Christos Chomenidis shares his thoughts on contemporary Greek reality, talks about his sources of inspiration, and explains why the 21st century will be more interesting than the 20th. What does he mean when he states that Greek society needs a “graft” to deal with subfertility? He describes the lifestyle era as the most carefree of his life and reveals what it was that ultimately pushed him away from active politics.

Vassilis Tsakiroglou: In your latest book, Pandora, you write that you felt a strong desire to create a heroine of the same age as the 21st century. And, more specifically, “a girl so different and so identical at its core to Odysseus Elytis’ Maria Nefeli, but also to Manolis Chiotis’ Strange Girl.” How did this choice of your central heroine come about?

Christos Chomenidis:I happened to associate with a group of students. Young guys living in the present day, but who not only regurgitate the phraseology of the train and their age, like “bro”, “dude”, etc. That is, they’ll say, for example, “totally slutty so-and-so” (ed: slutty in current slang of the trap subculture is roughly lolitas, a young girl who dresses and acts provocatively), but they do so by trolling themselves. So in talking to these guys, I realized something that surprised me: that between me, who is 58, and those who are in their 22-23s, the supposed “generation gap” is actually much smaller than one would assume. I realized that the cast of characters in this group could, in essence, have been forged from the imagination of George Theotoka in Argo. A novel published in 1933.

B.C.: So is “Pandora” more mature than its age, or don’t you think as a 58-year-old man?

HR.H: I don’t know, maybe the crucial point is that the young people I met who inspired me for “Pandora” are studying law, as I used to be. And law is a school with demands and prospects, so these kids aren’t just students for show, for show. Anyway, what struck me is that the roles don’t change, either in today’s or Theotokos’ time: there’s the society belle, the fussy one, the shy one, the dude who wants to be prime minister, the elusive artist, the narcissist, and so on. They may dress differently today than they did a century ago, but that matters little.

B.C.: The conclusion, then, is that the changes in our lives are only superficial, while deep down nothing is substantially different?

HR.H: Of course not, far from it. We are changing, growing, with all that implies. For example, the other day I found myself celebrating because a colonoscopy showed that I enjoy excellent intestinal health. On the other hand, there is a serious risk of self-flattery, a great and double trap: to cut oneself off completely from today’s reality and become an unrepentant nostalgic of the past, or, alternatively, to be the bartender pretending to be a youth, which is utterly sad. What are you supposed to do as you get older? Try not to lose touch with anything new, but maintain your position as an elder. You should always respect your age and yourself.

B.T.S.: Do you also have the feeling that at the moment we are at a time of transition, a transitional stage, where what is coming will completely change Greece and the world?

XR.H: I have the firm belief that the 21st century will prove to be more interesting even than the 20th, albeit in a different way. For that man will likely find himself cohabiting on this planet with another form – “existence” so to speak? Perhaps “life” or “intellect”? I mean AI. So, what’s going to happen with AI is going to be world-historical, a huge change indeed. Of course, sometimes this very assessment sounds quaint because every generation succumbs to the temptation to believe that their years are finite, that some kind of end of the world will occur, etc. And, of course, they have all been proved wrong so far. That’s exactly what had happened at the turn of the millennium. I remember the infamous “millennium virus” and all that horrible nightmare, the chaos it was supposed to bring, etc. Some people said at the time that computers would stop, banking systems would be destroyed and I know people who had withdrawn their savings to save them. In the end, the first bell that rang for Western society was September 11, 2001, with the attacks on the Twin Towers in New York.

B.C.: Do you think that 9/11 finally ended the “age of innocence” – at least in its modern version?

HR.X: Perhaps, but in Greece in particular there have been other events, possibly as important as 9/11. In 2002, for example, we had our country’s entry into the Eurozone. Where a “trick” happened because, from one day to the next, without realizing it, we had a terrifying spike in inflation. Everything became more accurate, and prices were rounded upwards. And after that came the unforgettable “lobster pasta years”. A time that has been savagely maligned in retrospect, when some very good things happened in Greek society. In the crisis we blamed them, we buried them in terrible mud. And yet, at that time, thanks to the so-called lifestyle and the magazines that expressed it, for example, people who until then had been permanently marginalised, oppressed, such as the LGBTI community, as we would say today, found a voice. And not only that: philandering and eroticism were de-legitimized, girls no longer needed to hide, but to enjoy their eroticism, and so on. And for me especially, this was the most carefree period of my life.

B.C.: So?

HR.H: In 2003 I had already published three books, which had done very well. I had already been a writer for 10 years, I was working with various publications, magazines at that time still, and my pay was very satisfactory, and I was also doing radio with a daily show. My first novel, “Wise Child”, was a great success – although for some, older colleagues, I was something of a “brat”, an outsider in the circle of writers, etc. Maybe because they didn’t approve of my lifestyle, the fact that I lived in Kipseli, etc. I lived in a small two-room apartment behind Koliatsou Square. From the skylight, I could hear the voices from a school for disabled children that was there. On the lower floors, there were immigrants and above me, some completely different types, like remnants of another era, retired, old-fashioned bourgeois. Around the corner was a convenience store that I used to go to in my pajamas. Our neighborhood was then called “Little Africa” because it was home to many immigrants from various African countries, whom I was crazy about. There was an African hair salon, an African restaurant, etc. And my biggest anxiety at that time was not to get on the vanity train.

B.T.S.: Was Greek society then (or did it become in the process) ready to assimilate this multiculturalism?

CHR.H: The point is that the future of Greece depends on how there will be a graft with other nationalities, other peoples. We should not compare ourselves with the West, but with the countries of the Balkans and the Middle East. And my view is that we need a graft because no measure on under-generation in Greece is going to work, at least to such an extent, to secure our future. We need new blood to repeat that amazing phenomenon of the early 1990s, with the migration to our country of hundreds of thousands of people from Albania. If only people with characteristics compatible with ours, such as religion, from the Orthodox faith, could come again. I think we should take an example from the solution found by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to save the Greek schools in Istanbul, which were doomed to disappear for lack of students. Bartholomew stipulated that any student who has been baptized as an Orthodox Christian and has the relevant certificate can attend these schools. Thus, many new students who were not of Greek origin were naturalized as Romans. The schools in Polis were filled with children, e.g., from Syria, from anywhere. This is the idea of the Greater East. So we, too, have to make a massive introduction of new citizens. After all, “and the common Greek language, as far as within Bactria we took it. As far as the Indians”, as Cavafy says.

B.T.S.: Going back to the review of the past 20-25 years, would you agree that the Athens Olympics period was the biggest party of vanity that modern Greece has ever known, and we rightly treat it as such?

CHR: It probably was, but as far as I am concerned personally, perhaps because in me was very strong the historical memory, the philosophy of life of my ancestors, the knowledge that nothing lasts forever and nothing is acquired, I was not tempted to pretend to be something I was not. With the money I earned from “The Wise Child” I bought a house – but in the Evelpidon area. That is, in Kypseli, not in the northern suburbs or anywhere else. And I still live there, in the same area where I was born and raised. Except for some short periods, I have never left Kypseli. And I love that, because I’ve been here through all the phases my neighborhood has gone through, from the 1970s to today. Whereas, on the contrary, I have seen people, my interlocutors, who got big and suddenly found themselves paying exorbitant rents, having cars and an extremely demanding lifestyle. So when Greece collapsed, these people suffered. But for me, that phase was the best, I felt that every day a little dream was coming true. For example, one day I was watching a beautiful girl on TV playing percussion in a video clip and the next day I suddenly saw her in front of me. Not only vibrant, but willing to reciprocate my love for her.

B.C.: And then came the cold shock of the economic crisis, the memoranda and the cuts, or the bumpy landing in a nightmare reality?

CHR.X: As if it had some collective instinct for what was painfully to come, the Greek people erupted in an unprecedented way in December 2008, when Athens burned for days after the murder of Alexis Grigoropoulos. For me, in particular, however, this period coincided with a series of tragic events. My mother died of sarcoma, a very aggressive type of cancer. And after a short time my newborn first child was lost. We were going to name him Alexander, coincidentally like Gregoropoulos. I remember being so depressed that on New Year’s Day 2009, I didn’t even cut a New Year’s cake that someone had brought me. Because I had no one to cut a piece for. And I thought at least I had the certainty that I would win the coin this year. I was at home, alone, playing Scrabble on the Internet with a stranger. Who interrupted just before midnight to make the time change? And I was waiting for him to come back so we could continue playing Scrabble.

B.C.: But then your life changed, you had your daughter, Nikki, and continued to write successful books, etc.

CHR: Yes. Greece officially went bankrupt in April 2010, when Alexandra was pregnant with our daughter Niki. Because in the end, for anyone to have the worst happen – and there is no worse than losing your child – there has to be, as long as they don’t decide to commit suicide, which is also an attitude, there is a way to grab themselves by their hair and get out of the darkness. As long as he has some luck, as in my case it was Alexandra, a woman who gave me a perspective. Love gave me the will to go further. Also, the fact that I didn’t fall apart, I believe, is because I was inoculated with a lot of love when I was young.

B.C.: During the years in question, roughly from 2005 to the present, you tried to get actively involved in politics. What was that experience like?

In the past few years, you have been involved in politics in the political sphere.

HR: In one sense, it was the most boring period of my life. I had come to be a member of the “politburo” of the Democratic Party, at whose meetings Stalinist discipline was applied. We all spoke in alphabetical order. So I, as a Chomenidis, was always the last one. And I was forced to listen to the previous 16 comrades finish their statements, speaking for 10 minutes each. You will understand that to amuse my boredom, I very quickly started playing computer games on my laptop while waiting for my turn.

B.C.: Have you ever imagined yourself as an MP?

Have you ever thought of yourself as a member of the Bundestag?
CHR: First of all, I joined the PPP for some basic demands, to demand better public health and education. And a sense that children, every person born in Greece, should be treated with full respect as soon as they are born in Greece, that they should be treated with full respect, no matter if their parents were born here or came from anywhere. Beyond that, it is true that at one point we did consider the possibility of me running for parliament, but in Corfu. So the party put me in touch with an experienced local figure who had a brilliant background, having mentored a Corfu politician who had gone on to great heights. So this man comes to me and says: “Every morning at 7 o’clock, you will be ready. Clean, washed, shaved, scented, perfumed, dressed. And I’ll come by and pick you up in the car. We’ll go to 20 villages. And the next day to 20 more.” Note that Corfu has 110 villages. I asked him a) what will happen after we have covered all the villages. He replied, “We will go back to all of them from the beginning”. And b) what will I do in the villages? “We will go to the café, you will say five words, and kiss old ladies.” This all seemed so funny to me, a completely unlikely farce, that I seriously considered becoming a politician. If my partner hadn’t vetoed it, I might have done it.

* Christos Chomenidis’ new novel “Pandora” is published by Pataki.

* We would like to thank the hotel “Megali Britannia” for the hospitality in Alexander’s Lounge and for the cooperation in the realization of the photo shoot.