Gabriela Damián Miravete (Mexico City, 1979) is lover of speculative literature or imagination, which encompasses science fiction, fantasy, horror or fantasy, genres that do not flee from reality but rather confront it.
Recently, Elephanta Editorial released The song behind all things, uA project that was born in a self-managed way but that todaynew life with this reissue which the author considers as a “suite of stories.”
The writer toassured MILLENNIUM that, although it does not seem like it, there are many writers doing this genre and emphasized that it is not minor, in fact, lMexican literature is founded on it.
Are you one of the few authors of speculative literature?
I think you are right that lVisibility is low and so there is the perception that we are fewand it’s natural. However, there are many authors writing speculative literature, to use a term that encompasses all these writings (or literature of the imagination, as Alberto Chimal calls it) that encompasses science fiction, fantasy, fantasy and horror.
“I believe that we have a tradition of Mexican authors who have wonderfully developed the genre such as Amparo Dávila, Guadalupe Dueñas, Adela Fernández. There have been female authors, but they are not so visible, there is no firm tradition that we can resort to but only the geeks we investigate and find. Thanks to that, since we have formed a community, we have found each other and now, let’s say, we are together paving the way for others, of which there are already a lot.
Do you think this literature is seen as a minor genre?
I think there are several factors. On the one hand, literature written by women in general has been little visible. until very recent dates when it is a little more to the center. On the other hand, it is true that speculative genres are considered second-class literature when in reality Mexican literature is based on very important works of the genre such as Pedro Páramo, Los memorias del porvenir or Aura, in short, we could mention many. .
There are great works and global successes, right?
There is a disregard for these genres when in reality they have built universal literature in a very forceful way, such as Ray Bradbury, George Orwell, Ursula Lewin. So I think it’s already starting to change in general. I feel that literature, criticism, academia and, above all, readerswho have always been open to literature in general and the imagination, They are also breaking down those prejudices little by little.
Furthermore they are best sellers, Game of Thrones or Harry Potter. And there are others like The Lord of the Rings, which is also immensely popular and of extraordinary quality. So there is a suspicion that is generated around what is popular, what the cultured, to put it in this world of dichotomies, opposes when in reality there is a dialogue.
Do you think there is a perception that what is popular does not have quality?
As Theodore Sturgeon said, 99 percent of science fiction is garbage, but also 99 percent of everything written is garbage. It is rather the perception that there is quality literature that suddenly becomes very visible.and not because it is popular or liked by the general public is it bad, for God’s sake! That’s a very silly idea. And on the other hand, there are high-quality works that are diluted, that perhaps have not been as popular because they are very complex, but that belong to these forms of writing.
What does speculative literature allow you?
Take a very healthy distance from reality. When we are too close, there are things that we cannot see in a big picture, in a complete picture and with all its intensity. What imaginative genres do is express emotions very well. of what it means that it is so disturbing to coexist with artificial intelligence, for example, or that the case of disappearances in Latin America is horrible.
There are historical and political events and horrible topics that have already desensitized us, to such a degree that we already see it in the news, we read it in literature and it does not pass through our bodies, but, when we put the tools of the genre into it, itLiterature passes through our body more because it is more intense precisely because it is not like reality, flatter, and with less exacerbation of the senses and metaphor, which is the ghost or the robot or the parallel worlds.
Do writers of the genre flee from reality?
No. When we have these metaphors we can clearly see what we feel about reality itself. So they are not genres that flee from reality but rather confront it clothed in the symbolic, which is the most human thing there is. That is why I write within these keys, because they allow me to use all the tools of the imagination, to be absolutely free and at the same time continue to dialogue very closely with reality with topics that interest me such as femicides, disappearances. or violence.
What would you like to see happen with speculative genres?
I really like making these intersections with other communities and other authors of the imagination and expanding the recognition that is being had of the fantastic imagination, because I feel like we live in an era of “this happened and this is what counts.” and what we are missing is the power that the imagination has to create reality.
If we do not imagine, we cannot create different realities and that is why this type of literature is important, because it proposes things, not only confirms that we live in a dystopia but we can walk towards another possible future and for that, artistic imagination is a great support.
How does The Song Behind All Things fit into this?
I say it’s an artifact or I would say it’s a suite of stories, to use a musical term, and there are people who are reading it like a novel, which I think is fabulous. The intention is for those who read it to determine what that thing is. In this reissue with Elefanta Editorial there is a lot of material around the geological discovery of a very strange mineral called “opal cards”, which produces a very interesting reaction in those who listen to it because it is an acoustic phenomenon that produces hallucinations, and these hallucinations finally give us They lead to an understanding of our relationship with planet Earth while telling us different stories that have occurred throughout time and space on this planet. It turned out wonderful.
