Wikipedia:Peer review/Mário de Andrade/archive1

Mário de Andrade
This article is about the founder of Brazilian modernist literature, probably second only to Carlos Drummond de Andrade in literary reputation within Brazil. I'd be grateful for any feedback about this article, which I plan to nominate at FAC. The lead has been difficult to write without overstating the case, since Andrade was something of a polymath and very influential in a number of fields. Please note that my Portuguese is somewhere between awful and nonexistent (I know Mário de Andrade's work in translation), so there are some things I would love to be able to add but can't. Any help at all would be appreciated. Thanks. Chick Bowen 20:45, 15 October 2005 (UTC)
 * A couple of initial observations. 1) the lead could bear expanding to give something more of a summary of his career ans 2) I doubt if any of the images qualify under fair use as they are not really being discussed. It's a real problem trying to find images of 20th century writers, as I know well. Filiocht | The kettle's on 07:25, 18 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Both good points. Fair use: I'm certain that some of them are OK, particularly the poster, which I think is actually PD--the first one is probably the most dubious--but I'm checking up on it.  You're right about the lead; I'll work on it tonight.  Thanks.
 * Couple of minor things: (1) I'd like to see the parallel Portuguese-language text of the quoted lines of verse. (2) The  Department of Culture of São Paulo -- presumably that's SP state's cultural agency/council. Could we get a gloss on exactly what it is and (perhaps) include the Portuguese name?  (3) The article reads well, but ends very abruptly with a heart attack in the midst of a paragraph about critical reaction to his last work. Has the "Meditação..." been translated? Was it a posthumous publication (I can't see in in the list of major works)? If not, how soon before his death? And what on Earth is the tietê he's meditating on -- Tanagra pectoralis, some sort of tropical bird, says my Port. dictionary. Is the title of relevance to the work? Can a summary be offered, or is the poem too "meaningless"? In other words, some expansion on this last work, with a view to putting the heart attack in its own paragraph. Hope this helps; all standard disclaimers apply. –Hajor 14:28, 18 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Thank you for all of these--these are great, very useful. (1) Easy enough, will do tonight. (2) Departamento de Cultura e Recreação da Prefeitura Municipal de São Paulo, in full (so the city rather than the state).  It no longer exists.  I'll put in what little I know. (3).  The Tietê River, presumably (named after the bird? Mário would know and care).  There's no translation, sadly, which puts me rather at a loss, since my Portuguese is at nursery-rhyme-level if that, and the "Meditação" is an extraordinarily difficult poem.  But yes, I'll put in publication history, etc., and I can flesh out why critics think it matters, even if I don't have personal knowledge.  Thanks again. Chick Bowen 15:56, 18 October 2005 (UTC)
 * I found a flag for the town of Tietê, SP, which has the bird on it: . Interesting.  Chick Bowen 15:56, 18 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Interesting, but it's obvious that you're right with the river. Err.. and as the poem says, "Água do meu Tietê, / Onde me queres levar? / - Rio que entras pela terra / E que me afastas do mar." Learn something new every day with Wikipedia. –Hajor 16:47, 18 October 2005 (UTC)
 * I'm having some trouble determining when "Meditação" was first published. Neither of the collections published in 1945 and 1946 are available in any library I could reasonably drive to.  It was definitely published in the Poesías Completas in 1955.  Hmm.  More soon on this.  Chick Bowen 00:30, 19 October 2005 (UTC)

Summary of what I've done since these comments were posted:
 * Lead expanded
 * All images retagged, with the assistance and comments of Justinc, who is good at this sort of thing. His thoughts can be found at my talk page:
 * Segall painting asserted as fair use on the grounds of the artist's importance in Andrade's avant-garde circle, which is now discussed in the caption in the article. I'm looking for information about the circumstances of the painting itself, and will add that to the article if I can find it.
 * Poster from the Semana de Arte Moderna is considered public domain in the US since it's from before 1923.
 * Self-portrait is asserted to be fair use as important evidence of Andrade's role as a photographer; there is now a discussion of that role in the section titled Macunaíma.
 * Currency is no longer in use and should be all right. We're checking up on that.
 * Parallel Portuguese text is now included.
 * Last section is expanded to discuss in more detail Department of Culture and "Meditação."

Thanks again for the very useful comments; I think the article is much improved. Chick Bowen 23:08, 19 October 2005 (UTC)