Iordan Chimet facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Iordan Chimet
Chimet's memorial plaque in Titan, Bucharest
Born	(1924-11-18)November 18, 1924 Galaţi
Died	May 23, 2006(2006-05-23) (aged 81) Bucharest
Occupation	poet, novelist, essayist, translator, publisher, copywriter
Nationality	Romanian
Period	1944–1993
Genre	lyric poetry, free verse, fantasy, fairy tale, children's literature
Subject	art criticism, literary criticism, film criticism, biography
Literary movement	Avant-garde Surrealism Onirism

Iordan Chimet (born November 18, 1924 – died May 23, 2006) was a Romanian poet, writer of children's books, and essayist. His work was inspired by artistic styles like Surrealism (which explores dreams and imagination) and Onirism (which focuses on dream-like states). He was also known for writing about his memories, reviewing theater, art, and movies, publishing books, and translating.

Chimet was against totalitarianism (a system where the government has total control over people's lives) and especially against the Communist government in Romania. Because of this, he was treated badly as a dissident (someone who speaks out against the government) and lived much of his life hidden from public view. He also worked for a company called Centrocoop, which made him one of the first professional copywriters (people who write advertisements) in Romania.

His poems, fantasy stories, and fairy tales were not very popular in Romania when they first came out. However, they are now praised for their beautiful writing style and are seen as unique in Romanian literature. His stories often explored themes of innocence and melancholy (a feeling of sadness). They were also a quiet way for him to encourage people to be disobedient to unfair rules. Chimet also wrote essays about Latin American studies and Western or popular culture. He published collections of writings on important topics in Romanian society. He also gathered and published information about the life of playwright Mihail Sebastian and the history of the Romanian avant-garde (new and experimental art).

Iordan Chimet was lifelong friends with Gheorghe Ursu, a dissident who was killed by the secret police in 1985, and with science fiction writer Camil Baciu. He was also friends with the German writer Michael Ende and the Greek poet Odysseas Elytis. They stayed in touch even though they lived on different sides of the Iron Curtain (the border that divided Eastern and Western Europe during the Cold War).

Early Life and Challenges

Iordan Chimet was born in Galaţi, Romania, into a family of educated people. He started publishing his poems in the magazine Vremea when he was still in high school. During World War II, as a teenager, he was part of an anti-fascist group in his hometown. This group was against Ion Antonescu's rule and Romania's alliance with the Axis Powers (like Germany and Italy). The Romanian secret police watched Chimet from 1943 until 1944. Unlike his friends, Chimet did not join the Romanian Communist Party because he was worried about communism and the influence of the Soviet Union.

He studied at the University of Bucharest, graduating from the Philology and Philosophy Department in 1948 and the Law Department in 1957. After the Soviets took control of Romania, he secretly helped writers who were banned by the new government. He joined a secret group called the Eminescu Association, named after a famous Romanian poet. This group tried to get help from the Western Allies.

Before the Communist government fully took power, Iordan Chimet published poems with anti-communist ideas in magazines. He met art and literary critic Petru Comarnescu, who helped him share his work.

Life Under Communist Rule

Chimet refused to change his writing style to fit Socialist realism (a style of art approved by the Communist government). Because of this, he was seen as suspicious and lived in extreme poverty during the 1950s. He was investigated for "anti-people activities" and forced to work as a machine operator. Later, he was moved to a lower position, editing commercials for Centrocoop. This job was similar to a copywriter in other countries, making him one of the first in Romania after World War II. This experience taught him a lot about marketing, which he later wrote about in his essays.

He was allowed to publish again in the late 1960s, when Nicolae Ceaușescu's leadership brought some liberalization (more freedom). At this time, Chimet also lectured at a film club, where he met other film critics. His critical works explored Western culture to make it more popular in Romania. He wrote about the American Western genre (Western. Filmele Vestului îndepărtat) and American cinema in general (Eroi, fantome, șoricei). Other works focused on visual arts in South America and Latin American art. This focus, along with the praise for innocence in his fairy tales and fantasy works, was seen as a quiet way to resist the government through culture.

While his work was not well-known in Romania, it became successful abroad. His essays on American culture were translated in other Eastern Bloc countries, where they were liked for their hidden messages. His children's literature was translated into several languages and became known in America and Europe. He was chosen to be a judge for a big literature prize in the US, but the Communist government stopped him from going.

Iordan Chimet kept in touch with Western writers, often using secret mail. In 1977, he started writing to Michael Ende, who lived in West Germany. Both writers disliked strict control over literature. Chimet criticized the cultural rules in Romania, while Ende criticized certain art styles. They never met in person. Later in life, Chimet wrote the introduction for the first Romanian edition of Ende's famous book, The Neverending Story. He also became friends with poet Odysseas Elytis and other critics of the Communist government. Chimet edited and published Elytis's work in Romania, and Elytis called it "the most beautiful book dedicated to my work."

In 1985, his friend Gheorghe Ursu was killed after being beaten in police custody. Some believe the secret police pressured Ursu to name his writer friends, and Chimet's name was mentioned. That same year, Chimet bravely attended Ursu's funeral despite being watched by the secret police.

Life After Communism

After the Romanian Revolution of 1989, Iordan Chimet worked to teach Romanians about democratic values. He published a series of books called Ieșirea din labirint ("Exiting The Labyrinth"). As part of this, he published a four-volume dictionary on Romanian identity, Dreptul la memorie ("The Right to a Memory"), and an anthology called Momentul adevărului ("The Moment of Truth"). These books earned him an award in 1997. He was a member of the Romanian Writers' Union and received a special prize in 2003. In 2004, he published a book of essays titled Cele două Europe, cele două Românii ("The Two Europes, The Two Romanias").

For most of his life, Chimet tried to be a freelancer (working for himself). Even though he faced money problems, he refused to work for the state for all but five years of his life. In his final years, he agreed to give lectures on selling technique for a private university, which was one of the first courses of its kind in Romania.

He died in his small apartment in the Titan area of Bucharest. His last work, a second book of his letters, was published after his death.

Literary Style and Beliefs

Iordan Chimet was inspired by Surrealism and was an important writer from the World War II generation in Romanian literature. His opposition to totalitarianism was linked to growing up in a city with many different cultures. He was similar to writers of the Oniric style, who mixed hidden messages with dream-like images. Like his friend Gheorghe Ursu, Chimet liked avant-garde art and was interested in earlier experimental writers. In 1999, he edited one of the first collections of Romanian avant-garde works. He tried to recreate the feeling of writers from the time between the two World Wars, who saw "art as an exercise in admiration, as a statement of love."

Many people compared him to Don Quixote, a famous character who fought for what he believed in, because of his strong involvement in cultural resistance. He was seen as unique and also very interested in fantasy topics like mythology, magic, and demonology. He explored how these themes appeared in popular culture and science fiction. One friend described his writing style as "a mirror held in front of the local art's subconscious in times of need," and his attitude as "pure and combative."

In a 1980 book, writer Nicolae Steinhardt admired Chimet's way of understanding Romanian traditional stories, both from the countryside and cities. Steinhardt believed Chimet's main message was in his book Baladă pentru vechiul drum ("A Ballad to the Old Road") and his fairy tale novel Închide ochii și vei vedea Orașul ("Close Your Eyes and You Will See The Town"). Steinhardt explained that "the old road" means the path to real life, nature, and understanding people and their ancient culture. "Close your eyes" means to ignore superficial things and focus on the true, poetic reality of your surroundings.

Steinhardt also said that Chimet helped people see how Surrealism was similar to natural tendencies in folk art. He believed Chimet showed that "surreality exists, only people call it reality." By making everyday things seem magical, Chimet invited people to see them as just as powerful as the wildest fantasies of Surrealism.

Political Views and Activism

As a writer of political essays, Chimet was known for speaking out against all forms of racism and antisemitism (hatred of Jewish people). According to Andrei Ursu, Gheorghe Ursu's son, this led some nationalist people to accuse Chimet, who was Romanian, of being too friendly with the Jewish community. Writer Constantin Stănescu connected Chimet's political views to his fiction, calling him "a Surrealist who brought back innocence and a dreamer who fought for purity, with a stubborn and strong belief... in the victory of tolerance and togetherness against racial or class intolerance."

In 2006, Monica Gheț wrote that Chimet's collections of writings created "the map of spiritual freedom... long before the political-strategic 'axes' we talk about today." His work supporting civil society (groups that work for the public good) has been compared to that of historian Adrian Marino. Marino himself called Chimet and others the only "defenders of centrist cultural values" in Romania after 1989. Writer Michaël Finkenthal said that Chimet "spent the last years of his life in a ceaseless battle to retrieve a past that some have forgotten." Finkenthal also said Chimet's message was: "before blaming, before accusing, research the facts carefully."

Chimet himself said: "All I could do was to defend, in the books I managed to publish... the ideas of friendship, loyalty and human solidarity which the world of my childhood was presenting to us as the foundations of existence." He was humble about his own importance, saying that his goals might seem old-fashioned to new generations.

The ExiL Poems

His ExiL poems, some first published in the West in the 1940s, have been compared to the art of Joan Miró and Paul Klee. The title ExiL is a play on words: exil means "exile" in Romanian, and el means "him." The poems are written to a Jewish friend who was sent away during the Ion Antonescu dictatorship. Chimet later said that the theme of exile became common after the Red Army (Soviet army) made it a reality for many.

The poems combine different traditions, including "myths, symbols and ancient spiritual traditions," creating images of "creatures and inanimate objects suffering from a silent, nameless pain." One poem, Cântec spiritual negru ("Negro Spiritual Song") from 1947, focused on a made-up character called Saint Benjamin.

Some ExiL poems were similar to Imagism (a style focusing on clear images) or Lucian Blaga's Expressionism (a style showing strong emotions). They also borrowed themes from the Bible and traditional stories from the Eastern world. These poems included "laments" (songs of sorrow) and reused themes like his hometown Galaţi as "the Old City" and an exiled king who becomes "Baltazar the Little Fish." In one of his free verse poems, Lamento cu o pălărie galbenă ("Lament with a Yellow Hat"), Chimet wrote about himself and his city:

Fantasy Stories

His fantasy works also used ideas from Surrealism and Onirism. Some people mistakenly thought these were only for children, but they were actually "escapes from the new mythical-totalitarian reality" in Romania. They are considered fantasy for adults, similar to works by Edward Lear, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Lewis Carroll.

His story Lamento pentru peștișorul Baltazar ("Lament for Baltazar the Little Fish") was written in the 1940s but only published in 1968. It tells the story of Baltazar, "the messenger of innocence," who is put on trial and must leave the Old City. In his adventures, Baltazar meets strange characters. These elements have been compared to Absurdist plays and nonsense verse in English literature. The playful atmosphere in the story is also mixed with "the feeling of absence, strangeness and universal ending."

One of his most important fantasy books was Închide ochii și vei vedea Orașul ("Close Your Eyes and You Will See The Town"). It was called "a refined musical poem, seemingly naive, revealing unexpected depths to the reader." The story is set in a diverse city (based on Chimet's view of Galați) that is fought over by orange dwarfs and a shapeshifting ogre named Gagafu, who has an evil cat. They kidnap Eli, a girl who protects the city and is the narrator's daughter. She is rescued by the dwarfs, but she misses her home, and they let her return. The book often includes sad thoughts and reflections on how fragile life is.

In Cele 12 luni ale visului. O antologie a inocenței ("The 12 Months of Dreaming. An Anthology of Innocence"), a collection for young readers, Chimet honored other children's writers and fantasy authors. The book was full of illustrations, mostly Surrealist art. One critic noted that the book quietly encouraged readers to practice a form of Surrealism, which helped them escape from the harsh reality of Romania in the 1970s.

Legacy and Influence

For a long time after the Romanian Revolution of 1989, Chimet's work was not well-known in Romania. However, when private publishing houses were allowed to print school textbooks, Iordan Chimet's works became more available to students. Some nationalist newspapers criticized this, saying that Chimet and other authors were not important enough to be included in textbooks.

In 2000, Lamento pentru peștișorul Baltazar was reprinted in a Romanian-German edition, with help from the Goethe-Institut. This book included drawings by some of Chimet's friends, including writers and artists.

It is believed that Închide ochii și vei vedea Orașul influenced parts of Michael Ende's The Neverending Story. In Ende's Das Gauklermärchen ("The Juggler's Tale"), Chimet's character Elli might have become Eli, a simple girl who believes she is a princess. The letters between Chimet and Ende were published as a book in 1999. In 2006-2007, Chimet also published two books of letters he exchanged with other authors, called Cartea prietenilor mei ("My Friends' Book"). A memorial plaque was placed at his apartment building in Titan by the Romanian Writers' Union.

Published volumes

Children's literature

• Lamento pentru peștișorul Baltazar, 1968
• Cîte-o gîză, cîte-o floare, cîte-un fluture mai mare, 1970
• Închide ochii și vei vedea Orașul, 1970, definitive edition, 1979

Essays

• Western. Filmele Vestului îndepărtat, 1966
• Comedia burlescă, 1967
• Teatrul de păpuși în România (with Letiția Gîtză, Valentin Silvestru), 1968
• Eroi, fantome, șoricei, 1970
• Baladă pentru vechiul drum, 1976
• America latină. Sugestii pentru o galerie sentimentală, 1984
• A Trilingual Exercise in Translation (originally in English; with Ioana Belcea), 1995
• Cele două Europe, cele două Românii, 2004

Other

• ExiL, poetry, 1948
• Cele 12 luni ale visului. O antologie a inocenței, anthology, 1972
• Grafica americană: un portret al Americii, album, 1976
• Dreptul la memorie, anthology, 1992
• Cică niște cronicari, duceau lipsă de șalvari, anthology, 1999
• Împreună cu Elli în Imaginaria (with Michael Ende), memoir, 1999
• Dosar Mihail Sebastian, biography, 2001
• Scrisori printre gratii (with Odysseas Elytis, Michael Ende, Maria Marian), memoir, 2004
• Cartea prietenilor mei (with Vasile Igna), memoir, 2005

• N. Steinhardt, Incertitudini literare, Editura Dacia, Cluj-Napoca, 1980.