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Daniel Cortés
Daniel Cortés
Daniel Cortés
Nationality: CHILEAN
Age: 28 years old
Favourite literary genre or writing: POETRY
1. How were your beginnings in writing and have you published any of your
writings in this regard?
My beginnings were very clear, it was the day after my graduation. I studied in a
Marist school in my city, my 12 years were spent there. The next day I saw an
Olympia typewriter at a free fair, I bought it and started to write. Before that, I had
been initiated in reading because there was a library that was public at that time, it
was called "Martin Panero", and it was there that my interest in books and writing
was born.
First of all, books that were basic that had to do with animals and then books that
had to do with painting, and that's where I met the first intellectual I read, Salvador
Dalí, a book that's called "unmentionable confessions" and another one that's called
"the diary of a genius". I also began to meet friends who shared readings, but my
desire to write poetry was when I founded a magazine called "Revista Escarnio"
which I opened in September 2009 and so far is in force but will end this 2020,
however, the real inspiration to write has to do with the people and that I realized
after reading enough poetry, because I realized that reading and the poetic
phenomenon has not only to do with writing, but has to do with how you read the
world. I think that books are like an essay about the possibilities of who to read, be it
people, landscape, sometimes the homeland... the discourses in a poetic way, but
the phenomenon of literature or poetry is much bigger than books. I recently realized
that the motivation comes from much more than just knowing about books and
writing.
3. What are you currently reading or the last thing you read?
4. Which are your favorite authors and what would you recommend reading?
I would recommend Anaís Nin, an American-French writer. I also think she has
Spanish or Cuban nationality because she was the daughter of a Cuban musician
named Joaquín Nin. Her book "Pájaros de fuego" which are short stories and some
novels that are not translated, its title is "Ciudad interior". She is one of the great
writers who I hope with this of the feminine movements that there are in the
publishing houses will be translated again and published with greater intensity
because her work has only been seen in her love diaries that are called, but her
literature and narrative is powerful. That's what I would recommend, to Anais Nin.
She also talks a lot about the body, about how to free the body and how one has the
possibility of having much more presence of the body as well as something more
internal, I think more spiritual. Anais Nin is ideal.
5. What book would you read again? Or a book that has marked you deeply
and that you have not been able to get out of your head?
I would read again a book that I don't have that is "The Key" by the Japanese
Junichiro Tanizaki. It tells the story of a husband and wife who have no more
affectionate-sexual relationship and on one occasion the wife pretends to be asleep
in the bathtub because she has had a kind of soporific episode and has fainted in the
tub. The husband takes her in his arms with her orange skin as if she were a salmon
and puts her on the bed. Then he starts taking pictures of her. The thing is that the
book is written in the form of a life journal. The book tells a lot about what's going on
in social networks because a lot of things are written that you don't really feel, and I
think Junichiro Tanizaki, this 20th century Japanese writer, shows that faith in words
is not always true.
6. In your opinion, what is the best and the worst thing about being a
writer?
The best thing is that you are constantly in a plane of ignorance because you meet
different readings, different visions of different writers.
And the worst, I think it's the depressive lows that have to do with how you deal with
literature. Literature has a rather dark aspect, you have to think that books are
extensions of the memory or the spirit of certain people. And when you handle books
it's like you're handling graves. I've always thought that the reader is like
a kind of gravedigger or rather a rustler, I don't know if rustler has another name...
they are the people who desecrate tombs. That's why I feel that most writers have
the face of a gravedigger or people who work in a cemetery. Returning to the
subject, I think that's the worst thing, the mood swings, because in the end the writer
or the poet suffers a lot but opens up many possibilities of encouragement for others.
It may sound strong to say that they sacrifice themselves because they also have a
good time, but it's like there's a burden to be able to make a good book. Like there
are many books that have been written in blood and there are also many moments of
constant depression.
7. If you had to choose a fictional character from a book to sit down and
talk for a while, who would you choose?
It's a character that makes me very doubtful. She's Fermina Márquez from the novel
that's also called "Fermina Márquez" by Frenchman Valery Larbaud. I'd like to talk to
her because she doesn't talk much in the novel and she has a certain mystery. She
is the daughter of a Colombian ambassador and arrives at a French school. The
book says that she has an exuberant beauty and has a certain mysticism. I would
like to talk to her.
Yasunari Kawabata's "The Beautiful and the Sad", which is the last novel this Nobel
Prize winner wrote in 1969. I remember because it was the year my mother was
born. It has a lot of beauty because he played on many levels, it is said that he works
a lot on his novels, as he did different versions and to reach that process ... actually I
would have liked to live that process of writing "The beautiful and sad", rather than
the final result I would have liked to live the process of that novel.
9. How is your workplace set or where do you usually write? (physical place
where you feel more comfortable or inspired).
Most of the time it is in the afternoon. On very happy occasions like barbecues or
parties I also do this, as inspiration also appears in moments of joy. Some also
appear in the evening. Before quarantine I wrote a lot in the Diavolo (bar in La
Serena, Chile) in the afternoons, taking advantage of the fact that it was summer. I
would buy myself a beer and write poetry.
11. What are the themes that most inspire you to write? Why?
At the moment, the theme that I'm most interested in has to do with destroying
certain topics. For example the saying "small town, big hell" I look for a way to make
it visible and at the same time destroy it. Whether to destroy the small town or hell,
that's what I was thinking today.
What should be done or what are the possibilities that I can find through poetry,,
have to do with certain things like nature, not as something beautiful but as an entity
of chaos.
12. Have you made a foray into writing film scripts and if not, would you like
to do so? Why?
With regard to the film script, there are things that have to do with the chaos that
Raúl Ruiz takes on, since he said that one of his driving forces in filmmaking is to
capture philosophy. For me it would also be like a motor if I had to write a film script,
this would be about how to shape poetry. There are authors who do it in a
spectacular way but I think it has something related to the more shamanic world, a
more spiritual world. How the spirit of the dead is passed on through image and
sound. These are aspects that are really very interesting.
13. If you could find a bridge that would allow you to reach the goal of living
from writing, would you cross it?
No, I've had these possibilities of living from writing, either by joining certain funding
funds, or by taking part in certain competitions, but I've avoided them simply because
I don't have a clear objective for my writing, so I can say that one objective is
money... I'd like to support myself, but there are certain instances of poetry where
one feels more comfortable in discomfort, as in the case of writing poetry that has to
do with other forms. Besides, sitting down and writing a poem a day is impossible for
me. No it is impossible to read, but it is impossible to turn poetic writing into
something mechanical or something routine because it is not part of a whole
14. Do you think that a person should have an academic background to write
or is it only enough that the person has the passion and motivation to tell a
story?
It's not essential to have an academic education, there are several poets who have
come from a university education like Ted Hughes or more self-taught education that
have more to do with the rural world like Gabriela Mistral. Or from more conservative
backgrounds like Virginia Woolf and from more humble backgrounds like Jean
Giono. It is very varied. The poet or writer comes from different latitudes, which if I
don't believe is that poets come from Olympus or flying saucers but that they come
from any earthly aspect, that's for sure.
Nombre completo: DANIEL JESÚS CORTÉS RAMOS
Nacionalidad: CHILENO
Edad: 28 AÑOS
Género literario o de escritura favorito: POESÍA
Mis inicio fueron muy claros, fue el día después de mi graduación. Yo estudié en
una escuela marista de mi ciudad, mis 12 años los estudié ahí. Al día siguiente vi en
una feria libre una máquina de escribir marca Olympia, me la compré y empecé a
escribir. Antes me había iniciado en la lectura porque existía una biblioteca que era
pública en ese entonces, se llamaba “Martín Panero”, ahí nació mi interés por los
libros y la escritura.
En primera instancia, libros que eran básicos que tienen que ver con los animales y
después libros que tienen que ver con pintura y ahí me encontré al primer intelectual
que leí fue Salvador Dalí, un libro que se llama “confesiones inconfesables” y otro
que se llama “el diario de un genio”. También empecé a conocer amigos que
compartían lecturas, pero mis ansias por escribir poesía fue cuando fundé una
revista que se llama “Revista Escarnio” que la inauguré en septiembre del 2009 y
que hasta ahora está vigente pero va a finalizar este 2020, sin embargo, la
inspiración real hacia la escritura tiene que ver con el pueblo y eso me di cuenta
después de haber leído bastante poesía, porque me di cuenta que la lectura y el
fenómeno poético no tiene que ver solamente con la escritura, sino tiene que ver
como tú lees el mundo. Creo que los libros son como un ensayo sobre las
posibilidades quienes para leer, ya sea las personas, el paisaje, a veces a la
patria… los discursos de una forma poética, pero el fenómeno de la literatura o la
poesía es mucho más grande que los libros. Hace poco me di cuenta de eso, que la
motivación viene de mucho más antes de conocer los libros y la escritura.
3. ¿Qué estás leyendo actualmente o lo último que has leído?
Además habla mucho del cuerpo, de como liberar el cuerpo y como uno en estos
momentos tiene la posibilidad de tener mucho más presencia del cuerpo así como
algo más interno, creo que más espiritual. Anais Nin es ideal.
Volvería a leer un libro que no tengo que es “La Llave” del japonés Junichiro
Tanizaki. Cuenta la historia de un marido y su esposa que no tienen mayor relación
afectivo-sexual y en una ocasión la esposa finge estar dormida en la bañera porque
le dio una especie de soponcio y se desmayó en la bañera. El marido la coge en sus
brazos con su piel anaranjada como si fuera un salmón y la pone en la cama.
Después le empieza a sacar fotografías. El asunto es que el libro está escrito en
forma de diario de vida. En el libro se cuenta mucho de lo que está pasando en las
redes sociales ya que se escriben muchas cosas que en realidad no se sienten y
creo que Junichiro Tanizaki, este escritor japonés del siglo XX, muestra que la fe en
la palabra no es siempre verídica.
Y lo peor, yo creo que son las bajadas depresivas que tiene que ver como tu te
manejas con la literatura. La literatura tiene un aspecto bastante oscuro, hay que
pensar que los libros son prolongaciones de la memoria o del espíritu de ciertas
personas. Y cuando manejas los libros es como si estuvieras manejando tumbas.
Siempre he pensado que el lector es como una especie de sepulturero o más bien
un cuatrero, no sé si cuatrero tiene otro nombre… son las personas que profanan
tumbas. Por eso siento que la mayoría de los escritores tienen cara de sepulturero o
gente que trabaja en un cementerio. Volviendo al tema, creo que eso es lo peor, las
bajadas anímicas, porque al final el escritor o el poeta sufre mucho pero abre
muchas posibilidades de ánimo a otros. Igual suena fuerte decir que se sacrifican
porque también lo pasan bien, pero como que hay una carga para poder hacer un
buen libro. Como que hay muchos libros que se han escrito con sangre y también
hay muchos momentos de una depresión constante.
“Lo bello y lo triste” del japonés Yasunari Kawabata, que es la última novela que
escribió este premio nobel en el año 1969 creo que fue el año donde le dieron el
galardón si es que no me equivoco. Me acuerdo porque es el año que nació mi
mamá. Tiene mucha belleza porque jugó en muchos planos, se cuenta que él
trabaja mucho sus novelas, como que hacía diferentes versiones y para llegar a ese
proceso… en realidad me hubiera gustado vivir ese proceso de escribir “Lo bello y
lo triste”, más que el resultado final me hubiera gustado vivir el proceso de esa
novela.
11. ¿Cuáles son las temáticas que más te inspiras en escribir? ¿Por qué?
Actualmente la temática que más me pulsa tiene que ver con destruir ciertos
tópicos. Por ejemplo el dicho “pueblo chico, infierno grande” busco una manera de
visibilizar y a la vez destruirlo. Si destruir el pueblo chico o el infierno, como que eso
es lo que estaba pensando hoy.
Que se debe hacer o cuáles son las posibilidades que puedo encontrar a través de
la poesía,,, tienen que ver con ciertas cosas como la naturaleza, no como algo
bonito sino como un ente de caos.
Sobre el guión cinematográfico hay cosas que tienen que ver con el caos que toma
Raúl Ruiz ya que contó que uno de sus motores de hacer cine es plasmar filosofía.
Para mi también sería como un motor si tendría que escribir un guión
cinematográfico, este sería sobre cómo plasmar la poesía. Hay autores que lo
hacen de una forma espectacular pero creo que tiene algo relacionado con el
mundo más chamánico, un mundo más espiritual. Cómo se pasa el espíritu de los
muertos a través de la imagen y el sonido. Son aspectos que en realidad son muy
interesantes.
14. ¿Consideras que una persona debe tener una formación académica para
escribir o sólo es suficiente con que la persona tenga la pasión y la
motivación de contar una historia?
No es fundamental tener una formación académica, existen varios poetas que han venido
de una formación universitaria como Ted Hughes o formación más autodidacta que tienen
que ver más con lo rural como Gabriela Mistral. O de formaciones más conservadoras como
Virginia Woolf y de formaciones más humildes como Jean Giono. Es muy variado. El poeta
o escritor viene de diferentes latitudes, lo que si no creo es que los poetas vengan del
Olimpo o de los platillos voladores pero que vienen de cualquier aspecto terrenal, eso sí.