Castellón. Emilio del Ríoone of the greatest experts in Rome and Greece, visits the Castellón Book Fair To show that the classics can help us to be happy much better than “the charlatans and gurus of the networks” because they already sought answers to many of the questions we asked today. This doctor in classical philology, professor, writer and disseminator arrives with his new book under his arm, ‘Carpe Diem’, which he defines as a self -help manual “but of the good, and very fun.”
Del Río does not hide his satisfaction to come to Castellón, a province that he considers as one of his homelands to which he visits the summers to meet the friends he retains after having been speaking in Benicàssim for more than two decades.
– Can I define you as a militant of the Greco -Roman classics, Emilio?
– Clear. I always define myself as a writer, professor and activist for the humanities because I claim his role in society. In my last book I dedicate an entire chapter. Because? Because the classic humanities help form critical and free citizens, and that’s why we need them. Democracy is very fragile and you have to take care of it and water it, there is nothing more to see what happens in so many places in the world, as even the United States. Therefore, if we want to continue protecting and defending democracy we have to study the classic humanities a bit, and it would be good for that to be done, for example, in high school and in secondary education. They are a great value for democracy.
– That’s why you get so much in dissemination?
-That’s what I class at the university and I write books and articles of research and dissemination. From the rigor I want to bring this wonderful and exciting world closer to the humanities to the readers and the listeners of the radio. The classics are very funny, you have a great time.
– And now, in addition, you have written ‘Carpe Diem’. Is your way of expanding your pedagogical task?
– Yeah. This is a self -help manual that guides you to be happy. It is not a theory book nor is it a book of philosophy, but I have written a practical guide to be happy.
– Did the classics already write self -help books?
–Of course. Seneca, Marco Aurelio, Cicero… They all write self -help manuals, but of the good. There is a lot of fair charlatan out there and a lot of motivational coach. I run away every time I listen to them. They intend to give us easy answers and coffee sugar to complex problems. That is not so. To be happy we have to train and work our emotions. It is not to reach a point and that’s it. It is a permanent state. It is not that of saying that I have made a ten -kilometer race and I have finished. No way. Being happy depends on us, our inner balance, on our serenity, that is already taught by classics, to train our emotions. In ‘Carpe Diem’ I try to transmit it in a casual but useful way. It is a practical book to be happy.
To be happy we have to train and work our emotions
– In your words, the book is the result of the notes you treasure since you started studying the classics.
– In this book I collect the reading notes of the classics that I have been pointing over the years. It is important to explain that there are 42 chapters that are read in any order, it is not a novel or, as I have commented before, a theory book. Everything is practical in ‘Carpe Diem’. Nor does he explain who is Seneca or explains which are the different philosophies. I go, as the dermatologists say, to the grain directly. I speak of how to face change, how to have objectives in life, the need to have habits, the value of friendship, how to face death, how to live that living is to combat against adversities or ourselves, how to face old age or how to build lasting relationships. All this is taught by classics and all this is in ‘Carpe Diem’. It is a bargain. For 21 euros you have a practical book to be happy. In two months five editions have already been published.
– How does the myth of Plato’s cave help us to understand today?
-– We have to be able to think about ourselves. Dare to know, that’s key. It is the motto of the Enlightenment. Look at the battles that we still have to find this topic. There are people who still say that the earth is flat and there are those who are against vaccines.
We have to be able to think about ourselves
– With so many proclamations that are in the classic authors, why did you choose to hold Horacio’s book?
– Because it seems to me a wonderful principles. Carpe shut up It tells us that this is a sigh, that life is brief and that you have to take advantage of it. We have to work, socialize, find time for us and many other things, but the key to everything is to take advantage of the moment. I understand that life is a balance, therefore, everything depends on our inner balance and our serenity. And that is what will allow us to achieve emotional well -being and happiness and not the charlatans of the fair. For me, what hides this proclamation of Horacio is to seek the positive meaning of life.
– In your previous book, ‘Latin Lovers’, you taught how classical languages are present in our conversations. Don’t you get tired of claiming the role of humanists?
– Not because I like the work I do and it is a task in which I have a good time. It is a way of sharing a passion and defending democracy and joy. Our classics are fun, make you see life cheerful.
– That informative effort will not fall in broken bag because your podcast ‘crazy for the classics’ is triumphing on the National Radio of Spain.
– It is the most listened podcast of the chain and we have received a Ondas award, which are awards that grants.
– In recent years you have combined your task with that of the National Deputy. Anything positive about your passage through Parliament?
– I came to the conclusion that politics is something too important to leave it in the hands of politicians alone. I am a modest teacher and writer who dedicates part of his time to common things. That is, by the way, another of the great teachings of the classics, which insist a lot that we must get involved in common things.
Politics is something too important to leave it only from politicians
– Do you regret the years you were in the political first line?
– Don’t know.
– You wanted to come to the Fira del Llibre de Castelló …
– For me to go to Castellón is to return home. I have been going 25 years to Benicàssim. My parents had an apartment in the Torreón, on the great Jaume I. Avenue. Castellón is one of my homelands.
