In the fall of 2018, after thirteen years of silence, the writer Ruben Gonzalez Gallego will present his third book, “Eternal guest”. To 26 Ruben Gallego, grandson of General Secretary of the Communist party of Spain, he lived in orphanages and homes for the elderly: knowing that the child has cerebral palsy, a senior relative gave the order to get rid of it. The first two of the novel, “White on black” and “I sit on the shore” – about the experience of life of children and adolescents with disabilities in the system of closed institutions of the Soviet Union. What will be the third book of the writer than the difference between men and women and whether you want to forgive someone because it happened that way in the interview “Pravmiru”.
Ruben Gonzalez Gallego. Photo: Bob Yuriev / Facebook
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– Ruben, you have between the second and third book of 13 years of space. What kind of time was it for you as a writer? It was the silence or the search? Or working 13 years on a new book?
– I did some text and put in daddy. So everything is fine.
– You worked on the book? Just quietly wrote and then re-joined, huh?
My the format in which I work, implies such a possibility. You my first book read?
– Yes, of course. You mean the little stories, right?
– Cupolas, Yes. I could write freely. And to go with the raw text and with a certain idea, I could not. To go with the idea of “money can do everything” I couldn’t either. It’s a stupid idea, I think. This is not so. I calmly realized that in America I’m with my writings is useless. The tragedy for me was not. So, a little sad, well, okay. Later it came to America. Even now I think, and why? I tried to find a definition of culture. Everywhere, every country has their own definition of culture. In the States it was hard to do. Because all the values or almost all comes down to the skill and ability to make money. It’s so boring, even not want to discuss. Then I went here (approx. ed: in Israel) and saw that there is another approach to life, to values, to human.
What I do for a lifetime? I take a person and explore. This is what is worth living for, and what gives me the opportunity to live.
I was jealous, of course, those who receive feedback immediately. For example, the footballer came on the pitch, knocked the ball. Okay, the goal, the stands are buzzing, he’s so cool, great, he got the ball, the ball flew into the net. A writer can write now, and the result will be using -eleven hours, days, months, years. So the writers how much I knew, slightly sad people. Well, you see, if you put in front of a situation in which how good your article, you will learn 10 years from now, it will be a little difficult.
– This book is also about the past?
– No. Partially about the past, but mostly about the present. This also happens.
Photo: Facebook
– Books written 13-15 years ago – about the events that you had in childhood, in adolescence. Now, if you’ll go there mentally in a children’s home, in a nursing home, it will be another past, another history?
– The same, one to one. A talented writer, can do about yourself, so to speak. Looking back, I can say that ambition was the boy. And really, if you evaluate yourself the existing of a writer, well, then, well, everything is fine.
– Do you remember your first feeling of “I – writer”?
– So. I remember a time when I said this.
– And you believed, when you said that?
– Well, first it’s said in between Yuz Aleshkovsky. But SW is such a person, flighty and cheerful. I have no desire or even… well, what I’m going to check out Hughes. The SW is very accurate. And the second was the Aurora Gallego, my mother, she took it, read my book and said,
– Ruben, you know what they do not understand everything?
– I understand that.
– What do you think, when will you know?
Well, a year and a half.
In Russia I was told: “This book is about the harsh living conditions of Russian people with disabilities”. When I was in Italy, talked to people, told me: “look, Ruben. It’s not about harsh conditions, it’s not about the Russian and, in fact, not disability”. The Italians juggling meanings, and examine human as I am. And first of the Italians in the book looked and read a couple of pages: “it is Clear, you’re talking about man. And what do you think most saw through you?” I said, “not Yet.” The Italians at once saw through. Time and “all clear what you wanted to say.”
– What do you know now about the man, examining him for so many years?
I can’t really discover America, when I say that most of the stuff we do ourselves, most of what one would achieve, we achieve. And a lot of these on the fly, at full gallop, not problems to be solved and they are solved very simply, well, just very, very simple.
– For example?
For example, in France, to me the people interviewed:
– You understand that you will not give in France to unwind?
– You think I’m stupid? Of course, I understand.
– And when do you think your book will flourish in France?
Never.
– So right never?
Never. The unbearable lightness of being, is still misunderstood in France.
Or misunderstood, or deliberately misunderstood, so to speak. The French are very cynical. They brought the issue of relationship to the person, in this case to the disabled, to sex. Here the poor little invalid, he has no sex. But it’s not. First, but the sex still a lot of things in life, what you can enjoy. And then, if we take all issues of disability to the issue of sex, we thus say: “And the rest we already took into account”. It is clear, right? Nastya sits and eats chocolate ice cream. Maybe she can give the cookies sweet? And why did she have cookies? She has chocolate ice cream is already there. And since most countries had in one way or another to test myself on my prose and to some extent to compare yourself with these unfortunate disabilities. Well, fools that weed out. At least I don’t have every stupid conversation, and through one. Fools love to gather in flocks.
– In the new book, too different will interpret meanings or is there still more unequivocally, not about disability, but about something else?
– There is about disability. Now I understand that this will not escape. There are things that, if I don’t write about the disabled, I will write someone first, not disabled, and secondly, do not understand the problem.
– So, you are in some degree responsibility take to be a voice?
Yes. There is still more complicated. First, responsibility. Okay, I get it not from good life. I understand that all the buns, if we’re talking about the disabled, get either very rich or very educated. That is a good stroller either very rich or very educated. Okay, I have a good stroller because otherwise all would know, what are the strollers. I can describe what I see.
– Ruben, you have the second book written “Gallego is one of the most prominent contemporary writers.” When you received the Booker, when you come to confession, you would mentally go back to those people who said, “He’s a moron”? And say: “Look, I’m not a moron”. Someone to prove something was important?
– No. Here is one of the forms of such a forced separation. First, I found that a good Director of the orphanage, which did not send us to the nursing home 2 years kept. And when I found him, I called him and he said, “Ruben, I have two things. First, we try to think that you don’t suffer. I understand that it was wrong to think, but forgive us, please, this. We had to be at work.” I say, “You differ from many people though that can say it out loud.” He says, “And the second – please don’t call me anymore. It’s very painful.” Now I can talk about it, because he’s dead and gone. All, of course, knew. They didn’t have to prove anything. Another thing is that they had to prove to them the boys blood in his eyes were not. It’s not my problem, that’s their problem.
I find it easier to find a common language with ex-con than with the former “cultural” person. We are not going neither to romanticize nor to do the opposite.
And it is clear that the prisoners are different. Those convicts who want to chat with me, understand me easier than the Professor, because too much in common.
– You have in your coordinate system categories such as “guilt” and “forgiveness”? That someone was to blame, how did you life as a child?
– No, it was not. Was the policy. Policy is rather bloody sport. I can not deploy, that’s understandable, right? And here we will focus on this. As a politician can repent? On his Desk, all folders, all rules, all instructions. He goes through them, good for him. Then, of course, when he looks back, he sees that all is not well.
I liked very much not “One day of Ivan Denisovich”, so I would say mediocre stories. And the fact that it received the response of the guards who worked there: “Guys, sorry, we tried so hard. We are good, we harvested juniper, to avoid deficiency. Yes, there were some flaws, others were not”. Mother Teresa almost. So that’s it, now the people have a right to this phrase: “We tried so hard, and he didn’t understand us”. I don’t know what would have happened if they had not yet tried. I would have died, it’s understandable.
I’m a little cynical in this regard. I believe that to forgive, it is necessary that the man wanted to be forgiven. And if a person wants to be forgiven, he himself of poselok distribute a bunch. So everything is fine. We’re separated: they go, we go. Everyone is happy. I do not blame them completely, I had the same material, such as clay, plasticine, production of iron, steel and things like that. Here you are, Anastasia, in my life many forgiven?
– It was not something that I had people to forgive.
Around was green Hippo are all good, nice, right?
– No, just when I stumble on something, have tried to try to stand in the place of man: that he may feel at this point, why he behaves. To understand, do some logical mental processes, not emotional, why this is so. And then it happens that it becomes clear and the idea of forgiveness or unforgiveness disappear from my mind.
– Normally, we’re one and the same mechanism. That said, where are you, I’m not saying top-down, where you’re relatively healthy girl, where I am, but the brain is still the same. Can’t change it. The fact of the matter is that when we say that all persons with disabilities highly intelligent is the same stupidity and the same racism as “all persons with disabilities severely stupid.” We are all different. Starting with the fact that we are different all through life, and ending that persons with disabilities are different. And in General there are some standard evaluation of disability. It may be a medical assessment of disability, may be pedagogical, and assessment standard can not be – too difficult, too much input.
– I wanted to ask you as a man, to which came the volunteers sometimes what makes a volunteer a good volunteer when he goes to the orphanage? What is important to him to remember or know?
About the volunteers… I Mat in front of beautiful women will not afford to fight. And so, with the volunteers doing a great job in Russia, as elsewhere.
– Who? Funds?
– No, why. They themselves are doing great. Because, for example, there are two volunteers and one hundred and bedridden grandparents. And volunteers say: “Help us.” That is the person put in the situation of sadism. 2 volunteer can’t make 100 people. Here’s the lead, and immediately he Bang on the top: or take yourself, well, who can do none, or look at us, as we stand, inject, and Paskaleva with us. But to change – nothing will change. That’s all volunteers. So I can’t say that they do not work, they work well. Just when I got to this arithmetic, and decided that I think I will not. Logical, right? What would you like to know more? What do you wonder?
– I wonder what was the most difficult and what the longest time was used when he got out of “the system” at will? It’s two different lives. Your life is divided into “before” and “after”? And there, on the loose, was it?
– Free and easy. That just happened to Gorbachev. And I read the memoirs or simple notes of educated people. When they fell this wild market, not everyone could rebuild and many died. So it turned out. Nothing can be done. But for me, when I was out in the world that was “it, like all of us in the orphanage”. To break a man’s head, set fire to the car – that kind of thing. Ah, well, he did something, the one that did that. Well, as we have. You are separated from us, but it is temporary. How close are you guys to join us and will speak our language. If you now turn on the receiver and about half an hour it will work, you’ll hear there chanson. Yes? Well, what you wanted and took a part of the population, isolated, and then released to the environment in which they feel good. For us it was good. We understand the entire conceptual row. Why are they so than unhappy?
– It turns out, was a pretty smooth transition?
– Yes, it turns out, was a pretty smooth transition. But how? Well, got one part is trying to live by the rules, and the second does not even know that there is a notion “to live on concepts”. “And imagine Ruben, it is necessary to live.” Really? Only Ruben never lived. And secondly, Yes, I knew that stuff by heart, not all quoting. So what? Everything is normal. It is very easy.
– And in Europe, when it turned out?
In Europe very clearly drawn concepts, and if in the orphanage or in Russia… On directly to the orphanage in Russia…
– A comma, right?
– Yes! People could not formulate the concepts, because they are too afraid, in Europe I liked all the concepts hanging on the street, on the leaves. So I bought the book: “Ethics of conduct”. Read, everything is fine. Moreover, all concepts, these concepts are still all to share. It’s convenient, great. But in America all the candy: if you have a lot of money – you are above concepts.
– And in Israel?
– In Israel very well. It’s a small socialist country. But a socialist is not what you are Lenin and Bukharin drew. No, I mean that the country is small and each person has great value. There is absolutely a stranger to you (not me, you) can come up and say: “why are you so sad? On, eat ice cream, go ahead. But why are you so sad? Well, not to be”.
– You can’t come?
– Can easily. Absolutely 100% any person can go up to anyone and say, “what’s that?” I stopped near the cafe. Runs the chef and says:
– What is it? You feel bad? Can water make? Pill to drink?
– No, everything’s fine, thank you.
– Okay, well, we need to drink, need to drink.
– Yes, I know. I’m with a friend.
– With a friend – is very good.
And he comes out. In Israel, of course, interpersonal barriers are very low, and rightly so, because you can die just from the heat. Still, we hot. Anyone can come and tell you, for example, the girl: “why aren’t You drinking? Are you from Russia?” It is a strange uncle, you see the first time. Maybe he’s glued? It is not glued, it just tells you, “drink.” This word is the meaning. And it has absolutely nothing to do with your gender or sex. And people, in General, more… what is a neighbor? This is the one that you will help tomorrow, and he will help you today. Connection.
View Israel on the map: around very strong, very rich state. And we have this: every person is of great value. I was not told how much my rig is that I have not experienced the feeling of embarrassment. Huh? Now little by little the whole world looks at Israel and says, “you have to learn.” And how they did it? Well, here’s what happened. What a flight to Mars? Learn how we have all done. Of course, great.
Scary here scary for kids, scary for that shoot, scared for it all. And the higher the cost of human life. It is higher. Cool, huh?
About anything else you wanted to ask?
– About love. I haven’t lived in an orphanage, but the orphanage is about a terrible lack of love, about the lack of feeling the favorite. And I wanted you to know about your first: “wow, I love. That’s how it is. Here’s what that means.” About first encounter with love, if it is possible to identify somehow.
– Love is acceptance of oneself as a love object. “Oh, cool, I can love.” In my case it’s 10 thousand times easier – I’m still a boy. People are divided into girls and boys. I’m a man. Man is very primitive customized, unsophisticated creature that believes that love him 100 percent out of 100. And if it is not, “How, me, a wonderful, Yes? I can sink to fix it, 1000 bucks to give on the purchase” – that kind of thing. And deeper the man anywhere and not thinking.
Therefore, when compared to the orphanage a man with a man outside the orphanage, there will be very little difference.
Man is easy to be disabled. This woman seriously.
Because we perceive the disabled, as we, I, you, he, she, first, through attractiveness, unattractiveness, and secondly, through the functionality and dysfunction. Logical, right? How can a man live in the world of women? Very simple – he develops some of his gangodawila scale, in a profession asserting itself, “Here I am a programmer, not bad, not weak”. And all he proved to himself that he is cool in some area. And women will love. Of course, it will, where will they go? Men do not suffer.
The woman, of course, hard: “I can’t be that attractive to him.” What you guys men don’t understand is the topic of another conversation. Having mastered the profession, the man said: “I’m cool. First, I’m cool, because I was born a man. And secondly, I can still cross stitch, and machine sew can do.” So.
– You have happened? Was feeling: “I’m cool, I can embroider, so I’ll be like”? This is about your story too?
– Yes, about all. Still disabled write me letters. And I was lucky as a writer, I write letters. Clearly, people with disabilities are very often, but still most unfortunate. Imagine every day you bring the abyss of despair. And the return address is the separation of schizophrenia, and you see that people are really suffering. There would be – helped, as well as not close, can not help. Write stupid letters like: “You can” I can’t, because I know too well what mental illness. I can’t say: “you will succeed” because no way you will succeed. What was it about “I’m cool”?
– “I’m cool, I can embroider a cross.”
– “Yeah, I can embroider a cross.” Well, I myself know this is true, no women.
Or here view. First they said that very aggressive people with down syndrome. It turned out that it is not. Then – “aggressive people with mental retardation”. Guys, no need to torture them, don’t have to feel bad to treat them, and you will see that they are the nicest people. Told that people with paralysis are very aggressive. We are talking with you. I aggressive? “Autistic people are aggressive”. Yes, if a person does not give is, hit on the head with a stick, he will be aggressive. You have a degree?
– Political science and history.
– You can write a wonderful, wonderful book about the aggressiveness of graduates political science and history departments if they are to beat a stick on the head. You know, anyone can become aggressive to such tricks. You know that mental retardation was treated with hunger. That is, the man is bad – he still is not allowed. He was evil. It is clear that it is not. It is nonsense. But in fact, if beat on the head, probably, Yes, any person can be driven to the point where he will be aggressive.
I say: “Here you always say “boy, boy, man, man.” What would you say to a woman in a wheelchair?” Is that hanging in the air now in our conversation. And I do not know. We are different. Men and women generally without regard to the disability and not the disabled different. Point. That’s when the women will attend to this, it will be women who will write a good book.