Yes, I go with the wave in writing too in the sense that when I start a book I don’t know if the book will succeed, I don’t know if I will abandon it, I don’t know how it is going to end, and it may end in a way which doesn’t satisfy me. For all of these reasons, the kind of books I write don’t become bestsellers. They have never really been bestsellers, although they have had an audience in different countries which is great from my point of view. But I don’t write books that become bestsellers because unlike some great writers, people like Dickens and even Dostoevsky, I don’t think of a market, of a body of readership, or a subject which would be of interest to people, or a subject which I feel is important and so, because it is contemporary and important I should write about it.
I think I am more in the Joycean vein in that I don’t think in terms of this book being like my last book, or of repeating a success. The thing I am interested in doing is not writing the same book twice. Many people write the same book over and over again and they are very good books. I am not knocking that. Evelyn Waugh said that everyone has very few tunes to play. He’s right and he wrote a similar book over and over and it was always brilliant and you could read every one of them and enjoy them and each of them was done from a different point of view and was marvellous… But because I feel time pressing in on me, I want to write a different book each time, even if I fail.
Previously unpublished interview 1973 [The Irish Times, 5 January 2019]
Use the link below to read the full interview with Irish/Canadian novelist BRIAN MOORE:
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Evelyn Waugh was right. It's the rare person who has more than a few tunes.
ReplyDeleteSome rare people find a way to find/create new things from deep within a well-worn pile, even when it's they themselves who've been rummaging within that pile their whole lives.
I'm seeing The Brian Jonestown Massacre in a few weeks time, and they fit this description. To make the same 3 chords you've been hearing (or playing!) your whole life sound remarkably new and striking is a real feat. I have a lot of respect for Anton Newcombe in this regard.
Waugh certainly was right. The ability to be consistently original is the rarest thing in any art form, which possibly explains why people get so excited by the work of artists (David Bowie springs to mind) who are (were) able to successfully and entertainingly reinvent themselves time after time.
ReplyDeleteI'm not all that familiar with the work of BJM/Anton Newcomb apart from "Anemone" which I think is a great song. But yes, I agree that the ability to make the same 3 chord structure sound new and striking is a remarkable feat. Hope you enjoy the show and thank you for taking the time to comment.