«It unnerves me that the world that was ours lacked prestige, as if it were a human, scientific, technical error. As if that way of living was erratic. As if we had to abhor what happened because it was something not honorable. And it was neither worse nor better: it was the way of living that we had,” said Julián Quirós, poet and director of ABC, at the presentation of his latest book, ‘Before Google reaches us’ (Reino de Cordelia), in a statement that summarized, in its own way, the collection of poems and the conversation around it. The event, held at the Ateneo de Madrid, was introduced by Joaquín Pérez Azaústre, and included, in addition to the author, Ángel Antonio Herrera, Luis Alberto de Cuenca, Jesús Egido and Carlos Aganzo. There was also music: that of Cristina Mingo Salcedo and Sara Ropero Encabo.
Pérez Azaústre began by referring to the echo of the book’s title with that Charlton Heston film, ‘When destiny reaches us‘. And then he said: “At the Ateneo we really like polyhedral profiles.” He was referring, of course, to Quirós’ status as a poet and journalist, two worlds that enrich each other, in his opinion, although they seem so far away at first glance: noise and intimacy. Carlos Aganzo cited Larra and Umbral, two men who inhabited those two vocations, and Jesús Egido, editor of Reino de Cordelia, celebrated that poetry is closer to the present, as in the case of Quirós. Also among the public you could see that mix: Jorge Fernández Díaz, Esperanza Aguirre, Andrés Amorós, Juan Manuel de Prada, Nieto, Puebla, Javier Lostalé, Elena Cué, Marina Valcárcel, Paula Varona, Mayte Rico, Diego Doncel, AJ Ussía, Enrique de Ybarra, Emilio del Río, Manuel Marchena…
Soon, Ángel Antonio Herrera glossed the book with his lyricism. At first he pointed out that the topic was daring, because “Google is not a word of literary origin, but rather the opposite. It is a chosen agenda, the digital monarchy, without poetic tradition. Then he assured that the book has two parts, that is, wings: the lost time and the right now, past and present, memory and something else to come. «Quirós illuminates the threat of a virtual memory where the memory is at the mercy of the algorithm, which is almost like saying that the memory no longer exists. “We exist until Google catches up with us,” he asserted.
“For me, an ABC director has to write poetry better than one who is not,” he joked. Luis Alberto of Cuencawho then remembered that it is difficult to use the word Google in a poem. «But we don’t leave you alone, Carlos Aganzo and I have used the word Google in a poem. “We give you shelter.” And laugh again. More seriously, he addressed the topic of memory, one of the axes of the book. «It is almost a poetry of protest against this computer world that is harassing us and that threatens our memory. And memory, as everyone knows, except the educators who wanted to erase it, is fundamental: without memory there is nothing. “We should recite the memory of the Gothic kings every day,” he stressed.
From I to we
In his collection of poems, Quirós recalls a time that is more distant in memory than in time. There is no nostalgia, but memory, in an act of poetic justice that comes to say: this was like that, let’s not forget it, we were there, in that place that does not exist today. «Everything we knew / we are missing, / what we were / is no longer what we were», he laments in the first poem. «In this book I have gone from I to we. This is the chronicle of a certain way of living, in a certain place, in a specific time. The we gives me more peace of mind, the plural gives me more relief. “We journalists are used to talking about others.” “And I am a journalist who dabbles in poetry,” he said. As references he cited Saint John of the Cross (“We have never gone further”) Juan Ramon Jimenez (“all of him”), Miguel Hernandez (“because of the rural, surely”) and Fernando Pessoa.
Cristina Mingo Salcedo and Sara Ropero Encabo
TANIA SIEIRA
Why doesn’t nostalgia emerge? asked Ángel Antonio Herrera. «Poetry is containment, not overflow. This is very important in journalism, too: keep the animal restrained, not let it run. This containment, furthermore, is the one that best reflects what I experienced. Containment does not respond to modesty. I wanted to reflect that world, not adorn it. And that world was austere. The diversity of options was short. And if I wanted to reflect that I had to be faithful to that,” concluded Quirós.
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