“Is your novel ‘Tirza’ also a criticism of capitalism?” the Turkish journalist asked.
We were sitting in a small but beautiful bookstore in Istanbul.
I said: “Let me first tell you an anecdote. In the winter of 2008 I visited some female political prisoners in Peru. They had been members of the MRTA. I asked one of the women: ‘Would you consider marrying a capitalist?’ ‘Why?’ she replied. ‘Because I’m a capitalist,’ I answered. Of course a capitalist can criticize capitalism, but I prefer ‘cultural criticism’ to ‘criticism of capitalism’.” The interviewer accepted my answer but to him I remained what I was before the interview: a critic of capitalism.
This is fine with me, sometimes readers know more about the novel than the novelist himself.
Although I do believe in what an economist once wrote to me: “To be human is to trade.”