"So I am a Peruvian Novelist"

A fragment-anecdote from author John J. Figueroa (a Jamaican Caribbeanist who once taught Derek Walcott) neatly undermines the notion of ideology-literature. The Peruvian Powerhouse Mario Vargas Llosa comes to speak at a university. He is attacked for living in London while writing "Peruvian" novels.  The will to rope art into confining borders and encapsulating theories is the new esthetic colonialism.  Fractious carvers of ideological space would have us lump all works under their one true umbrella.  Vargas Llosa lets the audience listen to their own cage-work.

"Why shouldn't I live in London if I wish to?"
"Because you are a Peruvian novelist."
"So I am a Peruvian novelist."
"Yes, and you are an excellent novelist."
"Oh, thank you.  I am glad you think I am an excellent novelist."
"Yes, the best we have had in Peru."
"If you think I am a great Peruvian novelist and you want me to write more Peruvian novels then I have to live away."
"Why?"
"Because I could never write my novels in Peru."

Later in the discussion he is taken to task for breaking with Castro over the censorship of books.  The audience supports the move because corrupting trash would tempt the masses.  Vargas Llosa asks the audience to write lists of what they think are the three most read books in Cuba.  Marx, Lenin, and Lorca they largely respond.  Vargas Llosa says "the book which is most read in Cuba today is Don Quixote and I rather think that if you were a censorship board you would have barred that Hispanic classic from entering Castro's Cuba."

Categories can ensnare.