Because You Never Asked

GONZALO TORRENTE BALLESTER

     (5/09, Spain.)

     (This is the first essay in a 4 part series that also includes, in this order,  “GTB and PCM”, “GTB Live”, and “Who’s Smarter Than GTB?”. I choose to put them in the Race, Religion, etc. section of the Table of Contents. They should be read together.)

     For an American populace who’s average citizen has trouble locating Italy on a map, I would not expect many to be cognizant of one Gonzalo Torrente Ballester, henceforth known as GTB in these pages. Amongst the more literate layers of the world’s social lamination --- in contrast to the People Magazine layer of the world’s social lamination --- GTB is an important figure of the written arts whose novels have been translated to a Babelian array of foreign languages. I can only appreciate my own good fortune in having been able to read a number of them in their original Spanish voice.

     GTB is one of the preeminent literary figures of 20^th century Spain.

     The public library where I live has a nice little book sale the first Saturday of every month, including a decent section of foreign language selections. Lurking discretely amongst the April edition of this event was a paperback edition of GTB’s journalistic commentary from the mid 1960’s. It was called “Memoria de un Inconformista” (Memoir of a Non-Conformist). It turned out to be hundreds of essay-like articles similar to what Post Consumer Man (PCM) does in these pages. Eureka! The opportunity to compare one’s work to that of one of the 20^th century’s great intellects --- in the same genre --- was a buffet of good eating my appetite could not resist --- and all for just 50 cents!

     It was like getting an exquisite gourmet meal for a fast food price.

     What PCM found was a body of work similar both in style and philosophical content to his own work. Although PCM’s voice might be a bit more “plebian” than that of the great intellectual, GTB’s way of engaging his audience, his use of irony, his unequivocal opinions, his unbending search for truth and the improvement of the human condition, his way of challenging his philosophical foes, in short, the whole tenor of the material, all show a bloodline closely related to the author of these words. But even more rewarding for someone like PCM, whose work is not known by approximately 6 billion people (maybe 7 by now), is the almost mirror image reflection GTB’s beliefs return to PCM’s beliefs. This has happened before in these pages with the legendary Czech writer, Milan Kundera (see essay “Milan Kundera”).

     For an unknown chicken soup philosopher of PCM’s stripe, this is very gratifying. It’s like having the great baseball player, Albert Pujols, come up to you and say, “hey kid, you know how to hit”.

     In reading a few of GTB’s novels, it was not difficult to glean a world view similar to PCM’s. But works of fiction only indirectly transmit a writer’s true feelings, which are usually disguised in a way that subtly works upon the reader, one that seeps into one’s consciousness in an almost subconscious way. The enlightening value of any novel worth reading is ingested much like our daily bread: it not only tastes good, it nourishes your intellect in a way you hardly notice.

     A long series of opinion pieces is a different animal. There is no pretense. There is no cover. There is no attempt to camouflage one’s feelings in a way that gently leads the reader there. It goes directly to the target. This is who I am. This is what I believe. This is why I am right and you are wrong.

     I tend to believe the point of view embodied in a well crafted novel is a more effective way --- in the long run --- to influence people. In adjudicating the nobility of the various forms of the written word, the novel occupies the rarified air of its most talented, genius outbreaks. But this is a longer process. Sometimes there is a sense of urgency that must be taken on in a timely fashion. Sometimes there must be direct confrontation. Journalistic commentary and opinion fulfill this need. But it also does one other thing:

     In reading “Memoria de un Inconformista”, I learned a great deal about Gonzalo Torrente Ballester, things that cannot be surmised from his novels.

     And this is where that wicked curve ball is thrown, one that might mystify even the Great Albert --- but not forever.

     In reading GTB’s essays, I was stunned to find that the Gibraltar of his whole value system was a profound devotion to his Catholic religion. The firmly anchored rock of his religion and “faith” was the starter for his intellectual engine, the catalyst for his way of seeing the world and its issues. The fact that a man of such deep religious convictions --- convictions in a status quo religion that has correctly earned a reputation for reactionary intransigence --- might also have a socio-political view so similar to PCM’s, was that wicked curve ball. It mystified him, and sent him back to the dugout after looking at a called third strike.

     By the time PCM got to bat again, it all made a bit more sense, in more than one way.

     I had often wondered, when reading his novels, how a progressive thinker like GTB --- and he refers to himself as such in his essays --- could have chosen to spend almost all his adult life in the hermetic confines of Franco’s Spain? Almost all those with an intellect of such proportions chose the sad road to exile over the fallow mind set of Franco’s Catholic tyranny. Perhaps GTB’s devotion to his Catholicism, generally not shared by other left leaning thinkers, was the reason for this. It might also be the reason he survived in it, produced in it, and was able to snipe at it the way he did.

     The Spanish Civil War and what it led to, unlike almost all bellicose conflicts --- which are little more than power plays of the usual elites using their popular classes as cannon fodder for their interests --- was perhaps the most ideological-emotional war of all time. Its psychological complexity is almost impossible to unravel. It was GTB’s generation that was most affected by it. How such a brilliant liberal thinker such as he could stay on in the reactionary, ultra-conservative country it produced for 40 years; how he managed to survive and produce in it, can only be explained by his deeply rooted devotion to what was virtually a state religion in Franco’s Spain. I admit the merely  conjectural nature of such a theory.

     GTB, in this collection, writes a great deal about his religion, his faith, and how he sees its role in the broader context of human behavior. And this is where the curve ball stops fooling you and it all begins to make sense. He is constantly at odds with a Catholic hierarchy that either allies itself with or abdicates its role as a spiritual guide in the neo-liberal economy of greed and consumption that is sweeping the world. He sees this lay world of self indulgence and economic indicators overflowing its banks and drowning everything spiritual under its waters. He sees his Catholic religion, indeed, Christianity and the teachings of Jesus Christ Himself (big H for GTB) as being swept away by this socio-economic concept --- “capitalism gone wild“, if we may --- regardless of the Church’s political power. He sees his religion and his Church succumbing to these forces, such that its message is being perverted, if not lost completely.

     GTB, the Catholic “par excellance“, becomes the conscience of the Catholic power structure. He became what we might describe as a real pain in the ass. Only his sincere devotion to his Catholicism saved him in Franco’s Spain, though he did suffer a healthy dose of ostracism and ridicule. But Spain was his home, Spain championed his religion, and this is where he chose to wage the battle.

     Difficult times produce men like Gonzalo Torrente Ballester.

     On rare occasions, throughout this series, there will appear tandems of essays that should be read together. This is one of those moments, and I urge the good reader to proceed to the following essays --- at your leisure, of course --- where I will quote directly from GTB’s work and then relate it to the work of Post Consumer Man. The great coincidence of their respective world views, along with a bit of discrepancy, will be put in evidence. The next essay is called “GTB and PCM”.                       

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Email: JerryG@postcman.info