2023-10-02 06:30:09
The Colombian Nicolás G. Botero is the director of the Finestres literary residence, which was presented a few days ago and is located in the Sanià house, in a paradisiacal place in Palamós
A lazy person like me is given a scholarship to live here, and I wouldn’t write anything. I would spend the day in the pool, at the sea, walking or watching TV.
I can understand that, but almost everything that is useful for life is useful for writing. If you spend a month here contemplating nature, simply looking at Cala Sanià, looking at the horizon, swimming in the pool or walking through the woods, and you don’t write a single page, it’s already worth it. This parenthesis in everyday life will bear more fruit than any other, than a party vacation in Acapulco or what do I know. I am not asking anyone to come and write strictly, they will see if they take advantage of the time or not, it is their problem, but a large part of the invitation is precisely to enjoy nature, what is here.
If you spend a month here contemplating nature, simply looking at Cala Sanià, looking at the horizon, swimming in the pool or walking in the woods, and you don’t write a single page, it’s already worth it
That is, I can come, not write a single line and nobody will throw anything in my face.
No, because I don’t ask the writers who have been here either, to show me what they’ve done, it’s an intimate thing.
Is the spirit of Truman Capote still around?
I want to believe that it exists.
Speaking of Capote, do you have to be cold-blooded to be elected to reside here?
On the contrary, it is precisely about finding the combinations that can facilitate it. It is not rational work. Of course, there is a demanding part which is to pass a jury of very good readers, but it is in no way a cold mathematical calculation, it is something that lives in another region of us, human beings.
And if it is granted to me and I dedicate myself to organizing parties, afters i raves?
No, that’s impossible, because I’ll be here forbidding it (laughs).
The windows must always be opened towards culture. And towards nature
Windows. Where to open?
Always towards culture. And towards nature. And towards all culture that is able to put nature in a very broad sense, not only like trees and the sea, but in the behavior of everything that exists, respecting harmony.
Camba said that if they took him to the sea or the mountains and he got bored, he wasn’t inspired, he needed the city, the people.
There are all kinds of writers. Bukowski was also someone who hated nature, he needed the city.
And alcohol, by the way. And the women
(Laughs) It’s a matter of character and personality, isn’t it? But being in an environment like these is inspiring, I’m not just saying for literature, for life, because you have a different attitude to the one you have in the city. You are more open, you look around and you don’t just see cement and queues of people, taxis, smog. You are in another world.
Being in an environment like these is inspiring, I’m not just saying for literature, for life,
The house is called Sanià. Is writing a watermelon?
No, I believe that writing is work with the earth, it is work with a shovel, to plow a piece of land, to take care of it.
So is inspiration a myth?
The inspiration exists, it just has to be worked on. Enthusiasm works. You can’t be lazy for a whole year and think you’ll be enlightened. People who have fits of inspiration are because they are constantly thinking about a subject and turning it over. And then there comes a time when perhaps a smell, the smell of saltpeter, already brings an idea to your mind and you have an inspiration. But you have to be open to it, it’s not something that happens like that, plas.
The inspiration exists, it just has to be worked on. Enthusiasm works.
Doesn’t such a white house evoke terror on the blank page of the writers?
No blank page is really a blank page. If you scratch, there’s always a story. The problem with the blank page is more about self-criticism and the levels of demand that everyone has, because the blank page is actually a possibility, not necessarily an abyss.
What would these walls tell if they could talk?
Ha, ha They would talk about Truman Capote’s obsessive creative process, but also have fun recounting the experiences of other writers who have passed through. The walls of this house would explain almost the making off of a literature that is being made at this moment.
The blank page is actually a possibility, not necessarily an abyss.
Does a house have life?
Totally. It’s almost a living thing. This house has personality, it tells things, it receives, it accepts, but it can also give someone nightmares and you can meet the ghosts, which you may or may not like. In other words, you encounter a reality that is very much alive.
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