The Sant Jordi behind closed doors of Salvador Illa and Javier Cercas
BarcelonaIt was very difficult to endure a whole hour without speaking for a minute about Catalan or Catalonia in a conversation that the Catalan government had decided to dedicate to Sant Jordi, but that silence ended up being precisely the political message of the day. Since Salvador Illa announced that he would record a podcast with Javier Cercas to celebrate World Book Day, there has been a certain uproar. It was the first time in history that a president of the Generalitat (Catalan government) broke institutional neutrality by ingratiating himself with a specific writer, and there was criticism for all tastes. From a purely commercial point of view, promoting an author of bestsellers over other, more independent names and labels. From the perspective of political narrative, choosing one of the most actively belligerent voices in recent years against the Trial clashed with the appeals to the dullness and harmony that are the house's trademark. From the perspective of linguistic awareness, investing the presidency's capital to promote a book in Spanish doesn't seem entirely consistent with combating the alarming decline of Catalan. In a government that makes a virtue of muting, Cercas's election is one of the most explicit declarations of political program that have been made recently. But instead of attacking this string of groundbreaking controversies floating around, Isla and Cercas have repeated each and every one of the comfortable clichés surrounding Pope Francis and Donald Trump; and here's peace, then glory.
It wasn't a very good sign that the event was being held behind closed doors. The broadcast began with President Illa accompanied by Cercas and the moderator, writer Emma Riverola, the three of them walking through the corridors of the Palau de la Generalitat like footballers on a train of locker rooms. But as soon as the ball started rolling, it was clear this would be one of those games where nothing is at stake. It's not that anyone expected any confrontation between Cercas and Isla, nor that we could anticipate any remotely awkward questions, but the degree of indulgence was so extraordinary that when Riverola asked Cercas what he thought about "a militant secularist, a stubborn rationalist, a rigorously impious man" in the wake of the Pope's death, Cercas wasted no time in applauding the celebration of the Christian legacy. Three statements to give an idea of the argumentative texture of all this: "This pope's legacy is to put the poor at the center of the Church," "The Pope is one thing, and the character is another. The character is complex," "I am anticlerical, but this pope was more anticlerical than I." Just like the Vatican when it gave him privileged access to write. God's Fool at the End of the World –the biographical essay about Francesc that we saw superimposed on the screen–, Isla knew that by choosing Cercas she wouldn't have to suffer at all.
Aside from condemning Donald Trump up to six times, with and without the help of the Pope, the two literary podcasters also felt compelled to say something about Sant Jordi. Compared to the severity with which they spoke about the problems facing the rest of the world, in Catalonia it seems that everything is flowers and violas. The great repeated argument ad nauseam It's been that Sant Jordi is a unique day in the world, envied everywhere, and that it hasn't been possible to replicate it anywhere else despite every attempt. Perhaps a writer or a politician would have ventured to relate this cultural exceptionality with some fact, let's say, of the culture or politics that gave birth to this holiday. But it hasn't been necessary to utter the words even once. language either Catalan culture because Cercas had a theological metaphor specially prepared for the occasion: "Sant Jordi is a miracle." And miracles, as we know, are post-national.
President Illa was able to take advantage of the rib-ticking atmosphere to list the wonders of Sant Jordi without sending any controversial messages or entering his sphere of political action. Continuing the theme of Catholicism, Illa claimed the Day of the Book and the Rose as a day for fraternity, presumably because freedom and equality are now fully implemented; he said that he often speaks with Cercas about the importance of using respectful language and not trivializing insults, and he ended up setting off the neopujolo-meter by claiming books as a form of personal improvement rather than enjoyment. The event ended with the moderator asking them to recommend a book to Donald Trump, but neither of them knew how to take advantage of it to say anything off-script.
