Launch of León David’s New Book “Oxidente”

Launch of León David’s New Book “Oxidente”
Dominican Republic, Santo Domingo, 30/05/2011

What is the real way forward in our time…the steep tumble into the abyss or the rise to the top through art and culture?  Is rust the symbol of the West? Perhaps we are simply witnesses to the corrosion and decadence of western civilization or perhaps we are the perfect creators of this drama.  

“I always wished to be someone else; and since this was impossible, I had n choice but to turn to writing.”

These are the questions and reflections being pondered these days, like a burning statement from León David’s new book published by Taurus, under the Santillana Group seal: Oxidente. Acerca de la extinción del espíritu en la era de la posmodernidad (The West. The Loss of Spirit in the Age of Post-modernism).

The book launch will take place on Wednesday June 1st in the Events Hall of the Corripio Foundation (Núñez de Cáceres St, near the corner with Kennedy), starting at 6:30 in the afternoon. The presentation will be given by the poet César Zapata. David’s book is already available for purchase in bookshops at a price of $450 pesos.

Throughout the book we see how non-conformity, humanism, the critical spirit, beauty, the state of the soul all struggle against this decline, the exhaustion that seems to be approaching, overcoming all attributes, virtues and qualities in an intense intellectual push. Which side will win?

He has won the Talia Drama award with “La noche de los escombros” (The Night of the Ruins), the Pedro Henríquez Ureña Essay award for El diálogo filosófico Diotima (Diotima Philosophical Dialogue)…

“Oxidente” describes and discovers in us the dualism of the present, in the agile quadrants of his thematic chapters with twinkling maxims as contemporary aphorisms that flow like Ceronetti and Cioran, from the morning light until the darkest night: the lights and shadows of humans.

León David (born Juan José Jimenes Sabater in Havana, 1945), essayist, dramaturge and art critic, has published over 30 books in various genres and continues to collaborate with the main Dominican newspapers. He has won the Talia Drama award with “La noche de los escombros” (The Night of the Ruins), the Pedro Henríquez Ureña Essay award for El diálogo filosófico Diotima (Diotima Philosophical Dialogue) and he has won awards for originality and a prize from the National Library for “Poemarios del hombre Nuevo (Poems from a New Man).

He is a numbered academic in the Dominican Academy of Languages and a correspondent of the Spanish Royal Academy. Some of his outstanding published work includes “El sueño de Arlequín” for the theater, “Poemas del hombre anodino,” “Intento de Bandera,” also poetry, Cálamo currente en ensayo” and Narraciones truculentas.”

Quotes from the book:

“I always wished to be someone else; and since this was impossible, I had n choice but to turn to writing.”

“Thinkers who deal with lots of idea tend to be superficial. Two or three thoughts are enough, so long as they come from the core and the blood…to write four hundred books that are not lacking in something interesting.”

“If that which you aspire to is to see the common man reach triumph and success, this just might be an idea that will inspire you with the dubious task of writing verses; even more so if your wish consists of singing a hymn to life then I don’t see why you can’t do it without turning to song.”

“The human spirit is steep, towering, rugged. There is nothing strange about it for those few very who have tried to reach its peaks.”

“It is well-known that inside each one of us, there lives an angel and a wild beast. This fact is not lacking in foundation and I can attest to it through my everyday life and experience. However I fear, for most of us, the angel will be devoured in the end.”

“From a growl to the word, from bestiality to consciousness, from hordes to the police, this tremendous leap is not made without angry consequences. Who could ever be surprised that humanity has turned out to be so heroic in their acrobatic leap with broken bones?”