COLOMBIA AS A SOURCE OF CRIME AND MYSTERY FICTION

By Sebastian Pineda

Traveling around England and Europe, I have often wondered about the confusing idea of Colombia as held by the Europeans, as she has always been associated with cocaine and narcotics. I think the idea of a nationality archetype sometimes depends on a roulette game: chance or fate chooses your identification, your image in the world even if you don´t agree with its choice, even if you are spoilt for choice.

Should there be something useful in such a terrible Colombian archetype? Believe it or not, my nationality has enabled me to avoid many problems. Once I was walking through Elephant & Castle – the most dangerous street in London – but the thieves didn´t dare to rob me as they realized I was from Colombia. My passport daunted them… Certainly as soon as I start a conversation with someone, and I say I was born in Medellin, I suddenly notice certain gestures or expressions – beyond bad and good – as if my nationality inspired fear or fascination… It´s exciting in a way… Isn't it? And I think to myself: what do people imagine about me as a Colombian guy traveling alone around Europe? Am I a drug runner or a Medellin´s Cartel member or something like that according to the popular idea of Colombia? Therefore, what we call the popular Colombian image in magazine, newspaper, movies and so on should rather be called the anti-popular image. And although I have tried to come to Colombia's defense showing a lot of beautiful aspects such as the interesting literary tradition, the amazing musical variety, and the industrial development of Medellin, emphasizing that the common population isn't involved in drugs. To be honest it has been almost impossible to change the archetypical idea: cocaine.

Fortunately I am, above all, a writer – I would like to write fiction. So I realize Colombian writers should make use of such a "valuable" history of crimes, intrigues, murders, and international conspiracies about drug traffic and its effects in several Western governments. Why not? Did not Thomas De Quincey write his wonderful "Confessions of an Englishman opium eater" or "Murder considered as one of the fine arts"? Human mind works through image and archetypes, as Jung said. So if you are interested in Colombia the best way to approach her is through literature and fiction, that is the direct way to ensure that people understand and know each other.

A young Colombian writer has started to make use of those archetypes in his powerful and mysteries stories where Colombian detectives, following their poetic inspiration, solve crimes and intrigues. His name is RUBEN VARONA (born 1980), and he is currently living in England. Recently, I arranged to meet him in Baker Street – London. My first question seemed obvious:

Q1. What do you feel walking around in Baker Street, where Arthur Conan Doyle sited the residence of the most important detective in literature?

A. While I was walking looking for the mythic 221b Baker Street, I remembered a story that has always surprised me. It is when Conan Doyle decides to kill his famous detective Sherlock Holmes, in order to spend more time writing historical novels. In his short story "The Final Problem", the hero died at the hands of Professor Moriarty, the most important mastermind of the Victorian age in Europe. But he never imagined that his readers would go out to the streets in order to protest against the death of such a popular hero; after that even his own mother never invited him to take tea anymore. For that reason he resurrected the detective in "The Adventure of the Empty House".

Q2. Which topics do you think that Colombian Crime Writers should develop in fiction?

A. Some months ago, I attended an exhibition about the Nazi Holocaust. While i looked at a picture of a child with a gas mask who hugged her teddy bear, somebody suddenly jostled me. When I turned around, I saw a Jewish couple with three children. In that moment I realized that at least 80 percent of the public was from Israel, and 50 percent of them were children. I wondered about the parents' reason for showing to their children such a horrible reminiscence of the Holocaust. Then I understood that, despite horror, the history must be transmitted to generation after generation so as to keep it and never forget it. After all Europe has understood the importance of history, that is, to keep the memory alive in order to avoid terrible repetitions. Even in the smallest Europeans cities one can visit a War museum, or to go to a Holocaust lecture given by a native historian. Almost everybody could write novels about the Second World War according to their own experiences. I think writing is the most suitable way to ensure peace over the world. Therefore, I think that Colombian writers should find out about their own history as much as they can. It is impossible to hide that Colombia was one of the most violent countries during the last two decades of the 20th century, in part because of the illegal drug trade to USA and Europe, but in another part because of a long tradition of civil wars which has not been told enough by the historians and novelists. There are a lot of stories and amazing arguments inside the Colombian Mafia. It is similar to the Sicilian mafia which has forged itself against the law, and has constructed – with blood – its own channels of upward mobility to political and economic power. For instance, drug barons or "traquetos" throw away big bags of money from their private helicopters or airplanes to poor towns or poor neighborhoods in Medellin or Bogota. Colombian soldiers have suddenly found millions of dollars buried in the Colombian forest, and spent it on prostitutes, amazing cars, and amazing parties…The spectacular rescues of kidnaps; the bombardment of guerrilla camps inside the jungle… I wonder what stories I can take from Intelligence Agencies affirming that some governments had financial terrorism groups in Colombia… The topics that can be developed by Crime Writers are huge indeed. Now, the most important thing is to tell the story!

Q3. I have been informed that in the 11 Festival International du Roman Noir, in Frontignan – France, you were elected AS Vice-president for Latin America for the International Crime Writers Association – AIEP. WHAT do you think writers should do to encourage Latin American people to read more crime fiction?

A. I consider that writers (best sellers or beginners) should attend creative WRITING CLASSES and literary events in order to share knowledge about their particular interest with other writers, critics, editors, films makers, literary agents, and so on. I became a member of AIEP when I published my first novel: "Espérame Desnuda entre los Alacranes" ("Wait for me naked woman between the Scorpions"). Nowadays I wish to find new readers. Now I am a member of the UK Crime Writers' Association, and I have new friends around the world with whom I can share a passion for mystery literature.

"LA NOVELA POLICIAL"

Por Alfonso Reyes.

De todas las feas denominaciones que han dado en emplearse para cierto género novelístico hoy más en boga que ninguno —novela de misterio, de crimen, «detectivesca», policíaca, policial— prefiero esta última. Las demás, o parecen despectivas, o limitadas, o impropias por algún concepto. Sobre esta novela policial me atreví a decir —y lo ha recordado recientemente Jorge Luis Borges en Buenos Aires— que era el género literario de nuestra época. No pretendí hacer un juicio de valor, sino una declaración de hechos: 1) es lo que más se lee en nuestros días, y 2) es el único género nuevo aparecido en nuestros días, aun cuando sus antecedentes se pierdan como es natural, en el pasado.

Se me ocurre charlar hoy un poco sobre la novela policial, y me da ocasión una experiencia reciente. Un eminente psiquiatra mexicano me encontró una de estas mañanas con una novela policial en la mano y hablamos así:

—¿También usted lee estas cosas?

—Soy un decidido aficionado. Me interesan sin conmoverme. En la que llamaremos «novela oficial» todo conflicto me conmueve y agita. En la policial todo conflicto me deleita porque enriquece la investigación. En la novela oficial, una muerte puede hacer llorar, como lloraban el fallecimiento del personaje «Amadís» la dama y su servidumbre, en la anécdota que todos los humanistas conocen. En la novela policial, al contrario, una muerte es bienvenida, porque da mayor relieve al problema. Descansa el corazón, y trabaja la cabeza como con un enigma lógico o una charada, como con un caso de ajedrez. Pero el trabajo no es tan intenso que fatigue, y además sabemos que, por regla, nos van a dar la solución en el último capítulo; de suerte que podemos ser un tanto pasivos si nos place, y graduar nosotros mismos la atención y la energía mental que deseamos gastar. Finalmente, el problema no conlleva el dolor de la abstracción lógica, sino que va cómodamente encarnado en Pedro, Juan o Francisco. En suma, leo novelas policiales porque me ayudan a descansar, y me acompañan, sin llegar a fascinarme u obsesionarme, a lo largo de mis jornadas de trabajo, con esa música en sordina de un «sueño continuado» que no tiene nada de morboso; me permiten satisfacer esa necesidad de desdoblamiento psicológico que todos llevamos adentro (y a la que importa buscar alguna salida por buena economía del espíritu), sin poner para eso en acción todos los recursos sentimentales ni la preocupación patética que exige la novela oficial.

—Tiene usted razón —me contestó mi amigo—. En algunos casos, y por los mismos motivos que usted dice, yo aconsejo estas lecturas a mis enfermos de fatiga nerviosa. Por donde caemos en el tema de la higiene mental que trataba usted en algún artículo. ¿Y le interesa a usted igualmente la novela policial que el cuento policial?

—En principio, necesito que la obra tenga cierta extensión para que logre persuadirme con su engaño estético. Los antiguos retóricos se acercaron muchas veces (y el primero, Aristóteles) a este tema de la relación entre el lícito engaño literario y la dimensión del poema. En sus comentarios sobre El cuervo, algo dice al respecto Edgar Allan Poe. Quizá no sea posible decir más, pues el tema es resbaladizo y escapa a la razón dosimétrica. Pero hay una cierta relación entre la cantidad y la calidad poética, que puede ser de primer grado o de grado recóndito, de orden directo o de orden inverso. Y en el tipo de ficción policial es obvia, es de primer grado y de razón directa. Victoria Ocampo, también gran lectora de estos libros, me ha declarado que sólo soporta la novela y no el cuento. Yo soy un poco más ecléctico, pero suscribo, en tesis general, el mismo principio.

—¿Se ha escrito algo que merezca leerse sobre el género policial?

—Hay un buen ensayo de Roger Caillois, y hay mil notas y luminosos atisbos en Jorge Luis Borges, que, en colaboración con Adolfo Bioy, está dando carta de naturalización al género en la literatura hispanoamericana y, podemos decir, en la hispana.

Fuente: Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2008. © 1993-2007 Microsoft Corporation. Reservados todos los derechos.

THE POLICE NOVEL

By Alfonso Reyes

Of all ugly denominations which have given name to certain novelistic genre very fashion nowadays I rather prefer "police novel". The rest of denominations seem derogatory or limited or unsuitable by some concept. I dared to say about this police novel – and Jorge Luis Borges has remembered it recently in Buenos Aires – that it has been the gender of our times. I did not pretend making a value judgment but a declaration of facts: 1) it is the most read genre of our days; 2) it is the only novelistic genre emerged in our day, even though its antecedents get lost in the past naturally.

It occurs to me to chat a little bit about the police novel, and it gives me chance to a recent experience. An eminent Mexican psychiatrist found me one of these mornings with a police novel in my hand, and we talked as following:
- Do you also read police novels?
- I am a decided amateur. I´m interested in them but they do not disturb me. In the called "official novel" I disturb and shake for every conflict. In the police novel I delight each conflict because it enriches the investigation. In the “official novel” a death can make us cry. In the police novel, in contrast, a death is welcomed because it gives more relief to the problem. The heart rests and the mind works with an enigma logic or puzzle, as with a case of chess. But the work is such a intense that we do not get tired, and furthermore we know, by golden rule, that they are going to give us the solution in the last chapter; then we can be a little bit passive if we want to; we can calibrate by ourselves the attention and energy of our mind which we want to use up.

Finally, the problem does not carry the pain of a logic abstraction but it goes adjusting incarnating in Pedro, Juan or Francisco. In sum, I do read police novels because they help me to take a break, without reaching me to obsess by them, along my journey job with that mute music of a "continued sleep" which does not have nothing morbid; they allow me the psychological unfold which all of us carry inside (and they are important to find an exit for the well economy of the spirit), and it is not necessary to put in action all sentimental resources or pathetic preoccupation which demands the "official novel".

- You are right – said my friend –. In certain cases, and for the same reasons that you have said, I recommend my patients of nervous fatigue to read novels such as these. We approach, by the way, to the mental hygiene which you worked in some article. Are you interested in novels as well as in short stories?
- First of all, I would require that the work should contain certain size in order to persuade me with its aesthetic deceit. The ancient rhetoricians approached several times (Aristotle was the first one) to this issue about the relation between the lawful deceit and the dimension of the poem. In his comments to “The Raven”, Edgar Allan Poe something said about this issue. Perhaps it would not be possible to say something else as the theme is slippery and it escapes from the dosimetry reason. But there is certain relation between the quantity and the poetic quality, which could be of first grade or the hidden grade, of direct order or inverse order. And the kind of police fiction is obviously first grade and direct reason. Victoria Ocampo, who is also great reader of these books, has declared me that she only bears the novel, not the short story. I am a little bit more eclectic, but I subscribe, in general terms, the same principle.
- Is there something written about the police gender that worth reading?
- There is a good essay by Roger Callois, an there are thousand notes and luminous watching in Borges, who, in collaboration with Adolfo Bioy Casares, is giving passport to this gender in Hispanic-American literature, and, we might say, in the Hispanic literature.

Traslated by Sebastian Pineda