An interview with Radu Aldulescu<\/b><\/p>\n
One of the most important contemporary Romanian writers of prose, Radu Aldulescu (born on June 29, 1954, in Bucharest) made his debut in 1993, at the Albatros publishing house, with the novel Sonata pentru acordeon <\/b>(The Accordion Sonata<\/b>), for which he received the Romanian Writers\u2019 Union Award. Since, he has published the novels\u00a0Amantul Coliv\u0103resei<\/b> (The Funeral Cake Maker\u2019s Lover<\/b>), \u00cengerul \u00eenc\u0103lecat<\/b> (The Mounted Angel<\/b>), Istoria\u00a0eroilor unui \u0163inut de verdea\u0163\u0103 \u015fi r\u0103coare <\/b><\/i>(The Story of the Heroes in a Land of Green and Chill<\/b>), Proorocii Ierusalimului <\/b>(The Prophets of Jerusalem<\/b>), Mirii nemuririi <\/b>(Immortality\u2019s Bridegrooms<\/b>), Ana-Maria \u015fi \u00eengerii <\/b>(Ana-Maria and the Angels<\/b>).<\/b> He co-wrote the script for Terminus Paradis<\/b>, a movie directed by Lucian Pintilie.<\/i><\/p>\n
Some seem surprised that you would choose to write about a \u2018world of those who dwell on the periphery\u2019, as one of your writer colleagues would say.<\/i><\/b>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
Not only do I write about the so-called \u2018losers\u2019, but I also empathize with my characters. Research and empathize with the characters and their universe, that\u2019s what a writer is supposed to do. Many don\u2019t understand this, because they\u2019re stuck. We had no solidarity between intellectuals and blue-collar workers, neither before, nor after 1989. The intellectual elite would aseptically distance themselves from what we refer to as the profound Romania, the country\u2019s backbone, the common people. May I remind you that in 1977, there was a series of miners\u2019 strikes in the Jiu Valley, about which no one knew anything, these intellectuals and dissidents we keep talking about.<\/p>\n
Did they not know or did they pretend like they didn\u2019t know?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
They didn\u2019t want to know. And in\u201987 the strike in Bra\u0219ov took place, which, once again, was overlooked by the intellectuals. And that intellectual elite is still maintaining that same position \u2013 it is totally out of touch with this world, to the point where a book like Parabolele lui Iisus (Jesus\u2019 Parables) comes out, written by Andrei Ple\u0219u, where he offers us the image of a personal Jesus, which has nothing to do with the masses, the crowd. A Jesus for the intellectuals.<\/p>\n
You say the intellectuals knew about the strikes. What do you think they ought to have done in those circumstances?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
Rally with the strikers, that\u2019s what they should have done, but the Romanian intellectual, as opposed to the Czech or Polish one, has a certain respectability complex. It would be a tragedy for him to be removed from his teaching position and sent out to sweep the streets, as it happened with Havel, or with Lech Walesa, who worked as an electrician.<\/p>\n
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