Listening to Álvaro Pombo speak is a pleasure almost comparable to reading Álvaro Pombo's books. Someone asks him a question, throws any idea at the writer, no matter how naive, and the new Cervantes Prize chews on it for a few seconds in silence. Did he understand what was said? Pombo's hearing is not at its best... Then, he starts speaking, probably from an anecdote that turns into a reflection that remains unfinished. Pombo pauses, reconstructs the sentence in a way that expresses with absolute clarity what seemed like it was going to be a digression but isn't. It's never a cliché or a worn-out idea. Then he expands it with cultured and popular quotes, philosophical passages, gastronomic recipes, old songs, and reformulates his idea, like verses of a minimalist poet. Pombo is funny when he speaks but sometimes it's distressing in those moments when it seems like he's about to get lost, he is solemn and sweet, and has a fragile voice that resonates as his ideas become clearer.
This morning, Pombo spoke with the media at the headquarters of the Royal Spanish Academy to explain how he has received the Cervantes Prize that Minister Ernest Urtasun communicated to him on Tuesday, and he developed his method: "I am very happy about this beautiful Prize. Cervantes; Cervantes would say 'I know who I am, I am the son of'. A prize like this makes one feel... Look, Cervantes didn't receive any awards. That's the funny part. They brought him the second part of Don Quixote, that was his prize. He was in jail, he was a loser. Don Miguel de Cervantes y Saavedra was a brilliant loser, one would say now, he was a poor guy who only had talent, grace, humor, good humor...".
And what about Pombo? During his appearance, the writer explained, piece by piece, the tools with which he has built his career. For example, the Spanish language: "My second language is English, I spoke it very well and I read a lot of it. But Spanish is my liveliest language, the most fun, the fullest. It is both solemn, with grand phrases, and funny and quick. You can do the hypotaxis of Ferlosio and you can make all kinds of instant comic jokes... It is also a poetic language. I'm thinking of the great poets in Spain. Also, the Spanish language of many homelands, not just Spanish, has many languages. The Spanish language is the gift of tongues; we speak the same and we don't speak the same. Variety is our gift of tongues".
And philosophy? "I studied Philosophy twice, in Madrid with Mr. Ángel González Álvarez, for five years and again in London, Philosophy and Linguistics. The Philosophy I admired was that of Plato and Aristotle; also that of Sartre, who is an important philosopher in my novels. Sartre said he wanted to be half Stendhal, half Spinoza. It was Sartre, who was already enough. I am a good amateur but I am not a philosopher, I am a storyteller. Nor am I a philosophical thinker. Paul Valery, in The Graveyard by the Sea, says that he does not philosophize, but takes from philosophy its color. I take the color, the philosophical eloquence. Philosophers have every right to tear me apart. They will say how can it be the color, it must be the essence. Well, that's what I like. And I like philosophical eloquence. It is very beautiful. Clarity is the courtesy of the philosopher, Ortega said. I am faithful to philosophy. And to theology, by the way, to rational theology which is what I studied. I suppose that makes me a man of letters, a tremendously bad thing".
Next tool: irony: "Irony is a literary device, it is also a certain... "You have to not take yourself too seriously", that's what Cervantes' irony consists of. Irony is not a primary feeling like rage or love, it is a secondary feeling. It is the feeling typical of an older person. If you are young, you can believe it, you have the strength, the sunlight... The sun also believes in itself. I have reached the deepest age, and I realize how far you have come. Look, writing is complicated. It takes a long time, you have to read, you are never satisfied... Not taking yourself too seriously is important because otherwise, a reflective product doesn't come out. But irony can be deadly for the writer: it can turn into not taking anything seriously and that is deadly. Certain things must be taken seriously. Socrates used irony to disarm the sophists".
"I have thought about writing [the Cervantes acceptance speech] about Licenciado Vidriera," Pombo continued. "I have outlined something that would be called: Variations on Licenciado Vidriera. Licenciado Vidriera is an exemplary novel and Cervantes said that there is no tale among the exemplary novels from which some spiritual, moral, or philosophical lesson cannot be drawn. I believe that from Licenciado Vidriera, a phenomenology of fragility can be made. Not of the fragility of glass, but the fragility of flesh and blood man. More than madness because... sometimes that text is understood as the story of a flashy and showy lady who fed some herbs to a gentleman and the gentleman lost his mind. And then it is said that madmen speak the truth. Madmen and children, it's a Spanish saying. But I believe Cervantes wanted to make a phenomenology of fragility. That needs to be adjusted well because it is a complication to even say that Don Quixote was crazy. Cervantes never says it. Cervantes says he was ingenious".
Pombo's Cervantes will also be an act of justice, the recovery of a work that dialogues with the best European narrative of his generation. Someone, at the Cervantes event, recalled Tales of Lack of Substance, Pombo's first book, and remembered that it arrived before and went further than Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being. "Lack of substance is an Aristotelian concept, it is the Aristotelian hypokeimenon, it is the metaphor of the person who has neither substance. Lack of substance is also used for the stew if it doesn't have good bacon. The longed-for white bacon from the chickpea stew of Iñaki's mother," said Pombo.
Iñaki, the young man pushing him in the wheelchair, smiled. "The relationship between Philosophy and History is a novelty. I used to write without thinking about History. I already knew that man has no nature but history, but I went for psychological stories... The first time I arrived at Mr. Juan Benet, he opened the first page of that manuscript. I was really nervous in Pisuerga, 7 [Benet's house] in front of his imposing figure. It's not about customs, I hurried to tell him, because JB hated costumbrismo. Before my stories were psychological and about customs. Then I started getting into History because of a commission I wrote, the life of Saint Francis of Assisi. I had to do history but I couldn't let go of my psychological interest. I had the feeling that I didn't take History or fiction seriously... The history of Spain weighs more and seems more interesting to me".
Finally, someone asked about the money from the Cervantes Prize, 125,000 euros. "I will spend it cautiously, I am in a bad situation, we are in a bad financial situation. It has come in very handy. Money goes away. It goes on cards, it goes on fish, it goes in the market. Not on vices, not on parties, it also goes on that, yes, but not for modest people like me. It slips away. Money laughs at me. I have never had much, nor little. I have had decently. This prize is very good. Maybe I will do something I only did when I was young. I opened a savings account at Banco de Santander. My mother said I would be a spendthrift when I'm old. It's not true. It's not that I'm a spendthrift, it's just that nothing comes in, the month just doesn't stretch. My parents don't understand the modern world: money doesn't go far. This is the last bit of solid income I'm going to earn, I hope it lasts... It's a very important issue. And it's a very Spanish issue, noblemen and peasants, to save or not to save, spendthrifts and misers".