Sunday, October 12, 2008
“I’m concerned these silences leave a gap in yourself..”
Writer Sebastian Barry is one of the favourites to take the Man Booker prize this year - possibly connected to his previous short-listing. The Guardian’s Saturday Review carried a lengthy interview with him yesterday which included this resonant paragraph.
Barry once began a childhood memoir but soon abandoned it, wary that he might “drain the well from where I draw water”. But he says he has become increasingly “afraid of things that cannot be said. I’m afraid of the damage that is caused by not speaking of people like Roseanne, the unmentioned first wife, like so many families’ old uncle Jacks who died in the first world war fighting for England. I’m concerned these silences leave a gap in yourself which then leaves a gap in your children and can ultimately lead to a hole in the country’s sense of itself. Ireland’s history is so much more rich, exciting, varied and complicated than we had realised. What I’m trying to do is gather in as much as I can. It’s not to accuse, it is just to state that it is so.”
Btw, not being “afraid of things that cannot be said” is also a good guiding principle for consistent, and consistency in, blogging - “It’s not to accuse, it is just to state that it is so.”
Pete Baker @ 10:26 PM
So if I made a statement ( perhap something that cannot be said) on a blog like, “ A guy called Peter hates taigs.” It wouldn’t be construed as accusatory? :)
Posted by on Oct 12, 2008 @ 11:16 PMBloggin’ literary catharsis, it’s the way forward.
Posted by on Oct 12, 2008 @ 11:20 PMI remember Tom Hartley standing next to a pith helmet, difficult not to like him,
‘A marble pith-helmet on another grave spoke also of the empire and service to it’
http://www.innatenonviolence.org/billyking/bk112.shtml
I think that’s it,
Yvette Doll
Posted by on Oct 13, 2008 @ 06:05 AM“Btw, not being “afraid of things that cannot be said” is also a good guiding principle for consistent, and consistency in, blogging “ - couldn’t agree more on this! This encourages more ideas and different views when you are expressing yourself!
Posted by on Oct 13, 2008 @ 10:03 AMI see the UK Government are now trashing the Irish economy and saying the country is insolvent.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article4926538.ece
That’s really nice of them. This can be read worldwide and will damage Ireland. Just where do they get off with making such crass remarks.
Posted by on Oct 13, 2008 @ 10:23 AM“...just to state that it is so.”
It is. So it is. Is it not?
Back to the Booker - Sebastian Barry is up against a particularly strong short-list this year which can only serve to enhance the eventual winner’s reputation even more.
Posted by on Oct 13, 2008 @ 10:51 AM
