One of the most significant
Spanish authors devoted to LGBT themes currently, Lluís Maria
Todó (Barcelona, 1950), has discussed with us his young adult
novel Isaac y las dudas; you will
find his interesting remarks on topics such as creativity and reality, sexuality and
censorship, if you read this juicy interview.
SPANISH GAY FICTION: If I am not wrong, Isaac y las dudas came up from a request. Could you please explain
this?
LLUÍS MARIA TODÓ: It was around
2002 when the person who was in charge of La Magrana publishing house made an
appointment for me. She told me that secondary education schools were lacking a
fiction depicting young gay people and their issues in a positive way, and
asked me if I wanted to solve this deficiency. That is to say, to write a young
adult novel about teen gays who are not discriminated, attacked, or eventually
determined to commit suicide or hopelessly embittered. It was supposed that the
book would become a recommended reading in high schools, and therefore sell
well, as well as an opportunity to visit schools and talk to young readers
about the book, about them, about me. I really liked the idea and accepted.
SGF: Are there autobiographical elements in this novel?
LMT: Not in the least. This is
the least autobiographical of all the novels that I have ever published. It is
all fictional.
SGF: Do you remember when you realized your sexual identity? Would you
say that it was a relieving experience like Isaac’s, or rather different?
LMT: I talked about this in El mal francés:[1]
it happened when I was a 19-year-old student in France, while my girlfriend was
expecting my first child in Barcelona. No doubt my experience was much more
dramatic than Isaac’s, indeed. Other times, other manners—And all that was
reality, not fiction.
SGF: Do you think that Dimitri’s story is now much more up to date than
the time the novel was published, regarding the current Russian
administration’s homophobic attitude and the increasing number of homosexual
Russians exiled in our country?
LMT: Absolutely. The type of
the gay pretty Russian boy has sadly changed from a sort of sexual fantasy (like
in the novel) to become a tragic reality in mass media and host countries.
SGF: Roser, David’s mother—is she based on any real person that you have
ever known?
LMT: No, I have never met any
woman keenly wishing that her son declares himself as gay, so that he may lend
a hand in her dance studio—As if all gays were good at dance! This character, like
many other elements of the book, meets the general strategy to display a
favorable—though not too much sentimental—scene for teen gays, modulating this
positive vision with a touch of humor.
SGF: The most original aspect in your novel may be the fact that a boy
has sex with another boy to reaffirm his heterosexuality—no fuss, no mock. How
did this idea come about? Have you ever known any straight guy who has
experienced anything similar?
LMT: Yes, I know boys who have
had homosexual experiences—to reaffirm their heterosexuality?, I do not know.
But they wanted to see how it is, and then resolved that they like sex with
girls rather than boys. My first homosexual experience fits in this scheme. Of
course, it was the other guy who was testing, and gratefully resolved that it
was not bad, but he was determined to stay with his girlfriend.
SGF: How important is this novel in your work? Is it one of your favorites?
LMT: It plays a special role
in my work. To start with, and as I said before, this is the only time I write
a book on request so far, and was thought as a young adult novel. Isaac y las dudas is also special for me
as this is the only novel of mine which does not include any autobiographical
element. I liked it, and was pleased to see that I was able to make up
characters, situations, a funny, believable plot. Years go by, and this group
of young boys, Isaac and his doubts, and his boy friends and girl friends, and
their partners and dads and mums—it all seems to me too sweet.
SGF: As this is a project on request to make homosexuality become
normalized in secondary education schools, do you feel that this affects the
tone of the book? Is Isaac y las dudas
very different from your most personal projects?
LMT: Absolutely. I wanted to
design an imaginary scene in which young gays are not only accepted by their
families, but also their sexual orientation is considered better in some cases.
In addition, the book contains a mystery plot, a joke on contemporary dance
(which gets my nerves), plenty of humor. Yes, everything in Isaac y las dudas is different to my
other books. Another point is, for reasons that I ignore but can guess, that
the book did not become a recommended reading in any secondary education school—as
far as I know.
SGF: Now let me vouch for Rafa and other swishy gays. Why in this much
more diverse society are effeminate homosexuals still made fun of, or not taken
seriously, even within the gay universe?
LMT: I really cannot diagnose
such an interesting topic. But I can state without hesitation that the
character of Rafa was created just to vindicate the swishy gay, to fight
against one of the most long-lasting homophobic strongholds, even (or should I
say above all?) in the gay community
itself. Prejudice against being swishy is unfair, reactionary, stupid, and very
usual at the same time. Do not ask me why, but it is so. I actually have the
impression that nobody knows well what is to be swishy about (saying it means effeminacy is an absurd simplification; women
are not used to be swishy). Why some little children and some adults are
swishy, and what the connection between being swishy and homosexuality is, what
being swishy expresses to us. . .Many mysteries and one slogan for the moment:
you have to love swish.
SGF: Let’s talk about Ferrán, Isaac’s teacher. . .Do you feel sorry for
him, or do you think that he is a miserable wuss? What do you really think
about him?
LMT: Regarding Ferrán, let me
tell you an interesting story: when I went to the publishing house to give the
novel, the person in charge was not the same woman who had requested me the
book. After a few weeks we met and she told me that she had found the tone of
the book too frivolous for a significant topic such as homosexuality
in teenage (of course, this was her idea, not her words). And worse: if they
had to suggest the book to high school teachers, Ferrán could not come off so
badly, so coward. I tried to defend my choices, but I finally adapted to the new
manager’s needs. After all, it was a novel on request. In the Catalonian
version[2]
Ferrán is therefore a much more positive
character, he manages his pupil’s love in a more courageous way, or at least
more elegant. Later, when the possibility to translate the novel into Spanish
arose, I recovered the original, uncensored version, where Ferrán is more
afraid of a kind of teen sexuality that he himself has made spring forth. As a
punishment to the censor, every time
they ask me, I say that I prefer the Spanish version, which is a very good
translation and displays a plot more faithful to my intentions.
SGF: When the kids are working on a project about homosexuality and
literature, they take an interest in homosexual authors’ wives. Are you also
interested in these women historically overshadowed by their renowned gay
husbands?
LMT: That was also one of the
publisher’s suggestions, and a price
that I paid with no objections, given the circumstances. Actually, I do not
think that the type of the gay author’s uncomplaining wife is too usual.
Moreover, it is almost disappeared, typical in the times when every homosexual
needed to marry a woman to be socially accepted. Of course it would be very
interesting to portray women married to homosexuals in the pre-gay age, no matter
if their husbands were authors, taxi drivers, or presidents of the government.
These women were lots, and they are still many today, and for sure they have a
lot to say.
SGF: Isaac’s father, Lluís, is worried that his son may be gay. Is it a
homophobic issue, or rather a feeling of unease since his son may suffer in
life a lot because of his sexuality? According to you, to what extent may
parents concern the same in real life?
LMT: Lluís’ dialectical trick
is too usual. That is to say: “I am not against gay people, but I would prefer
not to have a gay son, since he would otherwise suffer discrimination.” People
who say this do not realize that they themselves are discriminating, and
causing suffering to their children. The only honest position before your
children’s homosexuality is to love that homosexuality, as this is an essential
feature of them. Anything else is homophobic rubbish.
SGF: Is there any criticism on those writing workshops that Lluís
attends? What is your opinion about these workshops where you can learn to write?
LMT: In writing workshops they
teach to write books that meet the publication market demand, best-selling
books. That is absolutely okay, but has almost nothing to do with my concept of
what literature is. Until proven otherwise, to be a good writer you need
talent, a lot of reading, deep knowledge on the language you are going to write
in and, above all, something original to say. The main point is that you need
to have the feeling that there is something in your mind which is still
unwritten, and take over the task to get it down on paper or record it in a hard
disk.
SGF: What are you working on now? What are your next projects?
LMT: I am writing a somehow
weird book, still unnamed. There I will explain my varied relationships with the
books, or the authors that have helped me the most become the writer that I am.
I will speak as a reader, as a teacher, as a translator and as a novelist about
the authors that I have been keener on, in terms of similarity or just for
professional need: Proust, Flaubert, Stendhal, Balzac. It is a combination of
informative essay and intellectual autobiography. We will see—
[1] A title hard to translate, as this
phrase is polysemic. Possible choices: ‘The French Disease’ (that is, syphilis), ‘The Bad Frenchman,’ ‘Broken
French’. . .This book is a journal in which Todó portrays a turning point in his
private life, as well as he considers the recent history of Spain, from the
last years of the Franco regime to the first stages of our current democracy. This
book won the 2006 Josep Pla Prize, a prestigious literary award for books in
Catalonian.
[2] This book was published in
Catalonian first, the title being Isaac i
els dubtes.
