Warnings about authoritarianism

Julian Barnes called the international situation terrifying as authoritarian governments gain ground. He said China, Russia and the United States are led by leaders who do not respect democratic rules, and he said plainly that he is not optimistic. Speaking at a press conference in Oviedo on Wednesday, 21 October, he also voiced concern about the policies of Donald Trump and the rise of the hard right across Europe. He singled out France, where he judged the hard right to be doing well. He described the United States' withdrawal from treaties and its distance from old alliances as a terrible and worrying situation. He added that it is becoming more important for the United Kingdom to keep good relations with Europe.

Brexit and a return to Europe

Barnes described Brexit as an economic, political and moral disaster and said the past ten years had left him depressed. He had been certain he would not live to see Britain back in Europe, and he said that fear still holds. He is more optimistic now than a decade ago, but he said the outcome also depends on Europeans and on the terms they would want Britain back on. He compared asking to rejoin to asking to remarry after a divorce, adding that the instinct is to hear no. He argued that British prime ministers of the past decade had not dared to propose a return because they feared Nigel Farage and his party, which he called ridiculous.

Anti-terrorism law and Sally Rooney

Barnes expressed absolute support for Irish novelist Sally Rooney, who faces restrictions that stop her receiving money in the UK because of her backing for an organisation linked to the Palestinian cause. He argued that the British anti-terrorism legislation, approved under the previous government, has an excessively broad scope and can equate some forms of support for the Palestinian cause with backing terrorism. He said Rooney does not support terrorism but Palestinian action. He criticised the arrests of elderly people holding placards in the street. He said about 3,000 people had been charged in this context, and none had yet gone to trial. In his view the measures had not reduced terrorism, and the government would struggle to change course because it had presented its decisions as action against that threat.

Artificial intelligence and the future of writing

At a session titled 'Pensamiento, Verdad y Belleza', attended by about 2,000 members of more than 150 reading clubs from several regions, Barnes said writers would face a problem once AI becomes genuinely original. He was sceptical that this would happen, doubting AI could write Madame Bovary or La Regenta, and said AI makes him feel very tired just to hear it mentioned. He recalled a journalist asking an AI for an opening paragraph of a new Barnes novel, and the result was, in his telling, plagiarism followed by imitation. He said he would not feel threatened until machines write far better, joking that he would be dead by then, and added that young people should be worried.

Final book and a long career

Barnes said Despedidas, published this year by Anagrama, is his last book, although he will keep writing about art and current affairs for newspapers and magazines, but not fiction. He said he did not want to be a writer who keeps returning to weaker stories just to sell. He recalled that his first book, published in 1980 and set in the suburbs of London, showed him he had readers when an older woman raised in Germany's Black Forest told him it matched her own experience. El Mundo counts 15 novels published under his real name. La Vanguardia reports he is 80 and has lived with blood cancer for years, which has gradually weakened him. Several reports say he will collect the award in Oviedo on Friday, 23 October, while La Vanguardia described a ceremony at the Teatro Campoamor on Wednesday.