PEN ends

The final event I saw at the PEN World Voices New York Festival of International Literature was A Believer Nighttime Event. Described as:

A literary “variety show” presented by The Believer—a monthly books and culture magazine published by McSweeney’s—and hosted by writer and performer John Hodgman. In addition to a conversation between artist Matthew Ritchie and novelist Ben Marcus, a panel called "The Secret Life of Secrets" and surprise guests guarantee an eclectic night of entertainment.

John Hodgman got things started with a hilarious deadpan introduction. Audience was rolling; something about his delivery is just funny, plus he had a well-written text. He knew he was being funny, but it was still funny.

Next was an odd power-point presentation on something related to theories of time, by someone who's name isn't in the official program. It was like 15 minutes, about 1:40 of which was funny. People at first thought the whole thing was gonna be funny, when you're in the mood to laugh it really is too bad when you can't.

Then a panel, on Secrets (kindof). Hodgman briefly introduced each author with some true biographical facts, then an over-the-top line from a 60s-era spy novel. Panelists were:

Samantha Hunt, who doesn't appear in the PEN program. Her weird website says she's a writer living in New York; I felt bad for her, it was a totally packed auditorium and people like Salman Rushdie were there, almost felt like someone defending their graduate thesis. She really tried hard to be a good moderator, and actually I think she was, just turned red every so often and the strings were a little too visible. All the panelists addressed their remarks to her, instead of the audience--either because they really like her question, or maybe because they were for the most part young panel members, or because there's something about someone who earnestly wants things to go well that makes you want to help out somehow.

Israeli Etgar Keret, an intense young guy who I liked instantly, maybe because it was obvious writing was really important to him and he really liked talking about it. His line from Hodgman was he knew over 200 ways to kill someone using what was in a typical hotel room... Keret said he was still mentally trying to add it all up, only had like 20, and was already using soap as a weapon. Hunt, who seemed to really know the panelists' works, asked him about his past comments that he's not a political writer. He said well, given the way Israel is, to be a non-political writer in an intensely political society is itself political. Near the end he said for him, it was like he embedded personal experiences in his writing, but in a code--aka everything was slant--so he knew, but nobody else did, which saved him much embarrasment.

Chinese now American Yiyun Li, who said she came to writing late and whose bio says she came to the U.S. originally to study medicine was good-natured, but underneath you could tell she was made of steel. She responded to Hunt's question about if our society today is losing imagination by saying she didn't think kids in general every really had much imagination, relating the story of how she asked her son how come he didn't play with this girl whom apparently everyone also ignored, to which he replied because I don't have time. She then asked him if he could imagine what it'd be like to have no friends, and he said 'No.' I think she's right in one sense, actually, it's hard for kids to have a feel for others in a realistic or authentic way, unless they themselves have had an experience to base it on. Not much empathy among kids, although there's a lot of natural niceness. She later said there's this Chinese saying that everything happens twice; she's more interested in how things mirror or slant the second time through.

Argentinian Rodrigo Fresán seemed like your typical wound-up author, letting statements loose in little bursts. He, also in response to a Hunt question about doubles in his writing, said by the way, I have a double out there--a guy on the Internet who pretends to be him, and writes a blog about 'his' experiences. He gave a little laugh, said it was bothersome, but also sometimes good since the guy online seems to have a much more boring life than he does.

Nigerian/British Helen Oyeyemi, who's a Cambridge student who wrote her book at age 19 had a lot of cool energy, wonderful accent and a joyful feel; she clearly was just floating through the whole thing, really made me think wow, anyone with something real to say can be a novelist. It's like how democratic marathons have become. She talked about the genesis of her book in an imaginary friend she had growing up, until one day he was hit by a car. No follow-up to that comment, unfortunately. I didn't get the feeling she's someone to watch, necessarily; seemed to me to be a happy person, studying political science and finding out about the world. Then again, she may have been hiding her light under a bushel.

Croatian/Dutch Dubravka Ugresic, an older, kindof sour-faced woman who didn't quite fit on this panel of mostly fresh-faced, certainly free-spirited authors. She was blunt, and apparently takes writing quite seriously. You get the feeling she writes to get it out.

Salman Rushdie got up after the panel to read a selection from his novel Shalimar the Clown. I like Rushdie's writing, quite a lot--I count his Midnight's Children trilogy (Shame, and Satanic Verses) as among the best books of the past--100? 200? years. I also liked Haroun and the Sea of Stories.

But in the political realm, the guy's very inconsistant. As the leader of PEN, and the person who came up with the idea for this festival and personally made it happen, he's great. But his op-ed pieces on topics like Islamic fundamentalism tend to be preachy and politically ill-informed.

I don't begrudge him that side, though--he obviously has had personal reasons to speak out on these topics. It's just another example though of these almost autistic geniuses, who can be so subtle in their chosen field and yet totally tone-deaf in others.

And I don't think genius is too strong a word for Rushdie. He has an immediately recognizable style that's complicated in its seeming-stream-of-consciousness. He has a really good feel for words, for rhythmns; plus he's funny, and cutting and quite insightful in his fiction. His books make you laugh, and think, at 80 mph going around hairpin curves.

At any rate, his reading was interesting--he's good at it, does vocal inflections and other little things to keep the listener entertained. His prose, though, begs to be reread, and he didn't obviously do that, so the delightful savoring had to be done in your head, by which time he was already on to 50 other flights of fancy.

Still, it was appropriate for me to end my PEN fest marathon with the man who started it all. Curious to see how, with all of Rushdie's pet topics in the news all the time, what he writes next.

Maybe something about the fashion world.