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Worlds in Words: Writers on Writing
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20286 |
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Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
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| Issue
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7 / 1992 |
8,240 Words |
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Marie-Lise Gazarian-Gautierg
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Moderator: Azorin, the great Spanish writer of the Generation of 1898, said that history repeats itself, and that when we look at the sky, we can see the same clouds that our forefathers saw, and that our great-grandchildren will see. John, since you just spoke about your concept of time, how would you react to that statement?
Wideman: Yes, our predictions of the future are projections of our past. I think that the past, present, and future are always with us, and that the more we look, the more ancient light we unearth, which is ironically a kind of future, but it really is always the old light.
Moderator: There are so many symposia all over the world dealing with the theme of 1492 as we are approaching the quincentenary. What do you think Christopher Columbus would say on such a controversial issue if he could address this symposium?
Donoso: I think he would be delighted with the New World. He would love Manhattan, for instance, and he would certainly go to the opera. I think it took some energy and some humor to do what he did. And not only to do what he did, but to call it discovery. It took a lot of gall to do that. He didn't realize what was happening was that he was being discovered. It was an encounter going on that he wasn't aware of. I have never been too interested in Columbus frankly, and 1992 seems to me a terrible exaggeration in every sense. But certainly I would not call it discovery. I would call it encounter.
Moderator: If the role of the writer is to transform the world through his writings, what changes would you like to see in the twenty-first century?
Sampedro: I am not so sure that the role of the writer is so great as that, you know. I am much more humble myself. But anyway, more than changing, I think the role of the writer is to make apparent the hidden reality, to have a more in-depth vision of things than we usually tend to. But you asked us about the twenty-first century. I would expect the change to reflect a different perspective: to substitute the sense of individuality which now prevails for a sense of community. If I understood well what Mr. Wideman said a moment ago in his presentation, I think that change can come much better from the Third World than from the Western World.
Wideman: I don't want to sound like a literary critic, but I think we have to deconstruct the material world. I think we have
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