Magic, finally, on my last day at the JLF, probably the wettest n coldest day in the history of the festival. Till yesterday, I was adamant that next year I would take a break from attending the fest, but after today's sessions I am not so sure.
It was lovely listening to Crace talk about his writing as he is such a modest person and instead of blowing his own trumpet, he pointed out his 'bad habits': a tendency to be over-moralistic; the over-use of rhythmic and poetic language; and a leaning towards pessimism.
He began the session by declaring himself to be an old fashioned storyteller, and then went on to state that the ability to tell stories is what makes us human. Perhaps, everyone can tell a story...but not many can write one well!
Crace talked about the importance of deciding which tense and person to write in. While the third person is the default voice of story telling, it implies an all-knowing narrator. In contrast, with the first person narrator, there is a sense that the narrator does not know everything and, instead, encounters things along with the reader. Similarly, by using the present tense, there is a sense of not knowing what lies ahead. Crace likened his narrator of Harvest to Nick Carraway who, though being a party to the action, was an observer.
He mentioned that in Harvest he touches upon three issues: capitalism; the tendency of people under pressure to look for scapegoats; the duality in the nature of humankind, of a person's immense love for his/her own land vs an immense curiosity for the rest of the world.
Crace while discussing religion said that though he was an atheist and believed more in land than in god, he did not dismiss god. He felt it was the norm for humankind to have belief. While he did not believe in the truth of religious stories he believed in the comfort that such stories provided. Great religions, according to him, understand the importance of a memorable story as a means for people to believe. Crace explained that he believed in the power of storytelling. However, with the progress of science religious narratives are being pushed to a corner so, according to Crace, new narratives are needed.
What really gets under Crace's skin is the assumption that an uneducated person person cannot have great sensibility. According to him, the argument that Shakespeare could not have written his plays because he came from a humble background is rubbish. He said that if one were to look at the upper class of the times they were 'buffoons'. Just like Shakespeare loved converting nouns to verbs, Crace confessed he loved doing the same.
Jim Al-Khalili's session was electrifying, pure magic! In less than an hour, he gave one a glimpse into the Golden Age of the Arabic speaking world, buzzing with the frenetic energy of scholars on their quest for learning. To hear of Ibn Sina and Al-Biruni exchanging letters, quizzing each other on the limits of their knowledge made me think that if it were not for their names, this could be a European Renaissance or modern day story of great minds swapping notes. Then, I thought to myself, why should it be such a surprise that science was so advanced in the Arabic speaking world, after all, the sophistication of their art and architecture would have to be paralleled in the other realms of knowledge. To think that this session with Al-Khalili was a bonus as the scheduled author was unable to make it for her time slot! If you have the time, you must watch this session on the JLF website.
The last session I attended was by Artemis Cooper on her biography of Patrick Leigh Fermor. She told such an engrossing tale about the man who walked across Europe over the span of two years; who romanced a Romanian princess; who kidnapped a German General off the isle of Crete; who accidentally became the target of a vendetta; who travelled to exotic islands to finally settle down in Greece and pen many a book; that not only am I motivated to pick up a copy of her biography of the man but I also want to read his travelogues.
Well, as you can see that over the period of this five day literary smorgasbord, I have ended up with quite an extensive reading list that I am going to be broke for a while!
Though I have not read Jim Crace's Harvest yet, I attended his session for two reasons: firstly, I had heard him earlier and he speaks very well; and secondly, my dear friend V, who is my guru, particularly, when it comes to advising me on what to read next, highly recommended Harvest;
so, how could I miss his session? It was lovely listening to Crace talk about his writing as he is such a modest person and instead of blowing his own trumpet, he pointed out his 'bad habits': a tendency to be over-moralistic; the over-use of rhythmic and poetic language; and a leaning towards pessimism.
He began the session by declaring himself to be an old fashioned storyteller, and then went on to state that the ability to tell stories is what makes us human. Perhaps, everyone can tell a story...but not many can write one well!
Crace talked about the importance of deciding which tense and person to write in. While the third person is the default voice of story telling, it implies an all-knowing narrator. In contrast, with the first person narrator, there is a sense that the narrator does not know everything and, instead, encounters things along with the reader. Similarly, by using the present tense, there is a sense of not knowing what lies ahead. Crace likened his narrator of Harvest to Nick Carraway who, though being a party to the action, was an observer.
He mentioned that in Harvest he touches upon three issues: capitalism; the tendency of people under pressure to look for scapegoats; the duality in the nature of humankind, of a person's immense love for his/her own land vs an immense curiosity for the rest of the world.
Crace while discussing religion said that though he was an atheist and believed more in land than in god, he did not dismiss god. He felt it was the norm for humankind to have belief. While he did not believe in the truth of religious stories he believed in the comfort that such stories provided. Great religions, according to him, understand the importance of a memorable story as a means for people to believe. Crace explained that he believed in the power of storytelling. However, with the progress of science religious narratives are being pushed to a corner so, according to Crace, new narratives are needed.
What really gets under Crace's skin is the assumption that an uneducated person person cannot have great sensibility. According to him, the argument that Shakespeare could not have written his plays because he came from a humble background is rubbish. He said that if one were to look at the upper class of the times they were 'buffoons'. Just like Shakespeare loved converting nouns to verbs, Crace confessed he loved doing the same.
Jim Al-Khalili's session was electrifying, pure magic! In less than an hour, he gave one a glimpse into the Golden Age of the Arabic speaking world, buzzing with the frenetic energy of scholars on their quest for learning. To hear of Ibn Sina and Al-Biruni exchanging letters, quizzing each other on the limits of their knowledge made me think that if it were not for their names, this could be a European Renaissance or modern day story of great minds swapping notes. Then, I thought to myself, why should it be such a surprise that science was so advanced in the Arabic speaking world, after all, the sophistication of their art and architecture would have to be paralleled in the other realms of knowledge. To think that this session with Al-Khalili was a bonus as the scheduled author was unable to make it for her time slot! If you have the time, you must watch this session on the JLF website.
The last session I attended was by Artemis Cooper on her biography of Patrick Leigh Fermor. She told such an engrossing tale about the man who walked across Europe over the span of two years; who romanced a Romanian princess; who kidnapped a German General off the isle of Crete; who accidentally became the target of a vendetta; who travelled to exotic islands to finally settle down in Greece and pen many a book; that not only am I motivated to pick up a copy of her biography of the man but I also want to read his travelogues.
Well, as you can see that over the period of this five day literary smorgasbord, I have ended up with quite an extensive reading list that I am going to be broke for a while!
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