Salman Rushdie at the Cheltenham Literary Festival David Levenson / Getty Images
What can come of a consecrated Indian writer writing about Don Quixote and Sancho as two
Easy Rider
crossing the United States?
In the literary field, the fruit of the Macedonian is Salman Rushdie's latest novel,
Quijote
, and in the aesthetic, one of the pearls of the Hay Festival de Querétaro in its digital version, which sat the novelist with the Mexican writer Carmen Boullosa so that for an hour they will talk about Cervantes, Shakespeare, García Márquez, Latin American literature, the black movement in the United States or the new masculinity.
The author of
Children of Midnight
(1981) and
Satanic Verses
(1988) spoke of his latest novel, a contemporary satire of Miguel de Cervantes' classic.
In
Quixote
, Sam DuChamp, a mediocre novelist, creates the character of Quixote, an American businessman obsessed with television and in love with one of the stars of the small screen.
Quixote embarks on a journey through the United States together with his imaginary son, Sancho, in search of his love.
The original combination came out of a chance only at the height of one of the best-selling writers in the world.
While preparing the prologue to a foreign book, Rushdie reread Cervantes's work and from that match her latest novel emerged, the Indian writer revealed.
“I wanted to write a novel about a trip across the United States and before I started I had to reread
Don Quixote
and that's where this mixture came from.
Actually, I did not know how my protagonist was going to be but I wanted it to be on a motorcycle and to include something of the relationship between parents and children, "she explained.
In his book, Quixote and Sancho are dark and of Hindu origin, but the squire and the hidalgo have, on this occasion, a relationship that he compared with Pinocchio.
“In my book, Sancho is not Sancho, but the son that Quixote wants to have because he needs it.
Sancho is a character who receives feedback from whoever is next to him and, in this case, he is like Pinocchio, a figure created in wood by a father who wishes to have a child ”.
And how does someone approach a book like
Don Quixote
?
Can a consecrated writer fall in love with one of the masterpieces of world literature?
Well, it depends on the translation and Carlos Fuentes, Rushdie replied.
“The first time I read
Don Quixote
was during my college days but it had a very bland translation.
And I would say to my friends 'I don't understand it: why is this such a great work?'
But when I met Carlos Fuentes he sent me a 19th century version of English and the characters began to come to life.
Fuentes brought the book to life for me, ”he noted.
The writer, born in Bombay 73 years ago, recognized his strong links with Latin American literature in which he landed hand in hand with García Márquez and Carlos Fuentes.
Then came his travels through Nicaragua, Argentina or Mexico where he fell in love with a world that was very similar to his native India.
“When I started reading in Spanish I had never been to Latin America but it seemed like a world similar to India.
They were two civilizations with a strong colonial past, but one that imposes their local culture and that has suffered from different military dictatorships.
In both places there is a great division between rich and poor, a confrontation between country and city and where religion plays an important role.
There is a similar world on both sides.
When I read García Márquez's stories of dictators, I remember my own dictators ”, he summarized.
Despite being inspired by Shakespeare, Voltaire or Cervantes, the Indian writer explained that the main challenge when sitting at the keyboard is to continue using techniques that have been overwhelmed.
"The most difficult thing for a writer, in the midst of this crazy reality that we have to live, is to continue using realistic novel techniques, because the world is no longer realistic but fantastic."
Another of the panics described has to do with the years.
“The bad thing about being a young writer is that you don't know anything, you lack the education of life and you have to feign wisdom.
Instead, when you are old, you must feign energy.
The challenge is to combine both ”.