Krisis with a K

Machado and Leonor, García Lorca in New York. “(…)The cock pigeons, Bolinchde, Polifemo, Maricuela, Comando and Sole, were overflying the palm grove. The flock chased the dove. Pigeon breeding is a millenarian culture on the Mediterranean coast, determination and art among the peoples on the banks of the Segura River. Young George’s soul –half a boy and half a girl– propelled by the birds’ skills flew on the Pegasus truck that his dad was riding. In his sudden dream, he thought he had seen Leonor and poet Antonio Machado in an orchard where lemons were ripening. He was drawing silk hearts with Antonio Gala and Federico Garcia Lorca. Federico was telling them his deeds as a Poet in New York and he praised Lady Liberty for her beauty, holding the torch in her hand. “Liberty Enlightening the World” –And that animal? –asked young George. –A horse grazing and resting. (Page 30)

Cervantes and Shakespeare, pudding in Alcalá de Henares, ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and ‘Pretty Woman’. “(…) –If I’m hungry I can eat the covers of this big book! –Rogue! Read loudly; develop your hearing and play with Destiny… Forget those garbanzo beans for a sec … Fuentesaúco, ollas podridas (rotten pots) and fabadas Asturias (bean stews) … –I can’t understand anything you’re saying. I want to have supper right now! But master, watch out Destiny! –Remember William’s coming to have supper with us. He’ll be bringing pudding! Wear your best clothes. As if we were going to the Theatrical Courtyard in Almagro… –Will he repeat Othello, full of hatred and jealousy? I understand his Spanglish very well… –He’ll read us a draft he loves: the romance of two adolescents in love that takes place in Verona. He hardly sleeps writing this piece of work! I’ll let him know that it may be played by the couple from Orihuela… Elena and Alejandro. You should think about starring the “Pretty Woman” happy story if you have ever suffered once or more times Romeo and Juliet’s misfortunes. (Page 203).

Berenice’s smile by Allan Poe. “(…) Indeed, there were tugs of war in his marriage like many others couples going through a bad time. But fears and love for his daughter and wife who was unable to work due to a back injury, weighed more in Abel than his alleged gay freedom. However, due to Maya’s praises –flattery represents a hidden interest– Abel decided to abandon his wife to live with Ricky. This love between men served to reinvent his freedom and the couple of homosexuals adopted an orphan girl in Ethiopia. George ignores whether Abel returned to his wife, or he is still happy rediscovering his femininity or maybe he fell into the clutches of Maya’s coward ego, Berenice’s smile by Allan Poe. (Page 263)

Maya’s smile whose teeth were as hypnotizing as Benerice was in Poe’s story. “(…) Freedom is an act of self-assurance and will. Why do you want to conquer it? It has always been yours. Freedom flows inside you at birth: the fusion of an egg and sperm. And your soul needs freedom and vigor in your ego as your body needs blood in the veins. Another year went way before George found in Alcoy a nice place to live in Oleza. One Saturday while paying a visit to Miguel Hernandez house of culture, during the reading organized by the Social Forum, a cultural society open to share poetry and social activism, he met Maya’s smile whose teeth were as hypnotizing as Benerice was in Poe’s story. The enigmatic and brilliant Zerón Huguet and Ramón Bascuñana. Larrabide and Juan José from the Hernandian Foundation recited poems. As soon as he woke up that first morning at his new friend’s apartment in Alcoy George felt the sensation that he had come back from a dream. (Page 205)

Hemingway in Pamplona, his frist novel: ‘Fiesta’. “(…) In this story, young George is still framed in the doorway as though a picture looking at the sun, trapped within his imagination. As it happened to Ernest Hemingway, still an unpublished novelist, who was paying a visit to Pamplona in 1923 when he felt that deep sensation of the inaugural rocket announcing the start of Sanfermines and the running of the bulls, cowboy in his far west of emotions. Because you should know that in his first novel “Fiesta” the American Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954 told us all about his experiences during Los Sanfermines and his feelings were inspired by bullfighting. From the front door of his house young George’s childish bangs scanned the Valencian sky and thereby the inspiration of the sun entered into him, pure energy like the one generated by the wind without the risk of the nuclear catastrophe suffered by the inhabitants of Chernobyl and Fukushima. (Page 18)

T.S. Eliot. “(…) Always because of your natural inclination the childish trend of understanding the world you are exploring guides you. And then boldness consolidates your attempts to explore. Until you dare eat a peach and enjoy its juicy meat and in such a way you learn among doubts and mistakes to possess the energy to force each moment up to its crisis i.e. as the avant-garde poet T.S. Eliot wrote: “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” (Page 26)

Agatha Christie… and soccer player Johan Cruyff (Cruiff). “(…)Mrs. Gertrudris had recently become a widow in a mysterious and sudden way thanks to the unexpected heart attack the marquis suffered. That morning George did not see her sad. By the way, six years after the police are still investigating her husband’s death or crime, which recalls Agatha Christie’s novels. The marchioness’ intriguing look sometimes seemed to be suspicious. –George, good morning, have a nice day…! –She swung her shoulders and her ridiculous pumpkin color picture hat. And she moved her mouth like a robot, opening and closing it after speaking, like the Papamoscas at Burgos Cathedral. –Happy Sunday Mrs. Marchioness! Goodbye! –He walked a bit faster in order to escape. The Ezcurras, son and father, greeted him from the bridge. Chased by Gertrudis’ disturbing perfume scent and its insistent lure George turned a deaf ear with a feint as Dutch soccerplayer Cruyff used to do. With the elegance of that soccer genius George turned round the corner at Sabi’s as if he were towards the goalkeeper to score a goal. In doing so he escaped through the gardens which calmed his fatigue caused by so many news and unimportant fatuous figures. (Page 158)

Hemingway will give You some wise advice. “(…)He dimmed the oil lamp eternal light because George loved writing during emotional daybreaks. Hooked to the imagination wheel, he reads and reads and proofreads hundreds of draft books. Because in honor of Hemingway my friend also defends that the wastepaper basket is the best ally of a writer. The serpents could not stop him writing because within more than one dream George has slept on the floor amid vipers. Serpents that looked at him in the eye to convey him the supreme wisdom attracting the muses. George has written thousands of pages so far and vibrates with his literary creation. On one occasion, in a fantasy, like the one who draws a twin of himself within a dream but on another symmetric and invisible plane or dimension, George saw himself writing with a bird’s feather when his love interrupted him: (…) (Page 202). And Hemingway, The Civil War… and the last walk around Irati forest. Hemingway the ambulance of the Red Cross in the World War in Italy.

Genji and The Japanese Womanizer. < “(…)Maya wished to extol her earthly desires. Her goodwill, freedom, kindness as well as her immoral actions belonged to her. If someone dramatizes, conscience is the only unachievable obstacle for the ones who con and manipulate. As it happened to Genji, the Japanese Don Juan who could make fun of all the ladies… except one: his own conscience. This is comparable to the guide book helping you to improve imperfection, if you feel like restoring your full identity in life. Practice and practice to be more skilful. Exercise your values and ideals freely. But you must be aware that the perestroika of transmutation requires determination and courage. If helping and loving others makes you happy and pleased lies will move you away from that path. Will the law of fair retribution be fulfilled in accordance with your deeds? (Page 299)

Goethe and ‘Marienbad Elegy’. “(…) Theories sow doubts and fears that divert you from the most accessible and natural path. Goethe wisely said “theories are gray; only the green tree with golden fruits is life.” Why did the German genius leave us his poignant Marienbad Elegy? Because he had the courage to live fearlessly to suffer and feel pain: he was in love with Ulrike and wanted to marry her but the young lady rejected the already old man who wrote Faustus. Does it matter to stumble one hundred times if we learn from such stumbles? (Page 247)

Hermann Hesse and the novel ‘Siddhartha’. (Krisis with a K /Second Part: ‘Falling in love with life’). Jorge Luis Borges and ‘La Biblioteca de Babel’.

Life is a dream by Calderón de la Barca (1600-1681).“(…) Does it matter whether it is realism or fantasy? “(…)/ What’s life? A frenzy./ What’s life? An illusion,/ a shadow, fiction,/ and the greatest good is small:/ the whole life is a dream,/ and dreams are just dreams./)”, from the novel “La vida es sueño” by Calderón de la Barca (1600-1681). You should know that both faces –life and dreams– make up the basis of your existence. At least that is how our friend feels it. (…) (Page 166)

Ibn Al Murabit and Uryula al-Andalus (Orihuela-Spain). “(…)“The sun has fallen behind the horizon. The air seems to get chillier. It is getting dark in Uryula. (...)Please Allah let me sleep restfully and peacefully. I forgot to mention that tomorrow the Mozarabs from Uryula celebrate the great feast.” (Diary of Ibn Al Murabit. Summer of 640 of the Muslim era, July16 of the year 1242 of the Christian era). (…) (Page 167)

Ibn Said Al-Magribi and Uryula al-Andalus (Orihuela-Spain). “(…) A lot of cultures melted in the Mediterranean haven of rest in exactly the same way as it happens today in this new world of peace in full gestation. And as it is celebrated every July in Orihuela where the Moros & Cristianos parade participants feel such brotherhood always united by the joy of the festival. In the XIII century Ibn Said Al-Magribi wrote: “As I was heading for the sea,/ I crossed Uryula/ and it was like a piece of Paradise in eternity./ Its river flowed/ and the waterwheel buckets were singing to the beat of music./ The birds were singing/ and the trees were hugging each other with their branches.” The Arabian poet worshipped this land when he was forced to go into exile. In Orihuela the myth of Armengola’s betrayal to the governor is contaminated by lies and resentment… –It is false! –George repeated it to me calmly–. Armengola defended her freedom within friendship. And Aben Mohor (Batu) forgave and understood her. The heroine from Orihuela risked her own safety granted by the governor as well as her family’s, since she wanted to be faithful to her townspeople: defend freedom and truth that always prevails. Why to devote oneself to the fullest extent without asking for something in exchange? It is our human essence and fundamental law which has been forgotten by Man for centuries and wars. –True love is like a knot. Neither does it tie you nor it obliges you, it only unites you in eternal peace to unexpected limits. –George hugged me during that long coffee afternoon. Inescapable poison, love is a balm of happiness that always saves you. (…) (Page 173-74)

(See the Literature section at the end of the novel/Second Part)