Lord Jim

Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) was born in the Ukraine, but naturalized British. Captain in the English merchant marine, his novels were outlined from his wide experiences at sea and in other different parts of the world; he was even embroiled in arms smuggling for the Carlist cause in Spain. Due to the malaria, he had to stop travelling and it was then that he started writing. 

He wonderfully depicted English characters against exotic backgrounds and rendered the dangerous life aboard vessels, with skippers yelling through gale force winds. His work is set in the context of colonial expansion in late Victorian England. The nature and effects of European imperialism, brutal and brutalizing, are less central in Lord Jim than in other novels like Heart of Darkness, masterpiece which would be the basis for Apocalypsis Now. Both novels share the same narrator, Marlow. In Heart of Darkness, his trip along the river in the Belgian Congo (which Francis Ford Coppola marvellously turned into the Vietnam background) is compared to Dante´s descent to the inferno, while in Lord Jim he explores the question of honour and moral conflicts of man's struggles at sea. 

Captain Marlow tells about Jim´s fall and redemption. He is a British naval officer disgraced by a single act of cowardice in the past and haunted by a guilty conscience since then. He, who had always dreamt of proving his heroism at sea, was paralyzed with fear the day he had to put his courage to the test. Together with the other disreputable crew, he abandoned their ship in a storm, not taking care of the sleeping passengers who were unaware of their peril. The story, which is partly based on true events, is about moral dilemmas, humiliation and second chances, about men who despite their heroic appearance are quite hollow.

A Greek hero? Like in all Aristotle's tragedies, Jim has got a flaw: probably his romantic idealism. Duty, conscience, self-sacrifice, self-knowledge, personal growth... Is death the only way honour can be retrieved? Does anyone care about all this? We are more than likely to be just talking about old-fashioned values, no longer valid nowadays...

At the foot of the Spanish Steps in Rome

At the right foot of the Spanish Steps, in the very heart of Rome, I´ve just visited the Keats-Shelley House, a museum dedicated to the second generation of the English Romantic poets. It preserves the memory of Keats, Shelley and, to a less extent, Byron. All of them, geniuses who have attained an iconic status, died very young. In fact, it was as if the Romantic spirit and its intensity of feelings had to be associated with youth and that peculiar and sublime immaturity. 

The house was the final dwelling place of Keats, who had travelled to Italy with symptoms of consumption, in vain hope of a better climate to alleviate his poor health, but who would finally die here at the tender age of 25. He was the archetype of the young, beautiful and doomed Romantic writer. On his gravestone (also on one of the walls of the building) a Greek lyre was carved with four of its eight strings broken, in order to "show his classical genius cut off by death before its maturity".

Devastated by his death, Shelley wrote the elegy Adonais. A year later, he would drown off the coast of Tuscany at the age of 29. A volume of Keats´ poetry was found in his pocket. Both are buried in Rome´s Protestant cemetery.

Also imbued by the classical mythology, but having the epic ancient Greece in his imagination, the aristocratic Lord Byron would die (from a fever) for the cause of Greek independence against the Turks, in an adolescent attempt at making himself a Homeric hero.

Definetely, the museum was worth the visit. And a great pleasure to leave, at least for just half an hour, the hustle and bustle of the overcrowded Piazza di Spagna outside. I could enjoy the quiet solitude of the library, full of first editions, and, strolling around the rooms, gaze not only at original letters (by authors like Mary Shelley or even Oscar Wilde or Borges, who adored Keats) but also at a variety of memorabilia such as a lock of Keats´ hair or a carnival mask Byron once bought in Venice.

These tortured poets were dreamers who created a religion from the spirituality of their own experiences. And it is inspiring and overwelming to believe that the fellowship and reciprocal admiration they maintained was genuine and sincere. Nothing to do, I´m afraid, with the so often recurring rivalry between some green-eyed authors nowadays.

Leonard Cohen turns 80

Leonard Cohen, the often labelled "poet laureate of pessimism", turns 80 today. His mournful and gravelly voice, his warmth and elegance and his heart-rending songs still inspiring and enchanting so many.

Federico García Lorca was a poet who touched him deeply, even naming his own daughter Lorca after him. The lyrics of the widely acclaimed Take this Waltz derive from the  Little Viennese Waltz part of theSpaniard´s collection A poet in New York.

Here is my humble tribute to this musical icon, a spiritual songwriter for such unspiritual times.

Nadine Gordimer

Nobel Prize in Literature in 1991, Nadine Gordimer was one of the noteworthiest chroniclers of oppressive life in South African apartheid, a system that crippled humanity. But in her novels and short stories there was much more than writing about the injustices of racial segregation; her concern was also on relationships and this worldwide confusion of human values. 

Rereading The Late Bourgeois World this week, I´ve rediscovered Liz´s story in a novella overtly political - but also of moral dilemmas and search of the self - which makes use of imprisonment as a metaphor of the human condition.

To be or not to be Shakespeare, 450 years on

"After God, Shakespeare has created most", said 19th c. novelist Alexandre Dumas. Indeed, the Bard of Avon has traditionally been considered as the greatest playwright of all time, with a skill of language unequalled and a profound understanding of the human nature.

Othello, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Night´s Dream... are part of our collective cultural inheritance but, was this actor and sharer in an outstanding theatre company, a newcomer in London with humble provincial origins and without much education, the real author of these masterpieces?

The scarce details of his life have been analysed under countless microscopes and several literary critics and scholars have taken the international world of Shakespeare by storm with the idea that the universal genius was another. At the heart of his authorship controversy, three names:

Christopher Marlowe? Also on his 450th birth anniversary this year, he represented the first true voice of Rennaissance in that Tudor England. He was regarded as their best poet and playwright when he was supposedly stabbed to death, very young, in a tavern brawl. Being a spy for the crown, he might have faked his own death and, hidden, could have gone on writing signing with another name.

Theatre patron Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford? At that time it was deemed socially unacceptable for a noble man to be involved in such a a low art as writing, and he might have used a pseudonym. Unlike Shakespeare, he had travelled to Italy, where many of these paramount plays are set, and had enough experience in law and politics to write about it with such complex brilliance.

Essayist Francis Bacon? It´s been affirmed that the philosophical ideas promulgated throughout all these plays reflect the personal opinions of this Cambridge graduate, one of the creators of empiricism. Furthermore, there are ciphers, coded messages about politics, and similarities in style and terminology to the rest of his work.

Thus, to be or not to be Shakespeare, that is the question for some skeptics. Nevertheless,  what is undeniable is that these plots and characters are as alive today as they were when they were originally staged during the late 16th and early 17th centuries. We humans still experience love, loyalty, betrayal, loss, forgivenes, revenge, jealousy, lust, thirst for power... and we still have so much to learn... Definitely, it'd be a lovely option to turn to some of these plays, once again, during these summer holidays, and reflect upon these universal human values and concerns.

On a 23rd of April

It was on a 23rd  of April that Shakespeare (1564) and Lolita´s author, Nabokov (1899), were born; that the Romantic poet Wordsworth died (1850); and, above all, in a year very easy to remember, 1616, that two of the greatest literary giants, Cervantes and Shakespeare, are said to have died. For that reason, this day has been designated as the World Book and Copyright Day by UNESCO.

It is not so important if research has shown that it was not the very same day when The Quixote´s author and the English bard passed away. Cervantes´ death date was based on the modern Gregorian calendar, while Shakespeare´s on the old Julian one, still being used in England at that time. Neither is it significant if the World Book Day is celebrated a few weeks earlier in the UK and in Ireland -on the first Thursday of March- because on the 23rd of April Saint George´s Day has priority.

What really matters is that, at least during these days, a world tribute is paid to books, its authors and the laws that protect them. One of the aims is to encourage everybody to discover and appreciate the sheer pleasure that reading can entail.

Bookcrossing, recitals, literary competitions, prizes, authors signing their work, British children dressing up as their favourite storybook characters... But what about that growing number of infrequent readers? I'm not sure if this worlwide celebration  succeeds in engaging them. If any, this year, they may take advantage of the bookstores discounts today and buy a copy of One Hundred Years of Solitude to decorate their livingroom.

Reading and enjoying The Canterville Ghost

Some of my 2nd year ESO students (Compulsory Secondary Education) have read and enjoyed Oscar Wilde´s The Canterville Ghost.  They have drawn some comics, an amusing tool to foster their written expression and communicative skills, and searched about the great Irish writer´s work. Good excuse today, Saint Patrick´s Day, to show it to you.

"Oscar Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. He studied at Trinity College in Dublin. After that he wrote lots of plays like The Duchess of Padua, poems like Ravenna and tales like The Canterville Ghost." (Irene Cagigas)

"Nobody wanted to live in that house because they said that it was haunted. But Americans are very practical and the Otis family didn´t believe in ghosts" (Selena Martín)

"The tale teaches you many lessons but it is disappointing too." (Sara Cecín)

"Strange things happen and it´s exciting." (Nahia Martínez)

"It´s fantastic to practice my reading in English." (Paula Arce)

"When you read you feel in another place. With books you can travel around the world. When we read we can´t see the words, we see pictures, we see the story in our head. Books make you think about the world, the humans, the animals and our future. Books are our world, our culture, our past, our present and our future... Don´t stop reading, please!" (Cristina Pérez de las Cuevas)