PLOM A LA SOLA

Demà dijous se celebra el Dia Internacional de l'Escriptor Empresonat, i el PEN Català ho aprofita per convocar a Barcelona "Escriptura en perill", un seguit d'actes al voltant dels drets dels escriptors i de la commemoració del vuitanta-cinquè aniversari de la fundació de l'entitat (en un sopar amb cinc persones a l'hotel Ritz l'abril de 1922). Al programa, destaquen avui a les 8 del vespre el debat "Viure sense callar. Els drets lingüístics", amb Josep M. Terricabras i el canadenc John Ralston Saul, presentats per Biel Mesquida, i demà dijous dia 15 al migdia una taula rodona amb diversos escriptors refugiats (aquests dos actes, a la Biblioteca de Catalunya) i a les 19:30h una conferència a càrrec de l'escriptora Nadine Gordimer sobre "La imatge i la paraula. Els reptes de la literatura en l’era tecnològica" (a la sala d'actes de la Residència d'Investigadors, c. Hospital, 46).

Aquí teniu "Writing and Being", el discurs de recepció del premi Nobel a càrrec de la narradora sudafricana, l'any 1991. Gordimer hi parla del plom a la sola d'alguns que jutgen: "I return from the horrific singular threat to those that have been general for writers of this century now in its final, summing-up decade. In repressive regimes anywhere - whether in what was the Soviet bloc, Latin America, Africa, China - most imprisoned writers have been shut away for their activities as citizens striving for liberation against the oppression of the general society to which they belong. Others have been condemned by repressive regimes for serving society by writing as well as they can; for this aesthetic venture of ours becomes subversive when the shameful secrets of our times are explored deeply, with the artist's rebellious integrity to the state of being manifest in life around her or him; then the writer's themes and characters inevitably are formed by the pressures and distortions of that society as the life of the fisherman is determined by the power of the sea. There is a paradox. In retaining this integrity, the writer sometimes must risk both the state's indictment of treason, and the liberation forces' complaint of lack of blind commitment. As a human being, no writer can stoop to the lie of Manichean 'balance'. The devil always has lead in his shoes, when placed on his side of the scale."