“A classic is a book that never finished saying what it had to say”, this is how the Italian writer Italo Calvino tried to define our obsession with some stories, which continue to be told decades, centuries and even millennia after they were written.
Shakespeare wrote “Romeo and Juliet” at the end of the 16th century, but the romance between young people from rival families remains the great symbol of forbidden love to this day. Homer’s “The Odyssey” was written in VIII BC and, more than two thousand years later, the epic poem gains new life with a film adaptation.
But what makes a book, a play or a film remain relevant in a world that changes faster and faster?
A Chilean writer Isabel Allendeconsidered one of the great voices of Latin American magical realism, closely follows this process while his first book, “The House of Spirits”is adapted for the screen in the miniseries that is now available on Prime Video.
This is not the first time that the classic has had an audiovisual version, with an American film of the same title having been successful in the 1990s. However, it is only four decades after the book’s release in 1982, with Chilean directors choosing how to tell the story of the Del Valle family.
In an interview with CNN Brazilthe writer Isabel Allende He spoke about how his work remains current, the importance of fiction in times of individualism and recalled his visits to Brazil and his friendship with Jorge Amado.
“There are themes that never go out of fashion. Human emotions don’t change,” she said, about the stories that continue to reinvent themselves.
“Shakespeare or the Greeks, they all spoke about the same passions: jealousy, envy, revenge, love, death. They are the same fundamental themes of humanity. And they are worked on in different ways, but they remain the same and they are universal. All people feel this, everywhere, with cultural differences, but they are the same passions”, he added.
Although “The House of the Spirits” was the first book published by the Chilean author, it brings us to the present day – strong women, absent parents, romantic relationships, separations, refugees, immigrants, marginalized people.
“The international success of my first book turned me into a writer, while most writers take a long time to achieve that. I had a stroke of luck, a miracle, really. It changed my life,” she said. “Maybe, if I had just written this book, it would be enough, I don’t know.”
The role of fiction
At a time in history when virtual life threatens to overtake real life, Isabel Allende defends fiction as a tool to remember that we are going through this together.
“Today’s young people, especially men, feel this loneliness because they don’t have human connection. They have as a friend an invented character, an artificial intelligence avatar or Facebook. Everything is virtual. Everything is digital. Everything is on a screen. But when you really need someone, you need someone who can hold your hand, another human being with you. Sooner or later in life we need that, and we need to look for that,” said Allende.
“I think the role of literature, of fiction, is to make us realize that our personal experience is not unique, that it has already happened to other people and that it will continue to happen. With some differences, but fundamentally the same. So, we don’t feel so alone. We are connected”, he adds.
Novo “boom” latino-americano
If today “everyone wants to be Latin”, as Bad Bunny sings, literature played a big role in defining this identity that applies to almost an entire continent. Isabel Allende makes a point of highlighting that each country has its peculiarities, but also recognizes that .
“Within each country there are small nations, there are different cultural, racial, indigenous, African-American groups, which are different aspects of a nation. Likewise, in Latin America. Many countries form this wonderful thing called Latin America, which is very diverse, but we also have 500 years of history in common”, he said. “We all went through dictatorships, and caudillos, and military coups, and everything that happened to us. And how difficult it is to maintain and recover a democracy. I think that all these experiences make us Latin Americans. And that’s why we can present this card to the world and say: we are Latin Americans, with all the diversity that that implies.”
Allende highlights that, in her youth, if she was asked “what are you?”, she declared herself Chilean. Nowadays, it is much more common to hear other young people calling themselves Latinos before defining their country of origin.
For her, this change begins with the “Latin American boom” that occurred between the 1960s and 1970s, when books by authors from the region began to be internationally successful and the names of Gabriel García Márquez, Julio Cortázar, Mario Vargas Llosa and others were elevated to literary prestige.
“The ‘boom’ was a chorus of voices, all male, that told Latin America to the world. It was a chorus of diverse but harmonious voices, that said to the world: this is us. And they said to ourselves: this is us, we are Latin Americans”, said the writer.
Isabel Allende believes that we are going through a new “boom”, in cinema, music, and literature — with emphasis on female authors, who decide to tell the world what Latin America is from their perspective.
Living in the United States since the late 1980s, Allende views this phenomenon with even more interest as anti-immigration policies become increasingly strong in the country.
“There is a war against Latinos, a war against Latino immigrants, who are the ones who do all the work in this country,” said the writer. “But that doesn’t stop Latin American food, Latin American music, cinema, series, Latin American aesthetics from being everywhere.”
Brazil’s memories
Isabel Allende also recalled her trips to Brazil and her friendship with the Bahian writer Jorge Amado, whom she dreamed of meeting before .
“I remember I was in Bahia, at Jorge Amado’s house, and the whole city belonged to Jorge Amado. He was the king, absolutely the king. That was precious. Going with him to a restaurant and seeing that everyone knew him,” he said.
“I was in various parts of Brazil, in the Amazon too, and there was always inspiration,” he added. “Much later, I wrote a novel for young people and set it in the Amazon. In other words, the place left an impression on me. The landscape, the smell, the water, the green, all of this stays within you, it’s a fascinating thing. But of course, Brazil is much more than that. Brazil is also the immense city, Rio, São Paulo. And, in addition, the magic, the Candomblé, the orixás. All of this fascinates me.”
See also: CNN accompanies the launch of “The House of the Spirits” in Chile
