R. A. Raga (Valencia, 1975) He has a degree in Law from the University of Valencia and has completed postgraduate studies in Political Sciences at different universities in the United Kingdom., Belgium and France. Raga has written and directed the short films Story of a citizen, autumn cannibalism y Mickey Mouse is dead, all of them selected in different national and international festivals. As a writer, He has made artistic and gastronomic criticism, collaborating in the preparation of different artist catalogs and individual or group exhibitions. Sunday Dandy It is his first novel, Also the first of the three novels whose plot axis revolves around the milestones of generation, desire and death.
The voice that tells the story immerses us in a vitalist lifestyle, with numerous dreams of youth that are going to take an unexpected turn, I have wanted to see some sense of survival, a spear broken by the dignity of a generation wounded I don't know if seriously.
Indeed, Sunday Dandy is a generational novel, a story for people who have gone from having everything to having nothing, to think that they will produce a change, that the future is theirs to realize that there is an entity above them that can always drag them down. The characters in the novel feel in the middle of a natural catastrophe against which they can do nothing., an earthquake, an unstoppable tsunami. That's why they take refuge in childhood, in the memories, in better times. No future, as the punks said in the seventies. The Sex Pistols would have liked the novel.
To what extent is it a novel that sheds light on the backstage of a society deceived and resentful to the limits of resentment?? Have you met any Sunday Dandy?
There are many Sunday Dandy. We are all in a certain way Sunday Dandy. He is a universal character, someone we all have inside, that kind of man emerged from New Deal American and imbued with counterculture and hedonism. Just like the characters, The novel also narrates events that could be located anywhere in the world., which –effectively– refer to a society, to a deceived generation, someone who wakes up from a dream abruptly, Only when he wakes up he no longer sees the Teddy Bear on the nightstand but rather the empty bottle of champagne and the revolver that he keeps at the bottom of the drawer..
Sunday Dandy is told in counterpoint, alternating past and present, so that the reader can see that “tear”, that conflict between expectations and reality when the characters are surprised by the economic crisis. How did you consider this approach before writing it??
Eisenstein considered that art is conflict, that arises from him. From the first moment I thought that the novel needed to show that conflict, so based on the filmmaker's statement and his masterpiece, The battleship Potemkim, I decided that the best way to capture it was – since I couldn't use the Russian director's shot-reverse shot – to establish two opposing narrative times.. Everyone has been involved to a greater or lesser extent by this cyclone called crisis, so I considered it necessary to establish two antagonistic points of view or situations to reinforce both elements.. The fact that Sunday Dandy It is narrated in this way, it dramatizes both situations more, powers them, The period of prosperity seems more beautiful and the crisis more stark if possible..
I was surprised by the narrative tone of the treatment of the dialogues between the characters., prepared so that the narrative is a continuous, an adage without breaks from textual uniformity, Has it been the intention from the beginning?
At this point I would like to be respectful of the style of other writers whom I consider true masters but, the truth, I've always thought that scripted dialogue slows down the action enormously.. How could you read, The novel is a succession of chapters that gain in agility as the plot progresses.. For this it was essential to limit dialogues and, case of occurrence, They had to be fully integrated, that they did not represent a full stop, that do not require special attention on the part of the reader. The Jarama Ferlosio is very good but many years have passed since then. If you have to go back in time, it is better to do so until you reach Proust..
Last names of filmmakers also circulate in the currents of Sunday Dandy, A new author's nod to the seventh art? Kieslowski, Buñuel, Lynch, Godard, Coppola or Tarantino among others. But above all Mankiewicz, its particular staging of plot and characters, Is there a submetaphor in this novel between the cinema and the outcome of events?
Definitely. Buñuel always said that he would have preferred being a novelist to a filmmaker. The truth is that he had literary talent but I don't know if he would have achieved the genius he achieved behind the camera.. In my case, I think I could say that I write but I would also like to make films. Let's hope that one day I can achieve writing the 50% of the genius of the Aragonese in a filming. In the novel there are multiple references to cinema, just as there are also to art.. I am a firm defender of the multidisciplinary nature of the artist so I consider it almost a duty to talk about all types of manifestations in the book. Specific, Cinema is not only a great passion but it is also a channel through which to connect with a generational reader terribly conditioned by this art.. Sunday Dandy is very influenced by cinema, The narration, the descriptions, the atmosphere. It has a little bit of everyone. How would Tarantino have described this scene?? And this environment? How would Lynch have done it?? Mankiewicz's case is special because, apart from being an extraordinary film, Eve naked portrays a type of society, a microworld better said, which is of overwhelming universality and timelessness and which perfectly explains and summarizes one of the messages of the novel. Nevertheless, Kieslowski also has a decisive responsibility and role, although I will not expand on this point so as not to reveal anything to the reader..
I would like you to tell me about this phrase that I have extracted from the novel: “…the mediocre surrounds himself in his misery, in its limitations. His lack of vital restlessness extends to everything that surrounds him”.
Mediocrity is one of the main scourges of our time. We live in years in which we talk about emotional intelligence, emphasis is placed on the ability to interact with the environment, The social aspect of the individual is defended but none of this seems to have to be accompanied by excellence. There was a time when the merits, the sacrifice, the effort, work had its reward. Currently not. The educated individual is an outcast, a dangerous being, someone that no one counts on, a forgotten. However, the empathic, the emotionally intelligent, enjoys the sympathy of society. When you hear that “I value people for their attitude more than their aptitude” it's all said.. Mediocrity is preferable to excellence. The mediocre thrives. The excellent individual only seeks to demonstrate his worth through his effort.. If being mediocre is the paradigm, there will be more and more, his attitude will extend to the rest of society and, meanwhile, all those who could have served as a guide will fade from their corner. It's more, we may one day reach the extreme – increasingly common- of the apology of lack of culture. That is to say, that mediocre one who not only rejects culture but admits to doing so and rejoices in it.
I understand that Sunday Dandy is the first of three volumes with a common theme, generation milestones, desire and death; What can you tell us about the second installment??
Yes in Sunday Dandy the characters are involved in that natural catastrophe called crisis, In the second they all appear guided by a desire, They try to swim in the middle of the chaos, each one in their own way but they all maintain that volitional capacity that the characters in the first one do not have.. Let's say that the second novel describes the capacity of the human being to overcome a catastrophe such as the one experienced from a particular position and circumstances in any of its respective cases.. There is no plot unity between the three but they do appear framed in the same era and with very similar conditions..
