Since the 1993 release of
The Scale of Maps
, and throughout a dozen novels, some essays and stories for children, Belén Gopegui (Madrid, 58 years old) has concentrated on deciphering the mechanisms that relate people to life. society and expose them through precise and expressive prose.
Now publishes We
would exist the sea
(Random House Literature), a novel that tells of the disappearance of a woman with an unstable character and the search undertaken by the friends with whom she shares a flat. The novel alternates two narrative planes, one in which the life of the characters is detailed and the other that seems to insert them into a broader framework, where they exist but also everything that surrounds them, although they do not perceive it. For example: “[Human beings] know the anguish of not getting to where on time, yet apparently they are not expected. To designate the very good they sometimes use names of the impossible: this is fabulous, this is fantastic ”. Sitting on the terrace of the Madrid Costume Museum, the author explains that this voice is very important. “It would fulfill the role of the narrative voice that is present in any book.I wanted to make it explicit because the novel plays at directing the gaze towards places where it is not normally directed and I want to tell why, and for that voice to tell what it is looking at and what it expects from what it pays its attention to ”.
Intensity and violence
What has led Jara to leave her home without a trace? By pointing out the adventures of the protagonists on the warp of the world, the author allows us to understand a little better that what are considered individual actions are actually part of a set in which there is the possibility of intervening. "It is impossible to write a narrative without debating with the narratives that precede you, that surround you," Gopegui believes. “There are narratives that what they do is agree to the poetics of their time. I understand that this novel does not fully agree with the poetics of my time, where I think there is a preference for intensity, and an intensity with bias. It is not considered that a moment of generosity can be very intense. But there are good ways of acting that build the world. Violence is not in the human heart, but outside,in what does not let you live. There must be a space for a different intensity, to tell that letting yourself be carried away by social pressure when accepting the dominant codes is worth less than opposing that pressure through common ties ”.
This feeling has been building that it is easy to be bad
It is precisely in the community that they have built where the characters can find meaning in their lives.
Also in the generous impulses that emerge at a time when human beings are at risk of isolation.
For the writer, feelings “are not separate from thoughts or what is done.
This feeling has been building that it is easy to be bad.
The question is why, in a particular situation, it is easy to be mean, to deceive, to exploit.
The other day they told me that in a class they started by saying: 'Don't lend your notes here, this is a matter of competence, whoever can for himself'.
Encouraging this idea creates loneliness, disunity and difficulty in facing what seems unfair to you ”.
Faced with this current, “these characters are trying to build a house against all odds.
Everything is aimed at making this difficult today and that social procedures, working hours and current laws do not facilitate encounters, do not facilitate the time for building relationships, even less when living in hostile, small, cold, impossible physical spaces to defray ”.
Science and poetry
Another character, Hugo, feeds his infatuation by writing poems that are reproduced in the book, and that condense his experience with another language. References to poets such as René Char, Baudelaire and Cernuda appear, alternating with scientific allusions. The recurring presence of these leaks not only gives the protagonists a break, but also allows us to see them in another light. “There is a poetry of daily use, which is similar to the one in the lyrics of the songs, and which serves to formulate moments and condense an intensity, let's say, with a small letter, and it seemed to me that it was good that it was part of life of them ”, Gopegui explains. “In terms of science, there are questions that anyone can read, just like anyone can read poetry. There are no separate compartments to create.Sometimes the scientific description is very sharp. For example, I recently looked for the idea of friction, because along with the idea that there are cracks, I was interested in the image of friction that makes the spark jump. That description as 'the force that exists between two rough surfaces in contact' helps to understand where the chosen metaphor comes from. We must not say 'here is the literary and not here'. We are working with the matter of reality and everything we can learn matters ”.We are working with the matter of reality and everything we can learn matters ”.We are working with the matter of reality and everything we can learn matters ”.
What you have to achieve is a society where you do not have to say no so many times
It is read in the novel: "Each person has to exchange a few hours for a little food and a roof and, also, know that he is part of the group and contributes his task." Faced with this idea of concealed dignity, the author adds that, although Jara's character does not get an ideal job, it does not mean that she resigns: “I want to face what is with what it should be. I find it a bit idealistic and tricky to say 'if you don't like this, leave it; If you don't want to do this, say no. ' Not all people have the same backing, financial or otherwise, to say no. What you have to achieve is a society where you don't have to say no so often. In an article, David Graeber talks about the meaning of work being its usefulness. I believe that the works have to be useful without incurring idealisms.It is very useful to be cleaning what nobody wants to clean, but it is also very hard. That work will have to dedicate fewer hours and it should be much better paid, while jobs that do not serve anyone or that harm the people who do them, it will be necessary to try to ensure that they do not have space in this society. The characters in this novel demand the right to do with their lives something that serves, that allows them to support themselves and that, at the same time, does not destroy them ”.that allows them to maintain themselves and that, at the same time, does not destroy them ”.that allows them to maintain themselves and that, at the same time, does not destroy them ”.
Writers and novels
Since Belén Gopegui began publishing in the 1990s, the percentage of female writers has grown. It is an improvement, but some inertias persist: “I was helped by writers older than me and I have tried to do the same, because I have received it and it seems logical to me. Now there is greater interest in literature written by women, although I think there are still many shortcomings, a lot of condescension. Perhaps the worst in the cultural environment is condescension. As for the literary canon, it continues to have a perspective that excludes and paternalizes works written by those who are not part of the hegemonic. More and more people lose interest in this canon, because its own construction and its gaze reveal a highly debatable vision of literature. Not because it includes or not women,but rather by how it has been constructed and by to what extent certain ideas are replicated, or debated or assumed. Many women, to the extent that they have been elsewhere, have more capacity to elaborate critical discourses. They are more interesting, but take longer to make their way. And one way to appease their criticism is condescension. "
Fiction is not opposed to lies or truth. Work in a different field
The novel has a special force for the transmission of ideas. Gopegui defends that his fundamental tool is fiction, which “is very powerful, because it is something we work with every day. Even when we reconstruct the story itself, we almost inevitably introduce elements of fiction. But above all in fiction, operations, rules, forms, behaviors can be rehearsed that cannot be rehearsed in reality. I believe that fiction is not opposed to lies or truth. He works in a different field and from there he can reveal the inconsistency of certain world views. It takes a detour and, when it is done in a precise way, it acquires a unique power. The works that we most admire have done that: this idea of love is doctored, or this idea of idealism is absurd,or this romanticism of evil is too solemn and interested ”.
That same attention has been placed on the writing of children's books, such as
El balonazo
(2008
), The day that mom lost her patience
(2009),
My mission was to get closer to Miranda
(2015) or
Las Nubesfuria
(2021): tried what interests me in children's literature. On the one hand, not stooping to talk to the children, not making a small voice, working with the idea that there are concepts and vocabulary that they may not know, and at the same time dealing with topics that seem relevant to me. For example, in
El balonazo
I propose the hypocrisy of explicitly saying that the important thing is to participate, while, not only implicitly, society and the environment, the media say that the important thing is to win, have good grades, be ahead.
How does that crack on someone's head and how can it be taken to another terrain?
When she writes, Belén Gopegui seeks to find out.
The women who helped me
“There are always more names, but there are four pillars, four teachers who gave me their support and who are gone today, although they are still there. Carmen Martín Gaite: we met by chance in a bar, she read her texts to me, she spoke to me about rigor, madness, how to be in this little world without agreeing with those who would act as the devil. He supported me with my first novel both before and after publishing it, and continued to do so. Mercedes Soriano is less known. He died early, at age 49. I had already written a novel that I highly recommend, Historia de no, when I met her. Then I started to make a living in cultural journalism, and she guided me with readings, introducing me to people, telling me what she wanted to do and what she certainly did not want to do with her writing. With Carmen Frías, film editor,I was there when he edited all the films in which I have participated ”. Gopegui co-wrote with Ángeles González-Sinde the scripts for The Sleeping Luck and The Reasons for My Friends, the latter adaptation of his novel The Conquest of the Air, directed by Gerardo Herrero, for whom he also wrote The Archimedes Principle. “The editor is perhaps the last narrator in the story and is also someone who observes in secret, who knows almost everything about the mechanisms of narration. At least that was my experience with her. He always explained to me, did not assume that others knew, and was not afraid to know. I got to know Pilar Vázquez, translator of John Berger, of Lyn Hejinian, of John Steinbeck, when she had already published several novels. He discovered me readings and taught me his way of working with words and connecting that work with life.There is support through knowledge, warm knowledge, that approaches without offending and without false modesty. And there are also supports that have to do with helping to move a book, connecting people with each other, and understanding that writing is not a matter of fleeting flashes, but an inseparable task from the rest of the tasks in the world ”. BG
miracles
“Life takes you down strange paths, says a song, and sometimes life takes you down paths you always wanted to be on. That happened to me when I met Ana Molina and when she asked me to write lyrics for the group Milagros. Ana, a music teacher at a public school in the Ventilla neighborhood of Madrid, had managed to form a group of choral electronic pop music with several students. In the midst of a thousand difficulties, they had already recorded two incredible albums, sometimes with other people's lyrics and sometimes not, with amazing voices and a great ability not to get into the mechanism of the expected and of fashion. I really liked, in addition to its strength, a power that leaves behind both victimhood and its opposite, that false and interested idea of individual merit that only serves to legitimize inequality,because if they could, it is because anyone who had what they call talent could also. Mine was a minor job, but also one of those times when dreams come true. Suddenly, the words no longer go alone, they take refuge in real voices, with music, with stories of concrete lives that come from afar and go far ”. BG
Grandmother (BG lyrics)
“Please, a black coffee,
my grandmother is very sick.
Black as the sun and the day
because my grandmother does not sing.
Grandma, when I come back
I want to take you to the sea
so that nothing hurts
and you start singing.
Today I don't want company
because my grandmother turns off.
She is all my support,
the light that always keeps me.
Grandma, if you only knew
how much I have loved you.
There is no one who loves you more, you know it and I tell you.
Grandma, when I come back
I want to take you to the sea
so that nothing hurts you ”.
We would exist the sea
Author:
Belén Gopegui.
Publisher:
Literatura Random House.
Format:
304 pages, 18.90 euros.
Pre-order for € 17.95 on Amazon
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