You go out onto the street and see the city full of banners welcoming the Pope with the symbol of the Generalitat of Catalonia and the City Council of Barcelona. They spread like a dystopia. Welcome Leo XIV. Some official buildings have also hung posters and all we're missing are the tricorn hats of the Guardia Civil guarding them. They are no longer needed. A progressive pope is like a pacifist soldier. Buying into these definitions is to resign oneself to war and regression. The institution that the Pope represents is, among other things, anachronistic, hierarchical, and sexist. Which, admittedly, can be said of many other institutions. The monarchy, not to mention. And everything is maintained and we pay homage to everything. Lest we live without it. Coincidentally, the Spanish monarchy and the Pope have in common that their representatives, good men, are heads of state. And the citizens, solicitous, kiss their feet. Of course, with freedom. That the dystopia, if you look at it from afar, is only aesthetic. And it seems to you that you can still choose. But we must take into account the permanent plea, asking for permission from the popes and the Pope, that events in Catalonia be held in Catalan. Although events like these, to maintain the distinction they deserve, should be held exclusively in Latin. If we accept the habit that makes the monk, let it be from head to toe. The feet that are kissed. 

Writer, cartoonist, and professor of Sinophone literature, Wu Ming-Yi (Taoyuan, Taiwan, 1971) publishes a compendium of six short stories in which humans, nature, and technology invade other worlds and confirm their interdependence. Wu Ming-Yi's literature has been labeled magical realism for the way it seamlessly links human and non-human experiences. In this regard, The Land of Bitter Rain (Chronos) questions anthropocentrism and suggests that humans must learn to communicate through non-human and more effective languages and perspectives. Translated by Mireia Vargas-Urpí, the book features animal illustrations by the author himself.