Javier Marías Interview: 'You rest in fiction.' | Louisiana Channel

“There is a great incapacity to let the past be past.” Spanish novelist Javier Marías has been hailed as “one of the most original writers today” and is often mentioned as a contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature. In this extensive video interview, he talks about fiction as a refuge and about his home country Spain – then and now.

Marías believes that only in fiction is it possible to tell a story which is as it is without anyone being able to question it. Some kind of truth lies in literature, he argues, as a lie is always something concerning the truth, and there is no truth previous to a fiction: “And then fiction creates its own world as it were, and then it belongs more to invention than to lies.” In continuation of this, Marías is sometimes happier in his fictional world: “You rest in fiction… it’s a good rest from the real world.” His recent novels take place in the past, and he feels that there used to be a different, less superficial way of being in the world, a “sense of modesty or sobriety that seems to have been lost in the last twenty years or so.” This, he argues, also makes us incapable of accepting ambiguity and the fact that we consist of both good and bad: “People are not aware of their own contradictions anymore.”

“Spain has been an anomalous country for too many years, and now it’s normal. It’s just one more European country.” Spain came out of the Spanish Civil War and straight into Francisco Franco’s nearly 40 yearlong dictatorship (1936-1975), and the youth of Spain seem to have a hard time understanding and accepting the “cowardice” of the past – why people didn’t simply overthrow or kill Franco. This, Marías continues, is due to their inexperience with what dictatorship actually is: “They think: “Oh well, we would have done it.” No, you wouldn’t.”

Javier Marías (b. 1951) is one of Spain’s most celebrated novelists, whose has been translated into numerous languages. He was born in Madrid, but – during the Franco regime – he spent parts of his childhood in the U.S., where his father taught at higher education institutions. Among his novels are ‘All Souls’ (1992) (Todas las almas, 1989), ‘A Heart So White’ (2012) (Corazón tan blanco, 1992), ‘The Infatuations’ (2013) (Los enamoramientos, 2011), ‘Berta Isla’ (2018) (Berta Isla, 2017) as well as the ‘Your Face Tomorrow’ trilogy (2004-2009) (Tu rostro manana, 2002-2007), which was hailed by the Guardian as “the first authentic literary masterpiece in the 21st century.” Marías is the recipient of prestigious awards such as the International Dublin Literary Award (1997) and the Prix Formentor (2013). Marías is also a columnist for El País as well as a respected translator of e.g. Shakespeare, Henry James, and Nabokov. Moreover, he operates the small publishing house Reino de Redonda.

Javier Marías was interviewed by Synne Rifbjerg at the Louisiana Literature festival at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark in August 2018.

Camera: Klaus Elmer
Edited by: Klaus Elmer
Produced by: Marc-Christoph Wagner
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2018

Supported by Nordea-fonden

#JavierMarías #Interview #Writer

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[juandiegoramirezserrano]

Still difficult to accept there won't be more books by Javier Marías.

[ramdularsingh]

Here is another brilliant creative genius working in Spanish Language ! His works are a treasure to the World Literature ! I love his works infinitely.

[juandiegoramirezserrano]

Best writer in Spanish language today. He is simply a genius. Any of his books is a great universe.

[RAUL]

Su faceta como columnista los domingos en El País es maravillosa. Estoy leyendo una recopilación de ellos en un libro llamado "Será el cocinero buena persona" y es una delicia.

[angelicafernandez]

He has such a fine sense of humour. I love it.

[rishwiz]

Can’t believe he is gone 😔 Just found about him and Hilary Mantel. Two giants

[mariajesusalmeidahernandez]

Mi más sincero pésame a la familia. Echaré de menos su columna de los domingos.

[elpidro]

As someone who was born and bred in Catalunya, all I can say is that I agree 100% with Marías... He is spot on

[EdgarSoberon]

This man was a light in the darkness. I will miss his weekly column “La Zona Fantasma” in El país QEPD

[juandiegoramirezserrano]

"You rest in fiction" whenever I feel disgusted with real life I open Your face tomorrow and that world makes me forget about everything and travel to another universe.

[nem]

The hate for Marías in the comments is interesting to me. I'm Canadian so I have a passing rather than intimate view of Catalan separatism. But Marías to me is just being cautious about the proposed means and political personalities of the separatists. He's says explicitly that he can understand and even condone it as a legitimate political goal, but not under the conditions where its leaders and ethos are demagogic and emotional rather than pragmatic and diplomatic. And that is a view I share with him. As a Canadian I can certainly sympathize with Quebecois separatism, not to mention indigenous self-governance which I think has the greatest claim to redrawing borders. But I would feel Marías's trepidation about those separations in the same way: drastic, fervent, surging action to achieve these ends is not to be trusted, because such revolutions simply don't have the virtuous outcomes that people see in their excited hearts. And that pattern is a matter of record, borne out in what Marías calls the major events of history.

Now that I've reiterated what you should have been able to hear just by taking in Marías's point of view with proper care, let me just say that I love his works and any chance to hear him speak is a treat. He is simply one of the greatest artists we have. ✌

[Suburban_Shepard]

Probably better if people disagree, to comment, rather than disliking the video. Louisiana didn't necessarily produce a bad video, or a bad interview, it was just the person on it who has had some debatable thoughts

[selmamouraopazo]

Sueño que me la hiciste y grito al cielo un si pleno y absolutamente silencioso.

[ernestodejosue]

Que diferencia con tu padre. El sí estaba orgulloso de ser español. El era todo un hombre y un intelectual de verdad. Y para mi el mejor escritor del siglo XX.

[ruivog]

They gave the Nobel to Bob Dylan. Not to Javier Marias. I shall never understand, nor accept, that.

[kamalpreetsingh]

This talk is not about literature, it becomes political in the should be talk about literature and writing process

[StuffMadeOnDreams]

To say that nothing can be fully established is utter balderdash. Historians have fully established, for example, the nature, roots, developments and consequences of Nazism. One can't dismiss the existence of truth just because there are people that are willing to tinker with it.
What you have always is revisionism and people that try to twist History, but they peter out as time passes.
Interpretations abound about everything, also about the validity of fiction works, as every single person has a subjective view of things and as the mood of the centuries and fashion is constantly evolving.
I am afraid that Marias had a too lofty concept of fiction, that he himself was living in his own self-created fiction about what is to be a writer and about what is fiction.

[MoNICA-segc]

He was writing very good in Spanish but his stories were a little superficial for me.

[rambla]

He didn't like to allow people to try and wrong, which is the only option to improve.
Didn't you find the right english word for this?

[vodkatonyq]

Slightly disappointed with his English. I thought he was more fluent in it.