Gustavo Nielsen: "What I do in literature or architecture is touched by contemporaneity."

There are memorable scientists in The Worlds Before , Gustavo Nielsen's latest novel . There's a devastating virus, there's a time-travel agency. There are strange objects like digital handkerchiefs, and futuristic cars and cities. There are delirious moments, there are harsh, Blade Runner-style science-fiction ones. There are internal wars, like electricity wars or book wars. And in the midst of all the global chaos and the struggle to challenge the rules of a world that is no longer the one we know, there's a love story, between P and Nane, and phrases like "kissing is the most beautiful way to stop time" and "silent illnesses are the mark of the future."

Born in Buenos Aires in 1962, Nielsen is an architect, cartoonist and writer . Author of books such as Playa quemada (Burned Beach), El amor enfermo (Sick Love ), which won him the 2010 Clarín Novel Prize , La otra playa (The Other Beach), Auschwitz, Adiós, Bob, La fe ciega (Blind Faith) , and fff (Fever ), he returns to the scene with a story that combines science fiction with love , real characters with invented cities, and the near future, technology and death with a sense of humor about existence under a humanity in terminal crisis. The multifaceted writer spoke about all of the themes related to Los mundos antes (The Previous Worlds ) in this interview with Clarín .

–First, I'd like you to tell me about your drawings, plans, and sketches—which, as you said in the presentation of your novel, are a sort of derivation of your profession as an architect—which gave rise to the novel. Is this something you usually do, or did it come about in an unusual way?

–Drawing is the way I best describe an object or a space. When I draw, I see more. It's become a method for me. In this case, it was a priority rather than an accompaniment, because I had to roughly design Villa Tesla, the city of the future where the protagonist lives. And, while we're at it, I had to imagine Lewellyn Park, because even though it existed—it was a kind of Sicilian Valley of the past—I couldn't find a plan anywhere. In plan, Villa Tesla has ties to the sectorized cities of the Modern Movement (Brasilia, for example), and the other follows the linearity of historic urban planning in the American West. The general view of Villa Tesla can be seen in a sketch included in the book, and I've included the Lewellyn plan below as a first. This is the type of drawing I usually use alongside the design of my novels; it has an explanatory nature, full of dimensions and indications. The explanations are, essentially, for myself: reminders, analyses, attempts to create good, beautiful, and useful objects. I also sketched the basic design of a house of the future and an electric vehicle, the T20, that could walk, climb, dive, float, fly, talk, and much more.

–The city, precisely, occupies a central place in the story: the flying cars, the highway, and, of course, Villa Tesla, Lewellyn Park, and the evocation of Buenos Aires…

–The Buenos Aires that appears, which isn't designed from scratch as Le Corbusier would have wanted, is a rusty mix of past and progress, one attacking the other. The closest reference is the Los Angeles of Blade Runner. A painting of chaos and confusion, where avant-garde machines are superimposed on antiquated scrap metal. That Chinese hell from Ridley Scott's film. There's something truly strange about foresight and anticipation: the cartoons from the beginning of the last century, those that appeared in Caras y Caretas or PBT , predicted that much domestic traffic would become airborne. The caricatures of Buenos Aires in 2000 showed the air invaded by vehicles like flies, going from here to there. And that didn't happen. In my novel, I decided to continue insisting on the subject, for a fairly near future: the year 2053. I'm taking a chance.

–And invented objects also appear (handkerchiefs, for example, with multiple functions). This takes us back to the world of science fiction, to physics. You mention Bradbury, Houdini, Edison, Nikola Tesla—a name that's gained prominence recently due to Elon Musk's electric car company. How did you develop the plot, with all these elements and references?

–I imagined that cloth handkerchiefs, an object now completely forgotten and replaced by tissue paper, could be the cell phones of tomorrow. I believe the germ of this novelty comes from an invention by the Argentine architect Emilio Ambasz, who showed a prototype of a cloth Walkman at the FADU, arguing that the rigidity necessary for the gadget to function would be provided by the cassette itself. I don't know if his invention was successful or not, but I found it very amusing that he presented it as a discovery among his industrial hobbies. The T20 or the Tesla Village of my novel have to do with the real Nikola Tesla, not with the despicable American millionaire you mention; rather, it is EM who has appropriated a name that suits him. The intentions of American colonialists always lie in that evil and base vein.

–Besides science fiction, your novel also has a touch of metaphysics, fantasy, and adventure. It's no coincidence that The Invention of Morel appears in it. And, above all, it's a kind of road movie, with an escape into another time.

– The Worlds Before tells a love story that involves a time machine. In the new pandemics, there is no longer any escape to other, uncontaminated cities, as happened in the plague recounted by Daniel Defoe or in Camus's. Now, the entire world becomes contaminated in just a few days. To structure the story, I imagined an escape to another era, utilizing precisely the advantages of the quantum foam cylinders studied by Rovelli and other physicists, disciples of Stephen Hawking. It's a journey of no return to a place in history where there was the lowest incidence of deaths from terminal illness. The characters make a one-way trip that isn't easy, and not just because of technical problems: the inconveniences come from ethics, memory, and good manners. I find fiction to be a very good laboratory for exploring these dilemmas.

There's a war of electricity in the middle of the couple's plot, the love between P. and Nane, and suddenly an unknown illness. Something we experienced so closely with Covid, and which seems to have been forgotten. What led you to cross those worlds?

I wrote the first draft of the novel before the pandemic; there's proof of that. Something was drilling into my head, like a premonition. When Covid happened, I couldn't believe it; but now I know it's a sign of the times. Covid could happen again at any moment; we're becoming a fragile planet, where if we continue to support liberal or far-right governments like the ones we're seeing in our country and many other parts of the world, only a few will be spared the plagues. It's absurd, but it has to do with savage capitalism, which eliminates the weakest. The electricity war existed between Edison and Tesla at one time; in The Worlds Before, it's presented as a topic concluded a few years ago, but which is revived in another episode, the book war. The book war is, strictly speaking, an invention of mine to recreate the real event.

–Tesla and Edison's speeches are very credible. What method was used to achieve this?

I posted "Edison quotes" and "Tesla quotes" on the internet. I made two lists. I pieced together dialogues so I could use their real words in speeches with altered contexts. For a moment, I believed I was Gardel, but the characters lacked any personality. Then I added adjectives to make them sound like part of the "rift." Edison is an arrogant gorilla, Tesla a doubting progressive. That's how they became so believable.

– In “A Sound of Thunder,” a Bradbury story mentioned in the novel, a small change in the past (the death of a butterfly) produces a series of important changes in the future. In The Worlds Before, the small changes are contained in a kind of changing garden, until an incident occurs that produces a larger and more significant alteration. Without spoiling too much, what can you say about this?

It's very funny you should ask this question, because it touches on a delicate subject in the novel. In the end, any subject you challenge turns out to be delicate! In this, writers are like comedians, who are always careful because someone will always get offended. When the protagonist, in the past, makes a mistake that affects the future, the change it produces is the emergence of inclusive language and the indeterminacy of genders. It occurred to me that it would be nice that the doctor felt better being a woman, and the notary was happier in a body of a different size. I had a lot of fun writing this part.

–The novel questions, in a way, how long a life lasts, how much time there is for love these days. And it also puts technology and emotions in tension. In what ways do you think the novel speaks to or is touched by contemporary times?

–I'm a resident of the present: everything I do, whether in literature or architecture, is touched by the contemporary. I'm proud of that. My antennas are still up.

• Born in Buenos Aires in 1962, he is an architect, cartoonist, and writer. He has been writing short stories and tales since he was 13. From a young age, he participated in literary competitions and earned recognition.

• Between stories and novels he has published more than a dozen books, including: Playa quemada (Alfaguara, 1994), La flor azteca (Planeta, 1997), El amor enfermo (Alfaguara, 2000), Los monstruos del riachuelo , with Ana María Shua, (Alfaguara Infantil, 2002).

• She has received numerous awards, including the 2010 Clarín Novel Prize for The Other Beach.

• Several of his stories appear in anthologies in Latin America, Spain, Germany, Poland, Sweden and Russia.

The Previous Worlds , by Gustavo Nielsen (FCE).