Mircea Cărtărescu He arrived for the first time in South America these days, “on the longest trip I will probably ever make.” His tour/journey began in Chile, passed through our city and ended in Montevideo. Here he was one of the luxury participants of FILBA, the Buenos Aires Literature Festival, where he had close contact for the first time with the Argentine public and shone in a public talk with Juan José Becerra.
Cărtărescu, 67, is not only the most famous romanian writer in the world, but also one of the most important European authors of recent decades and a constant candidate for the Nobel Prize. Almost all of his books have been translated into Spanish by the impulse of Enrique Redel, editor of Impedimenta, an independent Spanish publisher. In fact, the writer never tires of thanking Redel for his enthusiasm, as well as the excellent work of his translator, Marián Ochoa de Eribe, essential for disseminating his literature in Spanish-speaking countries.
“Solenoide” is perhaps the best-known novel by this poet, who one day put poetry in second place and dedicated himself fully to telling long stories. In Argentine bookstores you can get “Nostalgia”, the 3 volumes of the “Cegador” trilogy, “The Beautiful Foreigners” and the delicious “The Brown Eye of Our Love”a book that was published as such only in Spanish and that compiles articles that Cărtărescu wrote for the press.
Although this was a very long trip, it included the fulfillment of an old dream of the writer: to visit the native country of some of his favorite authors, such as Julio Cortázar, Ernesto Sábato and Jorge Luis Borges. It is precisely Borges who is most often associated with Romanian literature, made of fantasy, philosophy and passionate readings.
Born in a territory punished by dictatorships, he confesses that it is the first time that his country, today a member of the European Union, is experiencing a democratic and peaceful era; despite the danger posed by the war with Ukraine. Although he very recently retired from the classrooms in which he was a teacher for most of his life, he says that he is happy with the possibility of writing and disseminating his texts “full time.”
About these topics, childhood, imagination, Borges and war, he spoke in Buenos Aires with NOTICIAS.
NEWS: The enormous presence of Borges in his literature is surprising.
Mircea Cărtărescu: Argentina, for me, is the most important place for literary modernity. And I think that Argentine literature, especially the fantastic, is the best that has been written after the Second War. I am a great admirer of Julio Cortázar. There are his works that I know almost by heart and that were very important for my development as a writer. I also know the work of Silvina Ocampo and one of my greatest heroes is Ernesto Sábato. I once said that he was the Dante Alighieri of the 20th century. And, naturally, Borges, who for me is the Southern Cross. Borges is the greatest constellation of my literary pantheon. I read it and read it again. And I always find something new. The few parables that I wanted to make in my work are built according to his model. All modernity owes him a lot. After Kafka, he is the most important author of parables.
NEWS: “House taken” by Cortázar, an author you know very well, is often read as a metaphor for what was happening in the politics of his time. Does the fantasy in his work have a similar meaning with respect to the political reality of his country?
Cărtărescu: I do not believe that the parable Cortázar does in “Casa Tomada” refers only to politics. I think it mainly alludes to human destiny. The tragedy of consciousness enclosed in material life, which increasingly receives more and more aggression from the walls that prevent it from passing through. Politics contributes to this feeling. But the whole world seems to be, at this moment, the same as in Cortázar’s story; on the edge of an abyss. We are attacked by artificial intelligence, environmental problems, poverty, social networks and many other dangers. We feel like we are in a house taken over. We are losing more and more territory. We stayed in the last small room.
NEWS: What does it mean to be an author in a language that is spoken only in your country?
Cărtărescu: When you are an author from nowhere, your chances are very small; not only because your language is spoken by few people, but also because no one knows your culture. One always needs a translator, one always depends on others so that one’s works become universal. An author has to be very good or very lucky to become known. I think I was very lucky.
NEWS: Another constant theme in his books is childhood. Is it a real or imagined childhood?
Cărtărescu: It could be a childhood that I remember or one that I invented, it doesn’t matter to me. It’s more of a mix of the two. There I also learned from Cortazar. He has some splendid texts on children in “Endgame”, which was a revelation to me at the time I read it, when I was 16 years old. I like to write about children and teenagers, I always found them more interesting than adults. The child is a “tabula rasa” who paints imaginary landscapes for himself and the adolescent is the only human being who is levitating: he is not a child, he is not yet an adult, he floats in indeterminacy, both metaphysical and erotic. Adolescence always seemed interesting to me.
NEWS: All critics point out that fantasy is an essential theme in his books. A “side B” of life, the other side of reality.
Cărtărescu: For me it is very difficult to differentiate what is real from what is fantastic. The real is in itself a projection of our mind. The world we live in is produced by the same mind that dreams. There is little reason to call one world “real” and another “fantastic.” For me, reality is a great dream or a simulation, as is increasingly heard in science and philosophy. I do not make a distinction between my realistic and fantastic texts. In some way, they are all fantastic. In fact, here appears another connection between Romanian and Latin American culture, both have a very strong imaginary side. In Europe it is written. in general. a gray literature, about everyday life, about mediocre loves, about politicians and social problems. It is one of the reasons why that literature never becomes known. Readers want adventures, even intellectual and metaphysical, mystical. I appreciate those writers who always look towards the “B side”.
NEWS: I refer it to a topic of reality, how is Russia’s war with Ukraine being experienced today in Romania?
Cărtărescu: It is one thing to be 15,000 km from war and another to be 30 km away. We are neighbors of Ukraine. We have an immense border with that country. And we feel involved in this war. We are afraid of him. If Ukraine had fallen, it is likely that we would have been occupied too. For us the war is very concrete, it is at the door and people are terrified. All my compatriots are obviously on the side of Ukraine. They perceive Russia as an aggressor, as it always was in our history. In Romania we always try to help Ukrainians. My wife and I hosted two families in our house, because we thought it was the least we could do.
Image gallery
