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Fwd: BBC radio adaptation of Vladimir Nabokovs novel Laughter in
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----- Forwarded message from spklein52@hotmail.com -----
Date: Sat, 28 May 2005 04:37:12 -0400
From: "Sandy P. Klein"
Reply-To: SPKlein52@HotMail.com
Subject: BBC radio adaptation of Vladimir Nabokovs novel Laughter in
theDark.
...
To: SPKlein52@HotMail.com
------------------[1]
http://www.chico.mweb.co.za/art/2005/2005may/050527-hill.html[2]
Inspired by school
Mail & Guardian Online - Johannesburg,SouthAfrica
... _ AUTHOR\'S NOTES: Craig Higginson's new novel The Hill_ isa
sensitive and well-told tale that is set at a young boys school, he
tells ZA@PLAY[3] more about the book. ...
May 27 2005
Inspired by school
AUTHOR\'S NOTES: Craig Higginson's new novel_The Hill_ is a
sensitive and well-told tale that is set at a young boysschool, he
tells ZA@PLAY more about the book.
Craig Higginsonwas born in Zimbabwe, but grew up and was educated
in South Africa. Hestudied at Wits and worked as Barney Simons
assistant at the MarketTheatre before moving to London, where he
worked as a journalist and inthe theatre, including a stint at the
Royal Shakespeare Company. In 2004he returned to South Africa.
Higginson now works as literary manager atthe Market Theatre and as
an editor. He has just won the Gold SonyAward for his BBC radio
adaptation of Vladimir Nabokovs novel Laughter inthe Dark_.
Like his previous novel, _Embodied Laughter_(1998), his new book,
_The Hill_ (Jacana) is set among boys at school. In_The Hill_,
however, they are younger and the focus is on one particularlad, his
family relationships and the ambiguous interaction thatdevelops
between him and a teacher. It is a sensitive, well-told tale.
DESCRIBE YOURSELF IN A SENTENCE.
Human beings are the only animalswho invent pictures of what they
want to be and then try to become them:like all of us, my pictures
change every day; they have ranged from JamesBond (generally when I
was little, although I still have my moments) to anold man sitting
contentedly in the sun.
DESCRIBE YOUR BOOK IN ASENTENCE.
The novel, which is set in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, follows avery
tricky year in the life of a simple but endlessly resourceful boy
called Andrew Hughes.
DESCRIBE YOUR IDEAL READER.
Someone whois open to whatever the book has to offer.
WHAT WAS THE ORIGINATINGIDEA?
Books derive their existence from many sources. I started writing
this one when I was living in England and missing home. I think I
felt acertain nostalgia for a time of my life, and for a landscape,
that Iseemed to have moved away from forever and I wanted to
return there fora while. But I realised, once I had entered into
that imagined land, thatI was actually rewriting a story I had
written when I was about 12 before I had even known what a novel
was. So perhaps I wanted to write thestory I hadnt had the tools or
experience to do justice to back then. Butbooks are mysterious
creatures, and when I look at this one now I am notquite sure how it
came about.
DESCRIBE THE PROCESS OF WRITINGAND PUBLISHING THE BOOK.
The first draft of _The Hill_ was written over anintensive period of
four months in England several years ago. I came backto it now and
again and reworked it over the years. I sent it to an agentin
England, who told me no one was interested in reading a book about a
boy who goes to boarding school. This was just before Harry Potter
maniaconsumed the planet. Last year I dusted off the manuscript and
sent it toa few publishers. I got positive responses from all those
who actuallyread it and I chose Jacana. One element of the research
is worthmentioning. When I wrote the first draft, I developed a kind
of personalmythology for Andrew in which certain animals in that
landscape, forexample, represented certain things. When I later went
to the BritishLibrary and dug up 19th-century oral testimonies from
the last survivingDrakensberg San, I found that what I had written
resonated in all sorts ofunexpected ways with their mythology. A
coincidence? Perhaps. But it led meto think that there might not be
such a difference, after all, betweenthose long-departed people and
ourselves. Our affinities as human beingsacross time and space run
deep, but only when we are alive to them.
NAME SOME WRITERS WHO HAVE INSPIRED YOU AND TELL US WHY OR HOW.
Many writers have inspired me but two of the stronger influences
behind_The Hill_, in terms of novels, are _Lord of the Flies_ and
_Death inVenice_ -- as anyone who reads it would perhaps pick up.
The two writers Iwas conscious of being indebted to during the
writing were Bruce Chatwin (Iwanted to write a slim, poetic book in
which not a word was wasted) andGraham Greene (I wanted to present
the scenes dramatically, sticking todialogue and description and
reducing the narrators voice, so that thereader could be given
space to form his or her own opinions).
WHAT ARE YOU READING AT THE MOMENT?
_Celestial Navigation_ by AnneTyler.
DO YOU WRITE BY HAND, OR USE A TYPEWRITER OR COMPUTER?
Iuse a computer strange at first, but when youre on a roll you
feel likea concert pianist!
WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF FICTION?
It can bewhatever you need it to be: entertainment, stimulant,
antidepressant ordepressant! companion, lover, antagonist ...
Through books, people speakto us and we are taken to places we never
knew existed. The possibilites offiction are at once limited and
infinite. I cant define its purpose, I canonly assert its
importance.
IS THERE ANYTHING YOU WISH TOADD?
I think it is criminal that books cost what they do here. How canwe
expect people to read when books cost four times more than a movie
ticket? In England, paperback novels and films cost about the same.
Thatis as it should be. My publisher has made my novel considerably
lessexpensive than some, but we have a long way to go, and it is not
only downto the publishers: the government also needs to help.
_Jay Parini isthe author of The Art of Subtraction (George
Braziller)_
Links:
------
[1] http://www.mg.co.za/
[2] http://www.chico.mweb.co.za/art/2005/2005may/050527-hill.html
[3] http://www.chico.mweb.co.za/art/2005/2005may/050527-hill.html
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