Zacharoula
Gaitanaki: Dr. Katrakis, tell us about you in short. Where are you come from,
what education you have, what was your occupation?
Potis
Katrakis: I was
born in 1930 in
the village Demonia of Laconia, situated on the coast of the Laconian Gulf, a
few kilometres from Cape Malea. My parents were farmers and I am the third of
five children, two sisters and two more younger brothers. I attended High
Scholl of Molaoi, the first classes, the seventh class in the 5th
High Junior School for Boys of Piraeus and the eighth class in the 6th
High School for Boys of Athens. I finished the Law School (University of
Athens) in 1954, served as a reserve officer of Signals. In 1958 was appointed
attorney in Piraeus. I dealt with practiced law until 1991 and from them until
the end of 1998 served as the Head of Legal Department of the Municipality of
Piraeus. Now I’m retired.
Zacharoula
Gaitanaki: Many people wonder if you’re close or distant relative with our
great actor Manos Katrakis. What ties you with him?
Potis
Katrakis: It’s a
usual question, when I mention my name because he was a famous actor. We’ve got
the same surname but there is no family relationship between us. We have common
roots and origins, since my ancestors started from Crete (as Μanos), went to Cythera and then to my village. I had met him and we had
close friendly relations, he called me “nephew”. As far as I know him I noticed
that he was a man of moral principles, ideology, put top priority on his
artistic evolution, he was a bohemian, erotic and spendthrift. And so he was
always penniless and in debt. Our common points with
Manos are that we started from the countryside, poor and we are
self-made men. We had tenacity and dedication to work and our goals, less
costly always a priority for our ides and in the second place the money, we
liked the erotic and political adventures and the artistic creation.
Politically he belonged to the Left and I in the Centre.
Zacharoula
Gaitanaki: Since when is the beginning of your literary pursuits and what kind
of?
Potis
Katrakis: My
pursuit with literature began in 1963, when things seem to be improving in my
job as a lawyer, I made a living and I had time and I was in the mood to do
something different. So I started writing my first novel “THE PERJURER” and I
published it in 1966. followed by my novels: “THEY WHO DIDN’T RETURN” in 1970
and “WINDS OF VIOLENCE” in 1973. Since 1974, I was dedicated to politics and
the time remaining for Literature was limited to a minimum. So I was obliged to
abandon the novel that requires time and I engaged myself with the other
literary works less time – consuming. Seeing that, I published in 1975 my first
collection of short stories entitled “CRIES OF LIFE”. In 1976 I published my first poetry collection entitled
“GUESS” and in 1977 my first play entitled “IN THE COUNTRY OF THE SUN”. Since
that time I was very busy, at the same time, with my job as a lawyer, politics
and literature. Until now, I have published
85 literary books (novels, short stories, essays, plays and poetry).
Zacharoula
Gaitanaki: Is it necessary to have talent in order to deal successfully with
the art?
Potis
Katrakis: I answer
this question at length in my essay entitled “POETRY, THE BIG PATIENT”. In
summary I regard as talent, in the art, the pleasure that the artist feels when
dealing with the art of his choice. When the artist plies only his art out of
pleasure, not intended purpose and in any financial or other benefit, has
talent and will go ahead. But to give a great and valuable work is needed other
than pleasure (the talent) and theoretical study, great training and high
intelligence.
Zacharoula
Gaitanaki: You wrote essays about poetry. What are the major problems of it? Is
good poetry written in our days?
Potis
Katrakis: I have
written three essays about the theory of poetry. The reason for my involvement
was the people’s questions and my own too. The questions about what is and what
isn’t poetry today, why is it written and what serves the incomprehensible
modern poetry, how comes its privileged award and promotion from official and
non-cultural organizations and the conflict on issues of poetry theories. As I
researched to find the truth, who is right and who is wrong. I think I ended up
with some correct conclusions, which I express myself in the first two and
specially in my last essay entitled “POETRY, THE GREAT PATIENT”.
Zacharoula
Gaitanaki: Is versification poetry?
Potis
Katrakis: As I
write in my last essay, the versification is one of the first forms of poetry
that its roots reach Menandros, Sappho and many other past and contemporary
poets.
Zacharoula
Gaitanaki: The kinds of poetry have their own friends. Greeks love the
traditional or the modern poetry?
Potis
Katrakis: Any form
of poetry of course has its own fans that support it and so can survive.
Especially the modern poetry is a part of the official state such as the
Ministry of Culture and publishers. However, a lot of supporters has the understandable poetry (traditional and post
modern),followers of which should reach about 95% of the total and the
incomprehensible (modern) poetry is around 5%.
Zacharoula
Gaitanaki: Poetry is an utopia?
Potis
Katrakis: Poetry
is one of the most basic and necessary forms of speech and has nothing to do
with utopia. On the contrary, it achieves basic needs of life such as the
creation of songs and helps the social and cultural doubts could be created
only as of the form of incomprehensible and impossible to interpreter modern
poetry. The poetry of dreams and the subconscious. But this form, which in my
opinion should not be called poetry, but something else, is not an utopia,
because the dream and the subconscious which records are a reality and pieces
of our lives. And in any case, it is a difficult kind of writing that a small
number of poets can deliver on its original form.
Zacharoula
Gaitanaki: Tell us some contemporary poets that you distinguish for their work.
Potis
Katrakis: There
are many poets who made their mark in all forms of poetry, but it would be dangerous
to mention names, because they are a great number who I do not know and I’ve
wronged them with the omission of their names.
Zacharoula
Gaitanaki: You are a member in a few of Greek literary Societies. How this
participation helps an author?
Potis Katrakis: I am a member of the
National Writers Association. If you are a member in a club and in smaller
groups, certainly helps you to exchange views on matters of common interest,
sending of demands against the State, etc. however, instead of the numerous and
disparate associations with their imperfections, I think it would be preferable
to have a sector only in the form of a legal entity of the public law, such as
the Bar Association, the Medical Association, etc.
Zacharoula
Gaitanaki: We talk a lot about suspect literary competitions. What does a prize
offer to a writer? Could it be that an award is only a paper on the wall?
Potis
Katrakis: Certainly
the literary competitions help to distinguish some works and some writers with
a considerable work. But this is in any case the relative and not the absolute.
Because there is the human weakness that distorts the competitions. Because
very often the awards have not the evaluative criteria, but political, though
acquaintances and personal relationships from fixed competitions that are not
disclosed and are not known, a thousand and one among other things. So a work
that has been awarded, can never be a criterion that it is better than another
work which has not got a prize. There is a presumption in favour of the winner,
but that is always a relevant and a recallable presumption.
Zacharoula
Gaitanaki: A great number of books published each year. Is this positive or
negative? Does the quantity has a strong impact upon the quality?
Potis
Katrakis: I think
that the publication of many books, in principle, it is positive, because it
covered more topics and more areas of examination. And because through them
will be known the excellent and of timeless value books. But all the others
books will have add a little stone to the structure of culture.
Zacharoula Gaitanaki: Greeks are friends of beauty, they
have sense of proportion (“Moderation in all things”) and of high causes. Have
we lost all sense proportion?
Potis Katrakis: The truth is that lately we have lost the
proportion of material goods and the comfortable life generally at the expense
of those positions that lead to birth rate, a rising birth rate, our offers to
the public, local and the national interest, in the enforcement of the laws of
the State, in the acquisition of material possessions and other goods with
unorthodox means, etc. And we have many areas to re-examine our behaviour.
Zacharoula
Gaitanaki: I have some personal
questions too. If I ask you to sketch Potis Katrakis with three words, what
words would you choose?
Potis
Katrakis: Restless,
dreamer, gentle, patient. In matters of principle and ideas I’m uncompromising
too.
Zacharoula
Gaitanaki: What gives you strength in your life and what fills you grief?
Potis
Katrakis: I draw
strength from creation and I feel sadness with everything that stands an
obstacle to creation.
Zacharoula
Gaitanaki: What role played and plays love in your life? You have written many
poems entitled “Love poems” (“Erotica”). What’s the subject matter of these poetry
collections?
Potis
Katrakis: The main
pleasures in life are food, drink, a cigarette, the emotional love and sex. The
food I was not able to enjoy throughout my life on account of the illness of my
stomach. For the same reason I was deprived of drinking. Since many years I did
not even taste it. Cigarette I didn’t smoke and when I tried it I felt distaste. So my only pleasure it was love and
especially its emotional element. This gave me the opportunity to spend a big
part of my work in love. Six (6) collections of poetry in post modern form
entitled “EROTICA” – “LOVE POEMS” No. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 and 15 collections of
poems, lyrics traditional poems (50 poems each book), 750 poems in all, a collection with 13 erotic
short stories and two novel with the prevalent theme the erotic. While
scattered reports there are in all my other work.
Zacharoula
Gaitanaki: I have the feeling that the people of our days do not love truly.
They confuse sex and love, they afraid to express their feelings, they are unhappy
although they have all the conditions to be happy. What do you think?
Potis
Katrakis: I can
say that today there is in the general public a wild freedom, which has
simplified some things and some people’s behaviours, which once seemed as
taboo. And in that freedom and wealth of relationships found and the profusion
of true love and more the love for the pleasure of sexual desires. And I mean
what happens in the so called civilized European and American place because we
have the countries in Asia and Africa, where are in other conditions.
Zacharoula
Gaitanaki: How did help you the imagination? Is it prohibitive for creation and
originality the routine?
Potis
Katrakis: I think
the imagination was the quarry from which derived the raw material for the
creation of my work. As a second structural material there were the experience
and adventures of life together with the imagination built the building of
literature. Great source of my experiences, apart from the daily routine, is
the law and policy. The routine simply deprives of you the time you need to
concentrate and write. Certainly it is a source which you draw building
materials. Of course, another rich source for drawing building materials was
reading, but the time I could dedicate was always limited.
Zacharoula
Gaitanaki: Did you encounter difficulties – and what – in publishing and
circulating your books? Since the first edition (in 1966, the novel “The
Perjurer”) until now, how has been changed the situation?
Potis
Katrakis: Except
the few books that the publishers undertake to publish at their expense, for
all the other works there are great difficulties. However, by comparison with
the οld days by reason of
progress of printing with computer and other modern mechanical means, things
have been improved, And the cost compared with the previous period has been
diminished considerably.
Zacharoula
Gaitanaki: How often do you go in literary and other events? Are you interested
in monitoring? Do you have friend writers and poets?
Potis
Katrakis: Every
week I am invited to attend about ten events. As the week has only five working
days and every night if I could go it would be impossible to satisfy them all.
I want to go and I find the most interesting of them, but I can not go, in
fact, more than one – two times per week, because there are and other important
obligations.
Zacharoula
Gaitanaki: Do you like any other art besides the literature?
Potis
Katrakis: I have
been spread so much in all kinds of literature, that although I wanted to do
something else I have no time to spare.
Zacharoula
Gaitanaki: What you haven’t done in your life and regret it?
Potis
Katrakis: I have
no regrets something. Many times, however I think if I had not done of what I
did, for example not to waste so much time in politics, in the presidency of
various associations etc. and to have accumulated more in the literature.
Zacharoula
Gaitanaki: What do you consider the most important problem of the people of
today?
Potis
Katrakis: I
generally consider the most important problem of the people nowadays the
environmental pollution and the creation and the nuclear proliferation, the
chemical and biological weapons too, which threaten to destroy our planet and
create the uncontrolled disasters. But problem is and the overpopulation of a number of Muslim
countries and other people in Asia and Africa.
Zacharoula
Gaitanaki: Globalization seems to drag everything in its way. As a poet, Potis
Katrakis, how he resists to such and all kinds threats?
Potis
Katrakis: Globalization
is a serious and a complex issue and I think it is not easy for someone to give
answers without preparation, without serious studies. But even though the
studies that have been done, you can not be sure and safe for your conclusions,
so that all the evidence to prove what and how many of the aspects are positive
and how many of them are negative. As happens with all the views of life, where
few prophets are verified after their implementation.
Zacharoula
Gaitanaki: Are you optimistic about the future of our planet and our country?
Potis
Katrakis: If the
current situation continues, I am pessimistic about the fate of our planet and
much more for the luck of the identity of our country’s status as a Greek. For
the fate of our planet from the environmental pollution, the nuclear
proliferation and of biological weapons, the depletion of raw materials, of
energy and the overpopulation of Islamic and other peoples in Asia and Africa
because of their overpopulation and poverty will besiege continuously either
armed or unarmed the borders of Europe, to enter into and capture it with their
population explosion. For the fate of our country I see to happen in the near
future, the following two possibilities: the first is the nation and state to
disappear and remain a memory in history, like the people who have disappeared
in the depths of centuries. Throughout the
area of the Balkans and Asia Minor to prevail a sort of Ottoman Empire,
which will consist the eastern part of the European Union. And this will happen
according to three factors: 1) The high birth rate of Muslims that enter and
will enter as legitimate or illegal immigrants in our country and other neighbouring
countries. 2) The low birth rate of the Greeks and
3) The non-assimilation of Muslims into Greeks or other nations by
reason of the difference of religion. The second possibility is to prevail in
the Balkans and Asia Minor a Greek-speaking majority, a short of Byzantine
Empire, which will form the eastern part of the European Union. This can not
happen because of three factors: 1) the superiority of Greek culture, 2) the
supremacy of the Greek language and 3) the supremacy of the Greek economy. Already,
the undeclared and seemingly peaceful competition has begun and will intensify
methodically in the future until the domination of one or the other
possibility. However, things are marching with mathematical precision in the
prevalence of the first possibility. Greeks will change into Muslims and Turks
in the context of the European Union. Unless the appropriate authorities
appreciate the fact and without regard to the political cost to take draconian
measures of defence and counterattack before it’s too late. Because this would
be the worst from what we could bequeath to our descendants that will be the
victims of this possibility.
Zacharoula
Gaitanaki: What message do you send to other people with your work, your life
and with this interview?
Potis
Katrakis: With my
work I send a great number of messages and refer to any object, in any
disciplines and all expression of life. only in the fifties poetry collections
that I have published until now, there are about 4000 poems. Every poem has its
own message or messages. Aside those that are contained in my prose work.
Messages that refer to existential, in social, political, national, nature
loving, erotic, Christian, environmental, of the family issues etc, which are
impossible to enumerate. The general message is that every person must fight to
survive and to create in his life something commensurate with his physical and
spiritual forces who he’s endowed by nature, always putting into practice of
his objectives, first the health, after the economy, later the recreation and
after all to push on with the distinction among his fellow men.
