A great many documents attest to the trials and tribulations endured by the poet before earning the respect of his peers. According to Eugénio de Lisboa, with regard to Sena’s relationship with Portuguese intellectuals, in order to achieve artistic recognition, Sena had had to fight “the classic betrayals of the less talented artists who are often the most small-minded” (Lisboa, “Breve Perfil...” [“Brief Profile”], p. 29). Also stressing Sena’s compulsion to decry mediocrity, in O Reino da Estupidez [The Realm of Stupidity] (1961) Gaspar Simões claims to have encountered  “the homeland (…) in such an utterly stupid state, and it remains so even after adopting intelligence as its motto” (Simões, “Jorge de Sena, O Estrangeirado” [Jorge de Sena, The Admirer of Everything Foreign], p. 76).

The volumes of O Reino da Estupidez feature many of Sena's sources of irritation. One of the book's pervasive ideas is that, far from seeking “to acquire knowledge”, on the contrary Portuguese intellectuals present certainties and are inward-looking (O Reino da Estupidez-I, p. 59).   In many of his texts, it is in this corrosive style that Sena insinuates that Portuguese letters has been taken over by uneducated, corrupt individuals who do not do justice to the names of the past. As an example, he uses irony to convey that following the disappearance of the “wretched” scribes such as Camões and Sá de Miranda, informed literary critics and writers had descended on the Portuguese literary scene, resorting to “fruitful methods” such as “silencing”, “allusion”, “cowardice”, “stylistic infamy”, “buying-a-pig-in-a-poke tactics” and “appropriation” (idem, p.70). (Idem, p. 70). He further expands on the question of silencing, explaining that it involves never making “any reference, not even a negative one, to the name or work of an individual whose activity is clearly contrary to that harmonious  inversion of values on which the peace and glory of the Republic of Letters are unquestionably grounded” (Idem, p. 71). Knowing from his correspondence that the writer regarded himself as a victim of the contempt and silence of his countrymen, it is  no wonder that his texts appear to be quite autobiographical. Judging from his articles, but  mainly the letters he sent to friends such as José-Augusto França, Sophia de Mello Breyner and Vergílio Ferreira, Sena believed that “very few reputable Portuguese writers owe as little to literary criticism as me” (“Breve Perfil...”, p. 13). On reading these letters, one is struck by the image of an exile who feels excluded from his beloved country. In a letter sent to José-Augusto França, dated 3 November 1960, Sena complains about the silence both of friends and editors, claiming that his books were not being reviewed and he was not receiving the attention he deserved (Correspondência Jorge de Sena..., p. 178 [Jorge de Sena Correspondence]).

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