{"id":115098,"date":"2023-06-22T07:30:31","date_gmt":"2023-06-22T04:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/news\/wars-bring-back-the-past-booker-prize-winner-georgi-gospodinov\/"},"modified":"2023-06-22T07:30:31","modified_gmt":"2023-06-22T04:30:31","slug":"wars-bring-back-the-past-booker-prize-winner-georgi-gospodinov","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/news\/wars-bring-back-the-past-booker-prize-winner-georgi-gospodinov\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Wars bring back the past\u2019: Booker Prize winner Georgi Gospodinov"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mp_wrapper\">\n  <div class=\"mepr-unauthorized-message\">\n    <p>You are unauthorized to view this page.<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n  <div class=\"mepr-login-form-wrap\">\n            \n<div class=\"mp_wrapper mp_login_form\">\n                  <!-- mp-login-form-start -->     <form name=\"mepr_loginform\" id=\"mepr_loginform\" class=\"mepr-form\" action=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/login-2\/\" method=\"post\" data-trp-original-action=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/login-2\/\">\n            <div class=\"mp-form-row mepr_username\">\n        <div class=\"mp-form-label\">\n                              <label for=\"user_login\">Username<\/label>\n        <\/div>\n        <input type=\"text\" name=\"log\" id=\"user_login\" value=\"\" \/>\n      <\/div>\n      <div class=\"mp-form-row mepr_password\">\n        <div class=\"mp-form-label\">\n          <label for=\"user_pass\">Password<\/label>\n          <div class=\"mp-hide-pw\">\n            <input type=\"password\" name=\"pwd\" id=\"user_pass\" value=\"\" \/>\n            <button type=\"button\" class=\"button mp-hide-pw hide-if-no-js\" data-toggle=\"0\" aria-label=\"Show password\">\n              <span class=\"dashicons dashicons-visibility\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/span>\n            <\/button>\n          <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n            <div>\n        <label><input name=\"rememberme\" type=\"checkbox\" id=\"rememberme\" value=\"forever\" \/> Remember Me<\/label>\n      <\/div>\n      <div class=\"mp-spacer\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n      <div class=\"submit\">\n        <input type=\"submit\" name=\"wp-submit\" id=\"wp-submit\" class=\"button-primary mepr-share-button\" value=\"Log In\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"redirect_to\" value=\"\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115098\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"mepr_process_login_form\" value=\"true\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"mepr_is_login_page\" value=\"false\" \/>\n      <\/div>\n    <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"trp-form-language\" value=\"en\"\/><\/form>\n    <div class=\"mp-spacer\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n    <div class=\"mepr-login-actions\">\n        <a\n          href=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/login-2\/?action=forgot_password\"\n          title=\"Click here to reset your password\"\n        >\n          Forgot Password        <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n\n      \n    <!-- mp-login-form-end --> \n  <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"smart_content_wrapper\">\nBulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov doesn\u2019t view himself as a predictor of the future. But he said his International Booker Prize-winning dystopian novel \u201cTime Shelter\u201d has become reality. \u201cWhen you live in dystopian times, dystopian books become reality or turn into some kind of documentary,\u201d he told AFP in an interview. He said he hadn\u2019t foreseen Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, though. \u201cThese things were in the air. (But) I\u2019m not a prophet, nor did I think it would come to this. I did not foresee the war. Wars bring back the past,\u201d he continued, describing Russian President Vladimir Putin as \u201ca dictator\u201d who \u201cwanted to take his country back to the time of World War II\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTime Shelter\u201d \u2014 which brought Gospodinov and translator Angela Rodel the prestigious British Booker Prize last month \u2014 focuses on a \u201cclinic for the past\u201d that offers experimental Alzheimer\u2019s treatment. To trigger patients\u2019 memories, it recreates the atmosphere of past decades down to the smallest detail. But, with time, healthy people start coming to the clinic, seeking an escape from modern life.<\/p>\n<p>Such is the success that the past invades the present. Across Europe, governments organise \u201creferendums for the past\u201d to choose their own \u201chappy decade\u201d \u2014 which ends up in a re-enactment of World War II. Gospodinov said he came up with the idea for his third novel \u2014 published in 2020 in Bulgarian and 2022 in English \u2014 after witnessing societies\u2019 glorification of the past. \u201cThe past is what nationalism and populism thrive on,\u201d the 55-year-old said, giving as examples former US president Donald Trump\u2019s \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d slogan, as well as Brexit.<\/p>\n<p>Born in 1968 in the town of Yambol in southeastern Bulgaria, Gospodinov said people who had lived through Communism, like him, \u201chave more experience to recognise the danger\u2026 of populist abstractions\u201d. \u201cBecause we had already lived in a promised future, in a promised time,\u201d he said. He urged \u201ceveryday work with memory\u201d so people remembered that peace cannot be taken for granted.<\/p>\n<p>When Gospodinov \u2014 who describes literature as \u201can antidote to propaganda\u201d \u2014 began his novel back in 2016, he thought he would need to explain his title \u201cTime Shelter\u201d as a play on words in reference to \u201cbomb shelter\u201d. But the war in Ukraine has \u201cdisastrously\u201d revived the word, the poet and playwright said.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the book\u2019s sinister themes, Bulgarians celebrated the Booker Prize win. Local media in the European Union\u2019s poorest member state compared the euphoria to when the national football team came fourth in the 1994 World Cup. \u201cI didn\u2019t expect that this joy could bring people together like that,\u201d Gospodinov said, remembering the 1994 \u201cfeeling that now you can move mountains\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow I realise how much Bulgarian society actually needs good news.\u201d When he returned from the Booker ceremony in London, Gospodinov attended the spring book fair in Sofia. As usual, he exchanged greetings with each of the hundreds of people who queued for hours in the rain to meet him. He said he drew the \u201cempathy\u201d needed for his writing from his childhood, when his family lived on the \u201cground floors\u201d \u2014 literally and metaphorically.<\/p>\n<p>Writers \u2014 just like everyone else \u2014 \u201chave \u0430 right to be fragile, vulnerable, sad, insecure; to be hurt, to be lonely; to be on the weak, losing side\u201d, he said. \u201cOtherwise you can\u2019t experience, you can\u2019t tell stories about people who are on the losing side if you\u2019re not on their side. It doesn\u2019t work,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Sourde: <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.digitaljournal.com\/world\/wars-bring-back-the-past-booker-prize-winner-georgi-gospodinov\/article\">DJ<\/a> <\/div>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\/csr-news-en\/wars-bring-back-the-past-booker-prize-winner-georgi-gospodinov\/\">\u2018Wars bring back the past\u2019: Booker Prize winner Georgi Gospodinov<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\">Vastuullisuusuutiset.fi<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[10497,555,10498,10499],"class_list":["post-115098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-bring-back","tag-csr-news-en","tag-the-past","tag-wars"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115098\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}