Eduardo Lourenço: a «coincidência dos opostos» e a «figura» do oxímoro

O Esplendor do Caos is a paradigmatical book of Eduardo Lourenço that proposes us, right from the title, the expression of a dialectical thought. However, it does not propose us a dialogue between successive forms of orthodoxy and heterodoxy, thesis and antithesis, rule and transgression: rather the permanente and necessary tension between Chaos and Order, the author seems to value both the Splendor of Chaos and the Proportion of Order. It brings together essays scattered over almost a decade (like Ocasionais, in 1984, or Destroços, in 2004), but there’s little that’s occasional or scattered about it. It was published in 1998, 500 years after Vasco da Gama’s arrival in India. And yet we seem to be proposing an aimless journey as a model, an adventure with no origin other than the inorganic itself, even if the purpose is the imperium. Is Chaos still a place of creation? What is the Splendor of Chaos? Mere juxtaposition? Significant chance? Perhaps Eduardo Lourenço disturbs us because of this amplified oxymoron.