praise for authors who wrote a lot, said little, and still won awards. There’s no room here for those who think reading is an elite sport or that youth has ruined literature with emojis.

This is a space for those who read with their guts. For those who have cried over Dostoevsky or laughed in the middle of a Kafka sentence without knowing why. For those who have regretted a love and used a book as a crutch. For those who are lost, but get lost beautifully.

The texts here are short. Because time is short. But thought is not. Sometimes you’ll find my friend Anselmo here — a brilliant hermit who writes but never publishes anything he writes. Sometimes my daughter Bianca appears, who inherited a love of literature, or my son Gabriel, who carries pain in his pocket like an old ticket.

And, of course, there’s Farfala, a social insect who flies between lucidity and madness, commenting on this world with the lightness of someone who doesn’t have to pay taxes. And if a text bothers you, excellent. Perhaps you’re ready to read the next one.