Twenty-five years ago, it would have been unthinkable that a literary festival would be dedicated to the black genre and that, moreover, it would have managed to have a following. Today the opposite is happening. It would be a mistake to talk about current literature and pass over thrillers and detective and mystery stories. It is the most read around the world”, reflects Eugenio Fuentes (Montehermoso, 1958), author of the essay Los bajos fondos del corazón. The author will be one of the 150 guests of BCNegra, which will take place from February 5 to 11 and which, in its 19th edition, will present the Pepe Carvalho award to the Norwegian author Jo Nesbø, “in recognition of his trajectory and the contribution of Nordic authors to the black genre”, in the words of Carlos Zanón, curator of the literary event, who yesterday, together with the Councilor for Culture Xavier Marcé, advanced the program from a clandestine cocktail bar, hidden behind ‘a Pakistani colmado, very close to the Basilica of Santa Maria del Mar.
It is no coincidence that the organization chose such a particular location, as it is a clear sign of complicity in hiding places known only to a few, such as spies. They are the ones who will mark the common thread of this black week, which will be approached by national authors, such as José Ovejero, Eduardo Mendoza or Victoria González; and international, such as Chris Offutt, Elaine Vilar, Alan Parks or also Nesbø himself, among others.
“Geopolitics, terrorism, bloc politics and what is happening in democratic societies have made the spy, the one who lives as one of us to betray our secrets, topical and, in fact, the literature is reflecting it. At the same time, the new technologies have made us at the same time spies and spied on at all hours, with our opinions spilled on the networks or the photos we upload”, pointed out Zanón, who alluded to the table that will take place at the Jaume Fuster library next Wednesday about Pegasus, the software capable of reading text messages, tracking calls, collecting passwords or searching for locations that alerted both the Government and the pro-independence sector. “There are many new ways to spy”, they remind BCNegra. This is precisely what this year’s poster, created by Javier Olivares, tries to show.
In addition to this library, the program will take place in two large venues in the Catalan capital: the La Paloma theater and the Bosque cinemas. “Literature festivals should not be limited to the same books. This embraces the set of elements that surround this world as wide and diverse as black literature. In total, there will be fifty activities that will take place; all for free The tables will be named after Graham Greene novels. There will be cinema, music, cabaret, exhibitions and literary routes”, says the author of Cien formas de romper un glaciar (2023).
As every year, the literary event will feature a writer, a character and a book, which will be discussed. The first is the Japanese Seicho Matsumoto. As the protagonist, the detective Lònia Guiu, by Maria Antònia Oliver, will stand out. And as for the work, the chosen one is L’espia que va sorgir del fred (1963), by John Le Carré.
Whether with a spy, a policeman, a detective or a hacker, what both the organization of the festival – which will have a budget of 115,000 euros – and Fuentes see clearly is that “the black genre is permeating the entire narrative. It’s not just me, the philosopher Slavoj Zizek says it. There may be authors who do not write a canonical novel of the black genre, but they do use elements and structures of the detective novel.
The fact that more and more renowned authors are added to the genre allows it to “spread and acquire a prestige that it did not enjoy just two decades ago”. But on the other hand, “there is a risk that the bubble will burst and die of success”, worries Fuentes. Is this expected to happen soon? “No one knows, but it can happen. Although I prefer to stick with certainties. The main thing is that right now he enjoys good health and has, after all, the support of critics and publishers”.
And if you are close to the top, what else can you opt for? “As Manuel Vázquez Montalbán said, for me a great teacher, the great ambition of the noir novel is to be considered a novel, dryly. That is to say, that it has the same literary entity as any other and that dispenses with sociological, ideological and political orthopaedics”, points out the creator behind the detective Ricardo Cupido, born from his mind more than twenty years ago. It is something that is getting closer every time, since “they are no longer serial novels reserved for newsstands, but have a much more serious style and a more elaborate language that have allowed the genre to be elevated”.
There are many experts who consider that the rebellious and asocial Lisbeth Salander, the hacker protagonist of the literary series Millennium, by Stieg Larsson, marked a before and an after, since “she is a woman of thin build and who is no more than meter fifty, which departs from all the protagonists that had been written until then”, states Fuentes, who considers that another reason why the genre has become closer to readers is that “the protagonists are increasingly human and have no problem showing their flaws, so it’s easier to identify with them. For example, the detective in some novels by J.K. Rowling is an ex-military man who lost a leg.” There are also more women, and this, “in addition to being a reflection of society, is due to the fact that more and more authors are opting for the black novel”.
What is strange to the essayist is that, despite there being so much on offer in black novels, “there is no canonical work to turn to. When one speaks of an adventure novel one immediately thinks of Treasure Island. Cavalry, in Don Quixote. In the black genre, on the other hand, there are many titles but there is no fixed one. Who knows, maybe there is a young person writing this work right now.” In any case, if this happens, it is likely that this year or the following can be read in the BCNegra.
