A Second Beginning: Welcome!
My Medium account will be used exclusively to share excerpts and my attempts at literature
For those who do not know me yet, my name is Mateus Martins Bruno. I am a PhD student in the History of Economic Thought at UFMG (Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil), at least for now, as I am still waiting for the results of my scholarship applications for PhD programmes in the United Kingdom. Though trained in Economics, my Master’s at University College Dublin were dedicated to Political Theory, and no disciplinary boundaries limit my intellectual adventures. I know, maybe this is problematic, as instead of knowing ‘one big thing’, I am constantly threatened by the fear of fragmenting too much my knowledge and interests. But somehow, I just trust too much the invisible hand of Love: as all of my inquiries are pushed by the same driving force, I hope someday syntheses will start to fall like dominoes from my mind to the keyboard.
For now, I am just an intellectual and emotional mess like Eugène Delacroix’ Unmade Bed (1828):
A mess, nevertheless, is no chaos; a mess still has reasons that hold it together. Still, my goal here is to get back on my feet after years feeling too insecure to write. If this second beginning will seem, at first, characteristically raw, I hope this trait changes in a few months. I aim to be able to write sermons - however unhinged they might be - of both a secular and a religious vein. The reason is precisely because it’s been some time now that I want to reclaim both from the pulpit, the stage and the platform the privileged right to move people for external causes. Rather, I hope hereby to practice - don’t get fooled, dear reader, this is a decades-long project for the future! - to move people from within, so that they cultivate this beautiful part of our soul that we call a conscience.
For this, I may venture into different styles, subjects and languages even! I can’t promise to be entirely coherent, but I can promise to try; I can’t promise to be entirely charitable all the time, but I can promise to try; I can’t promise to always write in the humble and welcoming tone I so much appreciate, because both excessive humility and excessive self-preservation (if both are, indeed, reconcilable) have been at the root of my lack of creativity for too long… But I hope to bring every week fascinating bits of intellectual history, philosophical problems, book and cinema reviews, critical analyses and inspiring exhortations that may serve as tools for you to rethink yourself and your surroundings, as wood for your vital fire, or - I hope not but who knows! - disappointment with my views.
In any way, this initiative (a diary, newsletter, blog, or a record? - I really don’t know what to call it anymore) is complemented by to two side projects, the Synesis: History of Ideas Podcast! and the ZH magazine (I will reveal its name when its legally validated) which will be out there very soon. I hope you enjoy it. Thank you for all those who financially contribute with these projects; I know that these are delicate times for young scholars, and though my current income is flickering, my gratitude is steady as don’t demand anything from anyone.
My best regards,
Mateus