The festival seems to be going well. Most of the attendees are enthusiastic and patient and kind, and I'm enjoying lots of little chats with them. Notes on the four sessions I saw yesterday:
The Honest Trader suffered a little from losing John Pilger. There were two replacement speakers which meant none of the three speakers had quite enough time. Duncan Green dealt best with this privation and was sharp and snappy. Kenneth Davidson seemed like he was only just getting started--his argument linked global warming and free trade but he barely scratched the surface. It was probably because he spoke so slowly, which I'm sure is very dignified but I wanted to hear much more. Davidson got to sharpen his wit on Q+A participants later on though. From my point of view (economics dummkopf), the suggestions of my RMIT building-mate Heikki Patomaki about the future of governing world trade were admirably succinct, though he was rushed in the end.
Don't Get Too Comfortable: As soon as David Rakoff used Duncan Green's 'one minute please' warning sheet as the basis for a joke I was charmed. His author reading from Don't Get Too Comfortable was a blast (he's also an actor--watch for him as 'not-Gore-Vidal' in Capote). I'm a bourgie food-enjoyer so his jibes at artisan sea-salt consumers were not lost on me. Quite helpfully, if you're not familiar with his work, he said he owes his whole career to David Sedaris (they are also friends).
I was ushering during Salman Rushdie's The Enchanter session. Though I'm a bit weirded out at some people's insistence on calling him Sir Salman (I get an image of a fish with a walking cane), and though I probably don't want to read another book of his again (two is enough), he was an endearing centre of attention for an hour. Even beamed live from Edinburgh, he was a crowd-pleaser who cracked jokes and laughed at them afterwards, but in the best possible way, just like he was happy that everyone was having such a good time. Best moment was when someone in the Edinburgh audience asked him about towns in India that were good to visit for people with low mobility. Apparently the city where The Enchantress of Florence is set was designed with wide streets and ramps everywhere in order for the princess' litter to be carried with ease, which makes it ideal for tourists with limited mobility. He suggested a very flat town whose name I can't remember, and then told a story about a tower whose architecture amplifies the voice of a speaker such that it can be heard as far away as the ramparts.
The undisputed highlight of the day for me was Sailing with Nam Le. Le was articulate, considered, inestimably gracious, funny. I actually had a freak-out moment when I thought he was my age (24) but I found out later that he was older. From what I know about him, I wouldn't characterise him as an 'ethnic fiction' writer, but two of his stories are about Vietnamese immigrants coming to Australia. Le discussed the exploitative potential inherent in ethnic fiction, which has often been on my mind lately, and explained his interest in the interface between audience and writer, the building up of expectation and knowledge through autobiographical detail. The discussion touched on writerly disappointment (his 700-page novel was turfed after he deemed it unsalvageable) and rigour. I was charmed to see a writer so enthralled by aesthetics and craft. A better advertisement for a book I have never seen. Thank god he left his law firm. It was great to see Sophie Cunningham chairing that session, as I missed her and Le in the morning's Ear to the Ground session.
The Honest Trader suffered a little from losing John Pilger. There were two replacement speakers which meant none of the three speakers had quite enough time. Duncan Green dealt best with this privation and was sharp and snappy. Kenneth Davidson seemed like he was only just getting started--his argument linked global warming and free trade but he barely scratched the surface. It was probably because he spoke so slowly, which I'm sure is very dignified but I wanted to hear much more. Davidson got to sharpen his wit on Q+A participants later on though. From my point of view (economics dummkopf), the suggestions of my RMIT building-mate Heikki Patomaki about the future of governing world trade were admirably succinct, though he was rushed in the end.
Don't Get Too Comfortable: As soon as David Rakoff used Duncan Green's 'one minute please' warning sheet as the basis for a joke I was charmed. His author reading from Don't Get Too Comfortable was a blast (he's also an actor--watch for him as 'not-Gore-Vidal' in Capote). I'm a bourgie food-enjoyer so his jibes at artisan sea-salt consumers were not lost on me. Quite helpfully, if you're not familiar with his work, he said he owes his whole career to David Sedaris (they are also friends).
I was ushering during Salman Rushdie's The Enchanter session. Though I'm a bit weirded out at some people's insistence on calling him Sir Salman (I get an image of a fish with a walking cane), and though I probably don't want to read another book of his again (two is enough), he was an endearing centre of attention for an hour. Even beamed live from Edinburgh, he was a crowd-pleaser who cracked jokes and laughed at them afterwards, but in the best possible way, just like he was happy that everyone was having such a good time. Best moment was when someone in the Edinburgh audience asked him about towns in India that were good to visit for people with low mobility. Apparently the city where The Enchantress of Florence is set was designed with wide streets and ramps everywhere in order for the princess' litter to be carried with ease, which makes it ideal for tourists with limited mobility. He suggested a very flat town whose name I can't remember, and then told a story about a tower whose architecture amplifies the voice of a speaker such that it can be heard as far away as the ramparts.
The undisputed highlight of the day for me was Sailing with Nam Le. Le was articulate, considered, inestimably gracious, funny. I actually had a freak-out moment when I thought he was my age (24) but I found out later that he was older. From what I know about him, I wouldn't characterise him as an 'ethnic fiction' writer, but two of his stories are about Vietnamese immigrants coming to Australia. Le discussed the exploitative potential inherent in ethnic fiction, which has often been on my mind lately, and explained his interest in the interface between audience and writer, the building up of expectation and knowledge through autobiographical detail. The discussion touched on writerly disappointment (his 700-page novel was turfed after he deemed it unsalvageable) and rigour. I was charmed to see a writer so enthralled by aesthetics and craft. A better advertisement for a book I have never seen. Thank god he left his law firm. It was great to see Sophie Cunningham chairing that session, as I missed her and Le in the morning's Ear to the Ground session.
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4 comments:
Hi Estelle,
'Sailing' was also definitely a highlight for me. Looks like we went to a few of the same things. My Part 1 diary will be up tonight - so pop on later and check it out. Make sure you spend some time in the Festival Club next weekend too - I met so many people in there, it was great!
LM
I was similarly taken with Nam Le, having seen him on Saturday in the 'Getting Personal' session with David Sedaris and Judith Lucy. I can see why Sedaris has such a following: he clearly lives to tell stories. Lucy had some worthwhile things to say but it would be good to see her drop the comedy guise (her talk, delivered stand-up style, was highly entertaining). Le was the straight guy of the three, but he had wonderful things to say about self-consciousness/awareness in writing and the 'danger' of fiction (as in hiding behind characterisation to reveal the author's own prejudices).
LM: My friend did a great job with the Above Water anthology so I'll be at the launch at the Festival Club. I think they're giving away free copies, which is awesome. If you're there, the codeword is 'ping pong'...
Fi: I am a huge short story fan and I like hearing anyone else enamoured of the form talk about it, but I particularly liked how upfront, generous and considered Nam Le was about the work involved in his writing.
David Sedaris would have been great, but all his sessions were sold out by the time I got my act together. I love how he seems chronically interested in everything. David Ratkoff was the same.
Good luck getting Judith Lucy to talk unlike her famous drawling, dry persona though!
Codeword 'Ping Pong' - I'll remember that :-)
My own post is up now if you want to take a squiz.
LM
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