Sydney Writers' Festival 2011
The past week was packed full of interesting talks at the Sydney Writers' Festival 2011, culminating with the final two days last weekend. It is located at Walsh Bay, just west of the Sydney Harbour bridge, and in the glorious, autumn sun over the weekend, we could luxuriate in the festival's vibrance and energy. This annual festival is the world's third largest with nearly 300 writers in over 300 events. As usual, we weren't able to get to all the talks we were interested in, though fortunately some of the best are available through the ABC radio website. All the ones we did get to were very worthwhile, with the following being my highlights.
Howard Jacobsen, author of The Finkler Question, and winner of the 2010 Man Booker Prize was by far and away the most amusing and interesting speaker. His book, which I confess I haven't yet read, is about 3 men in London, 2 of whom are Jewish - like Howard Jacobsen - who discuss life in a comedic manner. According to my boyfriend who has read it, every page is witty and has at least one memorable line, a la Oscar Wilde. Suffice to say it's top of my list to read as my next fiction. The sessions that we heard him speak were captivating as Howard Jacobsen is such a fantastic raconteur and has the perfect balance of self-confidence and self-effacement to keep you captivated by his story-telling. He talked about finding later in life his comfort in his Jewish 'voice', after a period of not being sure what his voice was. He also gave a really fascinating description on why he loves comedic fiction. He pointed out the comedy, in Greek times for example, was the opposite of tragedy, in that it was focussed on the basics of life, such as sex and bodily functions. In the session entitled 'Return of the Wry', which looked at the success of a comedic-fiction, he talked about how anything can be the subject of humour, including something as serious as the Holocaust. He said this because comedy for him is not about making light of something serious, but rather being to deal with things that are of such importance that they often can't be dealt with in any other way. Another favourite was AC Grayling, who has just published a tome of a book - The Good Book. AC Grayling is a professor of philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London and The Good Book is a secular Bible distilling the wisdom of the great non-religious traditions as a guide for life. The writers her included are from over many centuries and diverse parts of the world, including such well known names as Plato, Socrates, Confucius and Mill. His idea, 30 years from its first inception, was to provide a reference for atheist and religious people alike, to read the views of great humanist philosophers on the key existential human question of how to live life. Interestingly, he modelled the structure on the King James Bible, which coincidentally celebrates its 400 years of publication this year, though his admiration for its form should in no way be confused for admiration of its substance! He made it quite clear that he does not have a much time for traditional (monotheistic) religions. He explained that The Good Book has no footnotes because he believes that the quotes he included stand on merit alone, and thus who wrote them is of no consequence. I noticed that all the names of philosophers who he had included were men, so I asked in question time what fraction were women. He said that very very few were and that her regretted this. I thought this interesting, as the criticism often directed at the the Bible and Koran is that they were written almost entirely by men. He explained that unfortunately women regrettably were written out of history, and as a result he had few women philosophers to quote.My final favourite was the session with David Mitchell and Daniel Swift on what it's like to write novels set in the past. Daniel's traces his grandfather's life, who was a bomber in the UK Royal Air Force in World War Two. David Mitchell's, called The Thousand Autums of Jacob de Zoet, is set in 1799 on an island off the Japanese coast, where the Dutch are permitted to trade from. The authors described the hard research they had to do, such as learning about the political and historical dynamics of the different countries at the time they set they book, as well as the soft research. David Mitchell's example of soft research was when he wanted to describe a character shaving, and so had to research when shaving cream came into existence, when soap did back and other practicalities. They also talked about how they didn't feel they were in a position to judge the rights or wrongs of what characters did during the period in which their novels were set. I asked them whether they felt that it would be the same if their novels were set currently. Both said that they personally was still refrain from judging the rights or wrongs of their characters, as writing fiction for them was just about inhabiting someone else's world. However, David Mitchell said that if another author were to want to judge their characters, that would be fine as each other should be able to make their own choice.
One other one sessions which was very moving because of the individual stories, was the that with Ingrid Betancourt and Izzeldin Abuelaish. Ingrid Betancourt wrote her book in French because her native Spanish reminded her too much of her Colombian ordeal. Izzeldin Abuelaish wrote his memoir following the death of his three daughters not in Arabic or Hebrew, but English. They both described how they dealt with traumas in their lives, and how important talking and language were to their healing.
The festival was thoroughly satisfying, and I left there with a renewed passion for writing and reading. The idea I found the most profound, yet simple, is that reading fiction is so important, not only because it's fun and good for language skills, but because it is the the best way of teaching empathy towards others. Reading is worthwhile therefore, for every one, ever where, in every time.
Posted
by Michael
