The writer Javier Cercas (Ibahernando, Cáceres, 1962) entered the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) this Sunday, November 24, in an event in which he criticized “idiotic” writers who do not deal with “the common, with politics.”
“The word idiot comes from the Greek idiotswhich means a person who only cares about his own business and ignores what is common, that is, of the public, that is, of politics. Today, as always, a real writer can be anything, except an idiot,” Cercas defended during his speech, in which he also reflected on the “usefulness” of literature.
Under the title of Misunderstandings of modernity. A manifestothe new academic has personified that criticism towards writers who do not leave “their ivory towers”, those who are not “committed to the destiny of their country”, with the figures of Marcel Proust, Frank Kafka, Jose Luis Borges or James Joycewho on many occasions have been labeled as that type of “idiot” writer that Cercas has spoken of.
“It is not that the writer (or the artist, or the scientist) ignores his time and his peers; it is that he assumes that the best thing he can do to be useful to them is is to focus on your work and, at least temporarily, isolate himself from his time and his peers. This is the essential paradox…”, he pointed out.
Thus, Cercas takes over the ‘R’ chair of the RAE, vacant since the death of Javier Marias on September 11, 2022. He was welcomed on behalf of the corporation by academic Clara Sánchez.
The Plenary Session of the Royal Spanish Academy elected Javier Cercas as an academic in the session of June 13, 2024. His candidacy was presented by the academics Pedro Álvarez de Miranda, Clara Sánchez and Mario Vargas Llosa.
Precisely, he has described his predecessor as “great Spanish novelist, simply”in addition to highlighting Marías’ commitment to taking sides on the “thorniest” issues, an example of what a writer should be, according to the definition that Cercas has given.
“For decades he wrote weekly in the newspapers about the reality that surrounded him, he did not shy away from taking sides on the most thorny issues, he engaged in controversies and fought relentlessly against the errors, corniness, vileness, degenerations, injustices and stupidities with which he lived. or with whom he felt he lived. If that is not a writer committed to his time and his country, what the hell is it?“, he assured.
“The glorification of the artist is ridiculous”
Cercas has focused his speech on the importance of literature and its “usefulness”, although he has also disfigured the current “glorification of the artist” that seems “ridiculous.”
“For Roberto Rossellini, the great Italian filmmaker, this glorification of the artist gave him ‘want to vomit’; To me it simply seems ridiculous (…) Here is the second, enormous misunderstanding: the misunderstanding consists of believing that the protagonist of literature is the author; false: the protagonist of literature is the reader, who is the one who finishes the books. A book without readers is a dead letter; It’s only when the reader opens it,” he pointed out.
In that sense, the writer has defended that the idea of “usefulness of literature” lies in the fact that literature “is always useful” when it does not pretend to be, because otherwise it is “propaganda.”
“In addition to being a pleasure, reading is a form of knowledge of oneself and others, just like sex: that’s why, when someone tells me that they don’t like reading, the first thing that comes to mind is to offer my condolences.” , accompany him in the feeling, just as if he had told me that he doesn’t like sex (…) Literature is useful as long as it does not set out to be so.: as soon as it aims to be useful, it becomes propaganda or pedagogy, and it stops being literature, at least real literature, and it stops being useful,” he reiterated.
Cercas concluded his speech by praising the readers, who are “a walking time bomb” at the moment when they have a “own thought.
“A man or woman with a good novel in their hands is a public danger, a walking time bomb, a potential independent thinker. Authentic literature is composed of words in rebellion, and hence it represents a danger to power, to any power, which for that reason – because it only wants submissive citizens, people who say Yes – will always aspire to control it, to subdue it, to domesticate it; If it were up to him, don’t hesitate: he would ban it immediately,” he concluded.
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