Few Nobel prizes for literature have been celebrated with as much enthusiasm as the one awarded this year to Annie Ernaux. Here many writers and cultural journalists had read her, who claimed her, but her work did not appear on the best-seller lists. She went from Tusquets to Cabaret Voltaire in Spanish, and Angle has recently published four of her titles in Catalan. She obtained the recognition of the Formentor award in 2019, this summer she participated in the Atlàntida Film Fest. She highlights her ability to use the self to talk about the world from intimacy with sharpness, courage and the right distance.
Which leads us to the classification that the director of Cultura/s, Sergio Vila-Sanjuán, makes of the types of narration in autobiographical journalism. One would be more Goya, and would express himself from the bowels; and the other, more Velázquez, would join the Las Meninas painting in a corner, as an observer-portraitist. He adopts this position when Vargas Llosa goes on stage. And other profiles of authors and artists from whom I have learned, published in Libros de Vanguardia. He presents it in the impressive Gabriel García Márquez Library accompanied by Jordi Carrión. The editor, Ana Godó, stresses that this is the finishing touch to the great work of the Consorci de Biblioteques, and defines Vila-Sanjuán as a humanist, a good connoisseur of the publishing world and a key person in his label.
Vila-Sanjuán wanted to show his family and friends this library, which was inaugurated in May (one of the most interesting in Europe, says Carrión), which recalls the link between the author of One Hundred Years of Solitude and Barcelona. Initially, the title of the compendium of 81 creators with whom Vila-Sanjuán has dealt was going to be García Márquez announces Bimbo bread. Because, in 2005, during a meal with the agent Carmen Balcells and other guests, he wanted to know what slogan he kept, one of the ones he made while he was dedicated to advertising in Mexico. García Márquez replied: "For bread, for bread, Bimbo bread." When the book was almost ready, Vila-Sanjuán had a flash of lightning, looked on the internet and discovered that the Cervantes Fernando del Paso award winner had the same slogan. Since they worked together in the 1960s, it must have come about through brainstorming.
García Márquez won the Nobel Prize in 1982, and his first autobiographical volume is entitled Vivir para narrala. Journalism consists of something like this: not in telling one's own life, but in going out of his way to tell what is happening. The deputy director of La Vanguardia, Lola García, has the talent to do it "in a way that is intelligible to everyone", highlights the director of this newspaper, Jordi Juan, because, "especially in the political sphere, there is a danger of writing for colleagues in the profession. Colleagues from other media who, now, from the bottom of the Casa del Libro, point out the headlines that the author is giving during the presentation of The Wall (Peninsula). For example: "Pablo Casado presided over the PP thanks to the procés"
In the front row are Count Javier Godó, the Minister of the Interior Joan Ignasi Elena, representatives of Grupo Planeta such as Patrici Tixis. And they fill the auditorium, among others, Santi Vila, Anna Grau, Joan Ridao, Carles Campuzano, José Antich – who takes a seat next to David Cid–, Ramon Espadaler – who stays standing–, Alberto Fernández Díaz, Jordi Amat, Joan rocket And also: Màrius Carol, Miquel Molina, Francesc-Marc Álvaro, Mariángel Alcázar, Mayka Navarro, Josep Corbella, Ramon Sunyer, Manel Pérez, Enric Sierra, Josep Martí Blanch, Daniel Fernández, Albert Montagut.
The wall becomes the complementary reverse of El naufragio, considered one of the best chronicles on the procés. The author points out that historically there is a mistrust on the part of politics in Madrid about Catalonia, whose reaction gave rise to a confrontation between two nationalisms that, "like all nationalisms, is based on fear and misunderstanding of the other." She starts laughing when she says: “On the part of Artur Mas, proposing a fiscal pact the year that the EU sends the men in black, is not the most opportune; It is like asking for a salary increase when there is an ERE”. Of course, she clarifies, doing politics and journalism today is very difficult, “because you are subject to constant scrutiny; if you speak out, why do you speak out, and if not, why don't you do it”; what in the morning was good, at night is a mistake. At the time of González or Pujol, the handling of time was different, "now we devour any political message in seconds." And some tell it to live it, and others go out of their way to tell it.
Catalan version, here
