Maxim Behar comments exclusively for Bulgaria ON AIR TV on the historical success of the writer Georgi Gospodinov

Host: A historic success for Bulgaria. The writer Georgi Gospodinov won the biggest international literary prize, the Booker, for his novel “Time Asylum”. Whether this success will open more doors for Bulgarian writers on a global scale, we will discuss now with the PR expert Maxim Behar. This is exactly why Hristo Stoichkov wrote yesterday:"This is a golden ball in literature. A remarkable success!". Is it really, you as a PR expert, Mr. Behar?

Maxim: Of course, that it is a great international success. Of course, that it is an amazing thing. 2023, May, Bulgaria’s name is heard in the literature circles. It is first a success for Georgi Gospodinov and for Angela Rodel. Because yes, it is a success for Bulgaria, but I try to look at it with less emotion and pathos. It is a success for two great professionals who have worked together. Georgi is a wonderful writer, Angela is, as you know, an American who has lived in Bulgaria for more years and speaks Bulgarian better than more people. They are both professionals and they have done something that is the best. They have done their work accurately, professionally, so it is appreciated by many people around the world. That is wonderful. We had Stoichkov we had a Bulgarian Oscar and that's Hristo Grozev for the “Navalny” movie. That was also a remarkable success. Dimitar Marinov is also part of the “Green Book” team. These are successes of Bulgarian artists that we and I expect quite normally. More people said: "But despite what is happening in Bulgaria, despite the mess in politics, despite the fact that the institutions in the country are not helping.". Look, the institutions did not help, or at least I do not remember them helping Picasso. They did not help Paolo Coelho or Mark Twain. It did not help anybody else. It is not up to the institutions and the country. It depends on what you have in your head here. "How do you know how to use these 30 letters.", as Joro Gospodinov said yesterday, because it is not about these thirty letters, it is about how you combine them. That is professionalism.

Host: What words do you create with them. But what is the price?

Maxim: The most important thing, and this is a big job. It is not like sitting down at the keyboard either. It is sleepless nights, especially in the case of Angela, who might have spent hundreds of sleepless nights trying to the words in English so that they can understood and make sense. One of the many successes we achieve every day and each of us in our own businesses.

Host: And speaking of the price of art and how much work goes into a book, Mr. Behar, you have a success story as well. "The World PR Revolution" - your book is in the top 20, number two in this ranking of PR books. How much work is behind the artist, this is a book, a cover, which 2000lv, as Mr. Mutafchiev said, will not help you in the end.

Maxim: This shows that the state really should not put first. I agree with Hristo that the country should have any involvement in culture. And the American model where there is no Ministry of culture and a model where the state has still left culture to the market to fight, but there the market is really unique, and it shows that in the end you know you can invest 100 thousand leva in a writer, and he does nothing. And you can invest nothing, because nobody gave Mr. Gospodinov money to write a “Time Asylum” and so there must be an incredibly good balance between government policy towards art, culture and at the same time the bazar, which determines whether an artist is good or not. Because you can get a world prize, but in your country might be not that successful. Whether people don't like it or don't have the money, the market is different, we all know the examples of serious newspapers and magazines that have miserable circulations. At the same time the so called 'tabloids' have huge circulations and we all say: “How come we read tabloids, they have fake news.”, but most people are interested in that.

Host: Do we value artists or every miracle in three days? Three days from now, will we remember Georgi Gospodinov, will we remember his work and that of Angela Rodel, thanks to whom this book was translated and came to this international distinction. Investing in our artists is the best term to explain that this is how we are going to support our artists?

Maxim: I would rather say a wise investment in the art market. It should be regulated in such a way that the talented can succeed and those who cannot find another job. There is this legendary incident during the Second World War when there was no money for arms and they were discussing the British government and then the Minister of Defence said to Churchill: “Let's take from the Ministry of Culture, from the fund.”. And Churchill looks at him and says: "But why are we going to win this war if we're going to take money from culture?” And really, if there is going to be money for culture, and there is money for culture, it should invest in the market. But what Georgi and Angela did yesterday, and I and I'm sure Hristo will join me in congratulating them, is a great success, it's actually an emanation of what I've been saying for 30 years, that Bulgaria is full of intelligent, ambitious, well-educated, talented and successful people. We sit in some queues, we use public transport and we grumble from morning to night: "But we Bulgarians are like that, but we Bulgarians are like that.". We go to Vienna, we go to Athens, we go there, and we all say, "Oh, how it is abroad, but it is not in Bulgaria.". But a hundred years ago Vienna was there, Bulgaria was here. The difference now is that Bulgaria is there. And we are getting closer and closer to the open world. Back to my favourite subject, social media. Maybe if it wasn't for social media, this huge success wouldn't be so popular and get into people's mouths so quickly, buy the book, God forbid, buy all future editions. I would say that this is an example that should give us more confidence. That we, the people of Bulgaria, can do no worse than anyone else in the world. We just must work hard, conscientiously, and constantly, every day.

Host: That's why I asked you, do we remember, do we appreciate our artists, or will we forget them in three days?

Maxim: We value creators. Now there are various categories of people. One may like Georgi Gospodinov, and another may dislike him, and that is the normal logic of life. Someone like me can go to all Hristo performances, someone else can say: “I don't like theatre.”. But the important thing is that people who have a connection with literature will undoubtedly remember what he does. Because with or without the Booker, he is a great artist, we respect him, and God forbid he writes more books that we will read, whether he wins a prize or not. Because there's a bit of luck involved. There's also who you have on the jury and who the other competitors are and it's all a chemistry of elements. So with or without an award, we're still going to read it.

Host: And the reward of the Ministry of Culture, of every ministry to us, the people, Mr. Behar, who are forced to follow their decisions every day. Now we are waiting for a budget, we are waiting for a government to finally be formed. Will the people wait for this reward?

Maxim: the role of the Ministry of Culture is really to provide a good market for art and culture or whatever you want to call it. A good market for works so that firstly more people know about them and secondly there are artists who are most motivated to fight in this market. Because if somebody is serving somebody else, 20,000 or 50,000 leva is not going to make him better. Yes, it will give him opportunities to work, it will create conditions for him to work and to perform, but it will not make him better, it will not motivate him to work more. If the Ministry of Culture, together with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Education, we are talking about institutions now, I agree with Hristo about home education and there is no way a child can read a book if his parents have not read a book or if there is no book in the library, he will not know what it is. But the job of these few ministries is to create a good market and a good competitive environment. We are in the year 2023. There must be a good competitive environment, artists must be able to compete freely, because being an artist means being free. That is the most important thing. George and Angela - free people who have written and translated a wonderful book, managed to launch it and get it to compete in these awards, they fought for it. No government has anything to do with it.

Host: Out of 134 books, ours is the only one that won.

Maxim: Yes, of course. That means it is the best.

Host: What we should not forget about 24th of May and the words of Georgi Gospodinov: "The miracle of language. Happy holidays!"? He said it in London in Bulgarian.

Maxim: It is not only on 24^th of May. It is every day. And the 25th, 26th, 27th, and the 12th of September and the 24th of November. Every God’s Day we should know that this is a wonderful country, full of nice people. Young, ambitious, educated, skilled, and we should just try to live our lives so that we can do good things.

Host: Thank you very much for this conversation and as Georgi Gospodinov said: "These 30 letters in the Bulgarian alphabet, let us know how to use them to create beautiful and precise words.". Thank you very much, gentlemen.

You can see the whole interview here.