Relationships are completely superficial tells us in today's interview the author Rania Lymberopoulou who has written "Behind the Winters & you can find it from 24 Letters Publications.
She talks to us about the economic crisis, recommends her book, but also explains why she believes that relationships are completely superficial.
So let's see what he told us:
1. Tell us a little about yourself and how your love for writing books began?
“I am the second child of a large family, very close to my siblings!
I live in Kalamata, my beloved city, where I was born and raised until my teenage years.
I finished school in Athens and studied Economics at the Law School of the Kapodistrian University of Athens.
However, I considered Economics to be very "cold" and I didn't love it.
I got married and started my family in Kalamata.
I have three wonderful children and a five-year-old, adored grandson, my Panos!
I have always particularly enjoyed listening to, reading, and writing stories, small or large, true or not, as long as they have a message.
My little notebook is my constant companion for taking notes, recording ideas, thoughts, feelings, and anything I consider worth remembering.
In recent years, circumstances and my need for communication have pushed me to write more systematically, to externalize thoughts and feelings.
My ambition is to be able to "speak" to people's hearts, entrusting my soul to them.
Writing is my way of living!!
And to be happy!! And full!!”
2. What topic does your book deal with?
"The book entitled "Behind the…Winter» is an anthology that includes eight short stories. Through them we follow different people in various aspects of their everyday lives.
The central characters are hardworking people who try to adapt to the difficulties of their reality, some who fail to exceed the limits set by society or condemnatory family expectations, loves that give faith and optimism for better worlds, resistance against the appetites of wealth, the stench of the Occupation and the Civil War are highlighted in the testimonies of a simple person...
A common characteristic of the heroes is pain, marginalization, sadness...
But notes of optimism and humanity are coming to drive away the winters in their lives and prepare for the arrival of spring and summer.”
3. Relationships are difficult these days. What do you think is the reason for this?
"We can easily understand the crisis that people's relationships are going through.
One of the biggest problems of today is, as Samarakis said, that although the roofs of our houses are so close, our hearts are further apart than ever...
And while we can communicate faster and easier with others, and while technology has erased distances and from one moment to the next we can be on the other side of the world, we are further apart than ever from our fellow human beings.
We have stopped truly caring about those around us, everyone looks at themselves and their own microcosm, and you rarely see anything substantial, anything real in any kind of relationship.
I will support the fact that social media plays a primary role in our lives, so relationships are completely superficial...
Many people live their lives online and have forgotten to live real life, resulting in them being left alone without friends and essentially without any support in their lives when they need it.
An excerpt from a related article I was reading a while ago says it all:
"People have stopped caring and helping each other. They have stopped communicating with each other in a meaningful way. Instead, they create superficial and emotionless relationships, relationships of interest. Although they appear sociable and friendly, in reality they are alone in their own little world without the desire to give a little of their space to another person."
4. The economic crisis affects us all. What is your advice to young people who are just starting their dreams?
"Young people are without a doubt the first to be harmed by the economic crisis."
My advice is not to abandon our country, not to turn to immigration.
They should not be removed from the labor market and with collective effort, I believe that the situation will improve more and more...
No one found everything easy in life...
What matters is that they never give up on their dreams, no matter how disappointed they may be by the difficulties at first!
And with struggle, patience, perseverance, positive thinking and love for what they do, they will win the battle, not only of survival but also of creating a more dignified life.”
5. Write us your favorite part from the book that you want to share with us.
“« From a young age, Minas, the firstborn son of Mrs. Pota and Mr. Mimis, the coffee shop owner, would leave home or the family coffee shop and walk barefoot through the narrow streets and neighborhoods of the village, looking for groups of children to join him in their play.
His speech, jumbled syllables that didn't always make sense, and his awkward, almost abrupt manner of approach, made children avoid him.
When he approached them, they mocked him, pushed him, and chased him away with disgust, sometimes even hitting him.
Thus, from a very early age, Minas understood his difference and felt the disdain of the world that had placed him on an unjust and unbearable fringe.
He was a man, like all the others, who sought a little food and a shelter to protect himself from the cold, the heat, the rain, the blizzard, a soul that sought affection, compassion, tenderness, to sweeten the injustice and drive away the wickedness of the world.
However, no one helped him become accepted and he slowly learned to live in isolation, wandering here and there like a stray animal, hidden from the world, in his own, beloved, peculiar solitude!
Only in his home did Minas find affection, care, and love, where he returned every ten to fifteen days, in between his wanderings.
Mrs. Pota, his mother, washed him, fed him, nursed him like a baby, took care of him as best she could, and warmed his heart with her love.
Quiet, collected, closed in on herself, she lived her personal drama through her family's, her child's illness.
The sense of "personal humiliation", as poverty and hunger sometimes led to the need for begging, covered everyday life and its reality like a heavy gray-black veil.
"She lived only for her children, Mrs. Pota, for Minas and Stavros. But no matter what she did, her grief for her eldest son did not subside, she could not bear the injustice of the world and its bad words."
"Stavros's eyes blurred. All this time, until he saw how things were, he was trying to stay calm.
Unable to bear any more weight on his soul, he was unable to contain himself.
His tears, rivers that joined those of his older brother, came to wash away the shame, to clean the "stain" and to fade the shadow left on him by that ugly feeling that the unjust, demeaning, hostile behavior of the world had made him feel.
And this is because that is how the prevailing perceptions at the time were “imposed.”
6. Favorite song and phrase at this time of year ;
“My favorite song is Chimonanthos sung by G. Charoulis…
Winterflower
"Autumn in love is rising tonight"
The mountains smelled of arismari and honey
And I silently look at the wet soil
like a burning coal, beauty hurts
I seek a kiss from the sky and it gives me ashes
But from the heart, as if I want you to be cut off,
The doors rattle and the lock turns.
The wind is whistling at me.. If you come, don't be late...
Undress and take water from my eyes and wash them.
Remember, separation is a winter flower.
I inhabited sadness in night and day.
I leave you in the air to find you in the light..."
Favorite phrase
"What I love is born incessantly."
What I love
is at the beginning of everything.."
Elytis Street”
7. What can we expect from you in the future?
"Given health, the long-awaited one is ready and about to be released, haha"
"Everything we longed for", a multi-page novel.
I am also preparing two more novels and a novella…..
I also write articles on a site or on my own page and blog.
May we have health and inspiration, and I have various things in mind for the future.”
8.Where can anyone find you?
“You can find me on Facebook as Rania Liberopoulou
On my page as a writer, member of the Messinian Writers' Union and on ranias blog.”
9. A wish for tinamichaelidou.gr
"May you be well, may you have endless views, always successes and firsts!"
Thank you very much!
Rania Lymberopoulou
Author
Member of the Messinian Writers' Union
*Relationships are completely superficial & with that we will conclude today's interview.*
