Our Chris Kraul has this interesting piece from Colombia in today's Los Angeles Times looking at Colombian writers Juan Gabriel Vasquez and Hector Abad Faciolince, and how they deal with the nation's long-runnng crime problems. From his story:
Vasquez said that for years his efforts to write about his country's recent history fell flat. But something clicked in 2003 when, living in Spain, he witnessed the terrorist attacks on the Madrid subway, which left dozens dead. Experiencing "a fearful society that felt vulnerable" made him try again. "Vargas Llosas said we writers are like birds of carrion; we feed during times of conflict on the worst aspects of our societies," said Vasquez.
But the gestation period takes awhile, Abad said. "Borges counseled that the time to write poetry is not when you are in love but when you are remembering having loved."
Abad said nearly 20 years passed before he could write about the death of his father, a doctor whose medical training included a fellowship at UCLA under public health pioneer Dr. Milton Roemer. His initial efforts to tell the story of his father's murder by two young assassins invariably ended in tears. "Now, the wounds are scars and I can tell what happened," Abad said. "I would have betrayed by vocation if I had not told it."
Comparing Colombian books to unquestioned classics written after the Mexican Revolution such as "Los de Abajo" by Mariano Azuela and "Pedro Paramo" by Juan Rulfo, professor Hugo Ramirez in Bogotá says it's premature to talk of a new literature arising from his country's recent past. "We're still counting the bodies, evaluating the sociological damage," said Ramirez, who teaches literature at University of the Andes. "A sign that the time has arrived may be when we see writers take a humorous look at what happened, when we're able to laugh at war. But we don't have that distance yet."
Comments