{"id":10188,"date":"2012-05-29T20:00:34","date_gmt":"2012-05-29T19:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.cervantes.es\/dublin\/?p=10188"},"modified":"2014-02-25T19:00:28","modified_gmt":"2014-02-25T18:00:28","slug":"interview-with-malcolm-barral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cervantes.es\/dublin\/interview-with-malcolm-barral\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Malcolm Barral"},"content":{"rendered":"

Malcolm Barral:\u00a0We would love Everyone to Read\u00a0Ulysses<\/h2>\n

\"Malcolm<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Interview with Malcolm Barral, on the 29th May 2012, at the D\u00e1maso Alonso Library of the\u00a0Instituto Cervantes in Dublin<\/a>,\u00a0in association with his participation in the\u00a0\u201cTribute to F\u00e9lix Romeo\u201d<\/a>, with\u00a0Miguel Aguilar,\u00a0Luis Alegre,\u00a0Ignacio Mart\u00ednez de Pis\u00f3n\u00a0and\u00a0David Trueba.<\/h4>\n

Malcolm Barral (Barcelona, 1973) is an editor, columnist and writer. He began his publishing career in a number of small publishing houses in Madrid, moving onto Ediciones del Bronce and Columna Edicions. Within the Planet Group, he managed the fiction collection of Destino and, later, the Spanish fiction collection of RBA. In 2008, he left RBA to create Barril & Barral with the publisher Joan Barril. He is a member of the Finnegans’ Order, which aims to appreciate James Joyce’s masterpiece,\u00a0Ulysses<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Sergio Angulo: \u2014Welcome to the Instituto Cervantes. Have you been here in Dublin before?<\/b><\/p>\n

Malcolm Barral:<\/b><\/span>\u00a0\u2014Yes I have, several times. In fact, I’m part of an absurd literary order that comes to Dublin every year for Bloomsday and we’ve performed here a few times – an act that was strange enough to be from our order.<\/p>\n

Sergio Angulo: \u2014To put this order into context, tell us about Joyce’s\u00a0Ulysses<\/i>\u00a0and its transcendence in literature.<\/b><\/p>\n

Malcolm Barral:<\/b><\/span>\u00a0\u2014Our order has the purpose of venerating James Joyce’s\u00a0Ulysses<\/i>, which is one of the literary masterpieces of the 20th Century, but it also contains different elements from other notable works. Recently I saw an interview about\u00a0Ulysses<\/i>, where someone said \u201cIt’s a book of books, It’s a book with many different ways to be read.\u201d But you can say that about almost any good work of literature.<\/p>\n

I think\u00a0Ulysses<\/i>\u00a0has its own unique elements. One is that the author is playing, romping or challenging the reader all the time, and then he is what you would call in English a \u201cphonetic fanatic\u201d. He is a fanatic of wordplays, so you are constantly trying to discover what play is there. It’s a book that requires special effort and promises a unique reward as sometimes it\u00b4s hilarious and sometimes clever. Obviously it’s a book, as I said before, with many different ways to be read and that is comforting from a literary point of view. But what I like, what we like particularly, is that humorous side, and so we created a somewhat humorous order around this book.<\/p>\n

Sergio Angulo: \u2014Bloomsday, which is June 16th, is the day when the events from the book take place and it’s celebrated here in Dublin, where people get involved, they dress up as the characters and all that. So you make a sort of pilgrimage to Dublin every year?<\/b><\/p>\n

Malcolm Barral:<\/b><\/span>\u00a0\u2014Every year, yes.\u00a0Ulysses<\/i>\u00a0is the story of Leopold Bloom and his journey through Dublin on one day, the 16th of June. So every year Dublin dresses up in Edwardian clothing and celebrates the book with commemorative acts. We do everything backwards. The story of\u00a0Ulysses<\/i>\u00a0begins at the Martello Tower in Dalkey, which is where we finish. We always begin at the James Joyce Centre, and then there’s a sort of public reading, where people from each country read, or actors read passages, fragments from\u00a0Ulysses<\/i>\u00a0and we just come here in unison every year and say the last phrase of the sixth chapter that reads \u201cThank you. How grand we are this morning!\u201d<\/p>\n

Sergio Angulo: \u2014What does it take to be a knight in this order?<\/b><\/p>\n

Malcolm Barral:<\/b><\/span>\u00a0\u2014It\u00b4s essential to be a little idiotic, It\u00b4s ultimately a literary order of friends. It’s a little like the Toledo Order of Bu\u00f1uel, as it’s partly a parody of \u00a0other orders. It requires a love for the book, a commitment to come to Dublin every year for Bloomsday, an affinity for our sense of humour and being able to laugh at yourself a little.<\/p>\n

Sergio Angulo: \u2014I heard you have a ritual – the macabre practice of visiting Dublin cemetery?<\/b><\/p>\n

Malcolm Barral<\/span>:<\/b>\u00a0\u2014Yes. We invented the order, so we invent the rituals too. One year we went to the cemetery, because it\u00b4s in Joyce’s\u00a0Ulysses<\/i>. We discovered the Gravediggers’ Pub, the pub where the gravediggers go, and instead of being a dismal and gloomy place, it had some terrific waitresses and was really fun. This contrast between a pub for gravedigger’s and how it really is, has made it an indispensable stop on our journey every year, in our Bloomsday odyssey.<\/p>\n

Sergio Angulo: \u2014How many members are there at the moment?<\/b><\/p>\n

Malcolm Barral:<\/b><\/span>\u00a0\u2014There\u00b4s 7 of us now. We usually add a new person every year, but this year we\u00b4re thinking of going on strike and not appointing anyone, because we like contradictions and we want to contradict ourselves all the time.<\/p>\n

Sergio Angulo: \u2014Are you all writers or related to it in some way?<\/b><\/p>\n

Malcolm Barral:<\/b><\/span>\u00a0\u2014Well, all but our last recruit. We found an Irish woman, dressed as an Edwardian, in the park and the six of us got on our knees and asked her to be part of the Order. She said yes. She’s Irish, and she’s a woman who dresses as an Edwardian on Bloomsday, and she’s a teacher.<\/p>\n

Sergio Angulo: \u2014But do you keep in touch?<\/b><\/p>\n

Malcolm Barral:<\/b>\u00a0<\/span>\u2014Only through our writing. The others, they\u00b4re more than writers…yes, they are writers and people of culture, but the bond is one of friendship. We all knew each other before.<\/p>\n

Sergio Angulo: \u2014Do you have any missionary ambition? Do you want to preach the\u00a0Ulysses<\/i>\u00a0doctrine?<\/b><\/p>\n

Malcolm Barral:<\/b><\/span>\u00a0\u2014Honestly, no. It doesn\u00b4t have that much importance. We\u00b4re simpy a group of eccentrics who go to Dublin every year to worship a book of six hundred pages, and that’s all we are. We would love if everybody read\u00a0Ulysses<\/i>, because that would mean the average reading comprehension level of Spanish people was very high. That’s not going to happen, but as long as the book industry doesn’t disappear, we’re happy.<\/p>\n

Sergio Angulo: \u2014In 2009, a journalist from\u00a0The Irish Times<\/i>\u00a0carried out a field study to find out how many people who participated in Bloomsday, had actually read the entire book. Out of all the people he interviewed, he discovered only one person had read\u00a0Ulysses<\/i>\u00a0from start to finish.<\/b><\/p>\n

Malcolm Barral:<\/b><\/span>\u00a0\u2014In our order it’s a requirement to have read it completely. But as we\u00b4re people of culture, this is no great feat. We\u00b4ve all read\u00a0Ulysses<\/i>. Some of us have even read it in two languages, no doubt. But I mean, if you ask in Spain, how many people have really read\u00a0Don Quixote<\/i>\u2026.it’s a famous story so, of course, everybody knows the details, but how many people have actually read the whole\u00a0Don Quixote<\/i>?<\/p>\n

Sergio Angulo: \u2014Do you think that Joyce’s work in general, but\u00a0Ulysses<\/i>\u00a0particularly, is inaccessible to people?<\/b><\/p>\n

Malcolm Barral:<\/b><\/span>\u00a0\u2014Yes, it has a certain complexity because of its many cultural jokes, which makes reading it difficult in general. It also has wordplays. Especially in Spanish, as there are two translations and neither of them is perfect, because sometimes the wordplay are lost in transaltion, and it’s a really difficult book. Joyce was complicated. For example, Joyce wrote\u00a0Finnegans Wake<\/i>, which still hasn’t been translated, but can’t be understood in any language anyway. It’s incomprehensible. The challenge Joyce presents in\u00a0Ulysses<\/i>\u00a0is not as extreme, but there are still little inside jokes and wordplays and obscure references. To get something out of a book like\u00a0Ulysses<\/i>\u00a0you need a lot of time and concentration. I don’t know how many copies of Joyce have been sold in Spain, pobably a lot because it\u00b4s well recommended, but it’s definitely a difficult book.<\/p>\n

Sergio Angulo: \u2014Have you read it in both languages, English and Spanish?<\/b><\/p>\n

Malcolm Barral:<\/b><\/span>\u00a0\u2014Yes.<\/p>\n

Sergio Angulo: \u2014For a Spanish reader who speaks English, which do you recommend?<\/b><\/p>\n

Malcolm Barral:<\/b><\/span>\u00a0\u2014I read it in English, after reading it in Spanish, and had already explored some of the wordplays, which made it easier. There are two translations – one is from Valverde and the other from Salas Subirat. The latter, the first edition published by Santiago Rueda, is the best one. I think Valverde’s translation loses resonance, and because it doesn’t have that \u201dphonetic\u201d quality I mentioned, that lyricism and phonetic purity, it loses something. It’s more literal, and perhaps more accurate, but it loses its charm.<\/p>\n

Sergio Angulo: \u2014Do you do anything else, as members of the Order? You know that you wrote a book of short stories. Have you done anything else apart from that?<\/b><\/p>\n

Malcolm Barral:<\/b><\/span>\u00a0\u2014We\u00b4re writing another book of short stories at the moment, which will be published next year. Besides this, we\u00b4ve done nothing else. Although we see each other during the year, it\u00b4s hardly ever all together. Eduardo Lago, who is one of the founders, lives in New York. Enrique Vila-Matas lives in Barcelona. I live in Barcelona too. Antonio Soler and Garriga Vela live in M\u00e1laga. Marcos Giralt lives in Madrid. Some of us see each other when we’re in the same place, at a festival or something. We’re all friends who see each other fairly frequently, but it’s difficult for us all to get together at the same time.<\/p>\n

Sergio Angulo: \u2014Do the short stories you have written have any relation to\u00a0Ulysses<\/i>?<\/b><\/p>\n

Malcolm Barral:<\/b><\/span>\u00a0\u2014That depends. The last one had a connection, more or less. In the short story I wrote, the character was named Leopoldo, a Joyce expert who travelled to Ireland and wanted to hook up with a girl that was with him on the plane. He was a hopeless guy, who was a little like me. But it’s not like a school essay, where you\u00b4re given the topic. The book simply served as a template.<\/p>\n

At the moment, we\u00b4re writing a book about childhood, which I find more difficult to relate to Joyce. I don’t know if we’ll get there or not, but with a novel where so many things happen, you can always find a connection, of course, There’s alcoholism, the Jewish issue, infidelity… There are so many topics that you can always tell a story that has something in common.<\/p>\n

Sergio Angulo: \u2014Is\u00a0Dubliners<\/i>\u00a0the easiest of Joyce’s books to begin with?<\/b><\/p>\n

Malcolm Barral:<\/b><\/span>\u00a0\u2014Yes, because\u00a0Dubliners<\/i>\u00a0is a collection of short stories, I think it would be the easiest. The best initiation book for Joyce, let\u00b4s say. What you shouldn’t try is\u00a0Finnegans Wake<\/i>, because that really is… well we can\u00b4t be sure if it was a joke to leave us wondering for decades, what the hell Joyce wanted to say with that book?<\/p>\n

Sergio Angulo: \u2014Next Saturday, on June 16th, it’s Bloomsday. Will you be here?<\/b><\/p>\n

Malcolm Barral:<\/span><\/b>\u00a0\u2014Yes, of course.<\/p>\n

Recommended links<\/h4>\n