In the past few years Halloween became quite an
important part of the modern Romanian society. An imported holiday it was
adopted quickly, but somehow pushed a local tradition away from the central
spotlight. In Romania, a similar tradition and celebration to the All Hallows’
Eve can be found on the night between 29th and 30th
November, a night known also as the Night of the Spirits. However, to say that
Halloween pushed Saint Andrew’s Night away from our attention will not be
entirely fair. Caught in the vicinity of Saint Andrew’s Day, the saint
considered the protector of Romania, and the National Day celebrated on 1st
December, the night in which the boundary between seen and unseen disappears, light
and darkness meet and the chaos dies and the harmony is reborn took a plunge
for the worse. Together with countless images of endless queues of pilgrims at
the Saint Andrew’s Cave in Dobrogea broadcasted on the news stations and printed
in newspapers the excessive promotion of holiday’s religious aspects made Saint
Andrew’s Night seem an entirely ecclesiastic tradition and made it come second
to the more playful Halloween. Even more, the old traditions of Saint Andrew’s
Night are often seen as weird, although they have great potential for
playfulness too and are an important source for genre fiction as well. The
spirits are roaming the land free, but you’re protected if you put garlic on
the windows and doors. If crumbs are thrown into the courtyards so the spirits
can feast on them the gathered crops and the livestock will be safe. Bonfires
are burning into the night to chase the spirits away. The protective garlic is
made in the same night of the previous year in a ceremony of “guarding”
involving the young girls and boys partying. The girls can use different
methods for finding their promised. Also there are rituals that can help
foresee how the weather of each next 12 months or how rich the harvest of the
next year would be. The ghosts and the wolves can speak and move among humans
and although in most cases it is a very bad sign to hear them, leading to
death, they can also reveal the names of thieves, criminals or the locations of
hidden treasures.
But is the promotion of Saint Andrew’s Night’s
religious aspect the sole reason for Halloween’s popularity in Romania? Are all
these traditions associated to Saint Andrew’s Night easily forgotten and
discarded as important sources for the Romanian speculative fiction? To find
some answers I’ve asked some of the most talented and promising Romanian
writers, artists and editors to share their opinions on the matter. My guests
for this roundtable discussion are:
Raluca Băceanu writes poetry, fiction and essays. She made her debut
in 2009 with “Călătorie prin mintea unei adolescente” (Journey through a
teenager’s mind), volume re-edited in 2010. Raluca Băceanu published short
stories in various Romanian magazines and anthologies and in 2013 released her
second novel, “Harul” (The Talent).
Marian Coman published two volumes of prose, “Nopţi albe, zile
negre” (White Nights, Black Days) and “Testamentul de ciocolată” (The Chocolate
Testament), and a publishing one, “Teoria flegmei. Apel la mitocănie” (The
Phlegm Theory. Appeal to Grossness), until now. In 2006 Marian Coman received
the Eurocon Encouragement Award and in 2012 he was nominated for the SF&F
Translation Awards for the volume of short stories available in English,
“Fingers and Other Fantastic Stories”.
Oliviu
Crâznic is the author of numerous short stories and novellas,
but also of many articles, critiques, essays, reviews and interviews published
in Romanian and international magazines of speculative fiction. In 2010 Oliviu
Crâznic released his debut novel, “… şi la sfârşit
a mai rămas coşmarul” (…and at the end remained the nightmare), and in 2012 he
edited the collection of short stories, “Dincolo de noapte. 12 Feţe ale
goticului” (Beyond the Night. 12 Faces of the Gothic). In 2012 he received the
Eurocon Encouragement Award.
Ştefana Cristina Czeller is a writer and
journalist whose short stories were published in many Romanian anthologies and
magazines. In 2011 Ştefana Cristina Czeller published her first novel,
“Cerneală și sânge” (Ink and Blood), followed this month by “Ozz”. In 2011 she
has received the Eurocon Encouragement Award.
A.R. Deleanu is the pen name of Flavius
Ardelean. He made his debut in 2006 with a poems and fiction published in the
magazine “Familia” (Family). In 2012 A.R. Deleanu released his first novel,
“Îmblânzitorul apelor” (The Waters’ Tamer), and in 2013 his first short stories
collection, “Acluofobia” (Achluophobia).
Andrei
Gaceff made his debut with “Victoria, ce bine-mi pare să te
revăd” (How Good to See You Again, Victoria), a short story published in a
Helion almanac. It was followed by a couple of more stories in magazines such
as Nautilus, Argos or Revista de suspans (The Suspense Magazine) and in the
Romanian anthologies “Dansând pe Marte și alte povestiri fantastice” (Dancing
on Mars and other fantastic stories) and “Zombii: Cartea morţilor vii”
(Zombies: The Book of Living Dead).
Teodora Gheorghe is a writer, translator and collaborative editor at a
couple of magazines. She published short stories and poetry in Gazeta SF (The SF
Gazette), EgoPhobia, Revista de suspans (The Suspense Magazine) and Translation
Café. This month, Karth Publishing House released Teodora Gheorghe’s debut
poetry volume, “Moartea era un iepure șchiop” (Death was a Limping Rabbit).
Teodora
Matei published a serial novel between April and November
2012 on the online magazine, Nautilus. She has published numerous short stories
in magazines such as Nautilus, Gazeta SF (The SF Gazette) and Ficţiuni
(Fictions).
Cristina Nemerovschi is named “the rebel of today’s Romanian literature”.
With a master in philosophy she made her debut in 2010 with “Sânge satanic”
(Demon Blood). This novel was followed by “Pervertirea” (The Perversion), “Ani
cu alcool și sex” (Years of Alcohol and Sex), both in 2012 and
“nymphette_dark99” in 2013. Her short fiction was published in a few Romanian
and international anthologies.
Claudia Niculescu is a Romanian artist. She studied Art History at the
University of Vienna and is currently living in Wien, Austria. She paints,
creates handcrafted jewelry and recently illustrated A.R. Deleanu’s collection
of short stories, “Acluofobia” (Achluophobia).
Mircea Pricăjan is a translator, editor and writer. He worked as an
editor for a couple of magazines and publishing houses and also published
articles, interviews, short stories and translations in Romanian and
international magazines. In 2012 he founded the online magazine, Revista de
suspans (The Suspense Magazine), and in 2013 he edited the anthology “Zombii:
Cartea Morţilor Vii” (Zombies: The Books of Living Dead).
Radu Romaniuc graduated the Caragiale University of Theatrical Arts
and Cinematography in 2001 and since then he appeared in many theatrical plays,
films and television productions. Mainly a writer of short speculative fiction
his stories have been published in Jabberwocky Magazine and the Romanian Argos
and Revista de suspans (The Suspense Magazine). Some of his short stories can
be found on Radu Romaniuc’s personal site.
George Sauciuc is the editor of one of the longest-lived Romanian
speculative fiction magazine, Gazeta SF (The SF Gazette). He published several
articles, stories and studies in a few collections, newspapers and magazines.
He is the founding member of the SF Cygnus-Quasar Club and The Literary
Initiative Club.
Cristina Schek is a Romanian photographer currently living in
London, United Kingdom. Inclined towards imaginative and surrealist works she
is responsible for the art department of Revista de suspans (The Suspense
Magazine).
Narcisa Stoica made her debut in 2009 in Nautilus magazine with the
SF story “Interviul. De angajare” (The interview. For hiring). Since then she
has published in local magazines and several anthologies. In 2012 Narcisa
Stoica released a collection of short stories, “Cu vorbele la mine” (With the
words at me), and published her debut novel, “Taxidermie” (Taxidermy).
Ioana Vișan is the winner of the 2013 Eurocon Encouragement Award.
Her short stories were published in more than ten magazines and anthologies in
Romanian and English. Ioana Vișan’s debut collection, “Efectul de nautil” (The
Nautilus Effect), was released on March 2013, followed on May by her novella,
“Instincte umane”, also available in English as “Human Instincts”. She released
only English a series of novellas entitled “The Impaler Legacy”.
1.
In the past few years Halloween, despite being an imported tradition, grew in
popularity on the Romanian society to the detriment of the local Saint Andrew’s
Night. Why do you think Halloween became more popular in Romania than Saint
Andrew’s Night? Would you like to see the local tradition celebrated and
promoted more?
Raluca
Băceanu - Some
would say that popularity is a phenomenon bound to globalization. I prefer to
believe it is about the dead-weight of the society we live in (post-modern,
maybe). Of course, there are the familiar historical facts when Occident was
always preferred to the Orient; the trend, the traditions, all these come in
our days from the Occident. Today we identify this Occident with the U.S.A.,
all that comes from there is more interesting, pleasant, favored to the
traditional and dusty Saint Andrew’s Night. We can start an entire discussion
from here, of the novel size, but it is pointless. What is for certain it’s
that everything coming from outside our borders is fashionable. It is enough to
look a little over the history to see why. And the present is built around the
fascination of America. The paradox is that we are also the ones vehemently
criticizing the American society... From here the against-Halloween parties and
a lot of other against what comes
from there. Oddly, against what we might believe, although an against-Halloween
these parties are in fact just malicious extensions of the same phenomenon...
The traditional local holiday remains on the second plan. If I prefer our own
tradition promoted more? Is this tradition at least promoted to make claims for
being promoted more? I, for one, say: maybe there are Halloween parties, maybe
they are successful because they are fun (although I notice a certain lack of
originality when it comes to costumes, most of people instead of going dressed
indeed in another way chose to remove their every day mask and become, one by
one, the monsters devouring their souls: the girls become vulgar, there is no
distinction between a fairy and a demon, short skirts, lace and latex are the
holidays’ leitmotifs, the boys are boring to say the least, they don’t disguise
too much, fact that might suggest their lack of substance...) but when
returning home the garlic is customary at the doors. Tradition doesn’t sleep,
it is just promoted at individual level, in-house. For example, it’s not in
trend to talk in public about the way you decorated your doors with garlic, it
rises questions, how can you do such a thing?... The grandparents or, at most,
the parents may chose to follow the “garlic” path and not necessarily from a
real fear, but out of respect for a Romanian symbolism. Maybe if the young
cultivated this respect more (and not the proper tradition of believing in the
undead in particular) we have a chance. Not a chance for popularity, but for
not forgetting who we are, not forgetting what makes us unique...
Marian
Coman - Paradoxically, for
all these three questions I have a common answer resumed in a single word: Marketing. I’ll get into details.
It is all about marketing when we are talking
about the reasons for which Halloween is promoted more in Romania. And then
again, it is better to be honest and remember that Saint Andrew’s Night, the
Head of Winter night, was never a big tradition in Romania. I am not certain if
there are 10 or 15 years since I first heard of it. I don’t have memories from
my childhood, lived in the Communist era, celebrating or assisting to a certain
event linked to the Saint Andrew’s Night. However, just the imports of
Occidental holidays and traditions, like Halloween and Valentine’s Day, made us
rediscover, as an act of resistance against globalization, our own traditions
such as Saint Andrew’s Night and Dragobetele (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragobete). I don’t have any preference for any of them in particular. I do
appreciate on all these holidays their playfulness and I consider all of them,
local and imported alike, as important sources of inspiration. For instance,
for the 8th issue of “Harap Alb Continuă” (The Story of Harap Alb
Continues) (http://www.harapalbcontinua.ro/) I wrote the comics script entitled “The Night of the Dead” based
exactly on the Saint Andrew’s Night.
Oliviu Crâznic - The answer for the first
question can be found in the second: Halloween benefited from a very strong
promotion, directly and indirectly (through movies, books, music, other
cultural movements). Besides, Saint Andrew’s Night has a religious and folkloric
feeling, both discouraging a modern approach from the “entertainment”
perspective. As far as I am concerned, being an urbanite and non-traditionalist
and also being more familiar and attracted to the Occidental art and culture
than to the orthodox religion and “rural life”, I am afraid that I look at
Halloween with sympathy and Saint Andrew’s Night with absolute indifference (as
holiday, I mean; from the Saint Andrew’s Night’s legends and myths perspective
I manifest a punctual interest from case to case).
Ştefana
Cristina Czeller - Halloween’s increasing popularity must be put in
the bigger context of the fracture brought by the 1989 revolution in the
Romanian society. It was more than just a political change. After decades of
denying access to and from the West an avalanche of Occidental products and
concepts, mostly Anglo-Saxon, fell over us. With great enthusiasm we have
adopted them, probably because they were the forbidden fruit for such a long
time. And the big companies have taken advantage in the fullest, after all they
do have a lot of merchandise for selling! And let’s not get out hopes too high
since the book, magazine and movie are still merchandise.
The children of 1989 grew surrounded by the same
borrowed imaginary and they perpetuate or will continue to perpetuate it
through the next generation. Especially for the urban public what would be more
spectacular, more familiar and more attractive? The idea of finding your
promised by putting basil under your pillow, something you only read in a
school book? Or the witches, ghosts and other such accursed things, encountered
on every step starting with the childhood cartoons and ending with the thematic
party held at your favorite pub? I think the answer is obvious.
A.R.
Deleanu - For the same reason
that Romanians eat McMici (note: this is
a McDonalds product specific to Romania, a combination between the known burger
and the local food, mici) and watch the X Factor, or what’s it called. It’s
easier – make-believe recipes, lozenges of pseudo culture. I think it’s
important to know that we do have a local tradition similar to theirs and,
sorry if I’m mistaken, I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that they have the
same roots. I would like to find out more about local traditions, yes, and I
think it would be nice to see them being promoted more, but with care and
measure – local absolutism is a wicked little thing.
Andrei
Gaceff - The dilemma is if you feel in the mood to
protect yourself from ghost for one night, to defend against madness or to
celebrate this madness and join the monsters and witches. This way Halloween,
especially the modern Halloween, wins. Of course, Halloween has its spiritual
aspect as well, Soul Cakes – eat one more cookie, release one more soul – but
the costumes, the carnival come first, it is the time when you’re allowed to be
anything you like without the danger of being locked up somewhere because of
it.
Saint Andrew’s Night is about a lot of defensive and
the interpretation of signs and it is from here where its loses come as an
urban celebration.
Teodora
Gheorghe - We tend to emulate behaviors and customs
belonging to people or groups of people which possess qualities that we would
like to have. Unfortunately, many Romanians have acquired a distorted image of
their country, as a result of the poor standard of living, political crises,
and other disheartening issues. Traditions have been left aside. The ‘American
dream’ has become a source of inspiration, especially as far as celebrations
are concerned. However, the fortunate economic situation in the USA is not the
only reason why we import traditions, dreaming of imitating a comfortable life style.
I think it also has something to do with their flexible and gregarious nature.
Americans are much more flamboyant when it comes to celebrating. On Halloween,
children knock at the doors of neighbors they know very well and are greeted by
smiles and candies. They’re all part of a united community. In Romania, Saint
Andrew’s Night is only celebrated in the rural areas and without much fuss. I
guess along the way, we’ve forgotten how to enjoy ourselves and feel the need
to borrow more efficient ways of creating a special night.
Yes, local traditions should be promoted more. I
would like to hear about them on the news and see posts about them on the
internet. But in order for this to happen, there has to be a general interest
in the Romanian traditions. Most people are not interested in them, because
they have already assimilated the foreign traditions.
Teodora
Matei - Old traditions are
celebrated for sure in small communities, where old people keep them alive.
They don’t know much about Halloween, but have strong beliefs in ancient
mythological creatures or Saints. They still have fears and they respect some
practices for good-luck, health or prosperity.
Facebook and Twitter generation considers that
returning to the own past is not trendy. They would be tired of broadcastings
based on Romanian mythology. But they enjoy colorful events, frightening masks
and orange pumpkins. They celebrate “Valentine’s day” and buy red fluffy
hearts, ignoring the sad story of Saint Valentine and his letters from jail.
The questions are: “Why don’t we promote national
traditions?”, “Why do we all want to be occidental, even if our roots remain
Romanian?” The answers may be that we are big consumers of commercials and
sparkling-promoted stuff. Someone gets a lot of money as a result of all these
campaigns and we only get useless products, but no memories. We shall never be
occidental, because one must live as such, not learn how to do it.
It’s sad that only few people know the real legend of
Halloween, the origin of feast, the meaning of frightening masks and sculptured
pumpkins.
We should read our children old Romanian stories, so
they can learn about their ancestors. We should tell them about Saint Andrew
and his significance in Romanian history. We should teach them old Romanian
carols, ended with our own “treat or trick”.
Promotion of Romanian traditions may not be so
profitable in the beginning, but this way people would learn about their own
past. I would like to see campaigns about the old practice of sowing wheat in
water on the night of Saint Andrew and how garlic hung at the windows helped
people against horror folklore creatures.
Cristina
Nemerovschi - I was never the one to reject from the start
everything that’s imported – I am not bristling (as I’ve seen many do) when I
hear about Valentine’s Day or Halloween. But since it exists here, for a long
time, their local “synonyms”, less known but still with tradition, I believe
that ideally would be for all these holidays to go hand in hand – we should
celebrate both Halloween and Saint Andrew’s Night. I don’t think one excludes
the other. For my part, I like a lot the symbolism of both Halloween and Saint
Andrew’s Night because it has everything to do with our fears and terrors, with
the dark imaginary existing in all of us. These are not things and feelings
easy to handle, we are not dealing with them on every day basis, so I am happy
to have these holidays that urge us on reflection.
I believe Halloween is more popular lately
because it was exploited more on the American pop-culture – it is a holiday
used in excess in movies (of any genre, not only horror), in mainstream TV
series, in books, in pop and rock songs, there are specific costumes, that
attract the young, the party feeling associated with it, the pumpkins became as
famous as the Christmas tree... There even are specialized shops for renting
Halloween costumes. These things are very much on the teenagers liking, but
also on those who seek every opportunity to start a small party. I think we
need to take the Halloween’s example and promote our local holidays more. To
discover what exactly is special at them (and there is aplenty to work with
here!), what we don’t find in other traditions and make them more attractive.
Of course, I would be happy to see this happening.
Claudia
Niculescu - I think this is a matter of integrity. Looking back
through history it’s easy to observe how Romania always tried to keep up with
the trend. The Halloween situation did not get its fame only in Romania, it has
been adopted all over Europe. I couldn’t say that I am a Halloween fan. It is
an admirable tradition, but I never celebrate it because I can’t really
identify myself with it and I often get the feeling that it is overrated and it
is a good reason to easily take the money out of your pocket. I think
traditions represent the mentality of a certain region. Every region has a
different mentality, so, a different creed. And, what traditions do is shape
and stabilize this belief. They can’t
just be adopted unless they have a social or commercial interest. So yes, I
would like to see the local traditions promoted, although they probably seem
“old fashioned” (in the end that is what traditions are all about, their
function is conservation not adaptation) instead of some random trending habits
in which we do not believe and which we don’t fully understand. That would be
doubtless healthier, spiritually speaking.
Mircea
Pricăjan - I definitely would, yes. Now that I got that off
the way, let me just say that I really don’t think things look good for that to
happen in the near future. We are living in a profoundly laymen’s society, and
while Halloween may have a religious under-theme, it is removed enough from the
conscious mind for it to be primarily perceived as a secular tradition. On the
other hand, Saint Andrew’s Night, like most other Romanian holidays, is
fundamentally religious in nature. We have still to give it that layman
easy-to-grasp commercial dimension. Until then it is only bound to be kept
alive in the still religious-imbibed rural areas of the country.
Radu
Romaniuc - There are, probably, many reasons for Halloween
becoming popular here. For kids it is obviously more fun, you know, with the
costuming and the sweets. And here in Romania it is not at all religious, which
makes it even safer for children. Also, it is economically more viable - lots
of people can make a living out of it, so it is promoted in every form of
commercial mass-media.
No, I don’t think local traditions should be promoted
more. They had hundreds of years to promote themselves, and if the local
communities don’t find them useful anymore then it is in the nature of things
for these traditions to disappear. I think that all the traditions that focus
on the religious will slowly fade away, and they will be survived only by the
traditions centered on humanity and human life - personal celebrations like
birth, marriage, death, or community events like the New Year’s Eve. I don’t
see any necessity in reviving some religious ceremonies where old bearded dudes
sing out of their noses about another bearded dude, although I wear a beard
myself.
George
Sauciuc – Halloween, from my point of view, is not a holiday.
Or it isn’t a holiday anymore, unless we forcefully refer to it as a secular
holiday. I heard a joke from an American pastor once saying that religion
started in Jerusalem as sermon, migrated to Ellada (Greece) where it has taken
the form of a philosophy and ended in Rome, where it became religion. When it
reached the USA changed once more, into a business. Something similar happened
to Halloween. It is a consumerist manifestation, developed in America because
of the immigrants from all over the world, each with their own customs and
beliefs brought into the new world. I think that Halloween is the holiday that united dispersed faiths.
Now, we all are familiar with the modern canonical desire of closeness to the
West. For the majority the West, the Occidental world is represented by the
USA. In the past few years we absorbed, as society, without chewing, everything
that came from the Occident. It is only normal to absorb Halloween too, among
all these things, and this holiday’s popularity is owed to the promotion it
received, through cinema, sit-coms and books. Besides, it is promoted in
kindergartens, schools and, the biggest surprise for me, organized for the
young by the Tatars Community, who are Muslim. And yes, in a few years, Halloween
would be traditionally celebrated through social metabolism. Not a single
holiday was born at the same time with a community. I am not sure who remembers
nowadays that Halloween is the Gaelic Samhain holiday. To answer the second
question I don’t see a decrease in popularity of our traditional Saint Andrew’s
Night. Let’s not forget, that after all Saint Andrew is a religious holiday and
the traditions are linked to marriage and protection from evil spirits (in
general) with small regional ethno-folkloric differences. My opinion is the
profane parts of our holiday deserve to be promoted, they have their charm, but
with the risk of being seen as a bigot it is impossible to talk about
traditions specific to Saint Andrew’s Night without the religious aspect.
Cristina
Schek - This might have happened because of the movies, the
Hollywood Halloween effect. Hollywood power is unmatched, precisely because our
minds are stimulated by images. I, myself, know very little about Saint
Andrew’s Night, but I would like to find out more - as long as the Romanian
Saint Andrew isn’t going to be swallowed by the Romanian church. Hollywood is
preferable to superstitions.
Narcisa
Stoica - First of all, I never felt Saint Andrew’s
Night to be a popular tradition. That is, I think, because I was born and
raised in a small town near Bucharest (during the Communist regime), where
everybody treated the date of 30th November as a name-day for those called
Andrew, Andrea and such and nobody thought so much about Saint Andrew and his
role in spreading the Christianity in our geographical area.
That is why I do not feel that Halloween grew in
popularity on the Romanian society to the detriment of the local Saint Andrew’s
Night.
As for why Halloween became so popular in
Romania, I think it has to do with the massive attention and promotion it got
from the media, the entertainment industries and the policies of the
multinational companies with subsidiaries here.
Some might say that the popularity of Halloween
(a foreign tradition) has something to do with the Romanians appetite for the “shapes
without foundation”, “the ghosts without substance” or “illusions without
truth”, as one of our prestigious scholars – Titu Maiorescu (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titu_Maiorescu) –
called, as far as 145 years ago, the “habit” of Romanians to adopt foreign
cultural structures, and, by extension, foreign traditions…
But I am confident that no matter what
traditions they adopt, Romanians will manage to spice them with the local
flavor… For instance, with us, The Black Friday lasts for seven days and it starts
one week earlier than for the rest of the world.
On the other hand, I would like very much that
local traditions, which are beautiful and fascinating and speak directly to our
hearts and minds, to be celebrated and promoted more and that is why, lately, I
write stories where one can find hints about Romanian mythology, folklore and
traditions.
Ioana
Vișan - There are two main considerations here. First,
by the end of the Communist era, our traditions were already dying, being
restricted to the rural areas. Second, after living secluded for several
decades, with little access to what was going on outside our borders, we were
hungry not only for information but also to catch up with the rest of the
world. It was the proper ground for marketers to sell us a lot of stuff that
worked well in other places and made money. This is the case with Halloween,
St. Valentine’s Days, and many other imported traditions, items, ideas, etc.
It would be nice to return to our traditions and
keep them alive, but I think it’s a little late for that. The youngest
generation has barely heard of them and never seen them in practice. It’s hard
to care about something that survives only as a concept. You need to be able to
relate to it. And this is another problem. For most Romanians, Halloween
represents a name and a reason to party. Since it’s not ours, we don’t need to
go deeper and understand everything it stands for. We can take only the fun
part and discard the rest. When it comes to St. Andrew’s Night, though, there
isn’t much fun in it. There was no time to commercialize it and turn it into a
brand easily appealing to people. If you read about St. Andrew’s Night, you
realize it’s quite scary and you might even get a cold chill running down your
spine. Not many people are comfortable with that feeling.
2.
With such rich traditions, legends, mythology and folklore strangely the
fantastic and horror have only little presence on the Romanian cultural scene.
As in the case with Halloween are we more attracted to the imported literature,
movies and art of the fantastic and horror? Are we more afraid to explore our
own fantasy and horror traditions and stories and is this one of the reasons of
their lack of popularity?
Raluca
Băceanu - We are attracted by what
attracts the rest of the world. And we nurture this feeling just for not being
left behind! This is the mentality. We believe that by following the trends we
have a chance of being noticed by the entire world, that outside our borders.
This idea has such deep roots in our minds that it makes us forget our origins,
we forget to pay them attention. There is a small group trying the opposite,
but what are their chances? Ridiculed most of the times, because they fail to
see, in fact, the salvation comes from the glorification of the ideas from
cinemas, that in the end has as target a public not much interested in books...
The fact that on the market there is an obsession for vampires and werewolves,
well, it is due to the movies. The writers who chose this path desire most of
all and dream with fervor at the ecranization of their novels, it’s in itself a
great achievement. Fame, money, the rest is already known. There are no more
writers of value, who write with a respect for this occupation, who write
because otherwise they will not feel alive, nowadays there are only writers in quotation marks. Only too few write because it is what they dream
about, only too few have a revelation in which writing is their meaning. They
do it because in a world least interested in such things being called a writer
is interesting. Because it is bohemian. Because they desire admiration from a
public least interested anyway in the depths of the soul, in the true meaning
of horror and fantastic literature. And because of this they reach a public
alike them, a handful who seem interested in their daily activities: “I write,
read horror”, waiting fascination from their companions, or, who knows, even...
fear. You may believe this to be an unfounded judgement, that these are
childish opinions, but I met too many people with no relation to writing or
reading, only with the trends. Writers who write about morale but have no
knowledge of it, defenders of ideas in writing but that trample with their feet
usually... Let’s judge the writing, not only the author? Maybe this principle
was applied before, nowadays not anymore. We are not afraid of tackling themes
from the Romanian mythology, we are lazy. We consider that it’s beneath our
attention. It doesn’t look commercial enough. We consider that writing about
fairies and dwarves is childish. Maybe if we tackled other motifs of mythology
such as Blajini (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folklore_of_Romania#The_myth_of_the_Blajini) or
Iele (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iele),
it would be something else. But nobody is bothering with looking for something
else in the fantastic. Vampires and werewolves are much more frightening and of
impact. We don’t have a chance on this plan because we don’t want to and
because we are taking everything for granted from the West, which abuses two or
three major concepts anyway and make them the subject of hundreds of thousands
of volumes following the same line. A kind of complex fairytale, a kind of
vulgar fairytale (because everything that is degrading is of success!), a kind
of upside-down fairytale.
Marian
Coman - Mainly
it is about marketing when we notice that the imported products, in
the cultural space as well, are more in demand than the local ones. And I refer
again to the “Harap Alb Continuă” (The Story of Harap Alb Continues) magazine
which has proved that through proper marketing, talent, professionalism,
invested money into promotion and a lot of work a superhero story originating
from Romania can be successful too. The heroes from Harap Alb’s story do not
come second to the ones from X-Men, for example. And the readers reacted fast,
embracing with pleasure the universe and characters of “Harap Alb Continuă”
(The Story of Harap Alb Continues). Almost 100,000 fans on Facebook and an
undreamed press run until now on our market are just a few examples proving
that good marketing can make a story successful even if it is produced here, in
Romania. And no, we are not afraid to explore our own myths and traditions, our
own space. At least I am not afraid to do it. All my stories, all my texts are
rooted to the fears, desires, traditions, people and history of this place.
What it’s missing, I have no doubt, are more editors capable of developing a
performing marketing for the local productions.
Oliviu
Crâznic - On one hand, the fantastic of any kind was
discouraged in Romanian during the Communist regime (following a period of
great respect for it, if we recall the Caragiale (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_Luca_Caragiale)
and Eminescu’s (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihai_Eminescu)
interest in Poe’s works), and after decades of inflicting on people’s minds
that imagination is of the childhood’s domain it is difficult to regain the
value of the imaginary, therefore it will take a while to keep the pace, from
this point of view, with the rest of the world.
On the other hand, certainly the foreign genre works
(and not only) are superior to the Romanian ones, in both quality and quantity.
There are exceptions, of course, on the quality part, but not many. It is
reasonable considering the continue discouragement for this kind of literature
here and how few are the Romanian genre writers compared to those from Occident
and if we take into the consideration the huge population disproportion between
Romania and the Occidental World… Even more, mass-media and the educational
system have highlighted mainly “weak” works, leading to a justified distrust
from the part of the reader for the Romanian writer. Which makes even more
difficult the mission of the creators who reach the international level, they
have to fight against the toughest “enemy” and, in the end, to transform him
into a friend: the reader. And if I was so radical, to not damage unjustified
the Romanian literature, already found into a dire state, I’ll give a few
examples of Romanian writers of international reputation, who prove this way
that we also can swim to the shore, with a lot of effort and a little luck:
Liviu Radu with series like “Taravik”, Costi Gurgu with his dark “Reţetarium”,
Ciprian Mitoceanu with his “Colţii” (Fangs), Mihai Andrei Aldea with “Drumul
spre Vozia” (The Road to Vozia) (and here is a fantasy of international
reputation inspired by the Dacian culture and Romanian imaginary!) are just a
few of unchallenged examples that can bright our perspective. If we wish to see
this light, of course, and if we stop hiding behind the quotidian literature,
that we try to pass as art when it is in fact superficiality. And I might add
that despite my reservation towards the typical Romanian resources for the
genre stories (in my opinion, more appropriate through their characteristics
for cult fairytale than the other mentioned literary genres), I also used, when
I felt it was right, the Romanian ancestral thesaurus (for instance, ielele (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iele)
for “Însângerată, luna”/The Moon, Bloodied or zburătorul (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zbur%C4%83tor)
in the last part of “… şi la sfârşit
a mai rămas coşmarul”/…and at the end
remained the nightmare).
Ştefana Cristina Czeller - From
a writer’s, but also a reader’s perspective, it is not a question of fear. It
is rather about the radical change taken by our lives on so many aspects that
the folkloric motifs aren’t of actuality anymore. Not only for the Romanian
living in bloc of apartments and going to work with the trolleybus, but also
about the rural inhabitant who spends his evenings enjoying the performances of
a parabolic antenna that can be found on any cottage. We are more afraid of the
ghost, vampire or serial killer than Muma Pădurii (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muma_Padurii)
or Balaurul (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balaur).
Maybe the undead might have a chance…
That doesn’t mean that such motifs or characters, for
centuries perfect for the stories told near the stove in winter, cannot be
resurrected to a newer life. Let’s not forget that many successful writers from
the West incorporate the traditional fantastic and horror into the reality of
the moment, Stephen King being the most famous example. However, for a Romanian
writer, it is a bit more difficult to imagine Zmeul Zmeilor (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zmeu)
as a taxi driver or Moroii (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moroi)
hired by the Cemetery Administration.
A.R.
Deleanu - This is a very good
question and one that I sadly don’t have an answer for. I really don’t. I can
only look at the way I’m working and acknowledge the fact that I don’t choose
my topics and my style – they just come to me. I suppose the macabre just
didn’t come to a lot of other Romanian writers. It’s as simple as that. But
someone has to do it. And it’s not at all easy when you lack a literary
tradition that you can build upon and deconstruct in order to create something
fresh and original. We look at other cultures and manipulate them for new
material, but it’s like building scaffoldings on a ground that you don’t
understand, so bad writing is very often the outcome. I really believe we need
to build our stories on a Romanian cultural context, but I’m not a huge fan of
using folklore – for me the macabre needs to be about here and now (please note
that I am not using the word “horror”; I would not like to be known strictly as
a horror writer, because it’s not what I am). If we don’t have a market for it,
I am happy to contribute to building one, but I do need the help of readers,
critics, magazines, publishers.
Andrei
Gaceff - I would refer, in general, to the charms of wild
animals. I think there is something similar with a competition between wolf and
tiger, the imbalance of creature’s popularity. The visitors from everywhere
would be crowded around the tiger’s cage while passing quickly by that of the
wolves. I think the tiger is more popular even in the zoological gardens of the
countries where it is found in the wild too. But the wolf has its charm too, a
certain very interesting behavior, and not rarely someone remembers him and
wishes to see it again.
Teodora
Gheorghe - There is a kind of subtle
fear lurking in our minds in connection with our folklore and mythology. And
it’s not about the ghosts or the evil fairies. There is a huge gap between the
city and the rural mentalities. Whereas people from the big cities are hooked to
the internet life and more in tune with the progress of technology, science,
etc the peasants prefer a simple life and are faithful to tradition.
Communication is broken, the two ‘sides’ belong to different worlds. As the
population from the cities exceeds the population from the rural areas, a
majority of Romanians have adopted foreign traditions, literature and movies.
Another reason is the popularity of the American horror movies. Alfred
Hitchcock is considered to be a pioneer in the horror movies industry. He
inspired so many writers and directors who gained international notoriety, also
due to good advertising, which Romania lacks. A famous movie is always
preferred to a movie directed by a ‘John Doe’.
Teodora Matei - The
attraction is due to the promotion style. Imported literature has colored
covers and great reviews. There is an army of sales and marketing specialists
behind every single book. We may be tricked by bright covers and words. We may
be disappointed after reading this kind of books or seeing this kind of movies;
we had greater expectations. At the same time, I discovered a gothic Romanian
novelist only by chance: a friend told me about him and his book’s subject.
I’ve read it and I wasn’t disappointed.
I saw a Romanian horror movie a few weeks ago. I
enjoyed seeing the story I knew, hearing the actors speaking in Romanian, I had
the feeling that I was part of the story. Recommended.
Romanian writers really write about traditions,
legends and Romanian fantastic. We can find their stories in online magazines
or on their blogs. We can thumb through some books selected by publishing
houses. A publisher is a seller. He always puts profit first. And profit comes
from trendy subjects, not from old Saints’ stories. It comes from contracts
with very talented people.
Some writers choose to edit e-books, which are cheaper
than printed versions. Many readers are not very familiar to this kind of
literature; they prefer traditional printed books, the smell of ink on paper
and the touch of glossy covers.
Some other writers choose self-publishing and
self-promotion. The rest of them keep on writing online, for friends and
family. This may be a primary kind of promotion.
I don’t consider that we are afraid; we just feel the
influence of external success stories.
Cristina
Nemerovschi - The main problem of genre literature in Romania
is not that it doesn’t exist or is not original enough, but that it is not
promoted as it should be. At the moment there is good genre literature in our
country, but the readers has restricted access to it. Many would read local
horror literature if they had information about it. But between the readership
and the Romanian dark literature is a barrier made of prejudices, one
proclaiming this type of literature one of niche. It is far from the truth – on
the contrary, often it is horror to tackles universal themes, subjects in which
the reader finds himself more easily. Authentic art has to inflict emotions, to
make the one experiencing it ask himself questions and the horror literature
has an enormous potential in this aspect.
Of course, since this type of literature is less
highlighted, one of the end results is the young Romanian writer’s tendency to
stay away from the genre and to try his talent with a literature “accepted”
more, encouraged by the official critique. It is enough to look over the
literary awards of the past couple of years – the fantasy and horror literature
hardly have a place on them. The juries are unaware of these genre, these are
completely alien to them. So, if this type of literature would be encouraged
with certainty the number of writings of this kind will increase considerably.
Together with quantity, of course, the quality will increase as well - we would have from where to make choices, the
horror and fantasy literature’s local market would be more competitive and from
it certainly a couple of bestsellers would be born.
I believe that Romania has favorable
circumstances for writing dark literature here – I refer to the traditions,
folklore, rural imaginary (we have a great cast of characters in our fairytales
for instance, and all could be endlessly used in the horror literature of
quality), but also to a particular characteristic for us, the Romanians, the
capacity to narrate about sadness, death, sickness, separation, hate, crime,
suicide, elements that could be excellently channeled into an actual and
attractive literature. I have the conviction that we could compete anytime with
what is written abroad. But we need, in order to reach the public, to find a
way for bringing this barrier between the so-called niche literature and
mainstream down.
The foreign horror literature has the advantage
to have already overcome these prejudices. You will not hear and American or an
Italian saying that Vampire Diaries, for example, is a bad book because it has
vampires. This is only a Romanian prejudice. In other parts of the world,
literature is separated, as it is normal to be, between the well written one
and the mediocre one, the one that has no message to send, the one that bores.
Therefore the foreign fantasy literature is naturally assimilated and promoted
in consequence. And the Romanian public is somehow more receptive to what comes
from beyond our borders, already wrapped in shiny colors and with the bestseller
label on it.
Claudia
Niculescu - Once again it is a matter of trend, integrity and
strong publicity. I think that nowadays people read/watch the artistic product
with the noisiest promotions and with the deepest clichés because most of us
have a slothful attitude towards this matter and just trust the opinion of the
masses without doing any further researches to find exactly what we want to
see. We accept too easily what we are given. I think here
is also a problem with our spiritual routine. We are pleased with our habits
and knowledge and refuse to accumulate new information. So I think this is all
about the easy accessibility.
Mircea Pricăjan - There’s a time for
everything. Just like there is a person to say it best for everybody. Maybe we
are still waiting for that time and that person. Or maybe just for that time.
Because I personally know of a few young Romanian writers who have already
written impressive stories based on our local traditions, legends a.s.o. Maybe
if their works would get a higher media coverage (may that be commercials on
the radio or TV, their presence in various daytime talk-shows and, ultimately,
their works’ turning into good films), or maybe if our beloved compatriots
would be more willing to lend their ear to literature, in general, things would
be indeed different. Genre fiction depends very much on the media phenomenon,
on the present street culture, even though it - the said fiction - can and must
draw on things of the past, things that give weight of meaning to any plot. Therefore,
I see a change coming its way only when the media culture (non-literary by
nature but prone to the weirdest stories) will integrate genre fiction.
Radu
Romaniuc - Our folklore and mythology is rich, but hardly
original, and what we find now in translated works is not imported mythology,
in most cases, but returning mythology. At least, this is my opinion. I am not
well-read in the field, but from my readings on the subject of Romanian
mythology I have discovered it to be a mixture of older tales and heroes
belonging to older people. I mean, Hercules practically retired here, although
we called him Novac (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baba_Novac) or
Iorgovan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iovan_Iorgovan) (I
think he checked in under fake names) and Achilles owned an island on our
coast. So, in fact, the myths and creatures we read about in translated western
fantasy or horror have the same roots as our own folktales. We can “click” with
their Giants, because our old folktales had the enormous Jidovi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uria%C5%9F),
we can relate to wizards riding dragons because our own Solomonari (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomonari) did
that, the werewolves are the same wolf men that ancient Greeks believed to roam
in the reeds and forests of the Hieron Stoma, a part of the Danube Delta, the
vampires are the blood sucking creatures added to our folklore by the Szekely
people, and so on.
I think that we now live in a religious society and
that interferes with how people accept these old beliefs as part of our
identity and culture. But that makes way for more Christian-themed fantasy and
horror, and I can see that a few young writers are having success with this
genre, like Oliviu Crâznic, Liviu Surugiu or Șerban Andrei Mazilu.
George
Sauciuc – I believe the main blame for not using our native
fantastic vein lies on the educational system. The Romanian school is to be
blamed because it enforces a weird bibliography through the literature’s
devaluation, to say the least. The student who is tempted to find comments and
other tricks for the pleasure of the teacher, even with quotes from famous
critics, instead of looking for the ideas’ individual beauty and the pleasure
of reading, to discover the writer’s works, even those less known… If you were
overwhelmed with idiotic critics about Vasile Alecsandri’s (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasile_Alecsandri) writing
than it would be very difficult to find interesting or to like “Noaptea Sfântului
Andrei” (Saint Andrew’s Night) (note: in
this case the reference is to Vasile Alecsandri’s poem entitled Saint Andrew’s
Night).
The truth is that video games and horror movies are on
almost everyone’s liking, without consideration for intellectual construction,
even though doesn’t necessarily mean the consume of the same type of
literature. Unfortunately, in Romania it is impossible to shot movies in
Hollywood style, but fortunately it is not the same case with writing. There
are young authors who manage to write and they find inspiration in our
fantastic stories. This is for the best, because indirectly they make the genre
popular, in the domino style, through the writer’s friends, the large circle of
acquaintances and so on. A catalyst for this phenomenon, I believe, were the
electronic magazines Revista de suspans, Gazeta SF and, sometimes, Nautilus. I
have expectations from the newly born magazine too, Ficțiuni.
Cristina
Schek - I don’t think this happened because we’re afraid or
we’re more attracted to foreign literature. I believe it’s the same thing all
over again – our traditions, our legends, our folklore are strongly intertwined
with the church traditions and superstitions. Instead of reading a good horror
story or watching a Halloween film, we invariably end up praying to a fictional
character.
Narcisa
Stoica - I don’t think it has
anything to do with fear, but more likely with the lack of exercise and
interest. And, again, with, the lack of promotion.
Ioana
Vișan - I don’t know if it’s the result of being
attracted to something or more like the amount of things we’re being offered.
Again, there are two reasons why this might happen. On one hand, the public is
more interested in new, unfamiliar things that understandably come more easily
from abroad. On the other hand, the market is flooded with translations and
foreign movies because if someone already released them then they must be at
least remotely good so why risk with someone or something local? And it’s not
only the promoters who think this way but the audience too.
Referring strictly to books, based on the same
considerations mentioned above, most people will go for the latest highly
advertized best-seller. The odds are that won’t be a Romanian writer in most
cases. And if you don’t publish them, the writers don’t get a chance to grow,
and many of them might stop writing in those genres all together if they can’t
find a market for their books. Sure, we’re at a time when the situation is
starting to change, but very slowly, because what can you expect in a country
where the Romanian Writers’ Union places the science fiction and fantasy
literature in the children literature category?
3.
Do you think that horror and fantasy have a future on the Romanian cultural
scene?
Raluca
Băceanu - They have a future. I am
not sure yet how bright or gloomy. If we continue with the same steps we take
now I am thinking that maybe will exhaust what is already exhausting abroad. At
a certain point something will be triggered and we will return to the subjects
approached less, I hope. I am dreaming of a moment when something triggers
inside the writer’s conscience, they would start to believe more in their works
and less in the material result of it that brings only little integrity for the
moment... I am dreaming of a time when the reader would start making
differences between what is truly valuable and what has value only because the
trends demand it, or because it is imposed by critiques driven more or less by
political reasons, or dislikes, and who have no place in literature... The
fantastic and horror have a future even if the things mentioned above do not
become reality. But it is better a change to take place, otherwise a literature
of genre would be remembered for its aesthetics and not for the profound
philosophical discourse that was praised before.
Marian
Coman - I have no doubt. I believe that the literature
of quality, despite of its genre, has a future on the Romanian cultural scene.
But, as I was saying, it is about marketing in the first place. It is about
market. It is about the literary industry that in our country doesn’t function
properly for now. However, I am optimist.
Oliviu
Crâznic - Only if we enforce it – with the help of
talented writers, (those of the past republished, those of today highlighted
and those of the future encourage) and dedicated promoters. We need to
assimilate the fantastic before we claim it. In the past we had, we know it for
certain (Vasile Voiculescu (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasile_Voiculescu),
for instance, to give you the first name that comes to mind, can always sit
next to H.P. Lovecraft on any bookshelf). The future isn’t created without any
effort.
Ştefana
Cristina Czeller - We should begin by defining the Romanian cultural scene.
Unfortunately, if we talk from the Writer’s Union of Romania and many of
today’s critiques point of view, the horror, fantasy and science fiction are
minor genres, literature for children. So, I am skeptical about these
particular circles. But if we talk about the general public I believe that we
have enough passionate genre readers to be certain that these books will be
always on demand. However, do they wish a return to the traditional? It depends
on what we, the writers, have to offer. The ball is in our court.
A.R.
Deleanu - Yes. I build my
hopes on a handful of people (I won’t name them, they know who they are) who
invest a lot of time and energy in building a cultural space for speculative
fiction and, in particular, for darker fiction. I have great respect for them.
But some things need to change. The gatekeepers of the field need to be open to
new authors that don’t belong to their parish and critics need to start writing
about speculative fiction in more serious terms (very often the gatekeepers and
the critics are the same people and their silence towards some titles, my
recent one included, resembles a silly type of omerta). But I am confident that
readers will eventually separate good writing from bad writing like oil and
water do on their own. I trust readers.
Andrei
Gaceff - It better have. I’ll become a bit more playful for
a moment and say that I want for the Romanian horror and fantastic to get on
the movie screens. Each Romanian director and, in bigger sense, Romanian writer
better take one local monster and (even it is initially a paper monster) and
bring it to the cinema.
Teodora
Gheorghe - I believe anything is
possible if you really put your heart into it. The problem is that Romanians
are generally reluctant to promoting cultural events. Things should first
change at this level. If there were more people interested in promoting
Romanian fantasy/horror writers, more people would find out about them and
perhaps have a different appreciation of our cultural values.
Teodora Matei - The
future depends on how open we can be to “no name” stories, on how much patience
we will have to read and understand them. It also depends on how much credit
editors will give to every script they receive.
Readers will always be fascinated about horror and
fantasy. The public really likes to be scared. Old Romanian legends may do the
same as imported ones. Someone has to find the proper words. And someone has to
recommend these words and pack them in glossy covers.
Cristina
Nemerovschi - I think they do so long there are young writers
heading for this kind of literature, directors wishing to delight the viewers
with horror movies, or with fantasy themes, instead of those already exhausted,
with scenes from the Communist era. The Romanian artist has a multitude of
sources for inspiration, has, in my opinion, a distinctive structure pushing
him towards the dark themes, the only thing that is missing is motivation,
encouragement. I do hope this mentality would be changed and horror would not
be perceived as a Cinderella. To receive what is just for it – the chance to
reach the public’s soul and conquer it.
I think the public would honestly appreciate the
local horror and fantasy, it would be a breath of fresh air after all the
imported books and movies that most of the times lack originality, but are
adopted because of a state of lethargy. Besides, I was always convinced that at
least in literature the reader relates more easily with his time and space, the
familiar places, the imaginary with which he grew up. With a little luck and
very hard work the Romanian horror literature could be loved more than the
foreign one, here on the land of Baba Cloanţa, Muma Pădurii, the Strigoi and
Zmei (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folklore_of_Romania#Characters_in_folk_literature).
Claudia
Niculescu - They must have. I think this is the missing part of
the whole scene. I haven’t really thought about a strategy of promoting or
introducing this genre nor if it will be accepted or not by the public, but one
thing is for sure: You cannot experience beauty without the grotesque, joy
without horror or caress without pain. By denying or skipping the parts that do
not please your soul you just push yourself further into an illusion of vague
terms.
Mircea Pricăjan - Definitely! By all
means! In any part of the world, genre fiction takes the prize in terms of
popularity, culture-wise. In Romania it will be the same; we just need a few
more years of political and social normality to settle and center our lives on
the things that give us rest from the daily turmoil. Horror fiction is a
perfect outlet for our socially-repressed emotions - we just need to recognize
it as such. I see a time when Romanian writers of the thrilling and
supernatural will be as well-known, and maybe more, as our present-day
so-called TV divas.
Radu
Romaniuc - Probably any kind of good art has a future, even
a present, on the Romanian cultural scene. Despite the inherent corruption, the
scandals and whatever, our cultural scene is open and alive, and it is an
enormous pleasure to be a part of it, or at least circle it, in these times.
As genres, fantasy and horror must overcome the
handicap of the imports that you previously asked about. These imports are a
handicap because, despite being fun and entertaining, the majority of them is
culturally bland and unchallenging. You don’t go for boobs, guns, bigger ships,
bigger dragons, and expect to be culturally significant. So we have to grow up
and take our fantasies to another level to have a future as a part of the high
culture, otherwise we will be forever stuck in an acne-teenage phase.
Leaving high culture aside, I do think that there is a
future for commercial literature in Romania. The young people who are just
discovering books now are part of a generation that isn’t obsessed with the
Occident anymore. My daughter, who is 11, is more interested in Liviu Radu’s
stories then in Ted Chiang’s or Stephen King’s, simply because these are
stories about her world, about the identity of this place around her that she’s
just discovering and exploring.
George
Sauciuc – Of course. Our horror is on forced march, it
discovers itself, takes shape. The fantastic on the other hand is rooted to
Romania’s geographical area. I can say (quoting Vlad Sibechi, with an idea
submitted on one of the CIL’s meetings in Suceava), that the cult fantastic in
Romania has a forerunner character, with the example of Ion Creangă’s
“Povestea Poveştilor” (The Story of Stories), in which the main
character, the peasant, is blessed by
God with a harvest of you know what (note:
this is also an erotic story). The shocking part is the market scene where,
trying to sell his crops, the client is not surprised by the merchandise, he
finds it normal, but by the price of it.
Cristina
Schek - I hope so, I want to believe.
Narcisa
Stoica - Yes, I do. And not only
because I am an optimist by nature, but also because I think that very soon, if
it hadn’t happened already, some of the Romanians involved in creating cultural
content will understand that the horror and fantasy with Romanian flavor are
very valuable exporting assets and will treat them accordingly.
Ioana
Vișan - I firmly believe they do. I’m not a big horror
fan so I’m not familiar with everything that’s written in this genre, but I
know we have at least a few good writers. As for fantasy, we have several
strong writers that would make a good impression abroad if they ever got
translated.
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