A alimentação em Marte: a higiene da alma numa autoficção de José Nunes da Matta (1921)

Abstract

The Authentic History of the Planet Mars is a Portuguese utopia written by José Nunes da Matta (1849-1945) and published in 1921, during the disturbed times of the First Portuguese Republic (1910-1926). On the cover and in the plot, José Nunes da Matta presents himself as the translator of a historical report of Henri Montgolfier, a French revolutionary who left Earth at the beginning of the 19th century. He describes an ideal state on Mars, where the administration of natural resources had been solved in its connection with international conflicts (justified with different languages, races or economic benefits). The example of Mars could be useful for the Planet Earth, recently devastated by the first global war (1914-1918), and especially for Portugal, between the war in Europe and internal dissidences among Republicans. Mattas utopia dialogues with several well-known political or moral reforms (inspired by Baron of Feuchterslebens medical philosophy, Malthuss sociology, or even Darwins theory of evolution). Remembering his utopia is still relevant now nowadays, as he suggests that the administration of food should be seen as a small part of a vast political action (from the laws regulating the forest to public health programmes).