The Author Speaks

This week, Mark Camilleri, editor of the university publication Ir-Realta was questioned by the Maltese police for publishing Li Tkisser Sewwi, a piece by author Alex Vella Gera which was deemed obscene and resulted in all copies of the publication being destroyed. The Barna Blog caught up with the AVG to find out what the fuss was all about.

JF:  What a ruckus you've caused! Mark Camilleri  gets called in by the police ...  and the University Chaplain deems it "vulgar and degrading". Were you expecting this?

AVG:  I know this sounds crazy, but no i wasn't expecting this.

JF:  Really? No idea whatsoever? On a campus where the distribution of condoms caused mayhem?

AVG:  Yes i know. The thing is, I live abroad, and perhaps you could accuse me of not thinking things through. I was also convinced - or deluded myself would be more accurate - that the story would be taken for what it is: a story, admittedly with a strong content, but which could be perceived as simply an exercise in immersing oneself in a particular character's psyche.

JF:  I suppose, as well, what happened is that the character's thoughts were taken as yours, and in the eyes of the public you became a sex crazed chauvinist ...

AVG:  Yes that's true, but i'm not bothered about that. Things will die down. And i know what i am. That's what counts. My conscience is clean.

I guess, there may have been a misunderstanding. Some people thought the story was an article.

JF:  According to The Times your two previous works were not in the same style as this ... How did this story come along?

AVG:  Actually, Li Tkisser Sewwi dates from over ten years ago. It's been in my drawer for  while. When Ir-Realta asked me to contribute a work of fiction, that story came to mind.  Not that i used to write like that and now i don't. It's not that. That story just came out. i am not discounting writing something similar in the future, but the one thing i don't want, and don't need, is to be labelled "that guy who writes about dirty sex, or whatever". That's not me at all. But having said that,sex is important in my writing sometimes. Not often directly as in Li Tkisser Sewwi, but as a prime mover of character.

JF:  Because ultimately, it's how a lot of Maltese men think ... I know a list this long of people who think like the character in Li Tkisser Sewwi  ... and i've heard alot of them speak exactly like that ... in a way that's why I didn't find it that shocking.

AVG:  Exactly. I can't understand what's so shocking about a story based on real life. If i had made the character fuck a goat, or kill his girl, etc. then yes. Also, the story's tone, the monologue, is actually based on a real life character i knew cursorily once upon a time. I was still about 15, and one day i was stuck with him playing pool and he went on and on almost just like in the story.

JF:  What I found more shocking than anything in this whole incident is that - to date - none of the official student bodies at university have commented about this incident. How do you feel about that?

 AVG:  I'm not surprised really. I don't expect much from them. Even the fact that university lecturers haven't said anything. It's to be expected. People live in their tiny little worlds and are not about to have them disturbed. They have alot to lose I guess. It may also be that they genuinely think my story is pile of shit and does not deserve their support, freedom of speech or otherwise, and i can live with that.The only thing that annoys me in all this is when people say my story has no redeeming features whatsoever, because there my artist's ego is hurt :0).I truly believe my story is more than meets the eye. It is not the best thing since sliced bread,and it's not even anywhere close to the best thing i've written, but it's an honest story, perhaps too honest

JF:  At least a lot of people seem to have jumped to your - and Mark Camilleri's defense - on the Times Online comments section ... I'm particularly pleased that a female reader wrote in to say that she found it patronising that it was being said that women were going to find this degrading.

AVG:  Most of the people who told me directly that they liked the story, or found it "instructive", were, in fact, women. Perhaps many men found it too close to the bone. Maybe they got a boner...

JF:  ... I'm sure some of them did ... probably the ones who complained loudest even.

AVG:  Those who said the story is pornographic need to get tested. The narrator has a pornographic mind, no doubt about that, but the story itself is nowhere near pornography, i think. And even if it was porn, so what? But that's an argument we'd better not get into. Malta is way too backward to broach that subject!

 JF:  Yes, it seems that the situation in Malta seems to be getting worse and worse: plays being banned; a brouhaha when condoms are distributed to university students, a shop owner told to remove naked mannequins from shopwindows ... and now this gets banned - on a university campus of all places.  Do you find that as worrying as I do?

AVG:  I'm not sure what to think. I grew up in Malta, so it's nothing new to me. It's business as usual. Many maltese go about their business, probably writing stuff like Li Tkisser Sewwi, and get on with their lives. You'll probably find that the whole ruckus will die down soon enough, even if there is a court case, and people will just move on. To be an agent for change is perhaps an impossibility on that island. Having said that, the way Malta is is very interesting, from a novelist's perspective. lots to write about.

JF: Too fuckin' right ... and movies. I always think that Malta could produce the next Pedro Almodovar ... or a handful of them

AVG:  hehe perhaps.

JF:  Although the work would probably be censored in his own country whilst celebrated all over the world! Talking of censorship, it's a bit fresh for  Archbishop Cremona to be complaining that this new crucifix ban in schools is censorship don't you think?

AVG:  It's funny. But to be expected. The church is like this big bully, a protective bully, who's suddenly finding himself at the receiving end of bullying, and obviously it's a bit of a shock. The church also believes it has a God given right to be the big fish in the pond. So i understand their reactions, both towards material they deem wrong and in the case of them being "censored". it's just the way it goes. we all see things through our particular lens.

JF:  What next now? Has this inspired you to write more of the same?

AVG:  No. I did think for a while yesterday to write a short novel, with the first chapter being the infamous short story, and then move on from there. Somehow i must redeem this guy. but i'm not sure I feel like it. I am working on a novel right now, that should be out by the end of the summer, which is sort of a development of the first story in Zewg.

JF: And will you be publishing the story online? Lots of people have been asking where they can read it.

AVG:  No I will not, Not for now at least. Because there's too much of a fuss about it. Whoever really wants to read it will find a way. Malta zghira! (Malta is small)

- Alex Vella Gera is the author of Lil Hinn mill-Jien (May 2009) and Zewg (September 2009) available at all good Maltese bookshops, and online at http://www.ilovebooks.com.mt/shbooks/index.php?manufacturers_id=5632&osCsid=58daf0f6f9177f1dcc3ba8dc33554572