En el vasto archipiélago de la literatura del siglo XX, pocos autores consiguieron cartografiar la alienación contemporánea con la precisión quirúrgica de Fernando Pessoa. Entre la marea de fragmentos que componen su obra cumbre, Libro del desasosiego, late una advertencia que funciona como el núcleo ético y estético de su pensamiento: “Sentir hoy lo mismo que ayer no es sentir —es recordar hoy lo que ayer se sintió, ser hoy el cadáver vivo de lo que ayer fue vida perdida”.

Lejos de ser un mero aforismo melancólico, esta frase condensa la violenta lucidez de un escritor que se negó a habitar una identidad fija. Para Pessoa, el verdadero peligro de la existencia no reside en el sufrimiento o en la vacuidad, sino en la automatización del alma. Replicar una emoción pasada por pura inercia es montar un museo de nostalgias, transformarse en el propio sepulturero de la experiencia. Para entender dónde nace esta premisa, es necesario viajar a la Lisboa de las primeras décadas del siglo pasado.

Fernando Pessoa llevó una doble vida impecable: de día, un gris empleado de comercio que redactaba cartas comerciales en inglés y francés; de noche, un demiurgo que alteraba el rumbo de la literatura universal desde la soledad de su habitación alquilada. Tras su muerte en 1935, se halló un baúl de madera con más de 25.000 fragmentos inéditos. De ese caos manuscrito brotó, de manera póstuma en 1982, el Libro del desasosiego, un híbrido de prosa poética, divagaciones metafísicas y crónicas urbanas.

La obra fue firmada por Bernardo Soares, un ayudante de tenedor de libros en la Baixa lisboeta, a quien Pessoa definió no como un heterónimo pleno —como el neopagano Alberto Caeiro, el clasicista Ricardo Reis o el vanguardista Álvaro de Campos—, sino como un “semiheterónimo”: una mutilación de su propia personalidad. Soares escribe desde el tedio absoluto, pero es un tedio hiperlúcido. En ese entorno asfixiante de oficinas oscuras y calles lluviosas, el rechazo a la repetición emocional es su resistencia.

La frase en cuestión abre una ventana directa hacia el concepto fundamental del autor: la multiplicidad del yo. Si “vivir es ser otro”, como afirma el mismo fragmento, la fijeza emocional es sinónimo de muerte espiritual. Pessoa propone una suerte de “revirginidad perpetua de la emoción”. Cada amanecer exige borrar el cuadro afectivo del día anterior para entregarse a la impresión pura del presente, libre de la contaminación del recuerdo. Esta idea dialoga con las vanguardias de su tiempo y anticipa el existencialismo.

Décadas antes de que Jean-Paul Sartre publicara su célebre novela La náusea, el Bernardo Soares de Pessoa ya describía esa misma repulsión metafísica ante lo previsible. Hoy en día, el Libro del desasosiego comparte el olimpo de las obras fundamentales de la modernidad junto a En busca del tiempo perdido de Marcel Proust o el Ulises de James Joyce. Sin embargo, a diferencia de estos últimos, el texto de Pessoa carece de arquitectura final; es un universo abierto e infinitamente maleable.

Su importancia radica en haberle dado voz al hombre fragmentado, aquel que se observa a sí mismo vivir en lugar de simplemente vivir. La vigencia de su advertencia sobre la memoria afectiva resuena con fuerza en una contemporaneidad obsesionada con el archivo constante y la repetición de estímulos. Pessoa, a través de su humilde oficinista, nos sigue exigiendo el coraje de la renovación: abandonar el cómodo fantasma de lo que fuimos ayer para salvaguardar la violenta y legítima chispa del presente.

¿Quién es Fernando Pessoa?

Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935) fue una de las figuras más enigmáticas y geniales de la literatura universal. Nacido en Lisboa, pasó gran parte de su infancia en Sudáfrica debido al nuevo matrimonio de su madre con un cónsul, lo que le permitió dominar el inglés a la perfección y asimilar la tradición literaria anglosajona. Al regresar a Portugal en 1905, adoptó una existencia exteriormente anodina y rutinaria en su ciudad natal: traductor de correspondencia comercial, aunque partícipe en las vanguardias locales.

Aunque en vida solo llegó a publicar un libro en portugués, el poema épico-lírico Mensaje en 1934, además de algunos folletos de poesía en inglés, su producción subterránea fue monumental y abarcó miles de textos manuscritos que guardaba celosamente. Víctima de una cirrosis hepática, falleció en Lisboa a los 47 años en la más absoluta discreción. Tras su muerte, el descubrimiento de su famoso baúl de madera reveló un universo literario sin precedentes que transformó la literatura del siglo XX.

Su mayor genialidad radicó en la creación de los heterónimos: identidades poéticas completas —como Alberto Caeiro, Álvaro de Campos o Ricardo Reis— que poseían biografías, estilos literarios y filosofías propias, diferenciándose de los simples seudónimos. La publicación póstuma de sus escritos dio vida a obras fundamentales de la modernidad como el Libro del desasosiego, sus Ficciones del interludio y sus extensas Poesías completo, consolidándolo como el gran poeta de la multiplicidad.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy called his predecessor, Pete Buttigieg, a «sloth» on Sunday while laying out accomplishments under President Donald Trump’s second term through a video interspersed with footage from multiple iconic movies.

«Pete Buttigieg moved like a sloth,» Duffy wrote in a post to X. «I’m moving at the speed of Trump!»

«He did nothing. He spent $80 billion on DEI and on climate change. We did more in one year than the last administration did in all four,» Duffy added.

Like other issues, such as border security, the video from Duffy highlights the Trump administration’s eagerness to use distance from former President Joe Biden as a benchmark for success.

BUTTIGIEG ‘GOT NOTHING DONE,’ DUFFY DECLARES: ‘PETE APPEARS UNBURDENED BY NO LONGER BEING A CABINET SECRETARY’

When approached by Fox News Digital about Duffy’s «sloth» comments, Sean Manning, a spokesperson for Buttigieg, referred reporters to a list of published accomplishments the department reported from 2021-2025. 

«Sean Duffy is looking more desperate by the day. The American people would prefer that he do his actual job instead of making up lies on social media or going on a seven-month vacation paid for by the companies he’s supposed to regulate,» Manning said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

In particular, Duffy’s video took aim at Buttigieg’s track record on trucking certification and air travel even as it touted other developments such as clearing the way for «air mobility» vehicles and investments in engineering through the Maritime Academy.

«Buttigieg spent billions of dollars trying to patch together our air traffic control system,» Trump said in one of the clips featured in the montage.

The video, which included Lightning McQueen, the fictional Pixar race car, clips from Marvel’s Iron Man and even a scene from the Terminator, highlighted the $12 billion in funding for new air traffic controllers included in Trump’s signature Big Beautiful Bill as well as 12,000 applicants that, according to the administration, had set records for interest in air safety work.

DUFFY URGES SENATE TO PASS BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL’S $12.5B AIR TRAFFIC SYSTEM FIX

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy speaks during a press conference on air traffic controller pay and the government shutdown at the U.S. Capitol on Oct. 23, 2025. Former Secretary Pete Buttigieg appears on «The Late Show with Stephen Colbert» on March 4, 2025. (Eric Lee/Getty Images; Scott Kowalchyk/CBS/Getty Images)

The video dovetails with announcements from Duffy last week outlining $750 million efforts to replace eight air traffic control towers with «state-of-the-art» facilities. Additionally, Duffy announced an $85.8 million investment to upgrade Federal Contract Towers at 41 airports in 24 states.

But more than improvements to the control centers, Duffy drew attention to ways the administration had bolstered licensing requirements for truckers.

«Buttigieg did not enforce the law,» Duffy said. «The wild West era of truck driver training — it’s over.»

DUFFY SAYS ‘TIME’S UP’ FOR NEWSOM AS FEDS WITHHOLD $160M OVER ILLEGAL TRUCKING LICENSES

The video reminded viewers of efforts by the administration to withhold funding from states for lax standards in states like New York and California.

In particular, it recounted how California had removed 17,000 trucker licenses from «dangerous foreign drivers» after Duffy threatened to withhold $160 million in federal funding.

It also highlighted $73 million in withheld funds from New York after the agency found that over 50% of its non-domiciled trucking licenses were issued illegally.

Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg looks on as former President Joe Biden speaks in the South Court Auditorium on the White House campus in Washington, D.C., on May 8, 2023. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

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Buttigieg, who served as Transportation Secretary in the Biden administration from 2021 to 2025, has been discussed as a potential Democratic candidate for president in 2028.

Before his tenure under Biden, Buttigieg himself ran for president in 2020, but eventually dropped out and endorsed Biden.

Editor’s note: This story contains graphic language.

FIRST ON FOX: Democratic Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, who is already facing criticism over past Reddit posts, made graphic sexual comments on his now-deleted account about masturbating in portable toilets and explicit graffiti found in military restrooms.

In one March 2017 post on Reddit’s r/Military forum, Platner responded to a discussion about nostalgic military smells by writing: «I still have to jerk off every time I sit in a portas—-er… that blue water smell conditioned me.» 

The archived posts were made under «P-Hustle,» a now-deleted Reddit account that Platner previously acknowledged was his.

In another post from March 2021 on Reddit’s r/USMC forum, Platner described a crude penis drawing inside a portable toilet while deployed overseas.

DELETED POSTS URGING VIOLENCE HAUNT DEMOCRATIC SENATE HOPEFUL IN MAINE RACE

Responding to a thread dedicated to so-called «GWOT Dick Art,» Platner launched into an extended monologue praising the explicit graffiti in unusually vivid terms, calling it «beautiful,» «engorged and veiny,» and moving «towards its penetrative glory.»

«Oh s***!!!,» Platner wrote. «You’ve got the Hot Rod C*** from Manas!»

Manas was a major U.S. military transit hub in Kyrgyzstan used during the wars in Afghanistan. Platner enlisted in the Marines in 2003 and served three combat tours in Iraq. In 2010, he joined the Maryland Army National Guard for a fourth tour, serving in the infantry in Afghanistan. He returned to Afghanistan eight years later as a security contractor.

PLATNER CALLED PTSD EXCUSE ‘BULL—-‘ IN 2020 POST, NOW CITES HIS OWN STRUGGLE TO EXPLAIN ONLINE CONTROVERSIES

The post accompanied a photograph of a smiling serviceman posing beside the explicit illustration inside the portable restroom.

«I sat there in sheer awe,» Platner wrote. «The soul filling joy to be allowed to witness such glory.»

Fox News Digital reached out to Platner’s campaign for comment on Monday.

Platner has previously responded to questions about his controversial posts by suggesting he was joking.

«You should read the comments in context. It’s very clear I’m joking,» he previously told Fox News Digital when asked about them. «It’s called s***posting. It’s when you argue with people on the internet and try to bother them. So, yeah, no, it’s very obviously not true.»

The posts, which are accessible in the Maine Monitor’s archive but have not been previously reported, are the latest in a series of vulgar and inflammatory social media comments that critics say raise questions about Platner’s judgment as the progressive Democrat emerges as his party’s Senate nominee in Maine.

BERNIE SANDERS DEFENDS MAINE SENATE CANDIDATE UNDER FIRE FOR REDDIT COMMENTS

Republicans are likely to use the resurfaced posts, along with others, to portray Platner as too erratic and extreme for statewide office as Democrats rally behind the first-time candidate.

Mehek Cooke, a GOP strategist and senior national security and legal analyst for the Daily Signal, told Fox News Digital that, politically, Platner’s «vulgar» posts will «matter» to voters because they are «deciding whether Graham Platner has the judgment, temperament, and basic decency to represent Maine in the Senate.»

«His campaign has been built around authenticity and moral seriousness. These posts undercut both,» Cooke said. «Platner is not a truth-teller. He is someone whose instincts appear crude, reckless, and deeply unserious. And by the way, if they were really ‘jokes,’ why delete the posts? That sounds less like humor and more like a CYA cleanup operation.»

Cooke said that «one tasteless post» can be chalked up to «immaturity» but a «years-long trail of vulgar, sexually degrading, and slur-filled commentary is a character issue.»

Platner, a first-time candidate who is backed by progressive champions Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, became the Democrats’ presumptive nominee after his rival for the nomination, two-term Gov. Janet Mills, ended her campaign last month after trailing Platner in polling and fundraising.

Other posts Platner has been questioned about, including in a recent interview with the New York Times, include a 2013 post, which Platner later deleted, that people concerned about rape should not «get so f—ed up they wind up having sex with someone they don’t mean to.»

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Graham Platner, a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Maine, points to a covered tattoo that was previously recognized as a Nazi symbol during an interview in Portland, Maine, on Oct. 22, 2025. (WGME via AP)

Platner has also faced scrutiny for more recent Reddit posts, including one from five years ago in which he described himself as a «communist» and «socialist.» Additionally, Platner’s posts have contained alleged homophobic slurs and praise for military tactics used by Hamas.

«Will every Democrat in Maine care? No,» Cooke said. «Platner has shown he can survive controversy inside a Democratic primary. But in a general election, especially against Susan Collins, the cumulative effect of his stances, controversies, and comments matters. The Nazi-linked tattoo controversy, the homophobic slurs, the disturbing comments that have already surfaced, and now these posts create a fuller picture of a morally bankrupt candidate. Republicans will argue this is not a candidate with a few regrettable moments. This is a pattern that tells voters something fundamental about his character. And character still matters to a lot of Mainers.»