?Much-loved? has always struck me as a back-handed compliment for a writer, but no other will do for Kate Atkinson. I?ve given Behind the Scenes at the Museum to people who recoil from ?literary? novels and Case Histories to the most fervent genre snob (those who would faint at my theory that Life After Life, among much else, is one of the finest science fiction novels of the year) and not had a complaint yet.
?To double your pleasure ? or at least mine ? she shared the stage with Romana Koval, the finest literary journalist ABC Radio was stupid enough to let get away.?
Here?s how good Koval is at interviews like this, and she?s done a lot over the years. I don?t know what caught her attention in the way Atkinson said ?creative outlet? about her early writing, but it lead to this response, which is entirely typical of Atkinson?s sharp wit and even sharper mind:
?I don?t like the word. It reminds me of ?creative writing? and I don?t like creative writing classes. I just sort of feel that learning to be a writer is really really hard and you have to do it on your own. And I don?t think anyone can really help you to write. That doesn?t mean you can?t go to creative writing classes, it?s just that I think learning to write is a very isolated individual thing.??? ?
?Koval followed up: ?Do you have to listen to others, at least while you?re learning??
??No, I don?t think that?s helpful actually. I think you have to read everything, it doesn?t matter if you forget it. Nobody can teach you what your good writing is, you have to feel it. If you want to write, you have to learn to be your own best critic, I think.? Finding that inner critic who can say ?that is crap, that doesn?t work? is the most important thing.??
Even if you totally disagree on the merits of creative writing classes, it?s still a useful insight into Atkinson?s mind.?And this session was full of moments like this.?Atkinson can speak with great authority and subtlety on craft and technique, but without pretension or taking it (or herself) excessively seriously.? It?s a sad reality of literary life that the two go together less often than they should.
Atkinson also had a way with the question and answer portion of the evening.? First, she laid down a challenge by sharing the best question she?d ever been asked, by a disturbingly creative teenager.
??If you were stranded on a desert island, which member of your family would you eat first??
Atkinson was right. Nobody topped that one.? And I?m still to hear any writer to come up with a better response than: ?I wouldn?t eat any member of my family, but I would eat a stranger. Especially if they were dead first.?
?I certainly can?t top that, except to share one sad piece of news from the Q&A.?Fans of Jackson Brodie are going to be in for a long wait. ?He?s on a cruise. A very long cruise.?
?If what comes next is as good as Life After Life, and leads to a return visit to the Auckland Writers & Readers Festival, I don?t want him to hurry back.
LIFE GOES ON: KATE ATKINSON
Source: http://www.listener.co.nz/culture/books/life-goes-on-kate-atkinson/
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