“Fiction is a human tool we developed to give reality a human shape to understand what is presented to us, and that goes on at all levels. It is part of perception. There is a large part of fiction in perception itself.” Meet the award-winning Chilean writer Benjamín Labatut.
It has been said that Benjamín Labatut writes fiction that, from the first page, questions the parameters of reality and what we understand by literature. For instance, in his bestselling novel ‘When We Cease to Understand the World’ (2020), which weaves a web of associations between the founders of quantum mechanics and the evils of two world wars, where it is hard to distinguish the borders between fiction and reality.
“Anything that comes out of a writer is fiction. In non-fiction, they are really kind of naïve. Fiction is something that is not appreciated for what it is. It is not the making up of a story; it doesn’t have to do with imagination. Fiction is a tool, it is a human tool we developed to give reality a human shape to understand what is presented to us, and that goes on at all levels; it is part of perception. There is a large part of fiction in perception itself; it is not just stories. It goes on all the time; we just don’t notice that it is going on”, says Labatut.
Therefore, Labatut’s writing process is very much driven by research: “I don’t worry much about the shapes of the stories; it is all about research; I try to find things. To me, finding some other person’s phrase is more important than coming up with it myself. It is the part that I enjoy. In that sense, writing has become more akin to walking and picking stuff above the ground.”
“While I am researching it, it will determine many things. I am not just looking for data, I am looking for the shape of the story, and that’s got to do with what is available. For example, in certain texts, there are scraps of information, lesser-known characters, and people who left no mark on history. Then I must create fiction around it, but the heart of the story is something that comes out of the research. So, to me, it is more akin to looking at the world than to thinking about it,” he says.
What is most important to Labatut as a writer is ‘fascination’: “Fascination is the key to all of this, and I think that is what writing should aspire to at its best. And the Latin root of the word comes from ‘fascinus’, which means the male sexual organ. To be aroused is something art does in a very special way. It is an excitement; it is not just entertainment. It should touch you very deeply.”
“You should be moved by what you are investigating. You should be moved by the world and transmit that. That feeling you get when you perceive or bump into something hard to believe or so beautiful that it is hard to put into words. Fascination lies at the root of everything that I try to do. The world is becoming so that it is very hard to feel fascinated. We are dulled down.”
Benjamín Labatut is a Chilean author born in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 1980. He spent his childhood in The Hague, Buenos Aires, and Lima, before settling in Chile, where he currently lives and works. His first book of short stories, ‘Antarctica starts here’, won the 2009 Caza de Letras Prize in Mexico, and the Santiago Municipal Prize, in Chile. His second book, ‘After the Light’, consists of scientific, philosophical, and historical notes on the void, written after a deep personal crisis. His third book, ‘When We Cease to Understand the World’ has been translated into more than 20 languages. The English edition of the book was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2021. In July 2021, Barack Obama included the book in his last reading list for the summer, which Obama shared on his Twitter account. It was selected for the New York Times Book Review’s “10 Best Books of 2021” list.
Benjamín Labatut was interviewed by his Danish translator Peter Adolphsen in connection with the Louisiana Literature festival in August 2022 at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark.
Camera: Simon Weyhe
Edit: Signe Boe Pedersen
Produced by Christian Lund
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2023
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