A book and a writer: Prof. Giannis Manetas, ''The night he embraced Gigkgo Biloba''

Giannis Manetas is clear from the beginning. The holistic view, with which he approaches both his research objects and his personal vision of life, characterizes him as well as his literary work. His latest book, which is also his first novel, with the "strange" title "The night that embraced Ginkgo biloba" (Hera Publishing), contains his own truth about what is happening at universities, "which I hope will not be just mine", as he tells us.

You say at the beginning of the book that the heroes are fantastic and the episodes invented. Why am I having a difficulty believing you?

Probably because you've lived the University, too.

Through your protagonist, you are talking about universities abroad, which are basically private.

The question is what do you really expect from a professor's position and what you are willing to ‘’pay’’ in order to get it. The main thing is what objects will be taught and explored and with what emphasis. Teachers at a private university are somewhat shareholders.

What is your opinion about the decline of the humanistic studies and its impact on societies?

Humanistic studies have always been an unsettled and subversive area. Inevitably, in a college-based university where the student is a client and the professor a manager, this sector will fall into disrepute. Or he will have to degenerate to explore more market issues. We already see it.

If, as you say, "those who did the hard left in time'', who are left to define the different?

I think this is apparent at the end of the book, which is not as pessimistic as the question predisposes. The unruly characters, in any case the minority, those who do not cope with the imposed state of affairs, those most of them characterized as unappreciated, have never been lost in history.

What has been or is your "Ginkgo biloba"?

Difficult to answer, I never remember hugging a tree for the same reasons the hero did. But I have often hidden the experimental trees that gave me the pleasure of a discovery.

What about research in Greece (especially in your field)?

I will remain pessimistic. We were doing well. However, in recent years the general lack of funding, selective funding, commercialization of research, paralytic bureaucracy and the professional insecurity of young researchers have made things embarrassing. The result is the huge braindrain.

What can inspire youth movements today, or help in their creation?

Mainly, it should be based on the logic of "here I am, I resist, I am producing".

Finally, how can we separate our position towards the established system?

As domestic animals, those who are dowdy and have the inherent tendency to follow the leader are chosen. Although my response is to teaching, I would say that we are less "tamishable" and do not lose all that they serve us.

Prof. George Papadopoulos talks about the novel ''The night he embraced Gigkgo Biloba'' 

How much fiction and how much reality exists in the book?

Undoubtedly, every writer uses his experiences as a source. Of course, these experiences matter and modify them to reach the desired fictional result. And in any case, with a great deal of arbitrariness, he can do with heroes whatever he wants. Even reaching exaggeration.

Is there a general belief that there is much and unfair competition in Greek universities?

There is also healthy and unfair competition. And not just in Greek universities. Indeed, in the most advanced scientific countries it is generally more shaky. It's nothing strange. The university is a social institution, with particularities of course, but it does not work beyond society.

Τhe life of the novel hero is analogous to that of Greece from the junta, the post-Transition period, reaching today's economic crisis?

No one is unaffected by the environment. But the degree of influence and strength of internal resistances differs. These also determine the attitude towards things. The hero of the book is quite naive, but skeptical and passionate. For science, his love affairs, his friends, the things he had learned to like. Believe me, there are a  lot of people like him in the universities, as well as in the society.

Young people left abroad to avoid inaction and concealment in the junta and today they are leaving Greece in order to avoid the huge crisis. What is your opinion?

It is inevitably right to leave if you are in danger, or because there is a huge economic crisis. I think, however, that we cannot generalize with "non-democracy", in a university or  in any other institution. I always hope, there will be worthy university teachers to choose and work with them and go a step further.

Having collaborated with universities abroad, what do you think needs to be changed immediately?

In my university utopia I would like the professor to be a teacher above all  and then a researcher, choosing his subject based on his scientific instinct and not making choices based on financial criteria.

What do you think is responsible for the ongoing crisis in universities?

This happens quite often. In the book, the naive hero Karadimos, who abhors the groupings, devises the same intrigue to prevent a grossly unfair election of a professor. He informs his companions, that is to say, the  people who have the same culture, and they jointly decide to apply it. Shortly before they achieve their goal, he reveals it to his enemies as well. And pays it off. But simultaneously, he is pleased that has contributed to a proper election.

The fact that Ginkgo biloba is a tree whose shape remains unchanged over the centuries and is rare, what role it plays in the novel?

This tree involuntarily participates in two episodes of the book. It is the subject of a hero's course when juda invades the auditorium and he is forced to escape. It tries to maintain old and tested adjustments in a rapidly changing environment. So some of the heroes struggle to rescue some values in an environment that forces them to forget.

Finally, do you think there is hope?

Undoubtedly. Because in our behavioral repertoire, apart from our evil self, we have been consolidated from characteristics that are not easily eradicated. Solidarity, trust, altruism, justice, self-esteem. Let the reader think of which novel characters admire. Including the characters of this specific novel.