Javier Marías has died. And yes, I have no doubt that the world of Spanish literature is in mourning. In addition to being a narrator, he was a translator, essayist and member of the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language. He was an eternal candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature and a Knight of the Order of Letters, as well as winner of many very important literary awards, such as the José Donoso, the Formentor de las Letras and the Library Lion of the New York Public Library. He received these numerous awards because he dedicated his entire life to writing and did so with skill and quality. He has, to his credit, sixteen novels such as Tomorrow in battle think of me, The crushes, Your face tomorrow (trilogy consisting of Fever the spear, Dance and dream and Poison and shadow and goodbye) and Thomas Levinston, among others, as well as books of short stories, essays and more than one hundred newspaper articles.
Marías was able to capture the spirit of a Spain that went from being depressed after the war, to being liberated by the Movida, to being a rich and developed country where African and Latin American immigrants arrived with the hope of surviving.
I like reading Javier Marías, how could I not? In addition to what I mentioned in the previous lines, his work is deeply universal, it is nourished by his multiple and varied readings. In 2018 I wrote for the Gatopardo magazine about his book Berta Isla: “It is a novel in which Marías’ literary passions can be seen, from Shakespeare to Eliot, Faulkner, Doyle, Melville and Dickens. It is also a tribute to English literature and culture, with its great classics but also with its pop characters, such as James Bond, of whom Tomás will at some point say “there have been other Bonds but the only one, the original, is Sean Connery”. The spy in the novel talks about the most famous English spy in the world. Another flash of the sense of humour that Javier Marías displays masterfully.”
That was Javier Marías, the writer. But the opinions of Javier Marías, the journalist (how to separate one from the other? Is it possible to do so?), when they had to do with women and feminism were not so honourable: his column in El País of February 11, 2018 She was criticized for statements such as this one, in relation to the emergence of #MeToo: “Giving credit to victims for the fact that they present themselves as such is opening the door to revenge, slander and settling of scores,” or “Now the MeToo movement and others have established two pseudo-truths: a) that women are always victims; b) that women never lie.”
While some of Marías' friends, such as the writer Arturo Pérez-Reverte defended him to the hiltthousands of users of the networks (especially those who have users, but also men) who criticized him for the column, which is full of irresponsible phrases - to say the least - and misogynistic, to put it bluntly. For example: "There is no need to resort to names to remember the considerable number of young and attractive women who have married decrepit men not precisely for love, nor for sexual desire either."
Just on May 6, 2022, your news house, The Country, public an interview that he did about the book of newspaper articles Is the cook a good person? published by Alfaguara this year. In this interview, although he says that “at this point everyone is a feminist” and that “anyone who is not a stubble-bearer has been one”, the author of Sometimes a gentleman She also warns that “there is a so-called fourth wave feminism that, for me, contradicts classical feminism. They are saying exaggerated and nonsensical things. And above all, there is an error in that they are dangerously close to the intolerance of the Catholic Church during the Franco dictatorship.”
With this “mistake,” Marías refers to the intention to “prohibit or fine” lascivious glances, and speaks of what he considers an intrusion into people’s freedom. I have no doubt that the writer has never been the victim of one of those glances that make you change sidewalks and quicken your pace in the street, or that make you get off the subway car or the city bus you are riding.
I also have no doubt, as write Mexican writer Dahlia de la Cerda, that not all men are potential murderers of women, and that those who grow up in contexts of high marginalization and violence are at a disadvantage in terms of equality, freedom, respect and many of the things that we demand as feminism. In other words, as Rita Segato also wrote, there are men oppressed by other men, even by white women and from hegemonic social, economic and political strata.
The topic is open to a much deeper and thoughtful discussion, but as a reader, I prefer Javier Marías as the narrator. As a feminist, I cannot help but think that Javier Marías, the columnist, should have done a much deeper analysis before giving his opinion.
Irma Gallo She is a reporter and writer. In addition to Península 360 Press, she has collaborated with Letras Libres, the University of Mexico Magazine, Lee Más Gandhi Magazine, Gatopardo, Este País Magazine, Sin Embargo, El Universal, and Newsweek in Spanish. Her most recent book is When the Sky Turns Orange. Being a Woman in Mexico (UANL/VF Agencia Literaria, 2020). Twitter: @irmagallo IG: @irmaevangelinagallo.
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