“I have always been saying that the most important thing that has happened to me during all my life was learning to read. I was only five and I’ve never forgotten how much I was enriched because I could decipher words and turn them into images. Therefore, a visit to a bookstore, which is the house of dreams, has a special significance for me,” Mr Vargas Llosa said during the meeting with Montenegrin authors and journalists.
Asked about significance of a writer’s political engagement, Llosa said it was difficult to determine the relation between writing and politics.
“A critical attitude towards the world is significant. It is hard to write and to be apolitical at the same time. Those two worlds are extremely different, but they are intertwined and it is very often difficult to separate them,” Llosa said.
However, he added that “the primordial idea of culture that had been significant in the past seemed to disappear”.
“Today, the culture tends to be fun, so it becomes superficial. Former firm beliefs, we and our ancestors used to have, do not exist anymore, nor do we believe in them any longer. Today we have artists who are not artists, but buffoons. Culture is becoming a show, a superficial performance happening not only in the developed world, but also in less developed countries. There is a general rule that culture is not either authentic or profound. In many parts of the world, we say that culture disappeared and that we do not have it any longer,“ Llosa said.
After the meetings with Montenegrin authors and readers in the “Gradska Knjizara” bookstore, Mr Vargas Llosa met the Minister of Culture, Pavle Goranovic at the reception in Villa Gorica.
On Saturday, the writer will stay in Budva where he will open the third ‘Mediterranean Book Fair 2015’ at 9PM. Thus, the ‘Budva Theatre City’ festival will be officially opened too.
After the opening ceremony of the festival, a literary evening of the famous writer would be held in the town park of Budva. At the event, organised by the publisher “Nova knjiga” and the ‘Budva Theatre City’, the author will talk about his enormous literary work.
A symposium “Literary Flame of Vargas Llosa” will be held at the “Hotel Splendid” on Sunday, starting at 11AM. The symposium will bring together prominent academics, connoisseurs of Latin American literature and Llosa’s works from Montenegro and the region.
