"Homophobia is an implicit admission of a homosexual desire, conscious or unconscious": interview with André Aciman, author of 'Call me by your name'.

Pedro_P

▼  "It's a miracle, it's something that does not happen every day."
This is how the American writer André Aciman describes how he has received the success he has enjoyed all over the world in recent months "Call me by your name", the film adaptation of his homonymous novel.
This tells the love story between Elio, a 17-year-old teenager, and Oliver, a student of 24, invited during the summer to the family home of the first on the Italian Riviera.
On the good reception that the film has had, especially among the heterosexual public, Aciman assures that "you do not have to be gay to understand that it is very difficult to approach a person to touch her, kiss her or have sex with her".
"The novel and the film what they do is show the difficulties of approaching a stranger," says the writer, who became known in the literary world in 1995 with the autobiographical book Out of Egypt (The Flight from Egypt).
Currently, Aciman -who is married and has three children- combines his literary career with teaching at the City University of New York.
BBC Mundo interviewed André Aciman in the framework of the Hay Festival Queretaro, a meeting of writers and thinkers that takes place in that Mexican city between September 6 and 9, 2018.
It has been 10 years between the publication ofhis novel "Call me by your name" and the premiere of the film.
Was the huge success of the films perm?
I think nobody expected it.Neither I, nor the director, nor the producers or the actors.
No one.
We expected some recognition, but the fever that broke out at the Sundance Festival was totally unexpected.
It has given us great joy.Now Thimothy (Timothée Chalamet, actor who plays the character of Elio) is famous all over the world.
My book has been acquired in almost every country in the world.
It is a miracle.
It is something that does not happen every day.
To what do you attribute the good reception that the film had?
If I had an explanation, there would be a formula and people could reproduce it.
I do not think there is a single explanation.
I think it is related to the fact that it is a story of a great love, that is not mitigated, softened or set apart.
It is about an unexpected romance between two human beings, a romance that grows and blossoms, and explodes in front of the audience.
The ideal audience is the one that went to see the movie without any idea of ​​what it was about.
Halfway through the film you do not know that it is a love story between two men.
And you see them talking and you start to have an intuition... "will happen what I think will happen?".
You have no idea.
The surprise is there throughout the film.
Some surprises are planned and others are unexpected.The conversation between father and son is shocking, it moves you, and I think the movie has many scenes like that, which can not be planned.
In addition, the performances are great, just like music.
Based on what your readers andtheviewerswho have seen the film have told you, what do you think are the elements of history with which people identify themselves, regardless of their age or sexual orientation?
In French and Russian literature in particular, there are characters constantly introspection.
And what makes my novel, what makes it unusual, is that it is about a boy who is studying himself and trying to understand what other people are.
There is a fever of introspection.
And that is something that each of us goes through, no matter whether we are young or old.
We all go through that every day, constantly, all the time.
We are constantly analyzing ourselves and others, with doubts, fears, anxieties and insecurities,
All these things are found in the novel.
Not intentionally.
This is how I write.
Some heterosexual viewers say that this has been the first gay love story on the big screen with which they have felt identified.
Why do you think that has happened to them?
Many times the "prohibition" of gay love is usually an excuse to treat gay love.The coming out of the closet, the battle to face the gay desire, the danger, the humiliations... I did not want any of that in my book.
I wanted a protagonist who felt totally natural with his gay desire and that the only inhibition he had was daring to tell someone that he wanted to touch him.
It is not easy to tell someone that, be it man or woman.
I think many heterosexual viewers have felt identified with the film because all the typical obstacles (of the gay stories) of the plot have been eliminated.
What you see are two people who die for kissing. Are they going to do it or not?
You do not have to be gay to understand that it is very difficult to approach a person to touch them, kiss them or have sex with them.
It is not easy and the novel and the film what they do is show the difficulties of approaching a stranger.
Why do you think it is still difficult for some people to feel comfortable with a gay love story?
I know people that the idea (of gay love) not only seems problematic but also offensive.Worst for them.
I think it's childish.
I know some people, very few, who have seen the film and left the cinema and said "yes, it is a gay love story", and try to project indifference.
If they were honest they would tell me that it has hit them in the bowels.
That they saw something of themselves.
People who say that this is not for them I think they are scared.
And what I think they are afraid of is finally themselves.
Homophobia, when taken to the extreme, says something about the person who is homophobic.
The only explanation is that homophobia is an implicit admission of a homosexual desire, conscious or unconscious.
One of the recurring elements in his work is sex and desire,and in many cases, unfulfilled desire.
Do you believe, as the topic says, that desire is the force that moves the world?
I think so. In my case, I speak of libido, of desire, of unsatisfied desire.
When I think of the people I have met throughout my life, with whom I have had relationships that are in the past, I realize that I have forgotten about them.
I remember them and I love finding them, but time has taken care of them, even when things ended badly between us.
They are those people with whom I have not been able to have a relationship, with whom I have not had sex or who I have not been able to love as I wanted, whom I remember vividly and have become more real than the people who were real in my past .
They are a fantasy and fantasies have a life of their own that is sometimes more captivating than real experiences.
Fantasies never die.The desire I had for women 40 or 50 years ago still reverberates within me, while I no longer think about the women I met and with whom I slept.
Unfulfilled desire is something very personal.
Born in Egypt, he moved with his family to Italy as a child and ended up living in New York.
This has had avery important role when it comes to modeling your personality.How is it reflected in your books and in the people you create?
All the characters in my books are marked by uncertainty, ambiguity and ambivalence.
It is the cornerstone of everything I write.
The ambivalence above all, from the nationality to the one you love, has articulated everything I have done.
There is no certainty in this life.
There is no place to which one belongs, a nationality, a religion, a group of friends... We are constantly uprooted, which reflects my own experience.
Psychologically and aesthetically it is also reflected in my work.
My biographical uprooting is reflected in everything I do.
I can not write about a person or a place without automatically showing that it has two faces.
Forwhat it says, it isafeeling ofuprooting,of not belonging to any place, itsees as something positive.
I do not know if it's something positive.
It is my voice.
If I had grown up in the USAs an American, in New York, I would have gone to a prestigious school, I would have had a career, a family... I envy people like that, but I envy them to the point where I realize that I hate all that.
I envy the security that some people have, that they go to the synagogue on Saturdays or to the church on Sundays, that they have rituals and habits, and they love them... I envy them to the point that I despise them, because I do not like any of that .
His first book is about a world that has appeared and gives the impression reading"Call me by your name" that it is also a world that no longer exists.
Many people who have seen the film say they have felt invaded by a feeling of melancholy or pain.
Where do youthink the feeling comes from?
It is part of the experience of recognizing that all the fantastic things that happen in life can vanish and in fact will vanish.
But melancholy is very different from sadness.
Sadness is a perception while melancholy is sometimes revitalizing.
It gives you hope, you anticipate things in the future.
With the sadness one gives up and I do not think that the characters in my books have given up.
They are aware that life can take many turns and is not always for the best, but that does not destroy you.
Being an introspective person,how do you think the success of "Call me by your name" has influenced you?
I do not know and I ask it all the time.
On the one hand I am very grateful for the success.
I would like my parents to be alive and have seen what has happened, because I think they would be much happier than I am and could touch through them the happiness they should feel.
I do not feel very changed because, somehow, I'm thinking about my next book and that makes me feel nervous and I want my next book to be good.
I do not want it to be a replica of "Call me by your name."
But at the same time it's hard to pretend that "Call me by your name" does not exist in my life or that that kind of voice that has been so successful I should not touch it again.
When I approach her, I wonder: Am I imitating myself?And I do not know what the answer is because sometimes it's my voice and sometimes it's a voice from 10 years ago and I do not know what the difference is.
This article is part of the digital version of the Hay Festival Querétaro, a meeting of writers and thinkers that takes place in that Mexican city between September 6 and 9, 2018.

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• You can find the book «Call me by Your Name» in the following link:

► Call me by Your Name by André Aciman

RobbieWetta872

I agree with this, I work with a few people who are very homophobic and I honestly believe its because deep down they fear they own desire to experience it, even if just once! Its like the Army Major character in the film American Beauty

fatsogamer

some say it is psychological preoblem