Genre literature, whether black as science fiction, fantasy or horror, has been understood for many years as little more than entertainment. Little by little, however, it has been seen how it not only reflected what was happening at the time but also served to warn of what was pointing to the future. It is perhaps enough to point to the Orwellian 1984.
Antoni Munné-Jordà (Barcelona, 1948) has dedicated much of his literary career to science fiction since the 1970s, a time he wanted to portray in fear. Now he recovers in Six pamphlets by i a translation, from the new publishing house Medusa, some stories of that time that had been left in the drawer or scattered in magazines.
Written between 1968 and 1973, five of the six stories had been part of a collection that won an award, but the publisher that had to publish it closed. The author is very clear about the pamphleteering origin of these stories, immersed in a political battle that warns both of how a regime that leads to disaster can be perpetuated and of the terror that despite the death of the leader, his spirit could continue to do harm.
“The context –explains Munné-Jordà– was very marked and I tried to make a direct attack on the situation. So I was very much looking for form, a tone inspired by classics like Poe or Lovecraft, or Maupassant, but also Alfons Nadal or Miquel Llor, and also introducing Ionescu's absurdity and experimentation”.
In fact, this same relatively unitary style unravels in stories of various lengths, and in which the object of fear can be both relatively ambiguous and explicit, whether they are invaders of whom we hardly know anything or an equine civilization that they end up replacing. human speech by neighing. And although the cornology and the evils of the society of the moment can be confronted, the narrations also work independently of this gaze. The shortest story, for example, Jonathan, barely two pages, is a tribute to Salvador Puig Antich. The vampires murdered Jonathan, who had risen up: “Molts is going to feel alleujats. Vampires will be farts for some time and may be more benevolent. O potser no (...) Llavors el vam bury i vam posar les flors. I vam oblidar Jonathan” (Many were relieved. The vampires would be fed up for a while and maybe they would be more benevolent. Or maybe not (...) So we buried him and put flowers. And we forgot about Jonathan).
The book closes with the translation of a Jules Verne story that Munné-Jordà had done for a compilation of all the French writer's stories, and its inclusion responds both to the unity of a certain style and to the fact that it also responds to denunciation and social indignation, here against greed and stinginess.
The origin of the book, in any case, is a request from David Gálvez when he was starting to organize an editorial catalogue, and that is how Munné-Jordà, one of the great names of fantastic literature in Catalan, returns to his origins literary when he has almost finished his work, because he assures that he has still written some story "by commitment", but he no longer has the drive to face new literary challenges. He already said it that way when he published his latest novel, Dins el riu, entre els joncs (Males Herbes, 2018), but here it is.
Catalan version, here
