Manuel Bartual grants me a telephone interview. He recently published his first novel The other Manuel (Planet) in which we discover a game of protagonisms and alter ego novels between the parody, the surreal and the mysterious. Manuel Bartual (Valencia, 1979) He has directed a dozen short films and the feature film all your secrets, His comics have appeared in publications such as Thursday y Pride and Satisfaction, and has also designed for publishers such as Astiberri, Dibbuks or It's Pop. Together with Alba Diethelm, directs the editorial label ¡Caramba!, specialized in humor comics. Last summer the story of his mysterious vacation was read on Twitter by hundreds of thousands of people until it became trending topic world. GINÉS J. VERA
In The other Manuel We discover several movie or series titles such as The Blair Witch Project, the great american hero u adventure time. Is it a nod to your role as a screenwriter and director of short films?
It is a nod to the fact that for Manuel Bartual, character in the novel,, fiction is very important; One thing that did happen with the other story is that as soon as something happens to him he quickly finds an analogy with a movie or series he has seen before.. For me it was a bit of a way to define the character and make it clear that for him both movies and series are something very important in his life..
There is an allusion to something very real in this novel, his experience and the impact that the story told in August of last year had through social networks through a tweet. Was it a way to reach more readers and remind those who already know you from that story??
When everything happened last summer, I had the idea for the novel at that moment.. It was when I already had an increase in followers and half of Spain was paying attention to what was happening to me., I realized that that story already had an end and I didn't see a way to continue it or the point., and I did realize that everything that had happened could be the germ of another story, tell the story of what happens next to this person who has become famous on Twitter overnight. Hence there is a connection with history, because really the novel would not exist if that had not happened.
We read in The other Manuel that precisely that story from last summer on Twitter worked thanks to the identification between the protagonist and the author. In this novel he has also sought that resource, it isn't true?
Of course, What I have done is a jump to another plane of fiction, The protagonist is me again but I am not the one who starred in that story, but if the story that wrote that story. What I have sought with the novel has been to convey the spirit of that story, and this also includes the fact or the way of trying to make people feel very close to what I am telling.. On Twitter I think that was allowed by the fact that it was a live story, that you didn't know what was going to happen in the next update and to be building it on a platform that people are also using to follow it.. What I have sought is that readers who are reading a novel, that they see me as if I were in front of them telling a story that has happened to me.
I wanted to interview you by phone to ask you this specific question., just like what the protagonist of The other Manuel, Are you going to read this interview when it's published to see how it turned out?, if you have known how to express yourself as you would like?
Yeah, Yeah, I'm sure I will. I read them all.
After reading the novel, I would like to know if you would agree with me if I say that among the central themes of The other Manuel, in addition to identity, it is that of honesty. Do you think the same?
Does the honesty? Bueno, Yeah, It could be one of the themes too.. The Internet is also an important theme in the novel, And I think it has a lot to do with what you're saying., because in one way or another we have not yet broken this separation that we made between the virtual world and the real world, when I believe that deep down that separation has never existed and now less than ever. And it is true that sometimes on the Internet we behave in a less than honest way and I think we have to be aware that what we put there is us.. So, I think it could be one of the issues.
