Tuesday 13 May 2014

Am I Real Enough?


After an involuntarily blog hiatus caused by internet inexistence, computer downfall, travel escape and cherry-picking, I am back with you. It has been a long long break. But still every so often a reader crops up or writes to say they have enjoyed reading DLC and I am thrilled to the back teeth, to my back bone and to the very weedy end of my back yard. In the meantime I have escaped to Sorrento and London and will do the appropriate rambling in due course. Other blog posts will follow concerning my recent experiences with Pink Floyd, Simon and Garfunkel and Rod Stewart - in cosy Mediterranean Italy! But first, a reflection about author truths and lies following an article written by cleverchops Tim Parks, fellow latino expat who takes the cake.

Tim has written a thoughtful piece called 'Stupid Questions' in the New York  Review of Books that had me chuckling. The savvy writer laments the stupid questions people ask at the end of author presentations at book festivals. Ever been to one and timidly raised your hand?


Tim Parks = cool writer
He writes: One arrives in a tent with a hundred-odd seats, of which half are occupied. a presenter who many or may not have really read your book offers a potted version of your life that mainly amounts to age, bibliography, and accolades. The novel you are presenting is sketched out: a few items of plot, the suggestion of some kind of theme or message. Listening to this you are overwhelmed by the enormous gap between the density and complexity, the sheer volume of what you have written and this drastic reduction...Meantime, among the audience, a small group have already read the book, so anything they hear about it is infinitely less than what they already know. Another group have never read anything you've written, so they are hardly the wiser from these few formulaic crumbs... 

It reminded me of the time I spoke about DLC in Italian the Women's Festival in Matera. The journo approached me twenty minutes before we were on, told me she hadn't read the book, suggested we speak about the 'stallone italiano' (the Italian stud) and 'la crisi economica' (the economic crisis) to grab the audience's attention. As it happens there is an Italian lover in Marilyn's story - in the form of crazy Federico, lapsed agronomist and lapsed lover of Marilyn's cheeky Australian friend Fiona. Not exactly Stud Material. And as for the economic crisis that has hit Italy so hard.. our gal Marilyn stole away her husband's credit card, found a part-time job modelling erotica and taught English! So, err, she was still able to buy her designer clothes.

That interview was a tussle really, with me trying to be entertaining, raise a laugh out of a very serious audience, leap through language hoops, and catch the tail-end of the journo's ten-minute-long questions.

Parks has a point. Those in attendance don't really want to hear about the way you sit down in your pyjamas and ugg boots and do a deal with the devil not to check your post. They don't want to hear about how you took a trip to the moon between chapters 11 and 12, or that your goldfish died and made you think up that weird part, or you saw this cute guy in the bus, or that you were actually taken to a club where a man was led around on a dog leash. Or perhaps only smidgens of this. Yes, they do want to hear smidgens.

For your part you know perfectly well that there is an absolute continuity between this book and your life. You will talk about the book as if your were in control of its creation, and perhaps you are to a degree, but behind and before that is a vast hinterland of experience and events over which you had no control. Only you could have written this particular book, not because you are better or more imaginative than anyone else, but because you are you.. Who could it come from but you?

'Do you think your move to Italy altered the way you think and write?'
'Does your wife read your books and if so what does she think of them?'

Parks goes nuts over the 'shots in the dark' of the audience's questions and he has a point. The gulf between creation and its intention, and the sunhats and rows of plastic chairs under a tent, must be rather disorienting, even trying. I remember seeing Ngugi wa Thion'go speak in Mantova - whose breakthrough book was written in a prison cell on loo paper! My son and I sat in hallowed silence as the great man spoke, and were almost ashamed to have him sign our dog-chewed copy. Or the time that Toni Morrison spoke there too. Before she had finished her eloquent reflections that were a joy to hear - the autograph seekers were already forming a queue up to her chair!

Been to any cracking litfests lately? Or are you planning to this summer/winter? What would you ask the author of your favourite recent read? 

And - go on then - what would you ask this crazy author about DLC??


.. They are groping for some kind of connection between the figure on the stage and the particular atmosphere of the novels they have read.. Yet even as you try and inevitably fail to answer their questions you are probably telling them more, in your perplexity and frustration, or your wryiness and charm, than you ever could have by explaining your book.

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Tim Parks' books Italian Neighbours and An Italian Education are as close to the bone as you will get to living in contemporary Italy.  

14 comments:

  1. Had to smile, I only recently went to my very first author presentation and I'm quite old now. I'm a New Zealander living in Belgium, too long away from home really, and we had this year's Man Booker Prize winner, NZer Eleanor Catton, coming to speak in a bookshop over in Brussels.
    I had devoured her book, and I used be in on the edge of the writing scene back in NZ, long ago. I was hungry for a wee taste of home.
    I found that I really didn't want to ask questions. She was brilliant, explaining so much about that complex book of hers. But she was interviewed by a Dutch writer, perhaps the questions were intelligent and thought-filled. Maybe that's why I had no questions ... I don't know.
    I love your blog!! :-) I have it on my blog feed reader thingy.

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    1. Thanks for your kind comments Di. Ahh we are all so far from home. For me home is where the piano is.

      I haven't read Catton's book and yes it makes a huge difference if the questions are intelligent the audience already feels engaged.

      I'm usually too daunted to put up my hand..

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  2. That's marketing for you, unprepared journos and an audience with an expectation of how they want you to be.....I'm sure you land on your feet every time Catherine, you're such a combo of class and wit. Parks "Italian ways' is also a good insight into Italian trains but I'm off to Sicily in a rent a car

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    1. Yeah.. I'm not sure I even sold any copies but I had them with the crack about counting the tractors going by.. A huge glass of primitivo helped me land on my feet that time!

      Would love to be driving about Sicily in May !

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  3. Hi Catherine. Greetings from Albania, where I am this week... I'm afraid i've never been a Parks fan, but I am sorry I missed YOUR author interview down in Matera. I'll be happy to attend the next. one you have. Sounds like lots of recent jaunts, but yet you have no time for Rome. *Sighs*

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    1. Albania wow! Must catch up with your blog. I think you would have laughed long and loud at my Veneto-flavoured interview in Matera.
      Too many jaunts.. yeah! But Rome is next on my list I promise. Just choose a great bar for aperitivi..

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  4. I've read almost everything Tim Parks has written about his life in Italy...& have 'Sex Is Forbidden' ready to penetrate,& 'Italian Ways...' to embark on! I loved his book on being a football fan too...'A Season with Verona'...enjoying as I am this season my team, Crystal Palace's, 2nd highest finish in 109 years,skippered by an Aussie called Mile Jedinak!! I'd ask Tim to explain how Hellas Verona have finished higher than the Flying Donkeys in Serie A?! I bet that would throw him at a bibliomaniacs' q.& a.! I once saw Alexander McCall Smith at a get-together at Daunt's in Marylebone High Street handle a disparate set of questions with aplomb & amused indulgence at the variety of responses to his work, patient & understanding with the most banal questions about his craft. Tim Parks has a point though; the literary groupie is not a figment of his imagination...& his autograph or 'fan-selfie' is all part of the show-business aura that now surrounds top writers. You looked fine at your Wood Green gig,Catherine...quite enigmatic & quixotic...as the best writers often are!

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    1. Grazie Mangiagatti! Enjoy your next foray into Tim Parks. I missed him speaking in Bassano once - peccato! Thanks for your support at the Wood Green do. I think there were some feisty questions thrown in, no?

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  5. Hi Catherine, good to hear from you again. I know I have said it before, but, you do have an amazing life. Another entertaining story Lyn

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    1. Thanks Lyn but don't worry I have my drab moments too! Hope you are enjoying your Italian trip and thanks for dropping in. Ciao cat

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  6. AH - on the day I procrastinate to avoid writing an interview (for fear I will ask stupid questions)...just what I needed!

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    1. Rae I read the interview! It was great! I'm now doing the same one too. What a jumble of words.. Trying not to repeat myself. Yours was really cool girl x

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  7. Oh you. I can just imagine you in front of a serious audience charming the pants off everyone with your quick wit. I don't know how authors do it, I'd be so damn shaky I'd have to bring a bottle of my favorite wine with me everywhere I went. As far as being in the audience, I'm typically an astute observer. Happy to be there enjoying the banter and getting to know the author in the way she chooses to express herself. If you ever get to Southern California I will be the front row!

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    1. But I am shaky I assure you! I'm still a novice and I need my prosecco or deep red beforehand. Performing is such a different art form from writing - exactly the opposite I'd say. And yet if you want to run away with the circus you have to join the lions in the ring!

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