Event Highlights: European Voices: A Reading & Conversation with Christos Ikonomou
On Tuesday, April 19 with a reading and converation we hosted the Greek writer Greek writer Christos Ikonomou and his translator Karen Emmerich for another European Voices event. Following a short reading by Ikonomou from the Greek text, Emmerich read her translation of “Placard and Broomstick” from the short story collection, Something Will Happen, You’ll See. The collection was the most reviewed Greek book of 2010 and the recipient of the prestigious Best Short-Story Collection State Award. It has since been translated into six languages and was published in the U.S. by Archipelago Books in March, 2016.
Christos Ikonomou was born in Athens in 1970. He has published two earlier collections of short stories, The Woman on the Rails (2003) and Something Will Happen, You’ll See (2010). Described by Italy’s La Repubblica as “the Greek Faulkner,” Ikonomou writes with profound sensibility, deep humanism and astute foresight about the human condition using the Greek economic crisis as a backdrop.
Karen Emmerich’s translations from the Greek include books by Margarita Karapanou, Amanda Michalopoulou, Sophia Nikolaidou, Ersi Sotiropoulos, and Vassilis Vassilikos. Her translation of Miltos Sachtouris for Archipelago was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry and her translation of Yannis Ritsos’s Diaries of Exile with Edmund Keeley won the 2014 PEN Literary Award. She teaches at Princeton University.
The event began with an introduction by Kelly Polychroniou, Head of the Modern Greek Language Program at Boston University, who gave a brief background on the two speakers. After thanking the event organizers for the opportunity to share his works, Ikonomou began with the reading of a passage from Something Will Happen. Emmerich followed with a longer reading of the English translation, a story about a tragic accident that brings the characters face to face with the mortality of life.
To begin the conversation, Emmerich asked Ikonomou on the strangeness of an author arbitrarily being told to discuss their writing. He started by saying, “I always feel very awkward, especially in public, about the stories that I write because I have this rather mystical approach to writing. When I write I feel like I am in a state of ecstasy or trance. So afterwards I cannot rationalize what I write.” Ikonomou continued by describing when he writes he hears voices in his head, telling him the stories, and the author emphasized how his goal in writing is to do these stories justice by remaining honest to the voices. Emmerich continued the conversation by asking Ikonomou whether or not he, as a writer, can step back and have the relationship with his stories that a reader experiences, more than beyond just listening to his stories aloud. Ikonomou explained how he tries to not read them too often, as he is so strongly connected to his characters that he is personally and emotionally impacted every reading. Knowingly, he states “we are all stories… we all have our own story, and we connect by sharing our stories and interact with one another, its personal, telling the story is an expression of oneself and defines their relationship with the world..” After claiming that “storytelling is essential,” the author criticized many writers today, pointing out that a major problem in contemporary literature are the result of fiction writers ceasing to have faith in their stories, some he says to be “essential… the most crucial I have to believe what I write. I don’t care about reality. Reality and truth are two different things.”
Emmerich agreed with the dual interpretation of reality and truth, briefly summarizing the title story for the audience in an effort to explain the richness of Ikonomou’s storytelling ability and the fullness of his characters, which combine to produce realistic and emotional responses from readers. Ikonomou then discussed how serious literature is about instilling emotional responses, describing how many critics of his works have cited the heavy, depressing, and sad elements of his stories. However, as Ikonomou explained, he disagrees with this, as he finds it essential for a reader to be deeply impacted by his stories, and for the characters to resonate and stay with the reader even after his book has been put down. Emmerich defended his statements by mentioning the humor in his stories, and the overarching hopefulness, quoting Ikonomou when he once explained how “you can overcome a difficult situation even if it’s not a happy ending.”
The conversation then turned to the audience for a more opened discussion, and the first question was in regards to Ikonomou’s relationship with Christianity. The long response given by Ikonomou was in Greek, as he needed to explain his nuanced and personal relationship with his Orthodox faith in his native tongue. Emmerich provided a summary, describing how the figure of Christ is prominent in Ikonomou’s life, and how the author’s reading of the gospels was his first recognition that truth is greater than reality. The next question asked Ikonomou about his opinion on the translated forms of his texts, and his response was mainly focused on the importance of languages in general. Specifically, in discussion of his books, Ikonomou cited that the cadence of English changes the interpretation of the text, and he is continually amazed at how the subtle shifts between the rhythm of various languages can fundamentally impact the experience of reading or listening to a story. He explained how he occasionally considers English while writing his stories in Greek, and went as far as to say it helps “open his mind,” in capturing a truly unique and honest voice. The theme of language continued into the next question, where Ikonomou’s commentary on the “great challenge” of translation helped him sharpen his sensitivity to language, which transitioned into the author’s examination of writers today. Ikonomou described how overlooking a sensitivity to language has resulted in many young people today seeing language as simply a tool, stating “language is something that every time you write you must reinvent it, make it new. That’s something all writers should do.” He mentioned that other authors across Europe have also commented on their disappointment in young writers failing to value all the elements a language can offer in the process of storytelling. Emmerich echoed his concerns, adding that the evolution of a story and ones interpretation of a story can change due to language, and the emotional response experienced by a reader can be directly linked to the language of the story. Ikonomou carried the conversation further stating, “I have had this experience as a reader… Readers keep the books alive. Without readers there are no books.” He continued with an emotional explanation of how the ambition of his work is to reach out to every reader, breaking through walls such as language, culture, and history, how it’s about “making a permanent mark on the heart of your reader that they will carry with himself forever.”
Another question regarding the future of Europe and the question of democracy in Greece led to a more politically charged conversation between the speakers, addressing societal trends such as the rise of the Right in EU politics, as well as the challenges facing Greece given the current migration crisis, as Ikonomou realistically stated the Greek hope for a ‘Messiah’ “is never going to happen.” The discussion concluded with a discussion of which Greek writers most greatly influenced Ikonomou’s prose, as he briefly tried to convey the importance of several authors in particular who truly capture the beauty of Greek writing.
Watch the event on BUniverse:
This year’s European Voices events are organized in collaboration with the literary journal AGNI and the Goethe-Institut Boston and are taking place as part of EU Futures, a series of conversations exploring the emerging future in Europe. The EU Futures project is supported by a Getting to Know Europe Grant from the European Commission Delegation in Washington, DC to the Center for the Study of Europe at Boston University. Christos Ikonomou’s visit was co-sponsored by the Modern Greek Program at Boston University.