Opinionated

Jorge Herralde. Publisher. Barcelona, 1935

 

“Opinionado”, a “Spanglish” neologism, commonly employed in Mexico, and like its English equivalent said of those with their own, strongly-held opinions. Coined with Oscar Tusquets in mind, it would seem. Let us take his name, for instance: technically the O in Oscar should bear an acute accent - according to Spanish spelling rules - or a grave accent in the Catalan version (oh, the horror! Oscar would undoubtedly say). Well, neither one nor the other! For Oscar nothing will do but the bare O, without an accent. We almost had an argument about this when Anagram published one of his books. Of course, his name appeared without the accent. What other option was there? If we wrote the name with the accent, we didn’t get the book, and that was that! His opinions may be open to discussion on occasion, (or in this case more than open to discussion - más que discutibles, to quote the title of one of his books!); however, they are always presented with a radical vehemence - they reflect his thought without concessions. And how these opinions range! - just read his ever so readable books or get the chance to hear him at dinner some night when he’s in full flight (which is almost always). Inevitably, his “ontological” sincerity makes his opinions all the more attractive in the prevailing scepticism of today’s world.