A zombie pandemic, a plan to stop feminism and a critical look at the miseries that inhabit the characters of the world of Literature are some of the topics that the writer, essayist and poet Luis Benítez touches on in the 8 stories of the anthology The world is ending and we are shaving (Wordva Publishing House), narratives with biting and crazy humor that invite you to read them in an addictive way. “It is my first foray into humor, it is a book where humor runs through all the stories like an axis. Previously, in novels and stories some touch of humor appeared sporadically, but not as fully as it happens here,” said Benítez in dialogue with The uncovering.
– What place does humor occupy in your life?
I think that humor is the last trench before the abyss of despair. Humor saves us many times. What gave me the key to start writing this work was a phrase from the great Uruguayan writer Cristina Peri Rossi, which is included in her acceptance speech for the 2021 Miguel de Cervantes Prize and which says that “humor is the sixth meaning of literature.
– I was particularly struck by the stories that talk and laugh at the pathos between the characters in the Letters. What were you interested in telling about this world?
I liked the idea of getting into the darkest corners of the literary underworld and that is well captured in the story of the author who participates in a contest creating works that were cooking recipes and giving himself ridiculous pseudonyms that end up leading to his own ruin, and On the other hand, in the story of the writer who, after the joy of being incorporated into an academy, ends up getting so drunk that he does not even remember what he said in his acceptance speech to the institution. In the third story that refers to the world of Literature there are more crazy elements: it is the story of a writer who is kidnapped by a commando group so that he can write the biography of an international criminal.
A zombie pandemic and a plan to stop feminism: these are the crazy stories of The world is ending and us shaving.
What happens with the humor that I use, in these topics related to the chaos of the world in which we live, is that it is a tool that allows us to look at the most terrible things with a filter that does not harm us so much.
– In the stories you also use humor as social criticism…
What I hope most is that after the laughter or smile that these stories of The world is ending and we are shaving Some reflection may arise on the part of the reader about how he sees himself and how he sees the world in which he is living.
– What is the type of humor that best represents you?
Black humor is the one that makes me laugh the most and the one I prefer among all the aspects of humor. And laughing is what I prefer among all things, even more than reading and writing. What happens is that circumstances often do not give us as much opportunity to laugh, because it is easier to make people cry.
Who is Luis Benitez
The poet, narrator and literary essayist Luis Benítez was born in the City of Buenos Aires, Argentine Republic where he currently resides. He has received numerous national and international awards for his literary work, including the First International Poetry Prize La Porte des Poètes (Paris, 1991); the Second Biennial Prize for Argentine Poetry (Buenos Aires, 1992); the First Young Literature Prize (Poetry) from the Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat Foundation (Buenos Aires, 1996); the First Prize of the International Fiction Contest (Montevideo, 1996); the First Prize Tuscolorum Di Poesia (Sicily, Italy, 1996); the First Golden Letters Novel Prize
