John Vaillant on why it's crucial for a country to have a literary identity
Jane van Koeverden | CBC | Posted: March 23, 2017 7:46 PM | Last Updated: April 4, 2017
John Vaillant is one of 17 Canadians nominated for the International DUBLIN Literary Award, a prestigious €100,000 ($141,840 Cdn.) award. His novel, The Jaguar's Children, follows the journey of a young Mexican man fleeing sinister dangers in his country for a better life in the U.S.
Below, John Vaillant answers eight questions submitted by eight of his fellow writers in the CBC Books Magic 8 Q&A.
1. Lynn Coady asks, "Is there a poet, philosopher, musician, painter or any other type of artist outside the world of fiction who has inspired your work in a concrete way at some point or another? If so, who?"
There have been a few. For nonfiction, it would be Sebastião Salgado, especially in his Workers phase — that deeply textured, otherworldly, hyper-real timelessness and raw physicality. However, a novel is a more musical, symphonic undertaking. For that, Beethoven provides a wonderful template.
For all-around mood and vibe in any genre, Mark Rothko's blues and greens.
2. Caroline Pignat asks, "If you made a caricature of your inner critic, how would it look? What might it say?"
A chilling question. Gollum is pretty close. But I've seen my inner critic in the mirror many times. It's not so much what he says (something along the lines of "How vain and pathetic. Who do you think you are?"), it's the look in those dull and jaded eyes. Fortunately, there's a way to get rid of him (see question 3).
3. Lawrence Hill asks, "What do you do to steady your mind (if your mind is capable of being steadied), so that you can shut out the world and write?"
The ideal scenario is the shortest possible distance between bed, coffee and the keyboard, with a solitary morning ahead. Once those are in place, the act of writing is steadying in itself.
4. Yann Martel asks, "What's the favourite sentence (or scene) that you've written?"
I feel like I'm being asked to pull the sheets over my head and choose my favourite fart. At the moment, I have a soft spot for Hector's last visit to church with his mother in The Jaguar's Children.
5. Alexi Zentner asks, "What's your worst writing habit?"
Writing only when I have to.
6. George Elliott Clarke asks, "What literary character would you like to seduce — or be seduced by?"
Wow — a wonderful, maddening question. I'm amazed how much trouble I'm having with it. I'm sorry to disappoint, but nonfiction isn't very sexy (we should fix that!), and it looks like the fiction I read isn't either (I should fix that). In the meantime, I'm dying to know how others would answer...
7. Pasha Malla asks, "How important is it for a country to have an identifiable, national literature?"
I'd say it's crucial. An identifiable, national literature represents a country's effort to reckon with itself and, in this way, is a measure of its maturity. A nation's stories — all of its art — are works in progress speaking to, and influenced by, the larger, collective work in progress. There is a saying attributed to the Talmud that an unexamined dream is like an unopened letter. One way to look at a country is as an open-source dream with all of its potential for joy and horror and pathos. Our stories are episodes from this larger dream: they are the country's letters to itself.
8. Shauna Singh Baldwin asks, "What did you learn from writing one book that you have used/can use/will use when writing the next?"
That, possibly, I can do it again.