The writer spoke about his new book, “The Young Prince Points the Way,” and argued that education is crucial to transforming a society. “A book is something that expands our experience,” he said.
Alejandro Roemmers celebrated the slogan of bringing a book to the massive university march and highlighted its value as a symbol of personal enrichment and peaceful expression in the midst of the crisis situation that is being experienced in Argentina. In addition, he claimed the relevance of the Book Fair in the framework of the presentation of his new material,The young prince points the way. “Our Book Fair in Buenos Aires has much more relevance,” he said inModo Fontevecchia, byNet TV, Radio Profile (AM 1190) y Radio Amadeus (FM 91.1).
Alejandro Roemmers is one of the owners of Laboratorio Roemmers, but he is also, and fundamentally, a writer. He became the first Hispanic American author to be awarded the Cultura Viva award in the poetry category and is presenting his new book: “The Young Prince points the way.”
What metaphor can anyone who reads find?“The young prince points the way” with the situation that Argentina and Argentinians are experiencing today?
Look, I think that this book “The Young Prince Points the Way” is an idea that I had for a long time, and I found the time to do it. A bit of the idea is how a spiritually lucid person, let’s say, if he were to incarnate an adolescent and were a school, how could he contribute, in this case, to resolving divisions that were in his course.
They even somewhat represent, on the one hand,divisions that exist at all levels in society, also the theme of addiction to screens, of human relationships with intimacy. So I think it’s a metaphor, I would tell you as an exercise. I tried to imagine if I were now a 14-year-old boy and there at school, how I might act if I encountered these situations.
You have the possibility of seeing Argentina from a distance, and it is experiencing a crucial moment with an enormous situation of economic pressure, with political polarization and after a demonstration, the largest in history, by students. You are a writer and poet, and art is one of the ways of interpreting reality, not just journalism or science. From that poetic perspective, how do you interpret this moment in Argentina?
I believe that education, the training of people, is really the only way to change a country, a society in the medium or long term, because only developed, thinking, discerning people can be truly free, can exercise their democratic rights. comprehensively, soEducation is very important.
The issue is that today, practically one could question what education should be like now, since, for example, we have aartificial intelligence, we have access to a lot of information that would seem to no longer make memory so necessary for many things, that perhaps today the most important thing is judgment, discernment, above all teamwork, all the values that make power work together. And, of course, creativity, because no matter how much help there is, human creativity seems irreplaceable.
It is true that, let’s say, artificial intelligence, giving it millions and millions of possibilities and intersections, I think will also end up giving many suggestions that will seem creative, because ultimately everything arises from experiences and relationships. But hey, you will have to have the knowledge and skills to exploit that to the fullest, to know which of the suggestions are really good or most useful.
I was not in Argentina, I was just inUruguay, but that made me a little sad, that so many young people can still feel disillusioned, not represented, or with fears, and I think that must be taken into account, these are things that must be taken into account. And well, I understand that a space for reflection will open, but I emphasize that education is something essential for the transformation of a society.
If I understand correctly, you live most of the time in Europe. Is the Book Fair in which you are going to participate presenting something much superior to the fair held in Spain?
I also participated in Spain, it is generally done in booths in the Retiro Park, I think the comparison with Spain is completely…
It’s infinitesimal, I’ve been several times, it’s a little thing next to what the Book Fair is.
Exactly.The Book Fair Ours in Buenos Aires has much more relevance, even, let’s say, from the place.
Afterwards, well, yes, inSpainObviously, there are also authors, but there are no rooms where talks or conferences are given, that is, I think that perhaps only the one held in Mexico can be compared, because even the one in Germany is just another fair. commercial and it is more for the editors themselves and others to see possibilities, but it is not a fair like that for the general public.
Yes, I was in Italy, the one in Turin is very important, the Turin Fair, I also once gave a talk there, but even so this is probably the biggest.
To unite one theme with the other, in the students’ march, what they carried was a book, in a sense as a shield and flag.
That’s good, isn’t it? Because ultimately a book is something that expands our experience. We can live one life, but through books we can enrich ourselves with the experience of other lives, the knowledge of many people who preceded us, who had completely different experiences. I think so,the book is a very positive symbol.
I’m glad that was chosen and I understand that it was very peaceful. Obviously there will always be those who want to take advantage of that, but I think that at the base, let’s say, and even more so if there were books, I think there is a request that the State, which is true that it has to shrink, it has to modernize and it has to be more efficient, but do not give up providing some things that are very important.
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