Superclass
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{ 42 comments… read them below or add one }
This book caught me off guard so to speak.. I knew to expect a rather different book from the previous ones. The winner Stands Alone, shook me very much. I recently moved to south of France (a year ago) and i this book arrived in the stores around the same time. As i work in Monaco, which is much like Cannes, but all year around not only for a festival, i have to thank the timing your book had in being published! It opened my eyes to where i had arrived and i spent my first year here not working, simply observing people and their lives. And oh is the Super-class lonely and unhappy! The younger ones of them still manage to surround themselves with the hope and believe in their own greatness (their egos) and aduse their power in simply not regarding any other classes of people as worthy of being in this city. The older members of this exclussive class are downright evil. Not all of course, some have a different life story that they have probably learned from rahter than thinking it is all because of their own greatness.
But a great deal of these people are extremely bitter of the freedom and smile i can have. As i work in a place where the anonymos superclass stays during their visit, i sometimes get to feel this hate first hand. There is no need to do or say anything wrong, they simply hate the energy i have, and they really seem to want to take their power and prove how disposable i am to them. This does not work, because i refuse to step to the dark side which is what they try to achieve.
I’d like to add another of my observations here in the “mecca” of the superclass: The normal people are affected by this. No where else during my travels have i come across so much envy, hatred and downright desire to be mean to others as here; by the normal people here. Maybe the years of treatment by the superclass and the closeness of it has affected the people here; i dont know, but certainly there is a change in the air here that is not for the better and which i didnt see in my home country of Finland yet.
Hello Paulo,
Have you ever been in China at the near time? I think China what need a portion of your views and values. Here you can see the perfect example of a superclass thinking.
Money is a dead thing. If you pursuit the death, what will happen to your Soul. I think the Soul will freeze and it will feel coldness. In the modern society, we forgot about the existince of the Soul. Everything Celebs and rich people are proud to posses, are dead things, made by human hands and not by the hand of god (nature or cosmos or whatever you might call it). We need more sun light, more warmth.
Superclass…
I thing the word says it all. Every human being can easily be carried away by all these lights, the world of fame, the red carpet. Of course, when in our childhood all the little girls (well, almost all) were dreaming to be princesses how hard is it to lose yourself when a whole new world opens before your eyes?
I believe that what is needed to resist all these temptations is being aware of yourself, staying faithful to your values and have real friends who will point you where you are wrong.
Staying with your feet on the ground without stop dreaming is what’s best.
Mr. Coelho to be tottaly honest with you i didn’t read the book beacuse it is not available in our libraries in Algerai !
but i would love to share something with you and with all the other readers , we can not generate that all rich people are unhappy and miserable .
we can find happy , honset , joyful rich people
***
i’ll do my best to read the book
The way you have explained the behaviour and insecurities of superclass makes me thing they are more vulnerable and unhappy people.
I always used to think they are the people with all the blessings and comfort but the novel had made me review my thoughts and now can see their fears
Querido Paulo, me pregunto y te pregunto como has hecho para resistir tanto tiempo la tentacion de pertenecer a la “SuperClass”? ya que con seguridad muchos intentan envolverte en ese mundo, ademas de que eres humano por sobretodas las cosas.
En mi humilde opinion creo que es mas facil para personas como yo del corriente resistirse a pertenecer a ser superclass que para ti que has alcanzado tanta fama. Te felicito de todo corazon por tanta lucha y te agradesco por compartir todos tus escritos.
BESOS.
Namaste Sr. Coelho,
The idea of a superclass is media driven, although there has always been a segment of society which pretends superiority, usually based upon economic standards of living. People are people. All are One in the Eyes of God. Those who pretend otherwise live in an illusion… which is the basis for this book, it seems. Finding truth was difficult in this book… it was interwoven however with the illusions, but more like a spirit haunting the work. I don’t understand the lifestyle, but I saw it enough in my youth to recognize it for what it was. It seemed based upon mass insecurity to me. This book did not alter my opinion in the slightest.
Love to you
Dear Paulo,
I read the first few chapters, with great strain. But then the tide took over me.
Can you please give me your views on – GLOBAL WARMING
QUOTE:
How can we be so arrogant? The Planet is and was always stronger than us. We can’t destroy it; If we overstep the mark, the planet will simply erase us from the surface and carry on existing. Why not they start talking about not letting the planet destroy us?
The “luxuries” of life have become so commonplace in everyday culture, at least in the US. In my 32 years on this planet, I’ve watched the collective desires of the general population grow exponentially. Standard countertops have gone from laminate to granite. Hip hop artists used to talk about Guess as a hot brand, but today it’s nothing less than the unreachable, couture brands that even a Corporate Automaton like myself can’t afford. To live the life of those portrayed in my popular media is unreachable to 99.9% of the planet. It’s not the Superclass at fault…the the moral and spiritual emptiness that has ensued our modern culture. The innate longing and suffering of humans has been exacerbated by the exponential growth in information and media. Everyone, Superclass and non-Superclass, needs to take a deep breath and refocus on what is real.
Arrghhh..1984. I had such a hard time getting through that book in English Lit!
Anyway, what I find interesting in these threads is how easy it is to vilify one “class” over another. Didn’t someone have to view this class as the super at one moment in time for them to be so?
Let me explain…I’m mixing real-world truth with the book a bit here. In the book, we see average people gain elite status and the moral and psychological twists that ensue. We get a media-fed version of this, yes, which IS quite disturbing, but could there not be an up-side in a real-world application? Are all the “superclass” lonely, morally abject, materially fascist individuals? In my world-view they are not…and to vilify them in sweeping generalizations in real world application doesn’t add to the love and harmony I hope to see come out of some of the crisis we face as humanity.
Winston Churchill, Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Eleanor Roosevelt are a few of my favorite 20th Century leaders.
But even the most peace-loving and well-intentioned people are human…in an effort to stop MLK the FBI had tapes of an affair he had that they were going to make public to try to force him to stop marching. He, of course as we know now, confessed to his wife and continued fighting and loving despite all the hatred and wouldn’t be stopped over protecting his pride. This cemented my respect for him…because he was human, was honest, and he kept moving forward anyways.
Revealing the moral corruption the way Paulo did, layer by layer, in the Winner Stands Alone, was very telling. The influences of the characters lives and their respective climbs in power also showed how easy it was for each to have the fate they befell. This book was so fitting for the times, and so divinely inspired as it was written before the economic collapse. I supremely hope we walk away with love in our hearts on how to move forward versus anger on how we got here.
In peace,
Scarlett
“A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave.”
-Mohandas Gandhi
Dear Scarlett,
very subtil and just interpretation of the book. Indeed, I wasn’t condemning all of the people who belong to the super class – I was rather trying to uncover how power can drive people further in the manipulation and twisting of reality.
Having said this : I completely agree with you that there’s a higher form of power – one that is granted by authority and does not rest in manipulation.
Much love
Paulo
Big Brother is always watching you. Just go down the supermarket and hand over your credit card and they have a pattern of what you are buying how much money you are spending a week ,same with banks, etc.
Superclass reminds me 1984 ,a novel by English auther George Orwell.
BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU!
Big brother is the Party Leader.Now,after Collapse of Soviet Union & The Berlin Wall , feature of Big Brother has changed to the another powerful & rich symbol in this book: Superclass.
p.s. you mentioned that people didn’t know you were writing this book since you don’t share what the new book will be until it is written – did you already know that you were going to write about this subject, then start to do the research? or was this book born out of experiencing certain things, then deciding you wanted to write about it and do further research? thank you :)
Dear Youri,
I’m glad you are not Igor!
But putting all jokes aside – I let myself be guided by life. I live moments and if they build up and turn into a novel – it’s the hand of destiny, not mine.
Love
Paulo
Hello Paulo, here is Gabriel from Hungary. Your book is excellent. What I read it’s what I feel inside and now you have wrote this words into your book. Really thank you. Also the questions: “what is normal?” LOL, but it’s true. Go to work and stay there 8-10 hours… it’s not normal.
Back to Superclass. I hate Superclass. I have dreams, but I think somebody not need to be famous and rich. We can reach our goals and dreams without these manipulations and tactics. Superclass is existing, they play their games.
Anyway thanks Paulo for your words :-)
Dear Gabriel,
part of the manipulation rests on hatred. Go beyond this feeling and forge your path.
Love
Paulo
winner was personally an interesting read for me for a number of reasons. it was darker – i didn’t like the way it made me feel when i finished it – the emotions and memories it stirred up, the feelings of loneliness and hopelessness, the fumes of so much desperation. this current obsessive celebrity/fame/fortune culture is not only corruptive, but also corroding to the soul, and i felt all that emanate off the pages as i ingested the words…
i am un/fortunately intimate with this strange world of the “superclass” and the appeal it gives off. i am simultaneously repelled and made to feel dirty by the lack of sincerity of this world, yet also grateful for my knowledge and experience of it. the perspective allows me to know both sides of the double-edged sword. for me, there is no anchor, no center for a soul to find residence in because all the “glitter” is a never-ending mirage. i feel like a balloon floating in the air at the mercy of the wind whenever i’m in that scene.
society as a whole strives for the chase of fame/power/money but from what i’ve experienced, it’s very lonely and isolating at the top. the magic and beauty of life is gone and so is the trust, true loyalty and chances for love.
rediscovering truth and love as an artist makes me feel the most grounded and in touch with my faith. i don’t believe that God created us to be so independent and alone as i find the superclass. the joy disappears without the contact with struggle, with humanity. the dirt, the earth, feels good to the touch.
thank you for your deeply felt observations through your story-telling paulo. and thank you for the impact you’ve had on my life personally – the alchemist set my life and my soul off in a completely different direction – i relearned what faith REALLY means, and the oneness and love of this universe and lifetime.
obrigado.. (i think that is how you say it in your language, yes?)
I think the Superclass are a legend in their lunch-box (as we say here in Australia). Yes, it is a very big lunch-box, but eventually they all get eaten up and leave very little mark on the world. The truly wise and powerful men and women of the world change the way we live and think and their names remain in our consciousness for milennia.
They believe they are the world, the Wonderland. But sooner or later they realize that they have nothing more to do. I touch the subject when Gabriela goes to the party, at the end of the book, and is waiting in a bar at the hotel
The Superclass are just too involved with themselves to see the wonderful world around them.
-papparazzi might make a bit of money.When you compare the exhorbiting price a movie star is paid it is only a fickle.
Why can’t we use that money to feed our children and educate them with good facilities and top teachers instead Paulo?
Does not make any sense to me again.
Love
Marie-Christine,
Yes movie stars make a lot of money, when they are successful. But it is a fickle business, they may fall out of favour quickly.
Many would say that a successful actor is an actor who is working!
And of course with fame comes a total lack of privacy!
Not many actors would want to carry on if not for the money reward.(As much as they love their art).
Journalists have got to make a living too and they’ll never be as wealthy as an successful actor. However their writing can upset someone else’s career. They have the might of the pen!
I agree that money should be used to educate children. But there are actors who sponsor education, after school clubs and the likes.
In every walk of life there are people who care whether they are teachers, doctors, writers and even actors.
Amitiés,
Anne-Claude
Anne Claude
Thank you, that’s nice.
Amities pour vous aussi.
Are the superclass people who have lots of money who can pull strings if they so wish, but who are not amongst the scintillating well-known celebrities.
Now the celebrities are made of a various kind of people: some very talented in their works and some just happening to be associated with the talented by birth, family connection, friendship etc….
What we mustn’t forget is that everyone and each is a real human being with real feelings and real life. ( Except in paulo’s novel)
That’s why it is shameful when some magazine rants about some celebrities, about some not really significant event, about what they did and said.
Maybe behind the magazines there are some superclass people pulling the strings to make and unmake celebrities’s fame!
Or hopefully maybe not. Just some papparazzi wanting to make some money and become a part of that glittering world and fame for an while.
superclass ?
they themselves call themselves superclass or they are superclass, yes their problems are not same as those of an average joe, but then everyone’s problems are diffrent. it’s a giantic web, where one gets enmeshed.
only those of teh superclass who can leave it all without an iota of remorse are truly the superclass, people who are not controlled by their status.
superclass is superprisoneres of their own device ! mostly.
love
aditya
Who is who of the powerful?
Like everywhere and in everything there are people who are good and other whose power goes to their heads.
A powerful person to me is someone who has the knowledge and uses it for the betterment of the humankind, to me this is real power.
I believe this is cleverly done by Paulo by informing us of what is going on.
Is not that power within our reach too, Paulo?
Dear Marie Christine,
of course. True power, in my eyes, rests in persuading others to do something – in total consciousness.
For me the most powerful men of the XXth century were Madela, Gandhi and Martin Luther King – they managed to mold their times without ever recurring to fear or oppression.
Their authority was spontaneous because they represented the possibilities of freedom in their societies.
You all are novelists of some sort, but Paulo is the only one who made it sell… for that I take his word.
Much Love for you Paulo Coelho
Your friend Paulina
Well, the Superclass are those who are overly concerned with their appearance, their clothes, their shoes, the bling bling, the cigars, the attitudes. The mask to their shell, what they exhibit.
Although Paulo Coelho mingles with this crowd because of his status, I would not categorize him in the Superclass but rather the Powerful.
Of course even the Powerful are vein, but their concerns and interests differ from the Superclass.
As the book states, the Superclass is mostly composed of anonymous but powerful people. Anything can be suffocating – the problem with the Superclass is mostly the loneliness. That said, you are right, I am in the same “field”. But being a writer, this is quite abstract, and so far I could live my life the way a choosed. I am not saying that one day I will not fall into temptation, I am saying that I am resisting it so far.
Querido Paulo,
No he podido leer todavia este libro ya q estoy en los EU y quiero leerlo en espan~ol o portugues – aprendi portugues para pertenecer mas y mas a la superclase en los ’70 ya q tenia un trabajo muy glamoroso con una institucion internacional, viajaba mucho, y uno de los paises mas importantes para trabajar tanto en reuniones de trabajo y de conferencias era Brasil, conoci mucha gente importante en el mundo entero, hasta puedo decir humildemente q muchas/os envidiaban hasta cierto punto mi posicion. Pero luego de varios an~os en ese suen~o practicamente realizado me di cuenta de q realmente no era lo q yo queria, lo q necesitaba. Renuncie a mi trabajo irrevocablemente y me tome un sabatico ya q estaba extenuada mental y fisicamente a los 28 anhos. Para acabar esta parte, ya me habia hecho adicta al trabajo y desde ahi en adelante hacia lo mismo. Conseguia llegar a los puestos mas altos, de autoridad, de influencia, y luego tenia q renunciar ya q me agobiaba tanta “belleza y poder “. Hasta el anho pasado q me jubile permanentemente (por ahora jaja) me di cuenta de q yo misma me boicoteaba ya q TODO EN MI MUNDO ERA PERFECTO SIEMPRE, PERO MENOS PARA MI.
Un abrazo fuerte, soy gran admiradora de muchos paisanos tuyos, como Vinicius, Drummond de Andrade; Roberto Carlos y Chico Buarque a quienes vi personalmente muchas veces, y muchos otros.
Esperando reanudar en julio el dialogo ya q si tengo conmigo La Bruja de Portobelo y podre participar en los conversatorios. Gracias mil por permitirnos tener acceso a ti, de esta forma tan sencilla y humilde.
Margarida
Be a worrior of light.. :) Please!!!! :)… Never give up temptations!!!…I am sure you will not!…it was just a thought(kind of a joke too..)…Love to you, Gabriela Romaria
I wonder how, when success comes calling.. that you, Paulo Coelho, become used to being in the ‘field’ of the superclass?!
;o)
Is it easy to live without suffocating or whatever.
Demons______________
Dear Paulo,
they were the “quiet achievers’ no?
Love
Anne-Claude,
Thank you for that.
I do agree that there are people who care whether they are teachers, doctors, writers and even actors.Thanks God for that.
However,and it is only my opinion, this does not justify such a high salary being given to an actor to the detriment of a teacher.
What makes them better than a teacher?
There are only a handful of actors and honestly, I believe that this should be shared more evenly, to give access to all the other actors around the world that are so so talented, sometimes more talented than the one that are being imposed on us.
Love,
Marie-Christine
Yes, you are right!
Amitiés
Dear Paulo,
Well said…
A writer does not merely know if his art or work will end up into a creation or into the bin.
Two wisemen. Paulo and Santosh -
Santosh, good luck with all your books. At this rate, you’ll have to open a Library…for archives.
Love
Marie-Christine
:)
So true, Santosh! And even those pieces tossed into the rubbish bin, they have their reason for coming into being, even if their existence is fleeting. Even those things that we never deem worthy of being shared, those bits we delete or send to the trash, they change us when we are writing them. I think that all art, in potential, has that effect. It isn’t just something to polish and broadcast to the masses – art changes the artist in the process of its creation. That’s why its so addictive: that element of growth – we crave that and that is, in part, what pushes us to create. So, even what we throw away has value. Once we toss it, we may forget about it on a conscious level, but still it has changed us on some deeper level.