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Popular Culture Review
American rock music in particular, which had been all but excluded from
Spanish society during Franco’s years due to its rebellious, anti-Catholic
connotations, was put to the forefront as a common referential ground for most
of these young writers; for instance, the cover of Heroes (Heroes), one of the
early novels from the Leather Generation, featured a photograph of the author,
Ray Loriga, in a rock star pose: wearing a denim jacket and holding a bottle of
beer. And the blurb on the back cover echoed in writing what the front was
suggesting visually:
The greatest charm of this novel consists in the anarchic
character of its prose, heir to the poetry of rock and roll, and
located at the opposite spectrum from all proper and
expendable literature.5
The author himself later admitted that he initially rejected the front cover as
well as the back blurb; however, the publishing company (Plaza & Janes)
insisted on this particular packaging. This apparently minor disagreement
illustrates the gap between the author’s vision and the publisher’s strategy; if
Ray Loriga, as a writer, was honestly attempting to express himself through his
writing and was somewhat grateftil to the system for affording him the
possibility of doing so, the publisher was merely using him to serve a defined
marketing strategy.
Since any references to American rock music seemed to lead to immediate
literary fame, other young, “original” authors displayed their kinship to rock
musicians and songs. For example, Benjamin Prado’s early novels Strange
(Raro) and Never Shake Hands with a Lefthanded Gun Stinger (Nunca le des la
mano a un pistolero zurdo) abound with references to Bob Dylan, The Doors,
and Lou Reed, among others. At the peak of the Leather Generation’s
popularity, Prado was always seen wearing snake skin boots and a leather jacket.
Paradoxically, as some critics observed, it could be argued that Benjamin Prado
was dressing against his own interest, for his novels went beyond the level of
most of the Leather Generation production and he had, in the long run, little
interest in being associated with that false literary movement.
Other young authors simply rode on the connotations of rock music at large,
such as Jose Angel Mafias, who launched a literary proposal solely based upon
punk music, notwithstanding the anachronistic nature of such notion at that
particular time.6 “The Punk Novel” consisted mainly of openly rejecting without
discrimination any accepted idea regarding the art of writing novels and plainly
stating that anybody can write regardless of his or her grasp on narrative
techniques and style, because “feelings and anger play the main role in literary
creation.” Such a bold statement reveals the state of over-confidence of these
young writers, favoured by a widely promoted publishing strategy. Ironically,
and a true sign of cultural confusion, Mafias’ novels refer constantly to bands
such as Led Zeppelin, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, and The Ramones which are