Luis López Nieves—Changing History

by Aída Bardales -- Críticas, 7/15/2006

The award-winning Luis López Nieves, whose bestselling historical novel El corazón de Voltaire (Voltaire’s Heart) has him touring all fall, is also the founder and director of Ciudad Seva, a digital library that has received more than 6.5 million visitors from all over the world.

This month, he’ll be at Dallas’s First International Book Fair, and this fall he’ll be in Florida visiting the Broward County Library and participating in the Miami Book Fair. Later trips include book fairs in Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Venezuela. New editions of López Nieves’s other books—Seva, about an American invasion of the island, and La verdadera muerte de Juan Ponce de León (The True Death of Juan Ponce de Leon), which won the first Puerto Rican National Literature Prize—were published this year by Editorial Norma. He currently heads the Master’s in Creative Writing Program, which he established, at Sacred Heart University in Puerto Rico.

He talked to Críticas about the impact of email on the epistolary novel, trends in the genre, and the significance of a virtual library that serves millions around the world.

I have admired Voltaire since I first read him because of his sarcasm. Much in the world is sick, this is obvious, but many writers take the world’s situation too seriously and become sick themselves, or worse, fanatical. Voltaire instead used sarcasm, derision, humor to face a mad world. It is the only way to remain sane. Before I started writing El corazón de Voltaire (Voltaire’s Heart), I thought he was one of the greatest geniuses of all time. When I finished the novel, I concluded that he is the greatest. I can think of no other person I admire more than Voltaire.

How did you come up with the premise for this book?

I spent weeks reading biographies about Voltaire. The one fact that made me sad was that he died 11 years before the Revolution he inspired and that brought many of the changes he fought for, such as freedom of the press, freedom of speech, freedom of conscience. Suddenly I asked myself, What if Voltaire had lived long enough to see the Revolution?, and my novel was born. His heart really is in the National Library of Paris, and he really did spend over 20 years in Ferney.

Until 1778, the year of his “historical” death, the majority of the facts [in the novel] are true. Of course, those after 1778 and those leading to the possibility of Voltaire living 11 extra years are a product of my imagination. You could say I researched the novel for 35 years because that is how long I have been reading history intensely. I read history every day, maybe more than I read literature. Most of the facts necessary to recreate 18^th-century France were already in my head.

The entire novel is written as a series of email exchanges. Why did you use this format for a work of historical fiction? Did you find it challenging to intertwine past and present and tell a whole story without a narrator?

A novel based on a series of letters (the epistolary novel) is not new. What has changed is the means to send these letters: a slave, a mule, a pigeon, a ship, etc. With traditional epistolary novels, events of the story have to wait. Sometimes they even have to stand still…until mail arrives and there is enough time to reply. I have used the epistolary form in some of my previous books, but this time there is a big difference in the mode of transport: Internet.

With email I discovered that time and space almost cease to be factors. Neither the author nor the characters have to wait days or months for an answer. A novel written entirely in emails is still an epistolary novel, of course, but the rhythm, the speed, is radically different. I was excited when I discovered the flexibility this new technology allowed me as a writer. Now people in France could exchange letters with people in Argentina and México and Puerto Rico...in a matter of seconds! They could send not one, but many letters in the same day. When I realized the potential of an epistolary novel composed entirely of emails, I decided it was a challenge I had to experiment with. I am very glad about the results.

Roland de Luziers, the professor heading the investigation, is determined to confirm if Voltaire's heart is really his and goes through great lengths to do so. What inspired this character? Do you see yourself in this or any other characters?

I needed a detective to prove the authenticity of Voltaire’s heart. At first I thought of a normal detective, who would know a lot about genetics or would seek a geneticist’s advice. Then I decided to make it the other way around: a geneticist that would use the methods of a detective. Roland de Luziers has a Ph.D. and is a professor at a university; I have a Ph.D. and I am a professor at a university. Do I see myself in any of the characters? A little, I guess.

Which authors do you admire and why?

My literary father is Julio Cortázar, because he taught me how to write.

My grandfather is Franz Kafka, because he taught me how to see.

My great-grandfather is Stendhal, because he taught me how to feel.

My great-great-grandfather is Miguel de Cervantes, because he taught me how to be.

What is your opinion on the boom of historical fiction novels inspired by The Da Vinci Code?

My first book of historical fiction, Seva, was published in 1984, before this current boom. I did not even have a name for what I wrote, so I called it historia trocada, which you could translate literally as “changed or switched history.” A few years later, I learned that certain writers in the United States were writing something they call “alternate history,” which comes pretty close to what I have done. However, the few alternate history books that I have read are badly written; it seems to me that it is mostly poor commercial writing. I know nothing else about what is being done by others in this field. I have not read The Da Vinci Code nor do I plan to do so. I practically stopped reading contemporary literature ten or 12 years ago. My contemporaries are Balzac, Stendhal, Maupassant, Daudet, Villiers, Zola, and many other French writers of the 19^th Century.

Tell us about Ciudad Seva.

Ciudad Seva began as a means of entertainment—because I am a computer buff—but now it is many things. First, it is a digital library with much information about my work. It is helpful for students and for scholars. Second, it is a digital library with over 3000 classical short stories. Third, it is the center of a series of free literary workshops and forums, in which thousands of people from the whole world participate. Ciudad Seva is now run by volunteers. We are receiving 15,000 visits a day. More than six million humans have been to Ciudad Seva, so it has become a real city. As director, I actively promote reading every day, especially among the 500 million Spanish speakers of the world.

What are you are working on now?

I am writing a couple of books. One is a collection of short stories called “Last Words,” in which I recreate the death scenes of famous historical characters as I believe they happened or should have happened. The other is a secret novel. I can say nothing about it until the day it is published.