Talking space, mind and identity with Malén Denis, author of the novel “Lithium”
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At Hola Cultura’s monthly book charla last week, Argentinian artist Malén Denis explained how a series of philosophical questions drove to the creation of her novel, “Lithium,” about an unnamed protagonist — a young woman who is unhappy with her life but repeatedly fails to make the changes she wants.
One of the questions she asked was where does one person’s identity start and end? In “Lithium,” Denis finds that border is often defined by other people. When the protagonist becomes envious of a classmate, the author invites us to ruminate on what inspires the desire to become something you are not.
First published in 2020 in Argentina in Spanish under the title “Litio,” meaning lithium, it was translated into English by Laura Hatry and John Wronoski and published by New Directions this year. Denis is a multidisciplinary artist and in addition to writing, has recently released her first album “rosadorado verdeplateado” in June and posts photography and fashion styling to her Instagram.
In her charla, which means “conversation” in Spanish, Denis discussed her sense of ownership over the English iteration of her novel as well as the construction and influences behind it.
Empty space and new identities
Denis began by reading an excerpt from the chapter, “Yohaku No Bi,” a Japanese aesthetic concept that values empty space as its own element rather than something needing to be filled. She tells the story of a classmate who brought two perfectly hollow eggs to school for a group project while the eggs she had brought were messy with yolk and residue, revealing the character’s envy of her classmate and general dissatisfaction with life. This dissatisfaction is demonstrated through an infatuation with empty space and her envy of her classmates’ hollow eggs.
She described “Yohaku No Bi” as referring to the beauty of the void, for example romanticizing the empty space within a glass cup rather than the glass surrounding it. Her descriptions create a picture of a minimalist home that screams with dysfunctionality. There should be something in those spaces, objects that create a sense of home, yet for her there is nothing and we are left feeling that something is missing.
Inspirations, instability and lithium
Denis said she settled on the title “Litio” after deeply considering the sound and meaning of the word. Besides being the third element on the periodic table used in rechargeable lithium-ion batteries among other things, lithium is also a medication used to treat bipolar disorder and mania.
For her, the word sounded metallic but soft. She was drawn to what she perceived as a magnetic element and mineral component to lithium and searched for a definition of the word, finding its Greek meaning confirming it as a soft metal but one that doesn’t occur in a free state of nature.
In her novel, Denis imbues the word lithium with meaning and it becomes representative of the novel’s themes of otherworldliness and the ideas of freedom. Especially after finding out that lithium, when lit on fire, turns crimson and flares white in a violent combustion. In the novel, lithium also references a moment of change and the themes of liminality, or transitionary spaces, on a dramatic level.
This instability and constant change contained in the word lithium, she said, also refers to the creation of the novel itself. Now in her mid-30s, Denis told the audience that she wrote the novel in her 20s, a time full of job insecurity and death she said. This transitionary state, along with its nuances, is captured with what is for her a transcendental word, lithium.
— Story by Marvin Juarez
— Copy edited by Valerie Izquierdo
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