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Jorge
Edwards/Octavio
Gómez, Proceso |
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Jorge Edwards
Prefers Paris to Trees
By Sandra Guijarro Vilela*
Chilean writer Jorge Edwards
warns against the new dogmatisms surrounding the issue of nature:
''to make the city of Paris, how many hectares of forest was
it necessary to destroy? I prefer Paris,'' he argues. |
One of Latin America's most important authors,
and winner of the coveted Cervantes Prize in 1999 for his contribution
to the ''enrichment of Spanish literary heritage,'' Edwards spoke
with Tierramérica in an exclusive interview at his home in Santiago.
SANTIAGO - Jorge Edwards lives on the slopes of Santa Lucía hill in
the center of the Chilean capital. His expansive apartment is a mixture
of eras, as is his most recent book ''El sueño de la historia'' (dream
of history), which takes place in the eighteenth century but is interconnected
with today's Santiago. His grandfather's antique Persian rug contrasts
his aluminum and black leather chairs. The small ficus in the corner
is the only plant in the room, but the balcony opens out to a view
of trees that cover the hill, stretching much higher than the fifth
floor where the writer lives.
The author of ''Persona non grata'' (1973), ''El anfitrión'' (1988,
The Host) and ''El origen del mundo'' (1996, Origin of the World)
prefers cities - and he prefers to live in the middle of them. ''I
love cities that can be used. As rundown as they may be, everything
is nearby.''
Q: Does the urban environment motivate you to write?
A: I was a boy of the city center and what drives my imagination
is the urban world, the stories of families and individuals from this
universe, the old city. With the countryside, however, I have a relationship
as a tourist because as a boy I spent long vacations there, but only
until age eight. Later they were vacations in Viña del Mar, which
is very urban. When I was 15, I began going to Zapallar and Cachagua
(northern beaches), which are more solitary, more rustic, with a greater
natural presence - and I greatly enjoyed that.
Q: Has your writing included environmental themes?
A: The theme of pollution appears several times in my books, like
in a chapter of ''La mujer imaginaria'' (1985, The Imaginary Woman).
And in the stories of ''Fantasmas de carne y hueso'' (1992, Ghosts
of Flesh and Blood), there are numerous allusions to those beaches
as they were before and how they are now, especially in the story
''In Memoriam,'' which has to do with the past.
Q: How do you see the relationship of humans with nature?
A:
We must defend nature, but human beings always have primacy, as the
thinking person who is capable of modifying nature to his benefit.
Humans have had to use nature in order to develop. For example, to
make the city of Paris, how many hectares of forest was it necessary
to destroy? I prefer Paris to those hectares of forest. We must be
careful with the new dogmatisms about nature. Humans sometimes commit
terrible mistakes, but we must not reach the extreme of saying that
nature is untouchable, because that is not true. Nature is constantly
changing. There are species of animals that have gone extinct, there
are smaller languages that disappear and, sometimes, it is for the
best. Because if we have a language that is spoken by 1,500 people
in the Amazon, and if learning Spanish, English or Portuguese means
an improvement in their standard of living, access to cultural goods
or even the most basic foods, that must also be taken into consideration.
Nature and humans are in constant evolution.
Q: Your latest book (El sueño de la historia) tells the story of
an historic event from two centuries ago. What was the relationship
of man in the 18th century with nature?
A: The story takes place in this neighborhood (Santa Lucía) and
the Plaza of Arms of two centuries ago, and also now. Man at the end
of the 18th century has a tighter relationship with nature, he is
very close to it. But at the same time he has many ideas about the
possibilities of life in the city. The idea of scientific progress
in that era has to do with strong processes of urbanization. The men
of the 18th century are founders and modernizers of cities. Today,
we are more reserved, more skeptical about modernity because we have
seen all the disasters it has produced in nature and in the quality
of life.
Q: Did 18th century man have an idea of the fragility of life?
That human beings were capable of destroying themselves?
A: The man of that era was much more optimistic about nature. That
great optimism was characteristic of the Enlightenment, of the 'Century
of Lights.' Only occasionally is he affected by some cataclysm, such
as the Lisbon earthquake, which deeply touched the people of the time.
Today, the dominant vision is skeptical, more pessimistic about nature.
Q: Do you have any ideas about what man in the year 3000
will be like?
A: I have no idea what he will be like. Firstly because it could
be that the man of 3000 will not exist. And if he does exist, he could
be someone with a great historical memory supported by extraordinary
technologies, or perhaps without any memory at all. No one knows.
Q: Today
we have more and better technologies then ever, but poverty has not
been eradicated.
A: We could end poverty with our current means, but the organization
of the economies tends to maintain it, and even reinforce it. It is
a serious conflict that still lacks a solution. 'Real socialism' did
not resolve it and capitalism apparently is not doing so either because
it produces large centers of unequal wealth.
Q:
A colleague of yours, also Chilean, has said you are ''politically
defenseless'' or a ''barely liberated liberal.'' How do you define
yourself?
A: That is always a difficult question. I was a man of the left
in my youth and now I am a man of the left who is quite a bit more
reserved and more critical, because I have seen many of the disasters
caused by the left in the 20th century. Then, I grew closer to more
liberal positions. Deep down, I am a progressive liberal, or, if you
rather, a liberal of the left. |
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* Sandra Guijarro Vilela is a journalist and Tierramérica contributor.
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