Buy Jerusalem now!
I am an open book
First interview for ‘Jerusalem' on Open Book on Radio 4 (above). Recorded on Thursday, it was broadcast this afternoon, but I couldn't bring myself to listen. Dad listened for me and, afterwards, we agreed I'd done OK; though neither of us could quite remember what I'd said.
My main thought is that I seem to have developed a fear of offending people. Initially, I thought this a mark of maturity, but now I'm not so sure. Over the weekend, I saw a stand-up comedian on TV who did a whole section on precisely this - what's happened to ‘sticks and stones', he asked? After all, causing offence is hardly a disaster, and people who are offended should just be offended and move on.
The routine was both funnier and more profound that I'm making it sound in the retelling ...
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on 02 July 2009, 7:44:53 PM
Thanks for posting the audio clip.
By the way, for what it's worth, I've mentioned your book on my Twitter and Facebook. Best of luck with it. I've ordered a copy and will be taking it on holiday with me in a few weeks.
Take care,
Dariush.
PS Odd fact: I would never have recognised your voice.
on 25 June 2009, 4:46:38 PM
Your description of yourself, the world and the potential misunderstanding of your views make you a most compelling person to follow-up.
You came across as enigmatic, for fear of being misunderstood.
But that means that you didn't feel able to spell out simply and reliably what you think and believe.
Which means that people like me, who earnestly want to know more about your actual views, will constantly fear that everything you've written for us to read will be similarly oblique and cloaked in a diaphenous shroud to partially obscure what you fear we might learn.
For the moment, this seems an interesting potential chase, to embark on the journey to learn what views you have, that you fear to enunciate, for fear of being cruelly allied with less salubrious people who some may mistake for holding the same views as you.
A curious mystery indeed.
But again I come up against the fundamental conundrum: if I believe I've determined what it is that you fear to spell out, then I can find no confirmation of that, because you're loathe to admit what you think.
Anyway, that paradox aside, I'd love to know why you think that what the Western media report about Africa is not accurate and fair; why you believe that Westerners should stop wringing their hands about what happened in the past colonial times and embrace the current world with a much lesser sense of guilt; and why it is that a writer like yourself believes its important that you play an "obfuscation game" and fear that honesty and bluntness will lead to bad things befalling you.
I guess you're answer may be in that last sentence - I can't reveal, because I fear the consequences of what may follow from being publicly honest.
Its reminiscent of the fears of whistle-blowers: they'd like to speak out, but they fear the personal implications.
Anyway, by declaring that you couldn't say what you really think, you've got my interest and attention.
Could I now be on a "hiding to nothing" ? - I fear that may be the inevitable logical consequence of becoming interested in someone who feels they can't tell you the very thing that you're interested to know.
And all I did was leave the radio on !
on 24 June 2009, 4:18:53 PM
Having not read the book, a bit annoyed to find out Jim's fate already (an accidental spoiler?) but maybe it doesn't matter in context. Other would-be listeners, beware!
Were you a bit aggressive in putting down her question on 'cool'? I think it depends what you mean by 'cool': if 'cool' captures aspiration to a reality that you believe in, then isn't that what you're trying to do with Bookslam: sticking literature back into a mainstream evening out scene, that otherwise dips into music, plays, films but bypasses novels and poetry... isn't that making it 'cool'.
Hmm, not sure. Perhaps you're right.
Out of interest, it's funny to me how 'cool' has somehow kept its broad connotation the same when, say, 'wizard' (the 50s), or 'wicked' (the 90s) have both faded out of use a lot faster. I doubt 'sick' (the 0s) will survive the decade.
From the total blank canvas, I'm really interested in how a book focussed in Africa is titled "Jerusalem". I guess that makes it a good title. Jerusalem is a fascinatingly pervasive concept.
I'll shut up now, I'm boring.
on 22 June 2009, 11:36:14 PM
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