Theodor Kallifatids (Greece1938) travels the country presenting his latest novel, Timandra (Gutenberg Galaxy)but above all, he talks about intelligent, talented, strong and beautiful women, just as he remembers his own mother and father, whom the protagonist of his book tells and often mentions.. He suffered a war as a very young boy and emigrated from his homeland as a young man. Swedenbecame a writer. He sprinkles his deepest thoughts with irony and humor. He sees the positive where others see only problems and prefers simple language because “avoids complex facts“.
Although ‘Timandra’ takes place in ancient Greece, it describes very current issues, women, war…
Yes, absolutely right, I didn’t intend to make that connection, but it’s always there even if we don’t think about it. When I was a kid, the town I lived in fell apart in WWII, there was nothing to eat, and I don’t mean anything. Women kept us alive. They went to the mountains too early to collect roots and chewed them to make them edible, and returned to the village. Men were in war, in prison or in concentration camps, and we survived because of women. So at the same time that I went through the war, I saw that they were real heroes and real victims at the same time. This idea had been on my mind for years until I found the right people to describe it.
He also talks about the Peloponnesian war, and now in Europe we are living the war of Russia against Ukraine.
Yes, I know more about the Peloponnesian War than what happened in Ukraine. This is more than a tragedy. The war in Ukraine could have been easily avoided, it’s a matter of sitting down and talking.
Maybe we need wise men like in ancient Greece to figure this out?
Yes, it is always possible to find a solution if you sit down and talk to the other. It means sitting, talking, listening to what the other person is saying… This did not happen. We are Orthodox in Greece, but the same thing happens in Catholicism, women are hated, there is misogyny, there is traditional Europe where women are seen as temptress, liars, weak… boy, I didn’t see it that way because my mom wasn’t like that, great was a human. This has made me susceptible to misogyny and I have always wanted to write a book for my mother. The same goes for war. We had a civil war in Greece and the winners always make history. When I read that there is talk of traitors, those who want to sell the country to Bulgaria… Did my father want to sell Greece to the Bulgarians? He was a teacher, 20 years after the war he created forests in my village… So I realized very early on the misogyny and the lies of the people. This is Timandra, but it took me more than 50 years to write the book.
He states that men and women are not much different. But don’t you think the world would be very different if more women ruled?
There are differences, but not in the sense of the famous book sung Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. There have been great female warriors, great male lovers… If you are not blind, you can see that girls in any class are better, kinder, more civilized and more beautiful in every way. When I was 18 my best friends were girls. I’ve always been against the idea of ​​women’s inferiority because I didn’t experience it. My mother was an extremely sensitive but uneducated woman, but her mind was the clearest you could ever see.
In ‘Timandra’ Alcibiades is a man who is not content with what he has. You say today that he will be some kind of Putin or Trump.
Yes, neither Putin nor Trump are that handsome. [bromea]. Alcibiades has everything, but nothing is enough. Why do you want more? For me it is a mystery.
You are a lover of words, how would you describe the moment we live in?
I think we live in an era of anti-intellectualism. What did we do? New cars, new weapons, we live in the last days of western capitalism. General poverty is growing faster than ever, and at the same time we have a concentration of capital that has never been seen in world history. We’re talking about Russian oligarchs, but there are also India, Spain, Ukraine… The only possible way to react is to take the problems (pollution, wars) and take them to a personal level. I don’t care if Trump is crazy or gay or whatever. What worries me is what he is doing. Like Putin, I don’t care who he is or what he thinks, but I see what he does to Ukrainians and I don’t like it.
You immigrated to Sweden as a young man. How do you feel today when you see that so many people have had to leave their country and their families?
My feelings don’t matter, the tragedy is there. All I can do is help. Countries that received immigration in the history we know eventually took advantage of it. And here are the examples [señala al exterior, a la ciudad]There are beautiful buildings from one era, different food from another, different traditions, which is a good thing. But there is also fear and we care about the poor rather than fighting poverty.
The far right and other parties present immigration as harmful.
After the war between Turkey and Greece in 1920, especially in the Black Sea, one and a half million Greeks had to leave Turkey and returned to Greece. It was a great disaster, and one of them was my father. Twenty years later, change came: new industries, new ways of thinking, new houses to build, trade, educational methods… And probably the best writers of Greek literature from that generation, those books I grew up with. You can’t see what migration will bring you the next day, it takes years. I got a job in Sweden a month later, not because I’m smarter, but because they need me, even if they don’t accept it.
Source: Informacion
