Two octogenarians

[altariel]

Last Friday I went to hear Chinua Achebe give the first Annual Lecture in African Studies at the Law Faculty here in the Unreal City. On Monday I went to hear Russell Hoban speak about his novel Riddley Walker, which is thirty years old this year.

The Law Faculty was packed for Achebe (eighty years old). I got there forty minutes before Achebe was due to speak, and found myself at the end of a queue of several hundred people, with more arriving. We were directed to an overflow room that had been arranged with a video link, but I sneaked past the stewards and grabbed a sole empty chair at the back of the room. Achebe began speaking a little after 5pm. Softly spoken, he read at first from a prepared lecture, but soon became less formal, more discursive. Well worn stories, well told. He masterfully took us in a split second from the companionable humour of the Society of Nigerian Authors to the tragedies of the coups of the late 1960s. The lecture, in part, took the form of an address to Nigerian politicians in advance of the presidential election happening next year, and asked why, fifty years after independence, its promise had not been fulfilled. He was dry, brilliant; it was a real occasion and a privilege to be there.

Ah putcha putcha putcha! Mr Punch came out within moments of Hoban (eighty-five years old) sitting down for his interview. The man himself is sharp, witty, not missing a trick, but the careful pace with which he formulated his answers seemed to unnerve the interviewer, John Mullan. Mullan then filled in too many of these gaps with chat about himself. I wish he'd been confident (or self-effacing?) enough to let Hoban take the time that he wanted to answer. As Hoban himself says, part of the function of the language in Riddley Walker is to slow the reader down to the speed of Riddley's thinking. I'd have happily slowed down with Hoban: what he thought was worth hearing, because he had taken time to formulate his words in order fully to express his meaning. However, to the tweeter who asked whether, in the cut-throat world of today's publishing, a writer like Hoban would have the freedom to publish the variety of books which he has published, Hoban responded quite promptly, "Talent will out."

Two very old men, each speaking slowly and with care. I wonder how time feels at this age?

Comments

[vasiliki.livejournal.com]

My father was 80. It feels like time passes very fast, and often a day is blending into the next - there may exist confusion about a certain day's events.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

My mother is 80, but doesn't seem to have changed much since her sixties. Actually, when I saw her for on her birthday, she looked less tired than she did before she retired (at 56). Whiter haired, and a little slower on her feet, but less weary.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I'd loved to have seen that! I've got a DVD of an Irish production from a couple of years ago, absolutely brilliant. The language really benefits from being said, it's startling to look at on the page (though you quickly get the hang of it). I'd love to have an audio book of it.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I have a feeling it was a limited DVD run that might now be sold out - fortunately I have a copy which I'll gladly lend (currently on loan, I'll put you to the top of the list when it's returned).

[gair.livejournal.com]

Oh, how awesome that the Unreal City is using its powers for good!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Sometimes they manage it!

[communicator.livejournal.com]

Meeting a number of West Indian guys last week I was struck by how they were comfortable with slow anecdotal narrative. They told stories in a very engaging, wordy, way, employing certain repetitive phrases which I think is typical of oral culture - for example 'Now listen, this happened'. They spoke quite slowly, telling a story at length, and the listeners followed that convention and did not interrupt.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

certain repetitive phrases

They function in part as memory hooks, don't they - helping the speaker organize the material as s/he progresses through it? I should find out more about this.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Homeric epithets!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Wise Odysseus! Rosy-fingered dawn! Wine-red sea! Am I getting 'em right?

[azalaisdep.livejournal.com]

IIRC Beowulf does rather the same, no? And for the same reasons...

[sensiblecat.livejournal.com]

Meeting a number of West Indian guys last week I was struck by how they were comfortable with slow anecdotal narrative. They told stories in a very engaging, wordy, way, employing certain repetitive phrases which I think is typical of oral culture - for example 'Now listen, this happened'. They spoke quite slowly, telling a story at length, and the listeners followed that convention and did not interrupt.

I wonder if that's something to do with education? Kids today have such short attention spans and their books, both fiction and NF, are very ADHD-friendly with masses of cartoons, different fonts and call-out boxes on every page. All this is supposed to make reading less daunting, but it makes it hard to concentrate on the long haul. Never mind the classics, even your average Enid Blyton looks like an impenetrable wall of type to your modern child.

[azalaisdep.livejournal.com]

Everybody says that, but... First Small Person, aged 7 (despite being completely hyperactive at times in other areas of life) really relishes getting stuck into text-based narrative, though sometimes it helps to read the first chapter with an adult to get him started; he read large chunks of The Hobbit to himself this summer in between Resident Geek and me reading chapters.

But I realise you see the reading habits of a much wider range of primary school children than I do, and I accept that First may not be exactly typical... ;-)

[happytune.livejournal.com]

The evidence suggests this is a factor relating to socio-economic and socio-cultural factors, not something intrinsically to do with contemporary children's culture. If a child /hears/ nursery rhymes and wonderful stories early (and some of those can be some of the wonderful new children's picture books), and is encouraged to /tell/ stories about things they've experienced, they're more likely to get into exciting literature further down the line. It matters less whether those stories are shared digitally, or whether they're shared in traditional children's books like Rosie's Walk (still a classroom favourite). What matters is the repeated exposure to different worlds and perspectives.

Hilary Minns showed this years ago in 'Read it to me now', and there hasn't really been new research to discount her work.

[azalaisdep.livejournal.com]

What's always really interesting with our two (boys, aged 7 and nearly-4) is that even when they've been watching a cartoon film or a children's programme like Charlie and Lola, they dissect it very much in terms of narrative and plot: "This happened, and then this happened because this character did that..."

They also keep up a constant narrative commentary on any make-believe game they are playing - even if one of them is playing by himself he will still continually narrate the game out loud.

But then they have been read to daily since they were absolutely tiny, live in a house where books are perpetually piled on every surface, and know that even the adults have to be reminded that it's not polite to read at the dinner table, so what you say about the research (and I did vaguely know that that was the case) makes absolute sense...

[happytune.livejournal.com]

Do you mind if I ask a question (feel free not to respond if it makes you feel uncomfortable)? Did/do either/both of your children have imaginary friend (s)? Or paracosms (imaginary worlds)?

[azalaisdep.livejournal.com]

No imaginary friends, unless they're keeping very quiet about them. And I don't get the impression they have a single, worked-out imaginary world; they seem to create the world either singly or together on a one-off basis for each game they're playing, and cast themselves (and the imaginary "baddies") according to whichever fictional 'verses they've most recently been watching or reading; pirates, medieval knights, Star Wars characters and Daleks all currently being common, often mixed up in glorious cross-over :-)

I should probably add that more recently, at least some of their world-building and narrative is also being influenced by computer games, either that the seven-year-old plays himself (such as Machinarium) or watches Daddy playing (such as Portal) - some of Daddy's other games like Team Fortress 2 are very strictly kept to after small people's bedtime!

So it would be too simplistic to suggest that books = narrative influence and screen = low attention span and superficiality, and I should give the good, thoughtful, slow, involving computer games some credit too...

[happytune.livejournal.com]

Very interesting!

[happytune.livejournal.com]

PS - I love Achebe's work - so glad you shared this experience!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I've only read Things Fall Apart and the essay on Conrad: must read more.

[sensiblecat.livejournal.com]

I haven't read a lot of Chinua Achebe, or indeed African literature generally, but I read 'Things Fall Apart' a year or two back and it gave me quite a lot of insight into the tribal world-view.

I don't think we value the wisdom of elders nearly enough. We have a neophyte culture and a middle-aged cohort of baby boomers who think growing old is about the worst thing that could happen to them.

[katlinel.livejournal.com]

I sneaked past the stewards and grabbed a sole empty chair at the back of the room

You are such a subversive!

Both events sound awesome, even if the interviewer couldn't match the pacing of Hoban.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

In fact, if I'd done what the stewards said, I might have ended up with a better seat: lots of people who had reserved seats didn't turn up, and mere mortals were allowed to fill their places just before the start. Will I Never Learn?

[intertext.livejournal.com]

How wonderful! I'd have loved to hear Russell Hoban. I read Riddley Walker way back before I even went into English, and I remember arguing with a friend who _was_ an English MA student about the significance of the dogs. I never did really figure out what was going on with that scene where they glow green and dance in a circle - that might be an advantage of seeing a dvd or stage version of the book!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

(I've fallen behind on responding to comments, sorry!) He's looking old, but there was a sharp glint to his eye. He mentioned the dogs: that they symbolized "blackness", and he called himself a "schwarzophile". God only knows what the glowing green and dancing in a circle means though!

[azalaisdep.livejournal.com]

How fantastic - I would have loved to hear Chinua Achebe, and what a tribute that so many hundreds turned out to hear him. I guess that in part, by the time you reach your eighties giving a prolonged interview may in itself be quite physically tiring, so perhaps it's no surprise that they each weighed their words with care and didn't babble. Can't help feeling there may be a lesson there somewhere for the rest of us...

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I'd only read Things Fall Apart and the essay on Conrad. And a short story. Another writer to work through.

[kvaadk.livejournal.com]

Whoa, two terrific experiences -- I envy you them both.

Age itself does not bring wisdom, nor do I think it affects the perception of time very much. (Though now that I am thinking of it, where did 2010 go?) We have built an instant-gratification culture and we will, I suspect, carry our right-now attitude with us right to the grave. People who have learned the value of taking the time to do things right the first time may try our patience, but when they do speak the ratio of message to noise is much better than we usually muster.

I've always suspected that wisdom came from a combination of reflection and agility. Like any other muscle the brain benefits from both exercise and rest in proper sequence and proportion.

[wormwood-7.livejournal.com]

Both events sounds wonderful. Would have loved to be there. A prattling interviewer is always rather annoying though.
I supposed when you get to that age, you are aware that remaining time may be in measured supply.
Having said that, my parents are in their 70's and 80's and much the same as they have been the last 30 years. Both a good thing and bad thing.