Playing Hide and Seek with the Past

Portraying an ordinary day in the life of Montero has some potential complications. I will take this section of the blog as an opportunity to explore the possible problems and flaws of this specific narrative.

Exaggeration of the relevance of events is one of my main concerns. I am sure that the episode of the immigrant dinghy in Rota holds some symbolism, but maybe it is not the sole aspect to contemplate when analysing the triggers of his stylistic change, and a whole range of events and influences must be considered, which present complications within:

 We have to understand the fact that our still Unaware Character is not isolated from society but plays, on the contrary, a very active role in it. This is interesting from a story-teller’s perspective, as it can enrich and round his protagonist’s journey. The main risk here presents itself in the form of a question: how would the secondary characters feel if they discover themselves being written down in someone else’s story? The wider network of influences and experiences of Montero is tightly interlocked with other members of his family, circle of friends and working partners, which might be more sensitive to some controversial aspects of the poet’s life that of the poet himself. It would not be a true story but an intervened one if I omitted their presence under request.

What worries me the most about this is that Montero might give me his consent to write down this story, but maybe the other secondary characters around wouldn’t if they knew they were going to be in the story as well.

Another aspect to consider is the thin line between particulars and generalisations regarding some possible hasty assumptions about ideology. Is it the romanticised version of the communist values that he cares about or the objective goals of the political party that he follows?

This links with another problematic aspect: not finding enough secondary sources to contrast and corroborate the primary information. Although there are plenty of writings about him, most of them are works created by his circle of personal acquaintances. It worries me that his and his friends’ recollections of events are not reliable enough towards reality.