Isaias Fanlo: "Sexual desire is complex and indomitable"

BarcelonaAlthough he earned his doctorate at the University of Chicago, it was in Cambridge where Isaias Fanlo (Lleida, 1980) ultimately pursued his career as a professor. A cultural manager, translator, and author of numerous articles, he has also written the essay El llibre rosa de gais i lesbianes, which he published in Columna in 2004, when he was only 23 years old, had been working on his first novel for almost a decade, El pes de la boira [The weight of the fog], finally published by Pagès Editors. Set in an inland town crossed by the Segre River and named Rotunda—for its circularity but also for its extreme climate: "six months of winter and six of summer," says one of the characters—it narrates the "decisive months" in which young León loses his father, meets new friends, and becomes aware of his homosexual desire.

You began this novel in Chicago, continued and finished it in Cambridge, and finally you have published it in Lleida.

— I remember that in the office in Chicago where I was doing my PhD, I had a map pinned to the wall with the novel's chronology and characters. It's an ensemble story with many timelines. I wanted it to be a slow, easy read. The city of Lleida, which I call Rotunda—with echoes of Comala in Pedro Páramo, by Juan Rulfo–, is very important: it has been largely forgotten in Catalan narrative, although the Terres de Ponent are very present in novels by Manuel de Pedrolo, Pep Coll and Núria Perpinyà.

El pes de la boira takes place between 1991 and 1992. León is 16 years old and is going through a vital moment in which "things are about to change forever."

— I wanted to write a novel set during the year of the Olympic Games, but without them practically appearing, because they were far away from Lleida and were experienced very differently than in Barcelona.

Among other things, it is a coming-of-age novel.

— This element is important. Since it's also a ghost story—about ghosts who aren't necessarily dead—I thought the best way to start it was with a disappearance.

It is the disappearance of the father, whom León always refers to by his first name, Baldomero.

— Detaching from the father is a rite of passage that many people queer We've had to live. The lack of acceptance of who we are forces us to symbolically kill him. In the novel, however, the father's disappearance is real, and León comes to believe that if he left home, it was because it was the first thing he realized that he was gay.

The mother, Adela, also sometimes shakes her son's confidence, as in the scene where, after speaking to the truck driver Balzac, she slaps him to stop him from looking at her and tells him not to be "cheeky."

— When he hears these words, the child feels ashamed.

It is, as he writes, the shame of understanding all the questions he "has inside" and that don't have "a simple answer": one of the most significant has to do with his desire, which he expresses through his fascination with his neighbor, Noel, and his attraction to a schoolmate, Esmael.

— There's a certain trope within homosexual narratives of recent decades, one that, fortunately, is beginning to fade away. It has to do with presenting gay characters as lonely and as people who are usually doomed to misfortune, whether violence, murder, or suicide. I wanted to problematize this element and ensure that my gay protagonist wasn't doomed to loneliness or sadness.

Noel would be the reverse of this optimistic narrative: he is abused by his father.

— Both León and Noel experience difficulties due to their sexuality, but Noel's case is more extreme: he's a victim. What happens if you're born in the wrong place and into a family that doesn't accept you?

Noel is León spelled backwards.

— They are symmetrical characters: at this point I play with the idea of doppelgänger, twice as much. Noel served to show me the darker side of society. Growing up as a boy queer In a small town it wasn't easy in the 90s.

Would it be easier now?

— It would be different now. The Internet, for one thing, gives you access to many other realities. Terenci Moix either Jaime Gil de Biedma: now you have them more accessible. This has allowed more people to come out.

On the other hand, we are in the midst of a reactionary wave regarding gender identity issues. Just look at the comments made by the Trump administration on this subject.

— Just because two boys or two girls can get married doesn't mean there aren't many prejudices regarding gender identities. Trans people still find themselves in a moment of extreme precariousness, and we must work to change this. Just because I, as a gay person, can live a very normative life right now doesn't mean everyone can have access to it.

El pes de la boira addresses the transition from not accepting oneself to thinking, "What do I care if they don't accept me?" It's necessary to overcome the shame and guilt that society inflicts on the LGBTIQ+ community.

— Pride is about having survived. Many of us have suffered homophobic attacks and have had to confront other people because of it. We have suffered physical and verbal violence. Pride is about having endured and being able to connect with all the preceding generations who fought for a better life. The Lion's Journey is also about finding a tribe, a family that isn't necessarily blood, but a heritage that goes back much further.

A legacy that goes through, for example, the literature of Luis Cernuda, right?

— Through literature you can discover someone who is sending you a message between the lines, as is the case of Luis Cernuda in Los placeres prohibidos. This anecdote from the novel about Cernuda is biographical. Sometimes what academia or society tells us isn't necessarily what the author intended to write, because there comes a moment in history when, to address certain topics, you must resort to metaphor or ambiguity. Cernuda taught me to read between the lines. When I was a child, this and other small discoveries made me feel like there were people like me. Even now, when a student writes to me and tells me that thanks to my classes, they've heard someone speak their language, it makes me feel proud and enormously rewarded.

León's discovery of desire is not unidirectional: there is Noel, but also Esmael.

— There will be readers who will feel challenged when they realize León desires two boys. Sexual desire is like that, complex and indomitable. It is so wild that it can't conform to a single rule. Sometimes all we can do is listen, and that's it. Right now, there are many novels, films, and series centered on more traditional relationships. That's seems OK to me. But I wanted to write something else.