Interview by the literary critic Patrick Sammut with
the author of Alte Vestiga, Anton Sammut
Introduction:
Alte Vestiga is a practical example for those who believe that before even an attempt to write a book is made, it is of the utmost importance that the writer is first of all an avid reader. The novel by Anton Sammut creates an enormous gulf between itself and the other popular Maltese books of today; some of the latter have even put aside all sense of the aesthetic while eschewing cheap, mediocre and sensationalist literature which, however, sells readily and is therefore effective in the sense that it earns a profit large or small, whatever the case may be.
The novel by Anton Sammut is an apposite answer to these other novels, a sensible alternative for those who want to distance themselves from the many mediocre productions which elicit no intellectual stimulus but which have been offered us by the local media since we were blessed by the dubious gift of pluralism.
Q. Who is Anton Sammut? What is his everyday life like? What are his hobbies?
A. I am 39 years old, single by choice and totally engrossed in my own little world which includes, among other things, art (paintings), reading, writing, research, friends, wandering in the countryside enjoying nature and above all, peace and quiet and yet more peace and quiet.
Q. In your novel Alte Vestiga there is a discernable German background but there is also a definite leaning towards a Classical as well as Oriental culture. What are your feelings about this?
A. As a matter of fact Alte Vestiga (I prefer to refer to my book by name rather than as ‘the novel’) is set abroad because certain themes which I developed in it would not have been possible to explore if I had set the book in
Q. Through the use of synergy you have managed to combine what you have studied and read with the creative character that exists within you through the medium of ‘the novel’. What did this cost you in terms of time and energy?
A. I had been thinking through Alte Vestiga all my life and I spent four years writing it (actually the original was double the length of the present version but because of various reasons I had to reduce it to the length that it was eventually published in). I wrote it through silence and in silence, and when I say silence, I mean complete and absolute silence. Since I am a nobody, when you are invisible in the eyes of the world you succeed in seeing things that the ‘acclimatised’ will probably not manage to see since everything is seen as a reflection of him or herself. Let me give you an example even though perhaps a rather exaggerated one which I hope will not be misinterpreted: I maintain that the greatest Catholic who rarely ever lives the life of a Christian is the pope himself. This is because those around him create a rather ‘comfortable’ environment for him and besides this, it is very difficult for him to ascertain those who are genuinely good from amongst his entourage. Thus the pope would never be in a position to write a realistic novel set in the palaces of the
Q. It is apparent that amongst your many loves there is reading, philosophy and art in general besides travelling. How true is this?
A. Reading is extremely important to me and this is true for many reasons, one of which is the fact that it allows me to keep my mouth shut and listen to what others have to say. I think we are used to a system wherein we want to talk and give our opinion all the time and we do not have much patience to listen to what others have to say for themselves. If we speak all the time, we do not learn anything new since we already know all about what we are saying. On the other hand if we learn to listen, especially to the voice of silence, we become less stupid and mediocre than we were. Travelling is not a priority in my life although I enjoy going abroad with my friends; however if by the word ’travelling’ we mean new frontiers of understanding, I do not much conform to this idea as I believe everything is incorporated within the human being. From amongst many great thinkers, Socrates did not travel much during his life just like the great Prussian philosopher Immanuel Kant rarely left his own region and I do not think anyone can negate the fact that these two were great thinkers. I believe that if a person wants to learn something new in his life he or she can do this anywhere, even by just observing a bee or a sparrow. This is what I wrote in Alte Vestiga; the Holy Grail can be anything: from a smile to just yourself… as long as you can be sensitive enough to give dignity to the world around you. On the other hand, art is very important to me because I think that nothing in this world is what it seems and therefore art (that is, true art) gives you the opportunity to express that which is much higher and better than appearances and instinct.
Q. Nowadays there is a genre of literature that is cheap and mediocre and that aims only to excite and incite empty gratification while another type of literature aims to provoke intellectual thought. There is also pseudo-literature that tries to depict itself as original while it is nothing but plagiarism dressed up for the occasion. Then there is literature that builds constructively and eclectically on wisdom and the works of universal writers and wise people. What is your reaction to this and where would you slot in your own Alte Vestiga?
A. I am very selective when it comes to Maltese literature and this for only one reason: there are very few people who really have anything new to say with a critical intellect except that which the masses want to hear and the problem many times is not a question of mediocrity or cheap literature but that nowadays, more than ever before, Man is losing his identity; he has lost contact with nature and true spirituality, he has become afraid of silence and instead is filling his life with a lot of ‘material noise’ which continues to empty him of spirituality. So I say how can Man, who continually lives a life of cyber plagiarism where everyone is a copy of the other and lives a cosmetic and highly structured life, write a type of literature which is thoughtful and does not reflect the emptiness inside himself? This is why these pop books are very commercial because there are many who adhere to this model of life. In Alte Vestiga, through the use of a central character I quoted Horace in this regard where he says: “If you want to move me to tears, first of all you must have experienced this emotion yourself.” I believe that there are few who know how to suffer through this spiritual gestation of life and this is because nowadays more than ever, society in general is living a frenetic life; we are an impatient society that is living a culture of the cheapest ‘shortcuts’. But that which is cheap can only render a mediocre result even in literature. A pop writer can make the gullible public believe that he is a somebody because many people read his work but in actuality he would know (that is unless he happens to be a megalomaniac) that no serious writer was ever acclaimed by the collective, especially in his immediate present, before enough time had elapsed to lend its virtue to the said writer. I also believe that such writers of the masses have little chance of ever entering the eternal Pantheon where those who have contributed something of value to humanity live on. As to where I would place my own Alte Vestiga, that is not something that I can do myself: only the judge of time can do that; however I have been told that with Alte Vestiga, I have uncovered an uncomfortable truth and some have actually told me that its message is devastating. Despite this I declare: which is that most uncomfortable and devastating of truths if not pride and arrogance that make us turn our faces in the opposite direction to the way where we should look for truth - whatever the truth is and wherever it comes from? Hypocrisy is a terrible thing. There was a time when I used to hear people moaning and groaning that there was no creative and provocative element in Maltese literature (and this is not at all true as there are good authors in Maltese literature). I would have to say that theirs is a misleading projection to establish themselves as radical people and that they are in fact nothing but underhand idolaters of convention since they have already reached the top. There is one thing I know for sure, that if a book has nothing new to say than it is going to end up, once and for all, in the depths of mediocrity.
Q. From the perspective of language, on the one hand you showed how dynamic and flexible the Maltese language can be. On the other hand elements from the Romance languages can be felt to have been used rather exaggeratedly where you could easily have used another word of Semitic origin. What is your reaction to this? Is there a particular reason for this choice in the light of the European Union framework?
A. Yes, there is an answer and everything was premeditated. In fact, in the future, an abridged version of Alte Vestiga is to come out which is basically just the plot and where I am going to convert everything into modern language (the case being that NOW I am going to turn my book into a NOVEL and I am going to do this for the convenience of those who told me they very much wished to read my book as an easier version as they felt Alte Vestiga was too difficult. This is besides the fact that there is already an English version: the translation by the brilliant Alfred Palma which is called Memories of Recurrent Echoes). Now the reason I chose to use a variety to linguistics together with a short metre (also an invented one) was so that in this way I could build a ‘barricade’ to continue ‘distilling’ the reader of Alte Vestiga. Certainly an impatient reader would definitely not continue to read a ‘novel’ such as this and as a matter of fact I did my best so that Alte Vestiga would not be read by such persons; not that I have anything against them but these latter are usually people who like to go straight to the point and people who like to go straight to the point tend not to be analytical readers; rather, these readers tend to be people who like to read those ‘light’ books that were mentioned previously and so I did not want to waste these readers’ time by convincing them to put my own book down and turn to their preferred genre of literature. In fact, even the presentation of the cover of the book was studied so that, as much as possible, I would put off this type of pop readers: a book with a cover as black as coal with the emblem of a figure you would not appreciate dreaming about at night. I also did not put down any identification on the cover of the book to continue repelling those who might be somewhat morally sensitive; apart from these facts, I also used a rather strange Latin title to ascertain that only a few would be attracted to the book except for that particular minority whom I had predestined my book to be for.
Q. Alte Vestiga is a novel of almost 500 pages. But in it are narrated the troubles and conflicts both external and internal of the universal person and it is not tied to a particular place or time. What do you say to this? In this light, could Alte Vestiga have been more concise or is it in fact a summary of all that which you wished to say?
A. As I have already said previously, Alte Vestiga was about a thousand pages in length and there was a lot more detail in it than there is now in the book. It is true, the work treats about the eternal position of Man, and such truths are not always comfortable for humanity’s tastes. As a matter of fact that was the reason why I chose to write them in the form of a ‘novel’ rather than written in a dialectic form so I would not be too personal and direct. Some of my friends have read the book five times and each time they come up to me to tell me that they have found something new. This is because in it there are universal concepts (albeit sometimes subliminal ones) that in actual fact speak one language: a human language that is not conditioned by any epoch. As you can see, almost every human condition is discussed and as some readers told me (after a year had passed since they had read the book) it is more a matter of time and experience before such a reader comes to understand that which he or she might not necessarily agree with while he or she is reading. Some have told me that Alte Vetiga gives you back as much as you wish to take and the deeper you delve, the deeper it becomes. One particular reader also told me that with Alte Vestiga it is important not to stop reading in arrogance or disdain and not to take the book personally and declare war upon it as otherwise it would be sure to hurt you back. I do not say this in any form of self-exaltation but because actual readers have declared it. On the other hand, if in some themes I had been more concise I do not think I would have been of any value to the reader, but I think that if such a reader were to do some serous research he or she would not find it difficult to confirm what I wrote. However I felt that such steps should be taken by the reader him or herself and not by me, the better to respect the moral principles of that person.
Q. At the end of the novel Teo shows his determination to write a book. It is also said that this book will be misinterpreted according to the needs and indifference of the reader. Is Teo, Anton Sammut in this particular case? According to Sammut, is any interpretation always a misinterpretation?
A. Yes, Teo and the undersigned in this case are one and the same especially from the time of the trip to
Q. In Alte Vestiga you mention may personages who enriched world culture with their wisdom. However those who stand out most conspicuously, either directly or indirectly, are Socrates, Christ and Nietzsche. What do you have to say about this?
A. I did not include these great personages by coincidence but because each one of them represents a concept of particular thought; but at the same time there is a common denominator that binds them together: All three of them, in one way or another, were rejected by the world because of their radical teachings. Socrates was accused of corrupting the minds of youths with misleading teachings about the gods and he was given the death sentence; as for Christ, there is no need to elaborate; while to a certain extent even the philosopher Nietzsche was ‘condemned’. Why did this happen? Because these three great thinkers uncovered a terrible truth for humanity. To some degree or other everyone knows a little about Socrates and I reiterate that about Christ there is no need to elaborate because everyone knows the greatest story that ever happened on Earth; however there are very few who know what the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche said and why he was ‘given the cold shoulder’. At the age of 24, Nietzsche was already a professor of Classical philology but no great thinker has ever been as misinterpreted as this German thinker has been. He was not just misinterpreted by the Nazis (with a little help from his sister who was an adamant anti-Semitic) but also by academics and other thinkers; I therefore feel that this great (anti-) philosopher is still not justly regarded. But the greatest mark he ever made was as a philosopher; or rather as an anti-philosopher. This psychoanalytical thinker was he who uttered the famous phrase ‘God is dead’ (and not that God does not exist); an affirmation which nevertheless was completely misinterpreted (Nietzsche is still misinterpreted to this day, many times not from a lack of ability, but because, as we said earlier, man needs to misinterpret certain things so he can ‘go on’). In my opinion, Nietzsche cannot be understood with the mind of a Philosopher and even less so with that of a Theologist, but with the mind of a ‘neuro-psychologist’, in the sense that what Nietzsche wrote was not a continuation of the evolution of human thought, as other philosophers write, but about the WHY and WHEREFORE of human thought; and it is here that this terrible truth (as he called it himself) comes into being. However this is not the place to ruminate about this great thinker as we could go on forever. What I wanted to emphasize by repeatedly mentioning these three great personages in Alte Vestiga was that in their unique way they represented (and still represent) the antithesis of the human tragedy of all times.
Q. What would Anton Sammut answer if someone were to say that in Alte Vestiga a misogynistic temperament is often evident?
A. This is quite true, especially in the fourth part of the book, where woman is often ‘intellectually attacked’. However, I did this without any intention of lowering the dignity of women; on the contrary what I wanted to do was give an existential shock, and I say that for a ‘silent heart’ to start beating again, it needs an ‘existential shock’ and not compliments and chocolates. When I spoke about women in this regard I did it from the perspective of suspended issues of a psycho-sexual nature which many men suffer from. In fact, if the reader pays careful attention he or she will find that for example, the misogynous temperament of Magda and Fritz was not capricious, but a genetic one that they inherited from their grandfather Klaus. Over and above this the misogynous temperament of Klaus had its origin in another far gone time and this retrospective wheel finds its origins in the censure that Mary Magdalene earned from those who could not tolerate a woman having central powers in the history of mankind; however this is another subject. I did not much enjoy writing certain things about women in this way but I had to include certain sexist views to make my point understood. In the end, what I wrote in Alte Vestiga are the real facts of life and nobody can deny these however horrible they may be. Nonetheless, to balance all this, if the reader is careful he or she will realise that out of all the characters it is a particular woman (Nadia) who is the true heroine of the book and I emphasized this with many signs and symbols. For example, only Nadia is present in all four sections of the book and this did not happen coincidentally. Because the hero in life is not the philosopher, the intellectual or man of power, but he or she who challenges and beats the hostile currents of life; this type of hero is very often found in honest women of great dignity and not men. There is a scope behind every sequence in Alte Vestiga. For example, the misogynistic temperament can be felt most in the character of Fritz but paradoxically it was this character that in a particular sequence (Chapter 18 of the fourth section) ended up praising a certain woman in all her dignity. This woman was not a judge or a senator but a simple person who looked after a bathroom in the basement of a restaurant. I did not place this woman in that particular place on a whim but symbolically I wanted to state that although the masculine world might try its best to place women ‘underground’, great and honest women never allow men to take away their great dignity. It was this message that I tried to convey as a positive antithesis in regard to this subject; if I have offended anyone or if I have been misinterpreted, I apologise.
Q. Why did Alte Vestiga need a preface by Oliver Friggieri, an introduction by Kenneth Wain and reflection by Perter Serracino Inglott? Did you do this because of a lack of confidence in your product or as a promotional tool so that Alte Vestiga would be better received by critics and prospective readers\purchasers?
A. Nothing of the sort, and although I am honoured by their endorsement, I did this for one simple reason: My intention was that these gentlemen, in addition to others, would serve as shock absorbers for the morals of the reader.
Q. For whom did you write your Alte Vestiga? Could it be understood by the average reader who does not carry the required cultural baggage to appreciate exactly what you had in mind when you wrote the book?
A. I wrote Alte Vestiga principally for the individualist and the individualist could be anyone as long as he or she has a mind and uses it. For example in the book I frequently refer to the ‘collective herd’ and this was not an oversight. If you look at the world around you, you will note that everything is programmed for the collective herd: a sensational religion (without spirituality), television programmes (like talk show for the masses), pop books and soap operas that exalt the primitive instinct and even so-called cultural activities where you find that many of them have been logistically prepared for the masses because the masses generate money. Everything is designed for the masses. For instance, have you ever heard of a structure that takes care of the individualist that regaled the world with anything of beauty: artists, directors, musicians, poets, thinkers and prophets of all times? As I have already said anyone could be an individualist irrespective of what his or her state in life is; what makes this person an individualist is his or her original thinking, not minding being stamped as a pariah because he or she chose to think with his or her own mind rather than to simply accept what the collective oracle says. There are very few who bother to notice these individualists because they are a minority and therefore generate little money and if you are not an important cog in the economic machinery then you will be automatically set apart. These individualists know what it is like to turn on the television and watch some ‘participant’ who has nothing better to do, waste an hour of your time narrating his mediocre life story on some programme that glorifies gambling while a real artist has to spend thousands of euro to appear for just five minutes to make his or her voice heard. Now as to whether Alte Vestiga can be understood by readers who do not have such a vast cultural baggage I declare that everyone can learn something. For example to appreciate and understand the spirituality of classical music there is no need to be a Mozart. Speaking for myself, what little I know was not gleaned only from books but from observing everyday life, by observing nature and by listening to silence; and when you succeed in doing this then you will come to understand many other things. Many of Michelangelo’s figures were not taken from the anatomy of people but from the shapes of clouds! And I believe that everyone knows how to look at clouds. It does not matter much how extensively you can quote the thinkers of the past: if I have done this in Alte Vestige it was merely because the logistics of the argument required it. What I had in mind was that working within my limitations I tried to be of help to those who have never felt themselves to be a part of the collective machine. If I have achieve this goal then perhaps this question is better answered by each individualist who reads this book, and also through time.
Those who are interested in exploring further and in more depth the thoughts behind Alte Vestiga may visit the author’s sites:
www.altevestiga-antonsammut.com
www.recurrentechoes-antonsammut.com
