Saying it over and over again - Literature, the enigmatic Patroklos Giatras, and the transformations of ‘The Deserted Country’

"...The whole book is, in my opinion, a multi-layered joke with Elie and Etoimi Chora at its heart. A joke about the pure joy we can find in playing with language."

On the occasion of the anniversary of the death of Jorge Luis Borges, Andro recalls Nasos Vagenas’s unexpected encounter with Borges in the centre of Athens in 1983.

"...This line of argument (I say and repeat the same thing, I write and rewrite the same thing – and yet something different emerges) is developed in greater detail for the reader by A. Doxiadis in his introductory text and G. Giatromanolakis in a post-literary epilogue. The whole is a good exercise in comparative reading."

"...The Elian Flevas, who had appeared as Aris Velouchiotis, now returns as a comrade of Lafazanis. The original ‘chess’, having passed through ‘backgammon’, evolved into ‘prefa’, and The Waste Land, which began as a tragedy or at least a symptom of bourgeois indigestion (Eliot), was transformed into a communist epic (Giatrás), became a dream-drama (Lagios) and ended up as a ‘comedy’ (Elís). Thus, by saying and saying again, the world, the text and its symbolism continue.”

"...However playful (and at the same time extremely serious) Doxiadis’s study is, the publication that hosts it proves to be just as playful. By including in its pages the ‘original’ translation by Seferis and the three ‘tinkered-with’ ‘archetypes’, it transforms Doxiadis’s study into an ‘archetype’ as well, placing it in the foremost position (i.e. first), to be followed by a final (now fifth) ‘archetype’, which is none other than Giorgos Giatromanolakis’s commentary on what has gone before. A crown in full bloom and, by its very nature, open to those who may wish to thicken its lines in the future."

"...Doxiadis’s critical eye allows us – given his sharpness of speech – to discern glimmers of light through the cracks in his approach. In particular, the comparison of Eliot’s ‘wasteland’ and Lagiou’s ‘desolate land’, accompanied by the essayist’s detailed interpretative comments, reveals a profound study of the two works. Moreover, the three Greek works built upon the ‘wasteland’ encompass the entire political history of the second half of the 20th century, with its exiles and imprisonments (Vagenas) and the division that remains unhealed even today (Lagios, Elissavet)."