Set in a bombed-out city, he skillfully unfolds a shocking story with heroes, deprived of basic goods, struggling to survive in chilling conditions, which in the second part of the book acquire the dimensions of a science fiction thriller – only they are not at all, as Julia Ganasu mirrors, ugh, real situations.
The author talks to “P” about “The Second Presence” (published by Kastaniotis), a title that refers to a second chance in life, “to a better future for which we must fight”, as she says. Hence it gives space to hope space to faintly smile.
-How did the “second presence” come about, which takes us to the center of a particularly hard story of survival, but also coming of age, in the midst of bombings in a country?
I am shocked by the images of the bombing of populated areas where civilians are sacrificed effortlessly on the altar of war. The material for the first part of the book, in which a teenage granddaughter with her paralyzed grandmother on her back tries to find shelter in a bombed-out city, came from the attacks in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip. At the same time, videos came to my attention of a surrogate mother company’s shelter in Kiev where the production of “custom” babies continues throughout hostilities. This became, like, an obsession for me. Thus, I wrote the second part of the book where the granddaughter and the grandmother are “captive” in the shelter with the surrogate nannies. The third part is a surprise!
–“Backs bear burdens, they hunch, they bend, they get up again in the ages of ages” said the hero of your previous book “Fertile Days”. The back, it comes back here – that of the granddaughter Annas, as a means of transportation for Olga’s paralyzed grandmother. Was this repetition intentional?
The truth is, it wasn’t done on purpose. When children take the reins and take over, in a sense, the “raising” of the parents, as happened in my own case, the old creatures often “wrap” themselves around the children’s torsos, their arms sometimes acting as ivy and sometimes like a magic cloak. Then, the bodies adapt to coexist and interact and the backs that hunch, accommodate, twist, try to straighten, are the most eloquent point.
–The double body (granddaughter and grandmother), embraces, initially, with “old hands-dough-soft ivy”, a designation that changes each time, depending on the experienced situation. How did you experience the writing process from start to finish?
For me, traveling with the “double” body, this new fully alive creature of the fauna of war, as well as with the two heroines who make it up and fight from the beginning to the end of the work with whatever “weapon” they have, has been helpful in my own struggles, comforting, a point of inspiration, release, redemption.
-The self-evident, in time of peace, becomes precious in time of war. In the absence of these, they come as compensation “the words, the ideas, the sentences” through somewhat crumpled pages of “The Satanic Verses” of Salman Rushdie. Will you tell us about this consolation and why you chose this particular author?
Reading literary texts is a major refuge for me. Therefore, when all is “dry”, my heroines look to one of the most iconic and misunderstood novels of the twentieth century as a field from which they draw strength since “The Satanic Verses” is an epic about human existence. Yes, literature can “nourish” when there is no food, “quench the thirst” when there is no water, or at least act helpful and supportive in the management of loss, deficiencies, despair.
-Adding to the surrounding horror of the war condition are the Halloween masks you wear on some characters. What do they symbolize?
Halloween masks symbolize the anonymity that people may need to commit crimes in order to survive. In addition, the carnival masks “unmask” the false promises of the politicians regarding the help (not) provided to the citizens who remain in their homes while the cities are bombarded. They expose the illusions created by the declarations of “civilized” wars. Consequently, the find in question works ironically in the book: all the National Guard guards give the residents amid a “dirty” bomb threat are plastic carnival animal masks.
-You raise the issue of the abuse-unfreedom of women, in this case as coerced, medicated, wombs, in order to give birth to healthy children for prominent clients. Thrillers are reminiscent of what unfolds in that shelter…
Clearly, the novel in question is an indictment of the commercialization of the human body and gendered violence. The heroines become “witnesses” to the plight of the modern world in an extreme, but real condition: the creation and sale of babies “to order” and why not, “perfect” beings.
-“Vagabonds: Liars! Coprologni”. A phrase addressed to the world’s powerful, who decide the fate of citizens. Do you believe in any change to this reality?
I believe that we should always protest and fight for a better future, for a “Second Coming” in life.
– Succession of strong punches in the stomach the “second presence” and only towards the end, allows a breath with “shades” of relief. What is your greatest fear for the future of our planet and what is your greatest hope?
My biggest fears are the rise of racist, money-loving and consumerist patterns, the rise of violence and the dominance of the “image” on a global level. However, I choose to be optimistic. I believe that humanitarianism will always prevail by instinct, preserving and cultivating the values of solidarity, mutual aid, justice, peace. This is also done in “Second Presence”. In the midst of war and death, a love blossoms between the granddaughter and the boy wearing a Halloween duck mask. Throughout the book, the reader is confronted with darkness that is often softened by light, with an optimistic outlook that springs from the love of man and nature and feeds back into the struggle.
-When starting to write a book, what is your primary concern?
I am interested in talking about our time through heroes who are in a special condition and become potential symbols, to exorcise personal demons, to express myself and communicate with my work in a way that I do not communicate with any living creature, so that to manage adversity, to feel, for a while, free.
#Literature #nourishes #satisfies
