Online Chat with Colm Toibin
Artshapes.com (AS): We are going to call Colm Toibin in just a few minutes so please ask him your questions now
AS: We have Colm Toibin with us. Thank you for joining us tonight, Colm Toibin. What were you up to earlier in the evening?
Colm Toibin (CT): Just work really. A german magazine wanted me to do a piece on the FLeadh Ceoil in Enniscorthy. Also I'm working on a novel so I'm doing that also
Guest: Colm Toibin, another Irish author Pat McCabe has done a "double act" with singer Jack Lukeman... if you were to do a similar "double act" who would you chose?
CT: I would choose Maighread Ni Dhomhnaill, no doubts
CT: She just made an album with Donal Luney and is really a great singer
AS: What type of music?
AS: What was your favourite book to write?
CT: She sings traditional Irish songs and as her family is form Donegal she sings in Donegal. She has a sweet suprano voice
CT: I liked the story of the night as its in the first person. There is loads of sex and excitiment which was a big liberation
AS: Where was that book set?
CT: Argentina
CT: I fell into Argentina in 1985 having been in Braziland stayed on there for a while. I had a press card and watched the trial everyday of the Generals
CT: I stayed in a beautiful shouse in the suburbs with a friend on mine and started to wirte about Argentina
CT: I even wrote a story about Maradonna
AS: Did you meet him?
CT: No I never met him. He was under strict instructions to keep away from people like me
AS: How long did you live in Argentina?
CT: The first time a few montsh and the Maradonna time a few weeks
CT: Buenos Aries is a European city. Very big and beautiful and a very beatiful place
AS: What book are you working on now?
CT: I' going to publish a book of essays early next year called "New ways to kill your father"
CT: Its a sort of memoir buts its a first essay about 10,000 words
CT: I am playing with that at the moment
CT: I"m like an anorexic with a big plate of food. I pick at it, move it around but don't eat it
CT: I spend a day in a room think about but don not write much and then I can go, I can jsut start
AS: What happens if it dioesn' start?
CT: I go back to the day job, go the Evening Hearld and appeal to Help. It hasn't yet.
CT: I am going to Italy for 5 weeks in March in the middle of nowhere. I will have nothing else to do with work. Lots of cheap biros and paper and I will be able to start on the novel
AS: Do you write with a computer?
CT: I wirte in long hand. I used to work at a manual typewriter but I have given that up. I am back to biro now
Guest: kin you tell me whats mine name mens in your tong
CT: thats a nice Irish name. IF you meet someone called Nora they are usually very nice. I am thinking of calling someone in my next book Nora
AS: Have you ever tried writing a movie script?
CT: No but I've turned down several offers and will continue to do so
AS: You have no desire to get into movies?
CT: I think that I stick to my core project which are novels and essays
AS: What type of research do you do to get into the mind of Judge Redmond for the The Heather Blazing?
CT: I was editor of Magil magazine, the main editorial magazine in Ireland, a busy boy
CT: I had access to everyone. Because I had access to the supreme court I go to know them
CT: However I also mixed in my family so it is a mixture of what I am and what I observe
CT: Its starts with the observed. WIth that book I thought about in 94 and wrote the first chapter in 87 and wrote the main part of the book in 90
CT: You start with an idea but work with detail. The detail tend to come from what you know. I used 2 houses in know in the book, my family
CT: I used my experience as an altar boy. Some of it is autobiographical and some of it is entirely makde up
CT: its like being a good liar
CT: That way I do not get caught!
Guest: How can authors bring about true reconciliation in Ireland or is a "truth Commission" as in South Africa needed?
CT: I think authors first responsibility in sentences and paragraphs and to stay indoors as much as possible
CT: The whole issue in Ireland of prisoner releases and amnesty is very difficult and how you address it over time
CT: but our search may resolve in more bitterness and stirring everyone on
AS: have you ever written a book about the North?
CT: Yes, I wrote a book called "Bad Blood, a Walk along the Irish border" which was published in 87
CT: People were much more afraid of me. I went around and talked to everyone starting in Derry. I did a pilgrimage in Lough Derg
CT: It is about ordinary life but ordinary life is extraordinary there.
CT: Everyone wants to talk to someone who is walking. A bad map is amazing. Everyone wants to help and them they start talking
Guest: What part of Ireland do you live
AS: Nice spot. Are you fan of the clubs?
CT: I live in the centre of Dublin. When I look out the window I see the corner of Pembroke Street and Leeson Street
CT: I never head down to them and I think they should be closed down
CT: They come here now in Ricksaws coming up yelping and shouting drinking bad wine on top of bad beer and puck all over the street
CT: they eat kebabs so Sunday morning I wade through pucked kebabs
Guest: Colm Toibin, have you ever been nominated for or won a major literary prize? What do you think of awards like the Booker Prize and the Impac Award?
CT: I was nominated for the booker prize last year and I'm a judge for the Impac award this year
CT: The blessed Sacrament procession in Enniscorthy - the booker prize is like this. You have to wear your best clothes, you are pushed around a lot
CT: One of the problems we have is the ideas of the word as the central means of communication is under attack. The whole awards system is a way to sue the modern method of communication the sandbite, the quick communication
CT: Graham Greene never one any prizes. He did not need to yet he is one of the most famous in the world
AS: Because of movies?
CT: Its because there is so much more noise both visual and oral
CT: It is not just television but hte way iti s made. You don't see documentaries but quick fixes
CT: The prize system is a way of competing with that. Here is a quick fix book
CT: the booker prize increase books sales by a factor of three for previous books
AS: It is a way of helping people choose what to buy?
CT: Yes but is lovely sometimes finding your own book. Something that has not won anything but it is really good
CT: today in a book store, it is hard to start from scratch
CT: A lot of what is published is really bad
Guest: What is the quintessential St. Patrick's Day meal?
CT: Six pints of guiness
CT: like a kebab
CT: no such thing really as Irish food for very good reasons
CT: in the 19th century when the French and Spanish were bulidng up there good food we were starving
CT: bacon and cabage is still really good. rashers and eggs
AS: You will be in the US for Paddy's day?
Guest: hello
CT: I'll probably stay in bed but I 'd like to throw eggs at the friendly sons of St. Patrick
CT: rotten eggs are really smelly
Guest: Hi Colm Toibin. I've read one of your books, The South. I was extremely impressed and did not realize you were such a public figure. What are the most important political and social issues in Ireland in your opinion?
CT: Well the herion problem in Dublin remains really serious
CT: the while issue of an underclass remains underaddressed
CT: even with all the money there are some areas where even getting a bus into the city let alone a job is very difficult
CT: we are expecting for the underclass to emigrate
CT: the whole issue of planning and traffic and where people live in not addressed. The suburbs are a mess
AS: How can writing about these problems change them?
AS: PLease keep sending in your questions -
CT: I think that if you want to change the world or society you wirte pamplets but hte prupose of novels is to write about the human heart
CT: it is about love and mortality but not society
CT: I ma interested in things since the beginning of time - nature , love, death
Guest: An Irish guy here in Boston said he would prefer to send his kids to school here than back home - does this surprise you? And is teh heroin sit. really that bad?
CT: Yes, surely the hope is of authority and respect, everyone is supposed to realise this
CT: In Ireland you can still do this and remain respectful. it is very difficutl to do this in the US
CT: What the states produces from schools. every kid had to join or you have to discuss why you don't wnat to join
CT: it is very difficult not to join the constitution. In Ireland you don't have to do this you can just sit in the back of the class
CT: the american system produces alot of conformists
CT: I am glad it did not produce me
AS: There are more free thinkers in Ireland?
CT: Yes I think so
CT: There is also more pure ignorance in Ireland
CT: There is very little pure ignorance in schools in NY. It does not exist in the same way
Guest: It annoys me when some people sneeringly say " I only read non-fiction of course" . would you agree that there is more truth in a well written novel than in most "ture " stories?
CT: yes I certainly would. The real problem is middle aged men
CT: Huge humbers of them do not like the idea. They are not sure what is made up and what is true. Nut you learn a lot
CT: like Madam Bovary - not jsut about history, but sadness but love and death
CT: middle aged men have a real problem with everything now
CT: they run the world unfortunately
AS: Part of the mid life crisis???
CT: No its no crisos. Fromt he age of 35-65 middle aged men don't read novels apart from John Grisham on a plane but no real novels
CT: Sure I do, yes.
AS: The world is poorer as a result of this
CT: If you watch the way children listen to a story. They are losing that wonder and excitment. There is a lot to loose
AS: especially if the middle aged men are making all the BIG decisions
CT: yes but even if they are not
Guest: WHats it like in IRELAND?
CT: Well the registration numbers of cars have the date of purchase on them. the number of 00 on my street is really very hgih
CT: they don't go to Europe on holidays but rather breaks on the weekends
CT: for holidays they go to Hawaii, Bali or Mali
CT: You can't get a restaurant on Saturday night
CT: There is the first wave of money. the first wave of an industrial revolution
CT: people have money in their lives - a big peasant in suit driving a big car looking very bewildered
CT: its very surreal and good material for novesl
AS: But is this bad? Is it not good that people have more choices?
CT: Its better than it was. the 80s was a nightmare but it has come very quickly
CT: I am not compalining . I find it very interesting
CT: but noone planed for it. All the things that were easier before are now hard
CT: I'm not sure if people are happier but the boys love their mobile phones
CT: its very like Argentina in fact. Its like little boys love their genitilia
CT: they are not quite used to them
AS: Please send in your questions now. Type in the questions and submit using "Ask".
Guest: who are you?
CT: My mobile phone is snappier than yours!
AS: Colm Toibin has written several books (The South, The Heather Blazing) and edited many other (The Penguin Book of Irish Fiction, Finbar's Hotel)
Guest: Has Colm Toibin been asked about teh transition of books into films?
CT: Someone has just bought an option on the "Blackwater lightship" so we'll see what happens
AS: Can you visualize this as a movie?
CT: yes
AS: What was it written with a movie in mind?
CT: No I never work like that. I'm too old fashioned but I do realise there is a lot of dialogue and it would be very cheap to make
CT: it was set inside a house. There are no battles
CT: no special effects - 2 cats
AS: Who is your favourite Irish writer?
CT: Beckett
CT: I love the humour the austerity of the writing. I am talking about the novel and the last prose pieces rather than the plays
CT: the sentences are perfect. He has a brilliant ear
Guest: I have to go now, Colm Toibin, but if you ever do organise a gig with Mairead Ni Dhomhaill, make sure I know about it!
CT: Thanks
Guest: how is the ART in ireland?
CT: Art its absolutely great. There are loads of people painting really well
CT: there is an exhibition by Paddy Graham that is outstanding
CT: Sean McSweeney is in Taylor Hall that is just exceptional. Visual art is really good
CT: the novel being written are really interesting as are poems
CT: its not like the turn of the century. the novels and plays - you don't know what they will look like in the future
CT: it is an exciting time and a good time for art
AS: So you are optimistic about the future?
CT: The problem is all of what is going on depends on foreign investment. There is no such thing as domestic capital
CT: people put their money in savings and if there is a downturn in the US we go down first
CT: there is no such thing as sustained growth - no one knows when
CT: it is slightly like liviing on a fault line waiting for an earthquake
Guest: Does it rain a lot in Ireland?
CT: I mean I don't mind the rain in the winter but I mind it in the summer. It is so frustrating
CT: I am going to Spain for the summer
AS: Where is your favourite place to live?
CT: barcelone
Guest: Was editing the book of Irish fiction a challenge or a chore?
CT: It was interesting for me to go back and study the tradition
CT: things I knew in patches
CT: it is very interesting for example UK in the 19 century had an amazing time
CT: what we produced was the gothic novels - frightened artists
CT: just how different irish writing is
CT: sometimes i did not want to give it the time but I found it really riveting and exciting doing the work on the book
AS: How long did it take to edit?
CT: about 5 years
CT: but not all the time
Guest: ask him if hes gay
CT: yes
AS: Is this a question that irritates you?
CT: No it is an important question
AS: why is it important?
CT: I think because in the last 30 years for the first time in history gay people have the possibility of living great lives
CT: all you have to look at are cases in Ireland in the 40s and 50s and how difficult it was
CT: it is as important as the contraceptive for women being able to live freely as a gay man
AS: The attitude have changed
CT: Yes the attitude is changing here but the most liberal place I am aware of is Australia. It is really open and easy. It is really miraculous what has happened
AS: Would you ever write a book about homosexuality?
CT: The story of the night is about homosexualtiy
AS: Has that been liberating?
CT: yes it has been liberating, yes
AS: What is your next big adventure?
CT: Is it a personal question
CT: I am going to NY for a week on Saturday. There is an event being held on Sunday at 7.30 in the Parlour
CT: for gay people where I will be reading Colum Mc Cann, Ann Enright, Nuala O Faolaoinn, Zoe Hellar and Brian Kennedy will sing
CT: He is the big star of River Dance and normally sings for Van Morrison. He has an astonising voive
CT: The parlour is a new venue on the upper west side. on Wednesday is the Barnes and Noble event, back on Saturday and then off to Italy for 5 weeks
Guest: thanks for sharing your mind with us.best of luck.
AS: We want to thank Colm Toibin for being with us tonight. We really appreciated you staying up so late to join us tonight. Thank you everyone for your questions. Tonight's chat was brought to you by www.ArtShapes.com - the premier Irish arts and crafts web site. Please visit us today and join our Irish arts club.
AS: Tonight's chat is over. Please join us again on Thursday for our chat with author, Emer Martin. That's 9pm (EST) Thursday night. See you then. Visit ArtShapes.com for details. Slainte.
| 