Fantastic Metropolis

Gabriel Mesa: Kalpa consists of a series of independent but related tales. Were they tales that you wrote separately and then decided to unify or did you have the idea from the beginning that they would be a thematically linked series? Also, I understand that Kalpa was originally published in two parts.

Angélica Gorodischer: Yes, it was published in two volumes because the publisher did not want to take many risks and claimed they didn’t have enough money. The choice was either to publish in two volumes or not to publish at all. I chose the former. But the text is only one. It always was and I planned it as a whole.

Gabriel Mesa: Who are currently your favorite writers, be they Argentine, Latin American or from elsewhere?

Angélica Gorodischer: Borges, of course. Borges always. Balzac, also always. Alejo Carpentier, Clarice Lispector, Armonía Somers, Juan Rulfo, Mercé Rodoreda, Grace Paley, Marcel Proust. Oh, so many people, so many!

Gabriel Mesa: And what about favorite authors who are also influences?

Angélica Gorodischer: Influences are very subtle currents. One doesn’t learn anything directly, one absorbs (at least in my case that’s how it is) and swallows and assimilates and sometimes it comes out in some other way. I consider that my literary father is Borges (together with Balzac, Arlt, Woolf, Flash Gordon and the Duchess of Alba in a portrait painted by Goya).

Gabriel Mesa: In the United States there is mention of a certain rebellion against the fantastic on the part of new Latin American writers, that Macondo has given way to the neorealist “McOndo” movement, which highlights urban reality in the context of globalization. What do you think? What role do you think fantasy will continue to play in literary creation?

Angélica Gorodischer: Maybe it’s so—this rebellion, I mean. I hope so because rebellions in our field are very healthy. But I think that fantasy is inserted in our cells, in the double helix. Sometimes it works and there appear works of pure, magnificent fantasy. Other times authors try to tame her and don’t let her come out, but she’s always there and she ends up doing what she wants. Not for nothing do they call her “la loca de la casa” (“the madwoman in the attic”).

Gabriel Mesa: Your work is very diverse, Angélica, and includes not only works of fantasy and science fiction like Kalpa or Las Republicas (The Republics) but also crime or suspense novels like Floreros de Alabastro, Alfombras de Bokhara (Vases of Alabaster, Rugs from Bokhara) or Como Triunfar en la Vida (How to Succeed in Life) and even historical novels like Prodigios or that appear to combine the picaresque with the historical like La Fabula de la Virgen y el Bombero (The Fable of the Virgin and the Fireman). On the other hand, La Noche del Inocente (The Night of the Innocent) I understand is something of a gothic. In wonder to what extent you still consider yourself a science fiction writer?

Angélica Gorodischer: Well, what do I know. I don’t necessarily consider myself a science fiction writer. I feel comfortable with science fiction, of course, although I don’t write it anymore. But as I said, SF leaves a very strong mark and it always appears in my writing in some fashion. Except perhaps in my latest book, which is something of a summum of the urban novel.

I like to change. If it were up to me I would rearrange my furniture every week. I would move houses every year and so on. I’ve written all kinds of things. I’ve written what some call realism, I’ve written fantastic fiction (not “fantasy,” God save me), crime, SF… The novels that you call historical aren’t really historical. They are set in old times but there is nothing factual about them. Everything, everything, everything is made up. Another critic friend of mine tells me that I am an “atypical” writer. I also like that!