2024-04-11 18:46:44
Yiannis Paschos and Panos Zois will talk about the book, published by Isnafi publications. On the occasion of the event in Ioannina, Alexandra Samothraki did a self-interview.
Why are you sure we can be interviewed?
You forget that for the Reader’s account I have interviewed Yoko Ogawa, George Saunders, Juan Mayorga, Lana Bastasic, Terry Eagleton, Roderick Beaton, Emily st John Mandel, Laina, Zoumboulakis, Paschos, Raptopoulos, Philippou and he doesn’t agree?
Yes I know that. But the ones you mention were giving interesting answers. Is not that right;
It can. But I may also have adapted or embellished what I didn’t like in the translation/transcribing. No one will ever know. It is well known that no one sits down to re-read their own interview.
So you’re publicly admitting that you’ve taken creative liberties?
Why, is there another kind of freedom?
You still haven’t convinced me. Why are we good at self-interviewing?
Because of sign then? Aren’t we twins?
That’s right. So first serious question: how did you write our first novel?
I must admit that I did not write Psychostasis to publish it. The blessed Kalfopoulos had started a POLAR detective story competition in collaboration with the Reader. So I started writing and it was so much fun! Then I bothered to read the terms of participation and I am not eligible to participate as a Reader’s partner. And as a true Gemini, instead of giving up on the short story, I continued until it became a novel.
Apparently many publishers agreed with this, because you didn’t eat a bit of rejection until you found a publisher for your book.
Ah, I see now that we’re talking about rejection the “our”s have been cut and it’s become “my” book. Anyway, yes, it’s true. And it wouldn’t have been found either, if it wasn’t for Giannis Paschos to try when I resigned. So Isnafi, who apparently had self-destructive tendencies, was found and taken out. And I liked that it was not a standard publishing house, but a flexible, boutique house based in Ioannina.
You didn’t have any other suggestions, did you?
Exactly! (laughs) Then two well-known Athenian publishing houses wanted Psychostasia, but by then I had already seen how things are done in other ways and I didn’t want them. And neither could I abandon the first publisher who trusted me. We’re kind of married now – we exchange abusive messages late at night and we’re always looking for new ways to disappoint each other – we’re starting a new series of literature on Isnafi and I’ll be taking it over.
Don’t we have too many books already? Sorry already.
We have too much noise. It’s not the same.
Will you finally tell us a few words about yours? You see you don’t know how to do interviews.
You ask the questions and you waited so long to ask me about the book! It’s a cop-comedy, if I may say so. A literary critic, Damianos Andreou, a little infidel, a little pseudo-culturalist, a little lazy, realizes that people of letters are murdered one after another and at their funerals there are crude wreaths with ancient Greek sayings.
So is it noir?
It has fem fatales, some twists, a little gunplay, but mostly it’s fun. Most people who read Psychostasis tell me “I laughed a lot” or “I had a good time”.
So you’ve written a laugh book?
Yes exactly! We have written a book for laughs. That’s what I wanted to do. There is the division into Da Vinci-style “beach books” and “quality books”. I wanted to be somewhere in between – to write a book for those who don’t read “serious” books.
The author and book critic Filippos Filippou has described you as “dangerous”.
Because I make humor with real people. I haven’t invented the wheel either, though. The “comedian” was coined by Aristophanes two and a half thousand years ago.
It didn’t work out for Aristophanes, so no doubt it won’t work out for you either. Are you doing propaganda?
Yes of course! Since we have a war! The purpose is to create new readers, to steal them from elsewhere, from Netflix, from the theater, from their hobbies, and even from their sleep if a book is good enough.
Are you saying this to me? I’ve seen you melt on Netflix.
Yes, and I won’t apologize for it. It is often said that entertainment platforms have replaced reading, but I don’t really believe it. Reading is like watching a great blockbuster and being you and the star and the sets and the screen.
What do you say, good? And what is the author?
The remote control. If you think about it, it just turns on the screen, let alone adjusts the volume. However, most of the time when a series or movie is really good, it is based on a book or a play.
At the end you will tell us that artificial intelligence does not stress you.
It doesn’t bother me, no. Intelligence is in short supply, it is good to enter our lives and let it be artificial. So physical stupidity is better?
What if we live in the Matrix?
Somebody give my phone to Keanu Reeves. Until then, I can spare you plenty of books that depict a much bleaker future like Cormac McCarthy’s The Road or Emily St. John Mandel’s The Sea of Tranquility. Anyway, to answer you, an AI might have asked better questions than you.
Let me return the compliment by saying that he would have given better answers. Go spread out now because the laundry is done – and we’ll talk again when you wake up at 3 in the morning.