Dining with dissidents
Nick Cave and Jeffrey Eugenides at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival 2012. Photo by Sally May Mills.
On Thursday dinner was held in the garden of the Honeymoon 2 Guesthouse. The place was half full when we got there: the writers had already settled into groups. (Most of the writers were Australian or Indonesian, with a smattering of Americans, Canadians, Europeans and other Asians.) It was like walking into the high school cafeteria, looking for an empty seat and hoping the Heathers would not notice you.
We sat with Mr and Mrs Kader Abdollah, writers who left Iran in 1988 and are now living in the Netherlands. We told them about the Hollywood movie we’d just seen, the one set in Tehran.
“Really,” they said, so we told them about it. They looked skeptical but made a mental note to watch it. (Later we googled them and found that “Kader Abdolah” is a pen name derived from the names of two friends who’d been executed. The writer had studied physics in Iran, opposed both the Shah and Khomeini, and sought refuge in the Netherlands. He has written many books, among them the bestselling The House of the Mosque and a Dutch translation of the Koran.)
We were joined by two Russian writers, Natalya Reznik and Oleg Borushko. Natalya was born in Leningrad and lives in Colorado, where she writes code for a software developer in the day and poetry in Russian at night. She also translates poetry from English to Russian.
We mentioned having read The Free World by David Bezmozgis, about a family that was allowed to leave Latvia and was waiting in Rome for visas to Canada. She said this happened a lot in the late 70s, when entire families claimed they were settling in Israel but went to North America instead. They all had to wait for their papers in Italy. By the time Natalya and her family left Russia in 1994 the Soviet Union had collapsed.
The tragedy of Russian literature, Natalya said, is that its greatest writers were doomed to a living death. Most of them could not publish their work during the Stalin regime. “Mikhail Bulgakov knew that The Master and Margarita was his masterpiece, but it was not published in his lifetime.”
“And Vasily Grossman,” we said. “He’s, like, Tolstoy.”
“You know Grossman?!” Natalya said. We explained our mild obsession with the NYRB editions of little-known Russian masterworks. She was so pleased that someone outside Russia had heard of Vasily Grossman, we practically had a blood compact. So dinner became a discussion of Russian history from Stalin to Putin.
At the line for the buffet the London-based Sri Lankan author Romesh Gunesekera introduced himself. “And you are from…”
“Manila,” we said, “Where part of your novel is set.”
We spotted Nick Cave at the next table, but at that moment the only Nick Cave song we could remember was the one they played in The X-Files when Scully was abducted. We not only remembered but could actually spell Andrey Platonov, Sigismund Krzhizhanovsky…
Whoever said you can’t learn about the world from books doesn’t know anything.
P.S. Atin-atin na lamang ito. Napansin namin na tila minamata ng ilang manunulat ang mga blogger. “Akala ko’y blogger ka lamang at wala pang nailalathala,” sabi ng tagapangulo ng isa naming panel. “Mabuti naman at may naisulat ka na palang aklat.” Ano kaya ang ibig niyang sabihin.
Kung mababa ang tingin nila sa blog, bakit pinagmalaki ng isang manunulat na ang kanyang blog ay nakakakuha ng 20,000 hits kada buwan? (Napangiti na lamang kami dahil di hamak na mas marami ang magbabasa ng blog ng aming mga pusa.) Aminin: gusto rin ninyong magkaroon ng malaking audience. Ano ang pinagkaiba nito sa mga may-akdang nagsasabing di sila interesadong magkaroon ng bestseller dahil literary sila?
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
October 9th, 2012 at 11:26
Nick Cave of Grinderman?
I didn’t know he was also a writer. I’ve always been a fan of his “garage rock” music (I still have Grinderman’s first album in my ipod), but I seriously didn’t know about his literary career.
Huh.
October 9th, 2012 at 16:36
Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, too. I remember this because he recorded “Where The Wild Roses Grow” with Kylie Minogue.
(Information on the song here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_the_Wild_Roses_Grow#Background)
October 9th, 2012 at 19:52
Yes, jedi. He wrote a novel called “Bunny Munro”. Wala nang Grinderman dahil balik na sya sa Bad Seeds pero Cave and Ellis may career pa as film scorers.
October 9th, 2012 at 23:13
When it comes to Nick Cave, you can do yourself a favor and go way back and check out his work with Aussie punk outfit The Birthday Party. That’s where it all really began.
Also, you’ll have to check out the film The Proposition. Nick Cave wrote the screenplay for that movie. It has Guy Pierce as the lead actor in quite the gritty Western/Noir genre mashup.
October 10th, 2012 at 10:55
isa lang ang masasabi ko: am i so glad that our ambassador to the event was YOU! yehey!!! (so sorry but i’m having a proud mama moment, nak)
October 10th, 2012 at 10:59
aba, sino ang talipandas na panelist na yaon? Mapangmataas na gunggong? regarding nick cave, i am beginning to forget a lot of things today, but i think i wont forget these lyrics.
i dont believe in an interventionist god
but I know, darling, that you do
but if I did I would kneel down an ask him
not to intervene when it came to you
oh not to touch a hair in your head, leave as you are
if he had to direct you, direct you into my arms
into my arms
o, lord
isangbeses ko lang narinig ito noong kolehiyo, sa oto ng isang kaibigan, pero parang kapit agad ang pagkakatitik ng kanta. parang nakainom pa ang pagkaka-awit, a la tom waits. panalo!
October 10th, 2012 at 11:07
dindin: Teka. Baka naman dahil di kami exotic naif, ang dating namin sa mga dayuhan ay asshole hahahaha.
October 10th, 2012 at 13:42
Graaabe naman yung bethc na yun, kung sino man siya, at may (ano ba tagalog ng prejudice?) siya sa mga (ano ba tagalog ng bloggers?). Sikat ba sha? Haha, di na siguro importante. Basta ako eh happy ako at minsan ay may naka-chika akong manunulat na walang keme sa bortawan.
Hindi pala lahat ng manunulat ay ganun noh, meron din palang mga graduates ng arti-artihan school of feeling elitistang writers.
Muahness from Pasig Cirehhh!
**now reading: Disquiet Please (bedroom) and Best American Short Stories 2012 (toilet) (haha, nagbabasa pa rin ako)
October 10th, 2012 at 14:31
Nakakainggit ang ganda ng Ubud!
Eh sobra namang makapangmaliit ang iba diyan sa mga manunulat sa pangkalawakang talaan (wala akong maiisip na Tagalog para sa blog haha). Porke’t nakapagpalimbag na sila ng daang-daang mga aklat eh may karapatan na silang manghusga ng galing at husay ng isang manunulat ng pangkalawakang talaan???
Magkamag-anak ba sila nung isang mamambabatas na nanghusga rin ng mga manunulat ng pangkalawakang talaan (na sa aking palagay ay isang taktika upang ilihis ang isip ng mga mamamayan tungkol sa isang panukalang batas na dapat nang ipasa!)?
Nawa’y maging masaya at makabuluhan ang iyong paglalakbay diyan, Jessica. Ingat ka diyan!
October 10th, 2012 at 15:58
Nick Cave is really big in the music scene, especially on the soundtrack side. Aside from the X-Files’ “Songs In The Key of X” (Red Right Hand), I like what he did in “I Am Sam” covering “Let It Be” by The Beatles, and in Shrek 2, “People Ain’t No Good” with The Bad Seeds. His recent one is with Neko Case covering The Zombies’ “She’s Not There” for HBO’s True Blood.
Digression: Reminds me of another “Nick” whose penetrating the Music scene after being big in the Literary World…Nick Hornby. He collaborated with Ben Folds for the album “Lonely Avenue”.
P. S. Atin atin lang. Maaaring hindi pa ganon kamulat ang karamihan sa makabagong pagsusulat na tinatawag na blogging. Aminin natin na karamihan ng bloggers ang mga sinusulat lamang ay ang pagbibida ng kanilang mga karanasang hindi naman kabida-bida, kaya siguro hinahamak ng mga manunulat na nakapaglathala na. At hindi naman siguro dahil ayaw nila maging bestseller, ayaw lang siguro nilang ma-tagged na mainstream, dahil kapag mainstream ka, na-re-recognize ka agad kahit walang kwenta gawa mo, eg. 50 Shades of Grey.
Oops, may Google Translate!
October 10th, 2012 at 19:26
Hi brewhuh and Momelia!
Well, may bloggers na walang kuwenta at may nalathalang manunulat na walang kuwenta. Kung marunong kang magsulat, hindi na mahalaga kung saan ka nagsusulat.
May manunulat na wala talagang pakialam kung makabenta sila ng libro, at mayroon ding manunulat na nagsasabi nito nguni’t maasim na ubas lamang.
Hindi lamang dami ng mambabasa ang dapat tingnan kundi ang kalidad ng mga ito.
Napansin namin na ang mga sikat na manunulat ay mas mapagbigay—marahil dahil nakakatanggap sila ng sapat na pansin.
October 10th, 2012 at 20:13
Jessica – Sabagay, may punto ka diyan ahahha.
October 10th, 2012 at 22:05
huge_fox, volume-addict.
volume-addict, huge_fox.
October 11th, 2012 at 00:26
hahaha…i wonder kung meron sa kanilang gagamit ng google translate (kung may mapadpad man dito).
October 11th, 2012 at 01:14
Ok lang kung hindi sila ang tinutukoy. Kung sila ang tinutukoy, magpasalamat sila na itinagalog para hindi sila magmukhang kontrabida sa kanilang kapwa panauhin.
October 11th, 2012 at 09:30
maasim na ubas, nagmamaasim na ubas. anggaling! dapat ilagay talaga ito sa diksiyunaryong pinoy.
o mas akma kayang palitan ang ubas nang isang prutas na likas sa pinas? nagmamamaasim na duhat? nagmamamaasim na buko? nagmamaasim na saging?
October 11th, 2012 at 11:26
Maasim na aratiles.