We have seen in recent days the great commitment to projecting books and literature in Catalan, and it is nothing other than the organization of a great gala with the image and appearance of the Gaudí film awards ceremony, which sometimes replicated the Goya award, sometimes replicated the Oscar. The Night of Santa Llúcia is ugly, but the format is eixampla to become the new artefact of the Night of Catalan Literature, promoted by Òmnium Cultural and the Institute of Catalan Studies. The Corporation (or TV3 or 3Cat or whatever you decide) has promised a spectacular broadcast, wait with the candelates to see the totems of the letters parade through the green catifa between the atipems of the Crispetes.
It is essentially intended to bring together a series of literary prizes for unpublished works awarded (for example the Sant Jordi de novel·la, published by Univers, or the Mercè Rodoreda de contes, for Proa) together with others for published works (such as the Òmnium prize for the best novel·la de l’any i Montserrat Translation postage) and other prizes (such as Angel Guimerà for a dramatic work and Lo Somni for an unpublished work by young people talents, published by La Magrana). He does not mention it here for the enumeration of all the awards and those he publishes, but highlights that it is a tract of guardians mostly published by the three large publishing groups -Random House, Abacus Futur, Edicions 62-, whose representatives, at photography, symbolically supervise the act of presentation, both centers and realçats, in spite of the cultural promoters of the new format, Xavier Antich for Òmnium and M. Teresa Cabré for the CEI. Bearing in mind that the date announced for the ceremony is just a month before Sant Jordi, it is legitimate that some wary spirit is evident if somehow the large groups are maneuvering decisively to control the market, beyond the recognized track and dedication they have in their products. Independent publishers have the motivation to look out for each other.
Even if he folds, it generates a certain surprise. First of all because it is specifically committed to the concept of prizes as a tool for promoting books and literature, in a context, ours, in which there is suspicion that prizes are not charity. Well, from here we can no longer know about the certificate, we no longer have misfortunes in the form of jurats, but the daily life of the jurats can only speak of prizes granted to the authors of the house (perhaps fans of the talk shows on some broadcaster, but the house is large and strong), and of publishers who influence the attempts of agreement both with commercial criteria and with jurats assenyalats as incompetent towards the critics who dare to sing the awarded work. Which also has premis networks, eh, having a desert every now and then is a sign of prestige.
Nor do we understand this concentration of presuppositions immediately after Sant Jordi. He knew that it was necessary to turn the Santa Llúcia gala into a television show, win an award, win an award, but at the same time the information dynamic will overshadow many of the gatekeepers, who have to compete for a presence in the books at the very culmination of book day. An example is the Montserrat Franquesa de traducció, awarded by the Catalan PEN, for which the finalist translators participate in a defense act during the Catalan Book Week, just awarded in October. With the change in data and format it is easy to assume that the award will be condemned to irrelevance.
Finally, the new festival of Catalan literature involves another of the sector’s evils, which is none other than the well-bye. He supposed that it was a consequence of being a small country, with connections with all strata, but there is always a literary festival, every time some social chronicle is written in books, every time one grants aid to creation, every time one goes to some fair, one goes to the list of those who are and those who are not (sense anar más lluny, Falcones in Guadalajara), something that fuels intrigues, clientelism, inbreeding and exclusions. Afterwards we say that the criticism does not make the feina que hauria de fer, that tothom te més o menys el cul llogat, but ens trobem in front of the constitució d’un bon pessebre vivirt, no pas a los portes de Nadal com fins ara, but abans de la bacchanale dels libres.
