INTERVIEWER: I am reminded that you haven’t yet put a name to this imaginative place in your texts. I’d like to ask you about this, and for you to talk about the importance that affects seem to have in the world constructed by your fiction.
MARIA GABRIELA LLANSOL: I already mentioned that this place is named several times in the text itself [note: they are discussing Lisboaleipzig]: it’s Edenic Space. So far I haven’t found a more appropriate term, although by calling it that, I’m forced to deconstruct a religious tradition. Which is often a complete waste of time. But if you can imagine an Edenic Space that isn’t at the origin of the universe, as the myth says; one that is created in media res, like a double made up of novelty and disorder; one that has always existed, not just at the beginning of time; one that is at risk of disappearing here and appearing anew, beyond, unknowable and unrecognisable; one that is not fixed, as tradition suggests, but which can be elaborated according to man’s creative desire, you will then understand what I mean by Edenic Space. It is a space that is confronted, as the text shows, with power, and with images of the beginning, with that barrage of images coming from the horizon; in psychological terms, it is a space that is confronted with political oppression and/or the obligation to live as identified by certain social status, and to live with despair.
