My essay on three novels by the late Chilean novelist, Roberto Bolano, appears in the current issue of the Dublin Review of Books.
His protagonists are wanderers, usually bohemian, invariably troubled, following their distant star across oceans, into deserts, through the orbit of violence and evil or madness, then on into the depths of almost certain obscurity. They live, for the most part, in the contemporary world, consuming books and encountering friends and lovers, but their dedication to art seems anachronistic, more of a piece with the romantics, surrealists, or beat poets: these are not the kind of self-branding careerists to show up as writers in residence or guests on Start the Week. As with all great vocations, many are called but few are chosen: suicide, addiction and neurosis are often their lot but, along the way, they partake of a quest which, for Bolano, is the most interesting thing humans can do.
Not exactly high-fidelity since I forgot to take the recorder out of my pocket–but I hope you like it.
Thanks to Dermot and Steve for a great night of music, fun, and smart people. The next event is being held on Saturday, November 20th. See their Facebook page for details.
FJK commented: “I like these 5 Antidotes. I deal with fears real and unreal in many recovering alcholic/drug addicts and it’s always a negative. Could you give me a couple of examples where it would become ones servant?”
And here was my response:
Thanks for the feedback. I suppose the point I am trying to get at is that fear is in fact something internal to our minds/nervous systems and thus, like pain, is actually meant to serve us (so that we can avoid unpleasant experiences).
However, because we are wired to avoid short-term threats, our fear system sometimes does not act in our best interest e.g. if I let my fear of water dominate me I will never learn to swim.
So the best way to treat my fear system is as a highly paranoid servant, who may well be right some of the time but not all the time.
The reason I say truest servant is because by treating its alarms as a useful indicator I can quickly identify areas of self-actualization that my paranoid servant is trying to warn me away from e.g. a young man in a long-term relationship might be terrified at the prospect of marriage. In fact, his fear is a strong indicator that there is a deeper destiny awaiting him–if he has the courage to overcome his fear he might well find fulfillment as a father.
Another example: a shy person is unreasonably afraid of strangers. And yet, if they can open the door to new people they might find a new role for themselves in, say, public service.
Some people go out of their way to systematically conquer each and every fear they possess but that does seem extreme to me!
In the week that the world’s biggest bookseller announced they are selling more Ebooks than hardbacks, it seems apposite to hearken to the message below, written with us in mind by Ulster poet Louis MacNeice.
This dates from just over half a century ago and the time to consider the poem’s meaning has surely come.
Happily our generation comes out of this interrogation rather well, as the English language, whatever the platform, is livelier and more playful than ever. But I leave it to you to decide–after all, the piece is addressed…
To Posterity
When books have all seized up like the books in graveyards
And reading and even speaking have been replaced
By other, less difficult, media, we wonder if you
Will find in flowers and fruit the same colour and taste
They held for us for whom they were framed in words,
And will your grass be green, your sky be blue,
Or will your birds be always wingless birds?
Video of the talk I gave the other night in Westport, at Ignite the West. Great fun, great people, and a really good forum to hatch new ideas. Thanks to the organizers, Steve and Dermot, for a great opportunity.
One of the great things about having children is that it gives you the opportunity to return to childhood classics–and also read the books you’d like to read now if you were an 8-year-old. There’s many more we got through at bedtime than these of course, but these are stand-outs:
Emil and the Detectives by Erich Kastner. Revisiting a favourite from my childhood. [AmazonUK] [US]
Five Children and It by E. Nesbit. Wonderfully funny–and witty too. [AmazonUK] [US]
It Was a Dark and Stormy Night by Allan and Janet Ahlberg. Cervantes for the under-10 set. [AmazonUK] [US]
Just William by Richmal Crompton. Misadventures of spirited boy prone to scrapes: a masterclass in comic writing. [AmazonUK] [US]
Stig of the Dump by Clive King. Again, revisiting a favourite from my childhood with the alibi that I am reading to the kids. [AmazonUK] [US]
The Unlucky Day by Richard Scarry. Disaster comedy puts credit crunch in perspective: imagine cold pickles for dinner in flooded home! [AmazonUK] [US]
Tom’s Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce. A young boy finds friendship with mysterious children in the garden, a place transformed when night falls and midnight strikes… [AmazonUK] [US]
The non-fiction books that I’ve read over the past 12 months. Unfortunately Taleb was a real disappointment: the book equivalent of a late-night infomercial that makes much out of little; Twyla Tharp’s was on the other end of the scale, as was the Heaney book.
12 Books That Changed the World by Melvyn Bragg. Not the usual suspects, the ones that had a demonstrable effect on daily life.
A Short History of English Literature by Gilbert Phelps. Dry but useful account, mercifully devoid of psuedocritical psauce.
Enemies of Promise by Cyril Connolly while rocking the pram in the hall. Direct, insightful, and strangely encouraging.
Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman. Great fun for bibliophiles; for those left cold by reading, not so much.
Literary Lives by Edmund Sorel, illustrator. The dope on Jung, Sartre, Brecht, and other monsters, drawn with relish and wit.
On the Sublime by Longinus. “Sublimity is the echo of a great soul”. Nearly 2000 years old and still on the money.
Stepping Stones [Heaney Interviews by Dennis O'Driscoll]. Ulster Poet proves efficacy of unSilence, unExile, & unCunning for Irish literary triumph.
The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Probability Prof take smart thesis and goes off the deep end. Tiresome ego-trip.
The Irish Times newspaper from the day of my birth: snowstorms, death of revolutionary WT Cosgrave, and Vatican Council on TV
The Creative Habit. by Twyla Tharp. Practicalities for the artistically inclined. Engrossing, insightful, useful. Excuse me now while I defenstrate the television.
Unreliable Memoirs by Clive James. From an Australian boyhood through London bedsits to glittering success and hyper-productive maturity. The fourth volume, (North Face of Soho) is the most enjoyable of the set: as wisdom of age settles over the reminiscences.
Thanks to Twitter, I’ve found a good system for tracking my recent reading. Here are capsule reviews of fiction that has made an impression on me in the last 12 months:
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner. Avant-garde means yield to poetic ends. A Southern King James in places. Riveting; funny too.
Netherland by Joseph O’Neill. Perfectly realized meditation on New York, cricket, and the immigrant experience. Pace Zelie Smith, too perfect perhaps?
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. Wish-fulfilment thriller by Swedish journalist: misogynist execs decoded, destroyed
The Good Soldier Svejk by Jaroslav Hasek. ‘Certified idiot’ tramps about w/Austrian army during WWI, proves to be sanest there.
The Mask of Dimitrios by Eric Ambler. Tintin for adults.
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami. A Still Life in which everything is happening.
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. Very Funny. Malicious Devil amuses himself in Stalin’s Moscow. Poets irrepressible.
“What I Found Out About Her” by Peter LaSalle [Antioch Review 66.1]. A short story. Nuanced meditation on sad mystery of young suicide.
My essay on three novels by the late Chilean novelist, Roberto Bolano, appears in the current issue of the Dublin Review of Books.
Five thoughts I hope you find useful:
Here’s an original story I told at an Open Mic in the 
In the week that the world’s biggest bookseller announced they are selling 
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