The Third of ABC, which for more than a century has given shelter to the best firms of thought, are a genre in themselves. “More than articles, they are small essays”, according to Fernando Palmero, who has been in charge of collecting in ‘Without fear, without hope’ (Confluences) the articles that Gabriel Albiac has published in this space since he joined the newspaper in 2009. The philosopher and essayist presented yesterday, at the Centro Riojano in Madrid, his new book together with the deputy director of ABC, Agustín Pery; General Dávila, and the writer and columnist Jon Juaristi.
“These Third Parties are not merely a compilation, they are a code, the GPS of a time that was and another that is,” Pery assured.
They are a warning of the bad that will come if we continue to live with our backs to knowledge. Gabriel Albiac argues and demonstrates why it is still necessary for knowledge to occupy a place. He seeks confrontation, but understood as a dialogue, a debate, a duel… He does not fear criticism or torquemada campaigns. He hesitates because he enjoys doing it. He doesn’t paralyze you. There is something of an elegy in his writings. He alerts without fuss ».
General Dávila, for his part, highlighted Albiac’s courtesy because “a philosopher has to make himself understood”, and the author of ‘Without fear, without hope’, who is finishing writing his memoirs, meets this requirement. “Whoever wants to peek at the pulsations of Spain, let him enter this house,” he said, referring to the book: “Everything is here. Albiac has the virtue that when he talks about a specific topic he expands it and does a general thing that is valid for 300 years ago or 300 years from now».
Juaristi underlined the philosophical rigor of Albiac’s Thirds, in which he thinks with “risk” and in constant search for the truth. But in them there is also a desire for style. “In a perfect definition, Gabriel says that style is a weapon, a dagger, a stiletto.” Juaristi said that he eagerly awaits Albiac’s memoir, “but there’s a lot of autobiographical material here; takes a tour of our generation, the one that lived through ’68, and this is partly an autobiography».
Albiac, the protagonist of the act, boasted of having had “the immense and undeserved fortune” of having so many great friends, like those who accompanied him yesterday. Writing in ABC’s Tercera is “a unique opportunity not only in the Spanish press, but in the European press,” Albiac stressed. Because this space treasures “the entire history of literature in Spanish of the 20th century.” ABC, he concluded, drags “a century of heritage based on literature.”
