Writer and journalist for EL PAÍS magazine IconCarlos Primo (Madrid, 1984) has published Cleopatra’s masks (Carpe Noctem), an essay on the construction of this myth of popular culture that inaugurates his trilogy on the femme fatale
Her new essay investigates the cultural products that have shaped the current image of Cleopatra. If you had to choose a capital work or text in that sense, what would it be? The writers of the 19th century were very aware of the model of Antony and Cleopatra, by Shakespeare, which took up Plutarch’s story. In the period that I have studied, the sonnets of Heredia and Manuel Machado had a lot of impact among poets, but the public successes were the novels of Rider Haggard and Théophile Gautier.
He has written about dandies and is now planning a trilogy about the femme fatale. What remains of those archetypes today? They continue to have a lot of strength, because we are children of the idea of modernity that emerged in the mid-19th century and its archetypes, for better and worse, have been burned into our way of seeing the world. The difference is that now we can face them with a more critical look, questioning their origin and what they mean.
What distance separates journalistic writing from essay writing? I think it’s a matter of time. The essay demands a less immediate reading and allows for ramifications that have no place in journalism.
If you could choose, which universal author would you interview as a journalist? I am very interested in minor authors, those who did not pass down to posterity or write extraordinary books, but they embodied the spirit of their time. In this book I have studied the work of writers such as Ramón Goy de Silva or Isaac Muñoz, practically forgotten.
What would be your star question in that interview? They did few interviews at the time, so I would start with the most basic: why they decided to write, how they wrote, how they lived.
What book made you a reader? The little Vampire, by Angela Sommer-Bodenburg.
And as a writer? I tried to write my first story after reading an anthology of Poe stories that I got from the school library. But I discovered the possibilities of the essay already at the university, reading Mnemosyne, by Mario Praz, and The laughter of the jellyfish, by Hélène Cixous.
What was the last book you liked? The pure and the impure, by Colette.
The one you have open right now on your nightstand? Places where those who loved each other loved each other very much, by Hector Aceves.
One you couldn’t finish? Petroleum, by Pasolini. But I’ll try again.
What movie have you watched the most times? Probably Vertigo either Everything about my mother. Although I belong to the VHS generation, so when I was little I burned the entire Disney catalog.
One that reminds you of your childhood? Asterix and Cleopatra.
The last series you watched in one sitting? My stuffed reindeer.
If you had to use a song or piece of music as a self-portrait, what would it be? A different one for each day of the week.
In which museum would you stay to live? At the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon. Better said, in his garden.
What historical event do you admire the most? The invention of the printing press.
What assignment would you never accept? My entry into the labor market coincided with the 2008 crisis and I was freelance several years, so I know that sometimes you have to do all kinds of jobs to make ends meet. I’m terrible at driving, but I don’t know if that would be a red line either.
What is socially overrated? The absence of filters.
If he had not been a journalist and writer he would have liked to be… Librarian or designer.
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