(story to be published in tomorrow’s issue, March 6)
The media coverage enjoyed by the Award for Excellence in Romanian culture measured up this year to the value of the trophy, of the nominees, of the winner and – why not – of the jury. A few days ago, Ziarul Financiar briefly presented the seven nominees, and out of no other reason than age, the first to be mentioned was Alexandru Paleologu. A pure coincidence with the fact that he was Wednesday night’s laureate, but coincidences sometimes give the goose-bumps, at the simple thought that something might be hiding underneath them – a premonition, for instance, disguised under the most common incident. The article said that the magnitude of each nominee’s personality will make the jury’s mission very difficult: to elect the first among equals, and that with such names competing winning or losing becomes almost a matter of hazard. On the other hand, appointing a winner, whoever that may be, is the stake and justification of any contest. “A new imperial crown for the Paleologu family,” this is how you should title your story, suggested on awarding night poetess Doina Tudorovici, author of a volume of interviews with the last Romanian boyars alive – “Amurgul nobililor” (“Dusk of the Noble”) – which also features a dialogue with the distinguished award-winning writer. We know from “Amurgul nobililor” that Alexandru Paleologu is a descendant of Andronic, the first Byzantine prince attracted by the Romanian Countries, whose history his descendants would write for several centuries; we also know Alexandru Paleologu no longer has a family tree (he was forced to destroy it because of the communists) or a crest ring, which was probably confiscated by the Securitate in his years of prison; that he did “not too much and not too little” time, as he himself put it: more than five years would have destroyed his destiny, less than five years would have deprived him of a unique experience. Humiliated by his persecutors, he knew they were the ones standing on their knees: “The prison exists namely to make you suffer. The tormentors were only apparently above me when I knelt.” But isn’t humiliation the path to pride? We have not set out to draw the portrait of Alexandru Paleologu, we simply got carried away with the idea of talking of him in other terms than enumerating his books, awards and positions, because in this case the man equals his work. It must be added that the Award for Excellence came to Alexandru Paleologu in a special year – the Eminescu Year – when, for the first time after so long, culture in Romania is regaining dignity and audience, because we had begun to think than any low-life crook receives more media coverage than the greatest contemporary author. We were glad to be wrong, to see the award go up in value, because with it goes up the audience for the cultural act, to see that politicians show up increasingly at cultural events, although not always for the sake of culture, to see ever more businessmen willing to invest in art, to see more high-quality literary magazines, reference shows and good books, to see how culture eventually assimilated the art of competition. The Eminescu Year promises to be rich, because it has suddenly unleashed spiritual energies we had thought were exhausted. A systematic and unprecedented media coverage of the national poet, large-scale projects related to his work, formidable pro and con disputes have revealed that in Romania today there is a vast cultural potential, exceptional authors and exportable artistic product. We don’t want to leave the impression that the Award for Excellence granted on Wednesday is the only one that rewards authors significantly. On January 15, also with a sizeable media coverage, poet Cezar Ivanescu received in Botosani the national Award for poetry, a rather consistent financial prize that was also related to Eminescu’s name. Creation unions – Writers, Fine Artists, Composers and Musicologists etc. – also reward their members annually for reference works in the year before; some publishing houses and foundations also give away prizes that honour their recipients. Lately, the awarding ceremonies organised by these cultural institutions have tended to shake off the rigidity and banality that has been there for decades, and to become fascinating shows that any spectator likes to be part of and any viewer likes to see.