A café and tea house in downtown Budapest named 'Purple Fog' organizes literary auction, online mentoring and literary workshops with a special emphasis on self-actualization and professional improvement.
With a refreshing lack of the smugness of all those who know it all, even at the expense of inviting a giggle with its name, a tinge of self-irony and waves of good-will are inextricably intertwined. Purple Fog in Hungarian implies being somewhat lost in the clouds, not having the haziest idea about the ways of the world being almost irritatingly far from realities. In fact, the owners of the Publishing Company and the Cafeteria stand firmly on the ground, thank you very much indeed! Gabriella Máté is the head of the smallest publishing company of the world, Garbo Publishing House, and a wife and Péter Szecsõdy is the head of a pleasant, friendly, cosy café, the Purple Fog Book Cafeteria where reading, contemplating and enjoying the company of others is positively encouraged.
As they are originally both journalists, they had the opportunity to experience for themselves the incredibly huge difficulties talented individuals are up against on their way to becoming professionals in their field. Before they started their enterprise the wife had published four reports all related to social issues and the husband had been working for the Hungarian Statistics Authority and Hungarian Radio. Their personal interests and passions are in fact working for others, but above all, working for and helping up and coming talents.
Purple mission
Even if their mission is kept under a modest bushel, it speaks volumes. When I ask Gabriella about their strategy and overall concept involved in helping talents, I notice a sudden jolt in her facial muscles, clearly suggesting that this work is not about dreaming in cloudy ivory towers, but actually doing whatever is required by the moment, nothing so pretentious as making a giant leap forward but rather making a small step at a time in the right direction.
So how is a Publishing Company and Cafeteria going to foster talents? Not by bolstering amateurs under which many a talented professional has whithered, but those who have not yet made a living from writing or some other creative genre. What the couple do primarily is to provide the entirely unknown yet dedicated with a chance to be seen or be heard in a bid to become professionally good in what they do in their free time, let them be writers, singers, musicians, or anyone else who might be harboring a special talent. Providing opportunity to be published is only one way of helping the talented. But they do much more than just this.
They organize literary auction, online mentoring and literary workshops with a special emphasis on self-actualization and professional improvement. It is Péter who provides detailed feedback to fresh-starters, and when I enquire about the reasons he modestly replies, 'because this is what I feel strongly about'. There are so many talents wasted here - and though Gabriella is busy with a client in the far end of the
room, she sends a little, gentle smile to her better half.
Péter's greatest opus as a writer so far is probably The Whore (published by his wife and publisher) tracing the career story of a smart girl at the time of transition (While he recounts the story he suddenly cries out: 'All I can say is: this is Hungary!') who was born into modest circumstances and makes her way through to 'freedom' by indiscriminately selling her body and repressing her yearning for a decent living. As she knows know no better and is surrounded with yobbos, her ’learning curve’ necessarily leads her through a series of humiliations. Quite importantly for us, it depicts the values of Szecsõdy so well form the opposite side. As a mentor this is what he does. He tries to build and reinforce ties to values, knowledge of one’s self and self-extension through self-actualization. When he is asked about postmodernism, he brushes off the topic as not important. Apparently it is the inclusion of postmodernism that disturbs him; the fact that postmodernist texts are not accessible to the man next door, but only to the privileged.
Words are treasures
But he himself knows a lot about privileges as he belongs to a noble family that has 800 years history behind it. 'I could never believe that I could not talk back to anyone', he says modestly. About his inheritance he says that is 'the indelible haughtiness', which he hates from the bottom of his heart. And then he reminds me that all he has to say is: Hungary! He cries out unexpectedly. Look, our words are important treasures. The fact that we have two words for love means that we have twice as much as those who have only one word for love. The major problem is that we define ourselves by what we have, which is deeply wrong. Our real task should be to exist in unity with the world and as a continuum with our past. If I love today a person who I used to know yesterday I have to learn to love a totally new person, even though someone is only a day older, but still a different person. Even Heracles failed to lift
himself up in a basket...
Their website may be understated but there can be no doubt about their mission, vision and values. Their whole-hearted efforts for a joint cause have worked so well that they really don’t need to brag about it. This cosy, friendly community that encourages development and a deeper understanding of each other’s values couldn’t be further from the mainstream. If you have something to say and you would want to be heard and you feel that there is something unique to what you have to say, be sure of a welcome, no matter who you are. They will offer partnership regardless of the genre or the language you use to deliver your thoughts. They will lend ears to your thoughts. A Hungarian version of Philemon and Baucis, the legendary couple of Greek mythology whose generous hospitality was so exemplary that Gods showered mercy on them and gave them what they pleaded for: not to see each other’s death, instead they became immortals. The analogue is not too far removed from Purple Fog. What they do, really, I mean, is not run a publishing house and café… They are offering a vision of immortality: talents saved from corrosion. They look for those who seem to have a promise of talent. Honestly? They see that in most people. That is why they have set up an Academy for Would-Be Writers for totally free, and they are inviting applications and providing free professional feedback. What they do is… provide the dreamers with something to fall back on - an honorable enterprise.


Leave a Reply Cancel reply
Top 5 Articles
L'Oréal Appoints New Managing Director in the Region January 6, 2025
Gedeon Richter to Sell Chinese Biosimilar Product in Europe October 9, 2024
2024 Sustainable Future Awards Presented October 10, 2024
New President at the American Chamber of Commerce December 11, 2024
Minister of Economy Praises Hungarian Tourism December 10, 2024
No comment yet. Be the first!