A few days before the celebration of the Immaculate Conception, the Purísima, a few weeks before Christmas, last Monday and just because, Ignasi Moreta presents at the Espai Abacus No prendràs el nom de Déu en va (Fragmenta), the second of the series that the publisher dedicates to the ten commandments. The public occupies all the available seats. I distinguish by listening attentively to Lídia Pujol, Carles Duarte, Carles Torner and Joan Carles Mèlich. We are surrounded by books, but also by toys, and for those things of adaptation to space, a few of the books are scenically arranged within shelves that cannot say it more clearly: “By playing you learn to live!” What is reading and talking, but playing?
Professor Francesco Ardolino assures that as a child, when he went to catechism, he understood that this commandment was very easy to fulfill, because it was about not blaspheming. However, alas, it turns out that he lived in “the Roman periphery, like the Bronx, and everyone blasphemed there, including the priests!” Ardolino, a “radical agnostic,” assures that he does not want to reduce the book to a slogan, and cites Dante to talk about the various interpretations of a psalm, ultimately the use of language – which is also the material of prayer. –, and he assures that it is a very well-written book that asks more questions than it finds answers. The nun Teresa Forcades, like a good theologian, gives a dissertation that at times seems for experts, with a certain terminological density. “A nice critique of the book,” she says. For her, “trying to explain God is trying to explain myself,” that is, also asking questions, because “what would humanity be without questions that have no answers?” Moreta explains that, although the book was written in a few months, it also collects “almost thirty years of readings and reflections on religion.” She assumes that you don't have to be a theologian to write about religion, but “sometimes it seems like anything goes, and that's not it either.” Boldly, he defends that the second commandment is “a profound charge against the dangers of religion from the very heart of religion,” because it is often religious establishments that, in his opinion, use God for their own sake. He even reflects on spirituality and religion without God.
While the conversation ends, I run so as not to arrive too late at the Night of the Editions that the Gremi d'Editors de Catalunya has called at the Goya theater, with such an exhaustive representation of the sector that we do not dare to detail. Just one scene, already on the street: while a group of editors are deciding where to go to fill their stomachs, a boy approaches, somewhere between nervous and euphoric, asking that, if anyone has tobacco, he buys him a cigarette, and of course, there are those who He directly gives it to him, and he does not refrain from saying that everything must be celebrated, “that today is the best day of my life.” We think he is exaggerating, or joking, but then he explains that he has been in prison for eight years, “for trafficking,” and has just been released on parole, and he shows us the control bracelet on his ankle, and we all understand it, but we don't. , this is not the only reason for his joy, but he is going to see his son, which is what he is most excited about. We look at the positive side of life, yes, we don't need Monty Python to remind us every day.
It goes without saying that one of the pleasures of life is sex, a prime literary material, but it often fails to give the desired impression, with scenes that are more discouraging than anything else. Carlota Rubio has encouraged the people of Finestres to celebrate an evening that rewards the worst sexual scenes in the most recent Catalan narrative. “El pitjor sexe de l'any” is an idea inspired by the Bad Sex Awards given annually by The Literary Review magazine, and given the good reception, Marina Espasa talks about “the first gala of this contest”, that is, that To begin with, there would have to be at least a second one. We'll get there. The bookstore is filled with a hundred young people who have come to play and vote, and also to listen to Pol Mallafré and Oye Sherman read the selected fragments. Yes, the two readers are humorists, because it is not about making a treatise, no. By playing you learn to live!
Fifteen texts have been selected from the latest books by Pere Antoni Pons (Against the World), Marc Vintró (A Wild Desire to Scream), Gemma Ruiz Palà (Our Mothers), Andrea Genovart (Consum Preferent), Carlota Gurt (Biography of fire), Raül Garrigasait (Prophecy), Júlia Bacardit (A sentimental diary), Borja Bagunyà (A dark house and a scourge), Irene Solà (I gave you eyes and you looked into the darkness), Albert Sánchez Piñol (Prayer to Prosérpina ), Eva Baltasar (Triptych), Emma Zafón (Married and silent), Xavier Bosch (March 32) and Sílvia Soler (Estimada Gris). A special mention must be made of Laura Calçada, who not only dared to be there, but also chose and read a scene from her Fucking New York herself.
Once the fragments have been read and laughed, while the tickets are counted, a long scene is read, out of competition, from Urbàs i Org: La sang dels Déus (Ediciones Secc), a delirious one – in a good way, of course. – proposal by David Gómez Simó.
Read the verdict: "Adam rides me to the rhythm of Shakespearean iambic pentameter or whatever Ricard II's lines are made of", says part of the winning fragment. It is by Marc Vintró, but it is clear, as Rubio said, that "the quality of the scene is not proportional to that of the book".
There are also some editors: Rosa Rey and Irene Pujadas, from Angle, and Marina Llompart, from L'Altra, and Laia Regincós, who in Ela Geminada has released an erotic collection, Idil·lis, because “from sex you can talk of many things".
Catalan version, here
