The other day a book in Barnes & Nobles picked up my curiosity. It’s called “Ghosts of Spain” by Giles Tremlett, and I skimmed to find out how the world sees the Catalans. I'm sorry for the general public, but only to a Catalan this book will produce a massive eye-opening experience. MMm, very very insightful book indded. Interesting points to behold is Mr. Tremlett assertion that Montserrat, the Holy mountain is dull and boring. He goes to compare it to a sort of Catholic Theme Park ala Disneyland Orlando. He also finds ‘la sardana’, the traditional Catalan dancing, un-inspiring and somewhat tiresome.  Hhe begins by not finding it, but ends up asserting that only living in Barcelona long enough –and in Catalonia by extension- is possible to fathom that elusive “differential factor" that Catalans claim makes them different from Spaniards. So, he claims to find it but before finishing his chapter on Catalans –called The Madness of Verdager- he implies something more troubling, something that I didn’t fall into so far.

    Mr. Tremlett goes to imply that Catalans, through having a clear potential to become a nation, are a bunch of nation-handicapped people. This is, they have been unable to form a stable nation in the past and will fail to do so in the future. It’s not that they are not entitled to have a nation, is that they are handicapped to do so. Ground-breaking stuff, uh? What do you think?

         Scary book...