Nicholson Baker’s talk at the Twin Cities Book Festival was wonderful. He comes across as a smart, kind, funny, thoughtful man. Though I must admit I did at one point get distracted by his short but very full, very white beard. I was trying to figure out where his chin might be. Bookman and I had seats in the front row and as I was peering up at him (he was on a slightly elevated stage) it became a fascinating game for a few minutes. This might lead you to believe that as a speaker he wasn’t very interesting but in fact it says more about me than it does him.
He read several excerpts from his new book The Traveling Sprinkler and talked about some of the things that went into writing it. The book is a sort of sequel to The Anthologist, a sequel he did not intend to write. He was working on a nonfiction book of photographs with his wife and also working on writing a book of protest songs of his own composition. But he didn’t want the protest song book to be about himself and when he somehow found himself suddenly writing in Paul Chowder’s voice from The Anthologist he went with it. Apparently the enhanced ebook includes the protest songs Baker/Chowder wrote.
I haven’t read much of Baker’s fiction but it seems he uses quite a lot of his own personal experiences in his books. He stated outright that Traveling Sprinkler is very autobiographical.
Both Baker and his character Paul Chowder are interested in metaphorical interference. Baker claims it is how he writes his books. He is interested in so many things that he tosses them all in enjoying how they collide. Thus the idea of the traveling sprinkler, a device with a prearranged path where its history is its future, bumping into Quaker meetings, cigars, and music. Baker said whenever he starts a book he hopes it is the last one he has to write. Which leads him to toss in so many things in an effort to feel totally cleaned out by the end.
When he was writing the book, he would drive his car to a shady spot somewhere and sit in it for hours writing and smoking Fausto cigars. He tried a variety of other cigars during the writing of the book but found Fausto charged him up the best. Plus, he found the name utterly delightful.
Baker also attends Quaker meetings on a semi-regular basis. He is not a Quaker nor does he believe in God, but he said the Quakers don’t seem to mind. What he likes about the meetings is the silence. It is the silence, he said, out of which music comes.
Before he became a writer Baker planned on becoming a composer. He is an accomplished bassoonist and attended a music college. But he realized composing was not going to earn him a living so he sold his bassoon for $11,000 which allowed him to spend a year writing short stories. Thus his writing career began.
Baker read a marvelous passage from the book in which Chowder is at a Quaker meeting and no one breaks the silence to say anything for the whole hour. As the clock ticks to the end of the meeting Chowder thinks he should say something about Debussy and Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and the beautiful bassoon solo that opens it. It was a beautiful passage and Baker kept interrupting himself to tell us about Debussy’s flutes and Stravinsky’s bassoon and why the bassoon opening was so extraordinary. It was clearly something he was passionate about because by the end of the passage Baker had to pause and take a moment to collect himself before talking again.
Someone asked him a question about whether he listens to music while he writes and if so, what does he listen to. He does listen to music and it varies depending on mood, but what he really likes to listen to while writing is rock music. Baker concluded his talk by telling us that his one remaining goal in life is to write a song that makes people want to get up and dance. A worthy goal if you ask me.
Something I often need to remind myself of is that when it comes to book festivals I should go and hear writers I haven’t read as well as those that I have. It is a wonderful way to be enthused about a new-to-you author. Our local festival often puts panels of writers together and that is very useful because often I will go to hear just one of the panel and come away with works by another three. It sounds as though you already recognise this and now have the works of a further writer to explore.
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Alex, I love panels when the people on them start talking to each other and and tossing out ideas and disagreeing and agreeing and mentioning books and other authors. Even if I don’t know who they are I always come away with something. I don;t go to reading as often as I’d like though, it cuts into my reading time! But it is fun to go now and again especially at a festival.
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It’s so much fun to hear authors talk about their process isn’t it? We have a literary festival coming up soon too and for one reason or another I’ve missed it the last couple of years but hopefully I can go this year.
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Iliana, it is fun to listen to authors talk about their process. It is so individual and quirky. Hope you can make your upcoming literary festival!
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He sounds such a sweetie! I loved The Anthologist and will definitely be queuing up for the sequel. Your observations of his beard gave me the giggles. I must have told you about the time I went and saw Adam Mars-Jones talk at an Edinburgh festival? I hadn’t put my contact lenses in, and when we left I said to Mr Litlove, ‘Didn’t he have funny hair?’ And Mr Litlove said, rather sardonically, ‘He was wearing a wooly hat.’ So I’d have been right with you when it came to beard fascination!
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Litlove, he seemed a very nice man. It is always a pleasure to discover an author you like is nice. Too funny about the wooly hat! I have no idea why Hi was so fascinated with his beard and chin but one has no control over these sorts of things!
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I’m SO jealous! I need to see Baker at some point in my lifetime! I’m not surprised to hear that his fiction is very autobiographical. There seems to be a fine line between fiction and nonfiction in his writing, and I suspect he doesn’t care a whole lot about the difference between the two. Now that I’ve read the book, I’ll have to get a hold of those protest songs.
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I tend to agree with Doris Lessing that the publicity circus behind books really just gets in the way of writing books! So i am a bit wary about literary festivals and interviews but I suppose they are a necessary evil. Only read one book by Nicholson Baker and that was Human Smoke which was a sort of anthology/history of World War 2 1939/41 slanted in favour of the pacifist POV. It was a brave book and a rather necessary book in a way although reluctantly I could not quite agree with his argument.
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Ian, if I were an author I would totally agree with Lessing but since I am sitting on the other side I love author readings 🙂 I have not read Human Smoke but the pacifist POV doesn’t surprise me given he likes to attend Quaker meetings.
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Rebecca, does it help that I thought of you and wished you were sitting in the chair next to me? You would have loved it. Yes, I think you must get hold of the protest songs. Perhaps the will be on the audiobook as well as the enhanced ebook?
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