The author and professor Katixa Agirre (Gasteiz, 1981) has been appointed a corresponding member of the Basque Language Academy at the end of May. We have talked with him about the normalization of the Basque Country, of literature and of many more things.

You've been named a corresponding Euskaltzaindia scholar.

Yes, it has been an honour. I didn't expect to be on Euskaltzaindia's radar, and it's an honor to be there. If I can make a contribution, that is all well and good.

What do you expect your input to be?

Lately, I'm pretty worried about the world of audio-visual. I have always been interested in this, and perhaps from Euskaltzaindia it can also be made stronger by promoting the use of audiovisual media in Basque. Or, at least, to create awareness of how important it is to be in the audiovisual media for the future of the Basque Country. I think that is essential.

You supported the Modifier Script initiative. What is the situation of audiovisual professionals in Euskera and what would they need?

The Basque is very bad, but the audio-visual, in general, is very good. We've never consumed so much audiovisual, we've never had so much at hand. But we are seeing that the main languages are further strengthening their hegemony and how English is growing above the other major European languages. In this panorama, the Basque country has already lost many waves, and cannot anticipate this tsunami. And in the Basque Country there are resources. Of course, not to make equal competition, but to strengthen the presence of the Basque Country. We have a powerful Basque radio and we are not taking advantage of that potential.

Why is this potential not exploited?

I think they do not take it as a priority. More ETB1 needs to be strengthened, more resources need to be put in place. Especially in fiction, we have a big gap. It must be encouraged, but it is not done overnight. Talent must be promoted, young people, people with ideas, and we must understand that we must be a long-term strategy.

How can this help the normalization of the Basque Country?

It is essential, because audiovisual media are essential for our socialisation. I've seen that with my kids. It is not just a question of seeing them in Spanish, but of speaking in Spanish in Latin America. The most important thing for the transmission of culture is audio-visual, much more so than any other medium. Therefore, the transmission or survival of Euskera without audiovisual media cannot be understood. I see that as clear.

You have worked more as a writer. What is literature for?

Maybe we have to decipher the meaning of the verb first of all. Sometimes when we say value, it gives the impression that it is almost an economic, utilitarian term. In capitalist society, we understand everything as investment, which will then give us a profit. Apart from that, the literature would come out, it does not serve any purpose in this capitalist paradigm. I want to believe that I do it outside of this, for the pleasure of writing and reading. Of course, in those terms the literature is valid, it influences us. I wouldn't be the person I am today if I hadn't read everything I've read.

How do you see the health of the Basque literary system?

Of course it has a lot of problems. To the extent that it is a minority language, it has minority language problems. I have been, for example, in many very Euskaldunes, in groups of readers, full of Euskaldunes, and my book had been read in Spanish. It is a very bad symptom, worthy of reflection. I have decided that I will not go to Spanish-language reading groups in this kind of village, so as not to encourage these dynamics. There are a few readers, but in general there is no habit of reading in Basque.

It is pointed out that a lack of time to read and write is a big problem. How do you experience it?

I would say that it is general in any literature and in any activity. In this fast-paced life, we want to do more and more things, or we're told we need them. The art of walking, walking, thinking, reading a long book has been lost. And if you go into the audiovisual world, there's Tik Tok's 30-second videos. It's very general, it's about our time. But there are things that require a lot of time, also creation. It gives the impression that we cannot take advantage of walking and thinking. I have to remind myself that that is also part of the creative process, that writing is not being physically writing. Most of it is precisely everything we do when we're not writing.

In the thesis studied by Lolita de Nabokov, he also wrote about Femme fatale or Fille fatale. What is the current state of affairs with these concepts?

I believe that we have already improved a lot in that sense, and that feminism has done a great job, among other things, criticizing or claiming the imaginary, that this view of man is not the only one. These misogynic myths have also been dismantled, I believe that today the sexualization of young girls does not occur as in my time. Today's pop stars often appear sexualized, but often from an agency and because they want. It's not always done from the misogynist prism.

Do you see, however, that anti-feminist attitudes are rising, especially among young boys?

Yes, it is obvious, and so do all the studies. Today, there is a huge gender gap in political ideology; the more feminist the woman is and the more agency she has, the more reactionary the boys are being made. It's a subject that I'm really worried about, and I don't know how to turn that around. How social progress faces another part of society. And so what do we do, we lower our demands? Or do we continue to feed the monster in some way, advancing, in a just struggle? It is a very difficult situation. We've been pondering for decades about what it is to be a woman, what it is to be a mother. I have missed men also reflecting on how man and paternity should be.

What contribution did you want to make to this have not been written by the mothers?

Motherhood is a way of rethinking, arising from the clash between what I thought and what I have experienced. Motherhood has a great impact on women's lives and perhaps it is the experience that has the most impact on gender inequality. Pregnancy, of course, is considered the responsibility of the woman. It has always been almost a cross for women, a great burden, and that's why classic feminism has despised motherhood. But it's also normal, because of the way we live motherhood. How she has lived and how we can turn her around, it's not easy, because it comes with a lot of myths. They tell you how things should be, what you should feel. And if you don't feel it that way, if you don't, you get almost into the tobacco sphere.

Now Amek will become a movie.

Yes, the movie is already filmed. Now in search of the premiere. It will be released before the end of the year. It was a very nice surprise, I didn't expect it at all.

You're also a professor. What would you say about the UPV/EHU situation?

I don't know, I don't want to talk bad. It has a lot of good things, it's an institution with a lot of potential. It advances in knowledge, but it has its own problems in management, in human resources, in the treatment of local staff, especially teachers. It comes from a tradition of understanding university, what we call an academic career. It is assumed that at first you will be annoyed and that as the years advance you will get your stable, well-paid square etc. I believe that these logics no longer serve today, and that it must be understood that the work of the teacher must be worthy from the very beginning. We should turn our backs on that feudal system, in which it must pass over the other to reach the top.

Almost ten years ago we spoke to you for the last time. What reading does it do about its trajectory in these years?

I'm happy with literature. I guess I'm doing what I want. I am even more glad to see that I have something to say, I want to write projects and I think I can improve. That motivates me to keep writing.

What projects do you have for the future?

I'm writing a new novel. It is the history of spies, located in the Civil War and in the post-war period. In addition, it's one of the dreams I've had for a long time, writing a series, and I'm taking the first steps. But that would be a very long-term project, and it's harder to do.