“You cannot laugh at the suffering of others without compassion”

from the plague

But I’m sick of reading whining and trauma and I don’t know what it is. But I’m a novelist and I said: I’m going to invent something that will make us laugh at this a little bit. Without missing anyone, of course. How do I not know that this is tragic? But so what? Can’t we have some tiger nuts? While he still has a serious history. But not because of the pandemic, because that’s how life is. Although… the thing about dying facedown, three months later when it was attached to a tube, well… It happened to Lucho, Luis Sepúlveda, who was one of the first to die in Spain. What the fuck! That is why the hero of the novel says: I want to die with my dignity, with my own dignity. And he goes to the river and… that’s it.

What can be the limit of laughter?

I think there is a small limit. Everything can be an object of laughter in itself. But when laughter replaces or suppresses compassion… it is no longer there. You cannot laugh at the suffering of others without compassion. You can’t laugh at other people’s pain, period. Humor should be compassionate to the other, if not…

What scared you the most from this period in the novel?

I had no fear. Because being afraid was not good for me. I took the normal precautions but that’s it. I did my walks on the floor of the bookstore. And when it could open, I opened it. Mask or something, but I opened it.

Politicians come out of his pen damaged.

Yes, but they deserve it. You don’t have to be compassionate there. Politicians must be held accountable. Some of the things I said sound like a joke, but you know, that’s how they happened. Now you see everything that happens with masks, purchase contracts and stuff. And we are just starting to learn. Let’s see what else will come up.

In the book, he speaks largely to the fact that current events trivialize things, including illness.

Of course, the present is what makes it banal. Because the reality of the disease had little to do with what the politicians were saying. And the management of the disease had nothing to do with what he was telling us. Well, what they did in Madrid is probably the final blow to the healthcare system. This is a disaster. I have always tried not to interest myself in the present because the truth is not right now because it is so close and it is always better to read books. Then you will see the news from a better perspective.

There are many references to young people. Now how do you see the scenario that makes you say that the youth cult is pathetic?

In the past, the elderly were taken into account. But now he is a 30-year-old teacher. Well… look: I don’t think so. As a bookstore, I’m telling you: I shuffled through teen novels and got a little bored, it’s more or less the same. With very few literary sources. Then there’s the fashion for Latin American girls who tell more shocking stories.

What is the reason for this literary exaggeration? Are publishers, the media, other people’s books to blame?

Publishers are blamed for being the first critics. They have a greater responsibility than the rest of the chain. But I also understand that they don’t know what to do to find someone to sell to.

He taught literature. What flaws do you want young writers not to fall for?

Adamism. Because most of them don’t come close to the classics. Moreover, it seems that everyone reads the same thing. People my age have more to copy because we have a fairly extensive literary background. Look: forgetting the classics is turning everything into a tied sack race. There are a lot of little novels left in relief.

Did you see anything extraordinary today?

I’m not in love with Spaniards but… there is an American girl… what’s her name? Posted in Anagrama. Emma Cline! Girls are called novels. It’s selling like crazy. She is one of Manson’s daughters and already counts her as an old woman. What matters is how young women count and analyze their vulnerabilities, she. She is very well put together and has something to say.

What did your generation say about it?

I do not know. My generation has done quite a bit of work on structure and literary form, if any. Don’t admit it and that’s it. You are looking at Almudena’s novels. They have a very complex structure and such ambitions… Orejudo’s first novel is also very well-constructed and ambitious. There is a revision of tradition. Today we are still reading Don Quixote of the ’98 Generation. No one has ever read Don Quixote any other way, and the time has come. We should read the tradition and see what it tells us about it now. Our theme has been identity: who we are, we tell others what we are. That’s at the center of people my age’s concerns.

His book is also full of books and readings.

And flirting.

What does this enduring respect for books mean?

Well, what we talked about earlier: that books are written from books. So you can’t write without reading. Well, you can’t live without reading. At least that’s what I think. That’s why almost all of my characters read books and talk to each other about them. Like us. I talked to Almudena about gossip, about who fucked whom, but we also told each other what we had read, discovered or read.

Is this conversation happening in the current generation?

Yes, there are young people talking about books. But they talk about their young friends and their fashion, current books. But I haven’t heard them talk about the classics. And if you don’t read them… literature is like a hydroponic plant that grows in water without roots. And what literature should have are deep roots.

You are now the age of your teachers. are you aware of that?

I know I’m the age of my teachers. I don’t know, I think this is my 14th novel Well, hey, I didn’t mess up. It is an important production. I don’t know if anyone sees me as a teacher now, that’s not him…

Want to be a reference for something specific?

Man, like all writers, I love my latest book. I read somewhere that I’ve never written a worse novel than the previous one. And I’m very proud of that. I want this last book to be well read and respected.

He says his book is about our elders. However, he is a major who counts.

I’m not ready to go to a residence yet, but almost. Let’s see: I enjoy this age almost as much as youth. No dear. Now I’m dragging my legs a little bit, that’s right. Oh good.

What is the joy of writing? Why do I feel the joy of writing in front of this book about drama?

Because there is. I always say I’m a writer, but when I’m at home, at the front of the page, when I’m in agony, and all of a sudden, another paragraph, another paragraph, another paragraph… Well, that’s great. When things start to go well, great. And I hope the reader realizes that I enjoyed writing this. That it costs me dearly, but that I also love.

The book deals with the illusion and worthlessness of an age. Why did it enter these pages so strongly?

I have a lot of nostalgia for the late 70’s. Because I was young, maybe. But I have not seen another period of freedom and creativity like those years. Suárez’s short rule was enormous in this sense: democracy, freedom, creativity without any censorship.

And what happened next?

Well, democracy became conservative. Suarez was another. And Felipe agreed with the factual mandates that ensured democracy would progress steadily and without bullshit.

It describes the sound of an era.

Yeah yeah. Well, sound and silence. In that youthful time there were full days, then you came of age and … there are more gaps, more gaps, more repetitive days.

It has time and features. What do you miss most about that period?

It bothers me a lot now how reading is put aside. Also the cult of today. Talk show shows people saying the same thing every day. Also, you see the newspaper and … there is no news anymore: there are opinions and speculative headlines and the like.

There is humor here, but there are also flashes of sadness.

Eliot mentioned that the river of literature flows both ways: you can get another influence from Quevedo and from César Vallejo. This is how I proceed: one with lime, the other with sand. The river of ash is also clearly a reference to Death in Venice. There is anger and corruption in the hero and…

I also find the atmosphere of Spanish and North American films… How do you get along with other arts that come together in this book?

I get along very well. Very good with music. Violeta and I spend some hours a day listening to music. I get along very well with painting. I don’t go to museums much now, but I used to when I was younger. What I can’t stand is ballet, opera, pantomime… I like theatre. I love the television drama they do at Estudio Uno, I play El Tenorio a lot.

It’s not like when you started writing for you anymore. Now what does this mean?

This is a form of identity. When I write, when I search for a topic, I understand what I am or who I want to be… I write everywhere. Like Bennet. Benet used to say: “I don’t know if I put whiskey to write or whether I wrote to put whiskey”. Me too, hahaha.

What a great name to end this interview!

I’ve read almost everything Benet has written. I have ideological things too, and sometimes I say: That’s it! But I was very curious about your books. In a Meditation he says a phrase that has become a mantra for me: “What would we know about ourselves if there were no others?” It’s all a philosophy, huh.