In “Surfaciality” from Simon Critchley’s ABC of Impossibility, Critchley announces that Alberto Caeiro calls the machinic habit of familiarity the “sickness of the eyes.” Critchley asserts that “we need an apprenticeship in unlearning in order to learn to see and not to think. We need to learn to see appearances and nothing more, and to see those appearances not as the appearances of some deeper, but veiled reality, but as real appearances.” Caeiro affirms his “soul is simple and doesn’t think” and that his “mysticism is not wanting to know,” but rather, “it is to live and not to think about this.” Finally, Caeiro affirms “I don’t know what nature is: I sing it.” Essentially, Caeiro is going astray from familiarity, normalcy, and nature’s concept that something has basic or inherent features. He is getting rid of any association with himself and society as well as societal regulations. He turns down the notion of defined roles, and lives anew, without conforming to anything formerly established and specified. Caeiro declares, “and this is my definition,” which, in essence, is no definition.

“Surfaciality” is relevant to Clarice Lispector’s The Daydreams of a Drunk Woman because Maria Quiteria, a housewife, calls into question her role as a woman. Throughout the tale, Maria reveals her misery and rage as a consequence of the choices she made while seeking security and protection. These choices were encouraged by society – the exploitation of a woman’s body “to marry a man she neither loves nor respects” to escape poverty. (809) Maria is always making derogatory remarks (lazy bitch, slut) towards herself for her shortcoming as a housewife. She was unhappy filling in this role and lost her “every-day soul” as a housewife Saturday night, feeling queer and liberty, reminding her of former days as a young woman. (812) To come to the point, Maria, like Caeiro, desires to purge herself of societal regulations and defined roles.

In addition, “Surfaciality” and The Daydreams of a Drunk Woman call to mind Rene Descartes mind-body distinction and, especially, Olympe de Gouges’ endeavor to bring back the body of a woman into society. A woman does not necessarily have to assume her “natural” roles of a mother and wife, as she possesses identical capabilities in contrast to a man.