January 24, 2007
Lannan audio archive: Coetzee, McGahern
Being approx three years behind the rest of the world, this archive may have been back up for a while, but I’ve just taken note of the fact.
I’ve sometimes found humour in Coetzee’s novels to the contention of many people I’ve mentioned this too. In this interview he comes across as being in possession of a sense of humour, so it suggests I didn’t hallucinate the humour entirely. He’s wonderfully reticent and evasive in this interview, but the interviewer is as nifty as I don’t know what and the auditory concentration required to follow the drift of the pair of them is rewarding (in much the same way squinting and rereading a tough paragraph over and over is) will cause your ear to turn and begin to lean in toward the speaker. http://www.lannan.org/lf/rc/event/j-m-coetzee/
Here’s John McGahern (RIP) as well: the loss of Mr McGahern is felt keenly between these humble walls. As my mother said of him: he was well liked. It’s an endorsement he would have been glad of, as she’s a farmer with goats and Kerry cows and they’re not easy won over.
http://www.lannan.org/lf/rc/event/john-mcgahern/
Would love to pretend I was concerned with literature in the 1980’s but in fact this was what kept me occupied and this gal Szabo was my heroine, not the Bronte sisters. With hindsight the ambition of lifting five times (or maybe one and half times?) one’s body weight (giant circle on the high bar) is remarkably similiar to surviving literary ventures. Just as much likelihood you’d fall flat on your arse while at it too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMao_tU93qg
This version has a voice over that sounds like it’s being broadcast from the moon. Brillo.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hdWTsVTeuA
Irresistible Europop meets classical can’t make up it’s mind music by 1985. Bless her, how did she endure this choice?