Fiction & politics - Ernesto Sabato

 Our Carboneras reading club's recent selection of Ernesto Sabato's famous 1948 novel El túnel (The Tunnel) reminded me of this interview I did of Sabato in his home near Buenos Aires in January, 1986:

Fiction and Politics: Interview with Ernesto Sábato
Ernesto Sábato and Geoffrey Fox
The Threepenny Review, No. 32 (Winter, 1988), pp. 4-6

Sabato at the time was under police protection from right-wing gangs because of his prominence as chair of the commission that investigated the "disappearances" of civilians by the military regime of 1976-83. We talked about those tensions, of course, but especially interesting is his insistence on the importance of fiction for saving a country "from madness." After quoting Karl Jaspers on the Greek tragedians as "educators of their people and of its ethos," he goes on to say

 In a very profound sense, as mysterious as that of dreams, fiction molds, shapes, giving form to a country. … Fiction does not operate only with the head. It works with passions, with feelings, with intuitions, with symbols, with myths. All that we call poetic thought. And that is educative, and is saving. The dream saves us from madness. The nocturnal dream, of all men. We cannot survive without dreaming. Without that kind of collective dream that is fiction, neither could a nation survive. The nation learns, has its catharsis, in dreaming and in fiction. And without cathaarsis man cannot live.

(Note: His name is commonly written with the accent mark to indicate the stress on the first syllable; he himself has always written his name as his Italian parents did, without accent mark, so you will see it both ways in bibliographies. I mention this trivial question only because it took up hours of communications with Wendy Lesser and even phone calls to Buenos Aires.)

Envy in the courts

Friend and colleague César Chelala just sent me a link to his latest opinion piece, Elie Wiesel's Wrong Move on Peace | CommonDreams.org   I just dashed off a reply which I'll share here with you, about a different issue of great concern.

Thanks. I was unaware of Wiesel's letter and the response. It is appalling that he could be making such statements.

Speaking of appalling, I am deeply, deeply disturbed by the campaign of a cabal of jealous judges to humiliate the best of their fraternity, Baltasar Garzón. And I'm deeply impressed by the dignity of the man under attack, who, despite all, continues doing his job and just yesterday appeaed and spoke at a conference commemorating the attacks on Jews during Argentina's dirty war. There's nothing I can do to help him, other than to express my support; the whole world of human rights jurists has mobilized in his defense, but those few Spanish judges, jealous of his fame, remain determined to do him in, as an exemplary sacrifice of any of their number who dares stand up to power.

The latest is a maneuver by Judge Luciano Varela, supported by a coterie of anti-Garzón judges, to head off the possibility of Garzón's acceptance of a temporary (7-month) appointment to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, where prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo was eager to have his assistance. They are completely unconcerned about the enormous damage they are causing to Spain's international reputation as an upholder of justice, a reputation that was perhaps undeserved, because it depended almost entirely on the work through the years of Baltasar Garzón.

 Judge Luciano Varela (in Spanish)

Luis Moreno-Ocampo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cognitive Theory For Breakfast | Radio Litopia

These people just discovered me on Twitter, and I'm glad they did. You writers and readers (that must include anybody who ever looks at this blog) should also enjoy this.
Cognitive Theory For Breakfast | Radio Litopia

If you don't want to listen to the whole thing (a lot is pretty silly), here are the 4 rules for big e-sales of books, even by a completely unknown author (from Joe Konrath, who writes under various pseudonyms):

• Have a professionally done, eye-catching cover. This is extremely important on the internet and on eReading devices when it’s often reduced to the size of a posted stamp. It should pop. It should be colorful. You should be able to clearly read the author’s name and the book title on it. And it should draw your eye. It should be interesting.
• Have a well-done product description. And a product description is the same thing that’s on the back of paperbacks or the inner jacket copy of hardcovers.
• Have a well-written book. Well, that should go without saying. On all eReading devices, you could download a sample first. If your first chapter doesn’t hook, the reader instantly, why is anybody going to buy it?
• And the last, of course, is the most important of all: have it cheap.

He means under $5. He claims to be making $140,000 a year on sales of e-books priced at $1.99.

Spain in the World

Today we are going to talk not just about Spain, but about the World -- because, as Professor von der Vogelweide might say, there isn't anything else. And because Spain, where I now sit before this computer window, is as good a place as any, and better than most, for observing the challenges to democracy in this rapidly changing world.

Friday night we were fortunate to catch the interview of Felipe González by one of Spain's most respected media journalists, Iñaki Gabilondo, on the eve of González's presentation of the report by the European Council's "Group of Wise men," which González chairs, on new directions for Europe.

González is one of a very few active statesmen who thinks clearly and disinterestedly (he's no longer running for anything) about Europe and the globe. His thinking is informed by his experience in the underground against Francisco Franco and as Socialist Party leader and president of Spain (1982-96) during the post-Franco democratic transformation known here as "the Transition". He knows that what happens in Spain is critical for determining the future of Europe, and whether Europe is able to sustain physical well-being and democratic rights for its people will matter to the entire world. Not in the ways or to the extent it used to, when Europe ran the world, but still as one important player with a lot to offer.

Spain's economy is either the 9th or 10th largest in the world, according to IMF, World Bank or CIA rankings, its population of 47 million is the 5th largest in the European Union; and as if that weren't enough, I just discovered that its National Library is the fourth most important in the world! (El País, today).

But Spain matters for other reasons, beyond its comparative rankings, because of its unique history and geography. Its language is spoken almost as widely as English, as the national language of over a score of countries in Latin America and in Equatorial Guinea in Africa, and is still remembered at least in traces in its former colony of the Philippines -- and is a second language for many more people in all continents. Even more important, its relative success and its sometimes conspicuous failures in establishing the rule of law and democratic rights, in the wake of a long and especially brutal dictatorship, have been examples to the many countries facing comparable challenges. Its long history of intimacy with the Muslim world, its many governmental aid programs in Latin America and elsewhere (including both central government and programs by autonomous regions such as Andalucía) and all that energetic NGO activity by its private citizens give Spain an international presence well beyond, say, Japan's or the U.S.'s in proportion to population and GDP.

Thus Spain's successes and failures set off vibrations around the world, especially in Africa and western Asia and Latin America.

Often we look at the gross inefficiencies and partisan politics in the court system, the high unemployment and private debt in the economy, the attacks on public services, the high incidence of political corruption, and we are dismayed that things are not working better. But then, if we look at where the country is coming from, it's a wonder that they work at all. A constitutional democracy built out of the ruins of Franco-ist law and military traditions, monarchy, regional nationalisms (Catalans, Basques, Gallegos, Valencianos and others), trade union demands and Republican aspirations is a structure of precarious stability. Keeping it together and consolidating it matters to a whole lot of people, far beyond Spain and far into our future.

That's why I get so upset by stupid Spanish self-sabotage, like the judiciary's attacks on Judge Garzón, or the dismanteling of the pretty good public health system by regional presidents such as Esperanza Aguirre, or the refusal to cooperate in a national economic rescue plan, an educational reform or anything else constructive by Mariano Rajoy and his Popular Party. And that's why I keep writing about Spain.

Project Europe 2030 - A report to the European Council by the Reflection Group on the Future of the EU (English, pdf)

Felipe González llama a refundar Europa (El País)

Proyecto Europa 2030  - (Español, pdf)

Spain's 1978 Constitution

Professor Walter von der Vogelweide (Severn Darden) explains it all, in his Lecture on Metaphysics:
"Vy, you ask, am I going to talk about zee Universe? Because zer isn't anysing else!!"  
(Photo of Severn Darden in another role from Cinefania, "Planet of the Apes")

Revisers

This conversation couldn't really happen, but maybe it should. Pretty funny for us who've been there.

Nathan Bransford - Literary Agent: The Way Cocktail Parties Should Really Go

The Real Reason Why Arizona Passed Such Harsh Immigration Laws

This argument by Greg Palast (link below) makes a lot of sense. Of course, an alternative policy for Republicans panicked by the growing Hispanic vote would be to give them some reason to vote for their party instead of the Democrats. Like, including their voices and their concerns in their platform. Republicans have learned to do that in Florida; why not Arizona? (I think I know why: there are more rich Cubans than rich Mexican Americans; Cubans have, after a long hard struggle, bought their way into the GOP in Florida.)
The Real Reason Why Arizona Passed Such Harsh Immigration Laws | | AlterNet

Bearish on Spain

Simon White of "Variant Perception" is worried by Spain's private debt. Just to let you know. Me, like a lot of people in this country, I'm more worried about Barça right now (fútbol is a new passion of mine -- first time I've cared much for a team in any professional sport). And about the enormous confusion and political paralysis caused by the dysfunctional justice system, but private debt maybe should go on the list as 3rd priority. Here you can hear and see Simon White on the Business News Network (of the CTV of Canada's Globe and Mail).

Market Morning : April 29, 2010 : Bearish on Spain [04-29-10 11:05 AM]

Variant Perception

Cartoons Banned By Apple: A Gallery - Apple - Gawker

More proof that the Internet is really frustrating to censors. They're not great cartoons, but interesting precisely because they were censored -- and thus tell us something about what Apple thinks it's doing.
Cartoons Banned By Apple: A Gallery - Apple - Gawker

Gypsy and shadows

Lots of wildlife pops up in spring. Yesterday we spotted this old gypsy, lost in his melody, up at the lighthouse on Mesa Roldán.

Some odd partners for liberty (Spain)

On Friday we adult "Personas Libro" joined with Carboneras school kids  to recite verses of Miguel Hernández, a Communist poet in the civil war whose work was suppressed during the Franco regime. His poems from just before and during the war are often rousing and combative, those he wrote to his starving family from prison are gentler and moving, and while not all of it is great poetry, some of it is, and it is almost always intense. The grade school and high school kids took it all very seriously, and some of them -- even a couple of the littlest ones -- were superb orators. When it came the adults' turn, Susana recited Hernández famous "Para la libertad," which became an anthem for rebels everywhere. And I chose the shorter, evocative "Canción última."

This year is the centennial of Miguel Hernández birth, but another reason we are remembering his poems is that one of Spain's best-loved troubadors, Joan Manuel Serrat, has again recorded them. When he first sang them on a record in 1972, it was an audacious defiance of the regime and the first time most Spaniards heard them. Today, it is still a provocative gesture, a way to upset those who want to forget about Franco's prisons and disappeared and are willing to take extreme measures to silence the one judge who wanted to find out just what happened.

On our way out of the act commemorating the Communist poet Miguel Hernández, we each received a book by the Falangista poet Luis Rosales, who -- like Hernández -- was born in 1910. But these labels, though true, are unfair. Hernández was more than a Communist, and Rosales much more than a Falangista. Both were poets. If they had happened to meet, they may even have liked one another. Rosales, from a very conservative, very Catholic family, did join the Falange at the beginning of the war. But he was also associated with a magazine published by Pablo Neruda, and was a personal friend of Federico García Lorca. And it was to his house that Federico García Lorca ran to avoid arrest when the Falange and the rebel generals seized Granada, in 1936, and it was in that house that Lorca was arrested, very soon after to be killed by the Falange -- despite Luis Rosales attempts to save him.

Rosales lived to 1992, and outgrew his Falangismo. And if his later protestations are to be believed, his understanding when he joined was that the movement was respectful of human life and dignity, and made a serious mistake in assuming that the generals who rose against the Republic would be also.

Hernández died in prison of tuberculosis, in 1942. Had he lived, he might also have come to question his earlier political faith. Or perhaps, as did many Spaniards, he would have remained a loyal Communist, I'd like to think to the Communist party that adapted to new conditions under Santiago Carrillo and become one of the artificers, in an odd partnership with the ex-Falangista Adolfo Suárez, of a Spanish constitutional democracy that resembles neither Stalinist Communism nor Francoist military Falangism. But that democracy was nevertheless built from pieces assembled from those two movements, along with contributions of the Socialists and -- perhaps even more surprisingly -- the king.

The equilibrium of that oddly built structure was so extremely delicate in its early years of "the Transition" -- from Franco to democracy -- that it nearly collapsed before a coup in 1981. It survived, thanks to timely intervention by the young king as well as courageous stances by Carrillo and Suárez and others, even military men, eager to avoid a new civil war. It is stabler now than in 1981, much stabler, but still can be shaken when one of those old supporting institutions wants to pull out to see if it can bring the whole thing down. Like Manos Limpias or the Falange-JONS.

But enough about Baltasar Garzón. The papers and 'net and TV are full of coverage of the campaign against him and the massive demonstrations of support for him, not just in Madrid, but all around the world. If the intention of his accusers, Manos Limpias and the Falange-JONS, was to suppress investigation of the crimes of the Franco era, they really goofed. Now, thanks to this surprising case, people around the world are newly awakened to the issue and demanding investigation.  Spain's most famous defender of human rights about to be removed from the bench because he applied to Spain the same criterion he had used against Pinochet, the Argentine junta, those responsible for the abuses at Guantánamo, etc. -- that is, he regarded Spain's 1977 amnesty as superceded by international law. Astounding.