Editor's Note: The original article has been deleted, which includes the Chinese translation and the original Spanish text. The Chinese Embassy in Peru has strongly protested against the recent article by writer Mario Vargas Llosa published in the Spanish newspaper "El País". Llosa's Chinese novel has been removed from websites such as Dangdang.
So I was curious about what Llosa wrote, and found the English version of this Spanish article, which I have translated below. The original Spanish text is attached at the end. (Note)
Title: "Back to the Middle Ages?"
Author: Mario Vargas Llosa
March 15, 2020 - Central Europe Time
Published in the Spanish newspaper "El País"
The coronavirus has begun to cause serious damage in Spain. The terror caused by this virus from China has swept through all the news, radio stations, and newspapers in Spain. Schools and universities, libraries and theaters have all closed. The Las Fallas festival in Valencia, Spain has been canceled. The plenary session of the Spanish Parliament has been canceled. Broadcasters have also announced their preparations for sports events without live audiences. Half of the shelves in supermarkets are empty, as people have stocked up on essential items because they know that closures will be long-term. People no longer have any other topics to talk about in their conversations; they only talk about this.
In reality, all of this has been exaggerated, but there is no way around it: Spain is afraid. The central and regional governments, the entire country and autonomous governments are exposed to this terrible disease. Measures are becoming increasingly strict. Overall, the Spanish people support strict measures and even demand that the government expand their scope and intensity. Fortunately, official statistics show that as of March 11, only 47 people have died from this disease. Influenza is more deadly, causing at least 600 deaths each year, and the number of people recovering from the coronavirus is higher than those who have died from it.
Statistics can never comfort a society consumed by panic, and this is a good opportunity to verify that. In today's civilized world, the Middle Ages are making a comeback. After the Middle Ages, many things have changed, but many things have remained the same. For example, the fear of plagues. By the way, during times of collective fear, literature inevitably experiences a rebirth: when people do not understand what is happening, they seek answers from books. Albert Camus' worst novel, "The Plague," was revived in this way and was reissued in both France and Spain, becoming a bestseller once again.
If China were a democratic country instead of an authoritarian one, none of this would have happened.
It seems that no one is saying this: if China were a free and democratic country instead of an authoritarian one, none of this would have happened. At least one reputable Chinese doctor, or perhaps several, detected this virus, but the government did not take appropriate measures. Instead, they tried to cover up the news, silence those voices, and prevent the spread of information, just like all dictatorial regimes do. Therefore, like Chernobyl, the great disaster was only confirmed when it had already escalated. Now the whole world knows that without freedom, true progress is severely weakened. Do the fools who believe in China as a role model understand that a free market with political authoritarianism would be a good example for the Third World? Will everything caused by the coronavirus bring light to the blind? That won't happen.
Throughout history, plagues have always been one of humanity's worst nightmares, especially in the Middle Ages, which drove our ancient ancestors to despair and madness. They were locked behind the sturdy walls built for cities, protected by moats filled with toxic water and drawbridges. They were not afraid of tangible enemies who could fight them fairly with swords, knives, and spears. But the plague was not human; it was the work of the devil, a punishment from God that fell upon a large number of citizens, striking sinners and innocent alike, punishing those who did not pray and repent for their sins. Death was there, all-powerful, followed by eternal hellfire. In those times, irrationality erupted everywhere, and some cities attempted to appease the plague through sacrifices of witches, sorcerers, pagans, unrepentant sinners, and rebels. When Gustave Flaubert traveled to Egypt, he saw lepers wandering the streets, shaking bells to warn people to stay away if they didn't want to see (contract) the suppurating sores.
That is why plagues rarely appear in medieval knight novels, and it is a positive aspect of knight novels: there are always extraordinary feats, such as "Tirant lo Blanc," where one person alone defeats a huge army. But the knight's enemy is human, not the devil, and what people feared in the Middle Ages was the devil, the demons hidden in the epidemic, the demons who treated sinners and the innocent equally.
Despite the extraordinary progress of civilization, that ancient terror has never completely disappeared.
Despite the extraordinary progress of civilization, that ancient terror has never completely disappeared. It is well known that, like AIDS or the Ebola virus, the coronavirus will be a temporary pandemic, and scientists in developed countries will soon find a vaccine to prevent and treat it. All of this will come to an end, and for a while, it will become a forgotten, musty old news story.
However, although science and religion soothe the sense of fear, they can never eliminate it. In the depths of believers' hearts, there will always be remnants of fear, and at certain moments, it will grow and become a great panic. Will humanity be completely extinguished or immortal? Is there a significant difference between heaven and hell, as predicted by religion? Are there other forms of existence that saints, philosophers, theologians, and scientists do not know about?
These questions usually remain in the depths of our minds during normal daily life, but the plague suddenly brings these questions to the forefront. At this moment, both men and women must respond to these questions. What is difficult for all of us to accept is that everything beautiful in life, whether in the past or the future, cannot escape death and will come to an end at some point. But without death, life would be boring, without adventure or mystery, an experience of constant repetition until everything becomes terrifying and foolish. It is precisely because of death that there is love, desire, fantasy, art, science, books, and culture, which make life bearable, unpredictable, and exciting. Reason explains this to us, but irrationality prevents us from accepting it. The terror brought by the plague is beyond doubt.
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