«We Live in a Criminal Society»

As painful and discouraging as it may be, Víctor del Árbol (Barcelona, 1968) is certain that «we live in a criminal society». He confirms this with 'The Time of the Beasts' (Destino), the new novel by this former seminarian and former Mossos d'Esquadra officer, winner of the Nadal Prize and Knight of the French Order of Arts and Letters. Having spent many years exploring human wickedness, he knows for sure that «the beasts are among us». This time he demonstrates it through a twilight police officer and a hacker who cross paths between life and death in Lanzarote.

-The quote from William Blake that opens the novel makes it clear that cruelty, envy, terror, and secrecy have a heart, face, form, and human attire.

-It is a declaration of intent. I carefully select quotes that should summarize the novel. This one confirms that we are in the time of the beasts. That we will all be predators or victims. The title and part of the plot are inspired by 'Sarajevo Safari', a documentary by Slovenian filmmaker Miran Zupanič about the darkest aspects of the Bosnian War in 1993 and 1994. It led me to think about that time when gods get bored. And when gods get bored, the devil... swats flies with his tail.

-Does 'homo homini lupus' still hold true?

-Yes. Albert Camus differentiates between passionate crime and logical crime. We can understand passionate crime—murder out of jealousy, envy, ambition, or greed. But it is much harder for us to understand logical crime, which occurs when an entire society accepts values that become doctrine. Market laws, collateral damage... Anything that allows achieving an objective. When this becomes universal, we can talk about a criminal society.

-Do we live in a criminal society then?

-Yes. We live in a criminal society by action or omission from the moment human life loses its value. The novel talks about the perversity of people who do not feel concerned with ethics, morals, or collective values. And it is so because they feel like gods. And gods are not judged by men. They only answer to themselves or more powerful gods. Very few people are immune to what power can do to us. In the time of the beasts, our time, crime is not strange. Innocence is strange. This logic leads us to destruction. To the abyss. If wolves end up setting the rules, what remains for the rest of us lambs? Either perish or like Vesna and Soria—the young hacker and old police officer in the novel—utter a desperate cry of rebellion.

-Did you learn more about evil as a seminarian, as a police officer, or as a writer?

-Through writing. Understanding literature as a correction of reality beyond telling anecdotes or entertaining has required me to reassess my values and principles. To check myself. This time I asked myself if I am immune to power, ambition, greed, jealousy, or anger. If you use writing as a tool for knowledge, you understand society better. Fiction has taught me to filter my reality as a police officer, as a seminarian, as a husband, as an employee, as an unemployed person, as an immigrant's son... When you transform everything into narrative you can understand it.

-You travel back to wartime Sarajevo and Mexico in the 70s—Is the past an inescapable burden?

-If you do not accept it, it will always be present. Accepting it leads you to face the future. It is one of the greatest challenges for characters. The leap into the past explains the present. If you stop looking back you must look forward and that is dizzying. I do not want to make flashbacks; I want to give context to the reader so they feel with the Mexican hitman during his first murder in the 70s or with the girl suffering during the Bosnian War. I take them to those moments so they better understand the character.

-Justice is not equal for everyone no matter how much it is claimed otherwise?

-Universal justice is a principle like freedom or human dignity rights which are abstract concepts. People must turn them into reality; if people fail, then the principle fails.

-Can art be made with violence?

-No. You can never glorify violence or violent individuals. It cannot be used as a literary resource because that trivializes it. But if you understand violence—brutality and cruelty—from a human perspective it can inspire tenderness. You understand that almost all violence comes from weakness—from failure—fear—anger—or frustration. When it becomes human—it stops being spectacle—and becomes something intimate—I always treat it delicately—and very carefully.

-You set your story in Lanzarote—an isolated enclave—to talk about global drama.

-I chose Lanzarote for its impossibility within possibility—you see—the island from above—and it seems impossible anyone lives there—but there is much life associated with nature—it has to do with Vesna who wanted to be an architect—and found her paradigm in César Manrique’s architecture—that finds balance within nature—it is also a metaphor for that balance—which is only apparent—Lanzarote seems like—a barren rock—but has tremendous telluric force—and when it emerges things happen like—in La Palma—the same happens to characters—they seem very clear—but at some point—the Earth moves—and volcanoes explode.

-Soria—the old policeman—is from an analog generation but has instinct—he allies with Vesna who at nineteen handles technology but knows nothing about life.

-The only way to face beasts—is by allying between generations—some will have to recover instinct—and others will have to adapt—to new technologies—then there’s hacking—it’s easy for someone—to violate your privacy—and appropriate it—to enter your life—in your bank accounts—in your stories through your mobile phone—to which we entrust everything.