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maltatoday, SUNDAY, 12 JULY 2015 15 logical loopholes, this tendency towards compromise for the sake of facile popularity and filthy lucre, that ultimately makes Gianni Mus- cat's perspective palpable, even to those – like myself – who wouldn't normally agree on the details of his rants. Vella Gera confesses he found the process of delving into Gianni's mindset invigorating, partly because the troubled aging author personifies a "no compro- mise" attitude towards life which Vella Gera finds "lacking" in all walks of life at the moment. "Even among Christians, there's this 'turn the other cheek' attitude, 'let he who is without sin cast the first stone', stuff like that, which is abhorrent to someone like Gi- anni: no, you don't turn the other cheek. "Which is why he even admires groups like ISIS and the Taliban, he fantasises about that kind of conviction returning to his own religion. So to him this idea that homosexuals are 'human beings like the rest of us' doesn't hold – by being homosexual you're going against the word of God – you're a sinner like all sinners, and you have to come to terms with that." It's this "steadfastness" that Vella Gera found most attractive in Gi- anni Muscat, so much so that the details about who and what he was attacking became almost irrelevant. The drive towards a democratizing blandness in contemporary soci- ety and culture, an attitude that favours a safe middle-of-the-road philosophy, is what bothers Vella Gera most of all, and he flags up a real-life example of him being in line with Gianni Muscat's world- view, in a small way. "During the divorce referendum you had that group, 'Kristu Iva, Divorzju Le' ('Christ Yes, Divorce No'). I really admired those guys. I mean, I disagree with absolutely everything they stand for, but I liked the fact that they had the guts to get out there and stand up for what they believed in." But it wouldn't be entirely correct to say that Vella Gera assumed the Gianni Muscat mantle to engage in a calculated, prolonged thought experiment. In fact, he confesses that he felt an intimate connection to Gianni, one which "came about quite naturally". "This is where I hang myself," Vella Gera says with a smile. "The truth is that Gianni is per- haps even closer to me than, say, Noel, the protagonist of my previ- ous novel, was, even though Noel was closer to me in age and gen- eral temperament… But this is the great thing about writing novels. You discover parts of yourself you didn't know were there. It's a great facility that writers have, and I feel lucky to be able to access it," Vella Gera says, adding that "anyone who believes there is just one side to their psyche don't really know themselves". "Gianni is as much a part of me as being ultra-liberal is a part of me." But beyond the arcane psycho- logical process of being taken by a character's internal logic una- wares, Vella Gera also had a delib- erate purpose for the book in mind. Revealing that he'd already started writing Trojan two years prior to the release of his previous novel, the bestselling Is-Sriep Regghu Saru Velenuzi ('The Snakes Have Become Poisonous Again'), Vella Gera wanted the book to serve as a fictionalized response to the Li Tkisser Sewwi case. "I wanted to get into the mindset of my enemies, as it were," Vella Gera says with a smile. "To be honest, there's also the fact that I was more interested in the people who criticized me, rath- er than those who supported me. Because the people who defended the story tended to be very insipid, and, well, false – like for example, saying, 'There's nothing wrong with the story, we hear that kind of language every day'…" Which brings us to another key element of Trojan. Gianni being an author – albeit one that never made good on the promise of his debut – it was natural for Vella Gera to also shed light on the Maltese literary world that shaped him. Part of this was of course, a simple matter of placing a character within their ap- propriate context, while also serv- ing as a professional gesture on Vella Gera's part. "I wanted to talk about Malta's literary history, especially now that I've become a part of it in some way," Vella Gera says, revealing that even his choice of publisher this time around was a reflection of that. "My last book was published with Merlin, but I went with Klabb Kotba Maltin for Trojan – the clue is in the name, of course, but there's also the fact that their back catalogue is pretty strong." But perhaps more importantly to the fiber of Trojan, and also con- sidering the fact that the Maltese literary scene offers "a compact world" within which the story can play out, engaging with local writ- ers and their audience also played a direct part in Vella Gera's overall mission – to respond creatively to the Li Tkisser Sewwi fracas. "While the case was going on, I was attacked by some luminaries of Maltese literature. And I wish I was a vicious person and I really gave them hell. But I couldn't. Be- cause I could see their side of the story as well. But the older genera- tion of Maltese writers irritate me, I must admit. They're presumptu- ous, they think they invented the wheel, and there's a certain self- righteousness about them that is very annoying. So I felt they should be in the picture as well." Once again, Gianni Muscat's un- compromising stance enters into our conversation. In this case, it's to do with how Vella Gera imag- ines his protagonist would have reacted to the Li Tkisser Sewwi case, versus the lukewarm, and of- ten hypocritical way Vella Gera's senior predecessors addressed the issue. "I would actually have preferred a Gianni Muscat stance: 'So you wrote this filth, now stand by this filth for six months in prison'. I could respect that position. But then don't come telling me" – Vel- la Gera leans in, assumes a mock- patronising smile, "'But did you have to use those words? Couldn't you have found another place to write it?' or 'You could have used euphemisms, it would have been much more artistic'…" Beyond the fact that such an as- sessment misses the point of the infamous story – which was to il- lustrate, in an unfettered way, a particular strain of Maltese chau- vinism, and also to "get certain words out of their holes and out into the world" – Vella Gera also notes that a lot of the criticism lev- elled towards him by these authors was often tinged with self-contra- diction. "Like for example saying, 'The work was pornographic… but I don't think the author should go to prison'. That makes no sense – pornography was illegal at the time, so if you think the work was pornographic… you see, this is why I would prefer the Gianni Muscat view. Because at the core of it, it's my view. No compromise." But Trojan isn't just one long Gianni Muscat monologue. It's also a story about family – the Muscat family, an imperfect unit like all others, despite their patri- arch's dogged religious conviction. Incorporating marital infidelity, drug abuse and the fallout of both, the plot has a soap opera feel to it, employing sensationalist 'beats' to keep us turning the pages, offering a firm narrative ballast in which Vella Gera's themes are allowed to play out. Why did Vella Gera decide to go for this kind of structure? The an- swer, as click-bait articles online would have you believe, might sur- prise you. "TV," he tells me, instantly speci- fying: "Breaking Bad." It's amusing to think that a very local story like Trojan was at least partly inspired by the Emmy award winning, stratospherically popular American crime drama about a cancer-ridden chemistry teacher who resorts to the production of high quality methamphetamine. But Vella Gera assures me that he found the show, whose five seasons he "binge watched" while Trojan was already well underway, to be immensely instructive. "Breaking Bad was such a master class in how to tell a story, and how to take little insignificant things from two seasons before, and sud- denly reveal them to be important after all. It made me realise how everything needs to mean some- thing within the story, and I took it as a challenge to make the story as compact as I could." But the novel is also markedly different in tone from its imme- diate predecessor. Despite the in- tensity of Gianni's rants and the many misfortunes visited upon him throughout his life, a play- ful streak is threaded through the novel – culminating in a particu- larly curious ending that signals a sharp departure for Vella Gera. "Sriep is about death. And in many ways, Trojan is about some kind of transcendence." The impression the reader gets is that, in line with a desire to un- derstand the religious experience, Vella Gera had broken through the oppressive bleakness of his previ- ous work. In fact, though he claims that he "will disappear from book- shelves" for a long time, after Tro- jan comes out, it won't be because the muse has fled him. "My next project has actually been in the works for 23 years now, in some way or another. It will be a graphic novel. It will be in English, and it will have nothing to do with identity, social issues or politics. It will be more of a spiritual journey. And that's all I'll say." Interview As the powers-that-be finally vindicate Alex Vella Gera's battle against censorship, the author returns on the scene with Trojan, a new novel penned as a direct response to the very same controversy that nearly landed him in prison back in 2009 conservative rebellion BANDWAGONS I have no doubt that the majority of people waving rainbow flags now would have been applauding gays being sent to prison, 30 years ago The older generation of Maltese writers irritate me: they're presumptuous, self-righteous, and they think they invented the wheel NO RESPECT FOR ELDERS