by Montse Alarcón Flix
When I learned that aspects of the Marathon bombing are pure fiction, my first thought was that the professional writers of fictional stories in English language should sue the US government for interfering in their profession!
I’m a writer of fictional stories in Catalan. I have 11 completed books, mostly unsold. I am – or was — a compulsive reader, mainly of fiction. When I was 14, I had the card number 100 of the public library in my town, a city of more than 50,000 people. (Even the number 100 was high, as they didn’t accept my first request submitted before the age of 14). Eventually I became a registered user of many public libraries in Europe.
I have read most of the Greek classics, such as Aristophanes, and Latin ones of Petronius, Ovid, etc. I have read most of the representative books of the entire field of literature. I can read Catalan and Spanish (ancient and modern), some ancient Latin and Greek, Italian, a little of French, and now also English — thanks to Jahar Tsarnaev.
I have read all of Dostoyevsky. I felt outraged when I ended reading the hundreds of pages of The Brothers Karamazov and then, asking at the library for the continuation, was told that Dostoyevsky died leaving the book unfinished. How could any writer die while writing such a great work!
Dying shouldn’t be allowed to inspired artists! Weren’t the geniuses immortal? I thought it was irresponsible to leave the reader in the middle of such intricate theological doubts and arguments as he did!
Of course I’ve read Dante several times, in three languages, the richest translation being the one in Catalan. I’ve read all of Kafka’s oeuvre. His Metamorphosis is, in my opinion a book infinitely less decisive than The Trial, which inspired an article in defense of Jahar.
I confess that I’ve even indulged in pieces by Ralph Hornsby and Corin Tellado! I mean I’m the kind who will read anything printed in a book or similar.
But since the Boston hoax, I suddenly stopped reading fictional stories — and writing them. Despite my media exposure being low compared to others (as I haven’t seen TV for many years), I got to the point where I felt saturated with bad and bizarre fiction.
Media’s lack of contact with reality, and particularly the toxicity of the Marathon case, maimed my once notable capacity for digesting reality through written fiction.
Why would anyone read Kafka when we find every day kafkian arguments in our newsfeed? Why would anyone read Orwell when we are living in an already Orwellian world? Why read Dante when we have on the news a Dante scene of people without legs, with all the falsification of a case against Jahar.
Why would anyone be interested in any story by a really talented writer of fiction when our entire reality has been subverted to become a bad fiction?
Our intelligence has been mistreated to the point where we are unable to distinguish fiction from news (or if you’re still able to distinguish it, you’re not allowed to point out the difference).
Then you have no other option than to stop buying “real fiction” because you are being force-fed “fictional reality.”
That’s the reason why I thought that writers of fiction in English should sue the US government for professional interference by their promotion of the lies of the Boston Marathon.
It is thanks to Jahar that I’ve had to learn English. I look forward to talking with him one day when he gets free of prison.
Mary Maxwell adds: Below is the Spanish version of the minute-and-a half video, and here is the link to a Gumshoe article that leads to both the Spanish and Catalan texts of the affidavit sent by Jahar’s Aunt Maret to the US District Court after Jahar’s trial.
— Montse Alarcón Flix, the owner of Library Card #100, can be contacted at Mary’s website: maryWmaxwell.com.
Photo adapted from http://pens.iguanasell.com/
Let’s see the span of time here. Aristophanes wrote around 400BCE, Dante around 1300CE, and Kafka around 1900CE.
Two-and-a-third millenia.
And then boom, boom, boom! As of 2013 it’s all over?
Gee, thanks, FBI. Thanks Boston Globe. Thanks professors at Boston College Law School who attended Judge O’Toole’s friendly talk last week and did not raise a friggin’ eyebrow.
Gee, thanks a bunch.
I KNOW Dee doesn’t want Gumshoe to get into this, but she’s away today and I’ll do as I please. I just want to ask one question about the Jeff Bauman photo:
If the tibia is here, can the fibula be far behind?
In the other pictures of Bauman at the scene the fibula is also absent, they could say that the fibula dissapeared because the blast leaving the tibia untouched, but what about the video showing Bauman being wheeled twice from the scene. And the photograms where the prosthetic fails, and the story of Arredondo “pinching the artery” without gloves when the policeman and everybody there have blue gloves, etc, etc!
I remember sitting with a Vietnamese kid over in ‘Nam that had stepped on a mine. His foot was blown off and the tibia and fibula were sticking out of the remaining muscles on his lower leg just below the knee.
Considering the muscle mass and tendons, I’d find it difficult to believe that the fibula could be missing on Bauman, but I’m not a doctor in traumatic amputation. Perhaps one of them could step in to clarify if such a thing is probable or even possible.
There are thousands of doctors in the world. There must be one somewhere with a bit of moxie who could at least comment on the color of the blood on the boat confession.
Gee it’s hard to keep a straight face talking about some of these things, “color of the blood” “boat confession.” On the other hand, I also feel like crying.
Great article Montse! I agree with you. It’s high time for those of us who know that Dzhokhar is innocent, to turn the heat up a notch or two. There may be no truth in the main stream media which means that we will have to take their place and inform the sleeping public that a horrendous injustice has taken place and we won’t stand for it.Kudos to you!
No problem doing that until the truth will be known to all.
Damn. I thought we had better send Montse’s essay to Umberto Eco in Bologna, as it has been 30 years since he wrote “Faith in Fakes,” but I see he passed away in February, age 84. Damn.
He was way ahead of all of us in seeing the fictionalization of culture. Once again: damn. But now you carry the torch, Montse! And we are mighty pleased you came to Gumshoe.
I’ve spent a couple of years now reading the hilarious stories of those involved in this comedy and had more than a few laugh out loud moments when coming across literally unbelievable things that apparently happened to some of the amateur actors involved in the Boston marathon bombing. “A leg flew by my head” is an instant classic in my opinion.
I had never heard that one, Daniel.It’s rich. If you’ve got a few more please send.
Pathos/bathos bathos/pathos. Let’s call the whole thing off.
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[…] Alarcon Flix joined us from “Barthelona” in April, writing “The End of Fiction” – that end having been caused by media fiction, such as the Boston Marathon story. She came to […]