In the presentation of her novel, Marta Sanz spoke out against “political correctness” in literature: “Cancellation teaches nothing”

Marta Sanz Pastor is a Spanish writer who has received important awards such as the Herralde Prize for novels, the Ojo Crítico de Narrativa, or the XI Vargas Llosa Prize for short stories.

The Spanish writer Marta Sanz, who published “The Metal Blinds Suddenly Come Down,” has joined writers who lament the substitution of narrative elements considered “offensive,” a phenomenon of 2023 that has already affected works by classic authors such as the novelist Roald Dahl, children’s writer Enid Blyton, and the books of James Bond, accused of containing racial references.

Sanz deplored the situation in the world of literature and expressed to the European press, “You can’t only read exemplary books.” The Madrid philologist not only expressed her position but also agreed to use characters “malicious” and “bad words” as a means of exploring reality in books.

“You also have to read cruel or sexist works and thus exercise a critical mind. Cancellation does not teach anything. We live in a very demagogic world in which we want to sell texts that pose no problem,” she declared in an interview with the European press.

The Spanish novelist also spoke in favor of reading works that have been in the eye of the storm, such as Vladimir Nabokov’s “Lolita,” which tells the strange relationship between its protagonist and his stepfather. Around this analysis, Sanz decided, but explained that all these claims have distorted the panorama.

“Precisely what the feminist gaze has done is to focus on a deeper reading, which is now distorted with the cancellation,” she said to the European press.

“The Metal Blinds Suddenly Come Down” is a story born from the terrifying experience that Sanz lived during the first moments of the pandemic and confinement. In this title, the Spanish writer undertakes to present “a future that is already here” and a scenario in which she evokes the need to rebel against “the god of the algorithm,” as she shared with ECE.

“I feel like I’m living a nightmare that isn’t over yet. The future is already here, and maybe it’s not what we expected: maybe we should recover things from the recent past that we are beginning to miss, such as public health,” said Martha Sanz.

“The Metal Blinds Suddenly Come Down” was published under the Anagrama editorial label.

The novel takes place on Earth in Blue (Rhapsody), a world of the future. There, a mature woman lives in the company of a drone, Blue Flower, through which she has conversations with her friend Bibi, who is actually nothing more than the voice of an actress. The lonely and broken protagonist lives separated from her daughters, Selva and Tina, who are under the protection and care of other drones.

Her daughters’ keepers are the disenchanted Obsolescence and the teenager They Suck. In the novel, the protagonist lives in a world governed by the laws of the virtual, parcel companies, and cardiac programs. Sanz builds Earth in Blue, a land ruled by exploitation, fear of disease, and death. It is a dystopian world not so far from today.

Martha Sanz (Madrid, 1964) has been rewarded for her previous novels with Spanish prizes such as the Herralde Prize, the Tiger Calamus, among others. In this new novel edited by Anagram, and in its just over 270 pages, the author tries to bring the reader face to face with a world succumbed to the dynamics of technology, and the feeling that advances in Artificial Intelligence could become a nightmare.