Featured Interview With Joao Cerqueira
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I write because I love making up stories.
The possibility of creating something that has not existed till then is extraordinary. I create a world; I people it with characters; I unleash conflicts and offer solutions (that don’t always work). In short, I play god. Beyond that, my greatest pleasure is hearing some reader saying that he or she loved the book. But what really makes me happy is for someone to say that the book made them laugh. At that moment I know that I have forged a special bond with another person, and that I have managed, if only for a few seconds, to light up something inside them.
I am interested in exploring the complexity of human nature.
Why there is so much violence? Why there is so much stupidity? Are we really so much different from other animals? My novels satirize modern society and use humor to provoke reflection and controversy.
Humour is indeed a weapon of massive destruction, but not to kill people. It only destroys stupidity – Monty Python ridiculed Hitler’s image several times. Ridendo castigat mores – as the Romans used to say. So, I tried to show that religious or political dogmas always lead to fanaticism or dictatorship.
I was born and raised in Viana do Castelo, Portugal. I live there between the sea and the moutain. I have a dog.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I was lucky enough to inherit my father’s book collection with hundreds of books including all of the classics. From The Canterbury Tales to Don Quixote, all the major titles were there. At eighteen I read East of Eden by John Steinbeck. Another important book was Pär Lagerkvist’s The Dwarf, the protagonist of which was incapable of feeling anything else for humanity other than hatred and contempt, which also fascinated me. At that time, I also read Cosmos by Carl Sagan, which taught me to understand the universe; I learned that the stars and I were made of the same stuff – this idea is in The Tragedy of Fidel Castro – and that many of them although still visible, may no longer exist. These are the books that initiated me into adulthood.
I then read two remarkable works: 1984 by George Orwell and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, the dystopian prophecies of which are, for some, now coming true. Years later I rediscovered Orwell when I wrote Art and Literature in the Spanish Civil War. Orwell fought against Fascism, but in the end the Communists wanted to kill him too. Homage to Catalonia describes this tragic experience that leads to books such as 1984 and Animal Farm.
So, I write since my childhood.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
Some novelists that I like are José Saramago, Alberto Moravia, John Williams, Mikhail Bulgakov, Italo Calvino, Amin Malouf, W. G. Sebald, Philip Roth, William Faulkner, Salman Rushdie, Jorge Amado, Paul Auster, and Erasmus (In Praise of Folly) for having taught me that to succeed in life you must be mad. Finally, I believe that Remembrance of Things Past is perhaps the most complex work of writing to date.
I like to read literary fiction and books about science.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
Jesus and Magdalene is inspired in three different episodes that happened in Portugal, but could happened in any part of the world: a group of radical ecologists invaded and destroyed a field with genetic modified corn; a forest that was considered natural reservation was cutt to construct a resort; in a poor neighbourhood happens a racial clash between blacks and gipsies. The idea was to put Jesus – again on earth – on this three problematic situations and to show how men would react.
So, I decided that Jesus would first meet a modern Magdalene that fight for a better world – although using violent methods – that would take him into a journey of conflict and violence. Jesus would ask again for peace and love between men, but men would once more respond aggressively. The idea of the book is that nothing has changed. The human nature cannot be changed and Earth is not a place for people like Jesus Christ. It is a place for violent persons, corrupts and traitors.
Fortunately, the book has received good reviews and won several awards.
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