Comments for Andrew Blackman

Comment on Test of stamina at Bim Literary Festival, day two by litlove

litlove — Tue, 22 May 2012 08:48:57 +0000

You did better than I would have done – three hours listening is a long, long time, and I would certainly have lost concentration (and feeling in my legs!). But hey, this sounds like a wonderful event and I love the thought of it being much jollier and cheerier than similar sorts of things in the UK (I’ll bet!).

Comment on Austin Clarke at Bim Literary Festival by litlove

litlove — Tue, 22 May 2012 08:46:14 +0000

Yes, Crossing the Mangrove is a great place to start. Or else I recall very much enjoying I, Tituba, Witch of Salem (at least, I think that’s the translation – Moi, Tituba, sorciere in French). I would love to know what you think of her.

Comment on How writers generate ideas by Andrew Blackman

Andrew Blackman — Mon, 21 May 2012 21:52:44 +0000

Ah, thanks a lot Vishy! It’s interesting that you’ve seen that happen – what was the situation? Would love to hear more…

Comment on Austin Clarke at Bim Literary Festival by Andrew Blackman

Andrew Blackman — Mon, 21 May 2012 21:51:57 +0000

Hi litlove,

Yes, I’ve been meaning to read Maryse Conde for a while now. Do you have a particular recommendation? I was thinking of Crossing the Mangrove, but would love to hear your views.

I think you’re right that they leave early and go to either the UK or North America, but that happened with the older generation too and they were still known as West Indian writers. It could be that immigration has become more difficult over the years, and those who stay find it difficult to attract international attention. There are probably a lot of factors, but it did strike me as strange. When you think of the most famous writers in most countries, they’re usually mature but a range of ages. There are of course plenty of younger writers, but none who’ve reached the same heights (as far as I know).

Comment on Earl Lovelace at Bim Literary Festival by Andrew Blackman

Andrew Blackman — Mon, 21 May 2012 21:51:52 +0000

Yes, I’ve read most of Edward Said’s work – one of my favourites. Good recommendation! Hmm yes, there’s quite a difference between Earl and Linda – I just googled Linda Lovelace and you made me blush

Comment on How to write a book review by Andrew Blackman

Andrew Blackman — Mon, 21 May 2012 21:51:18 +0000

the good thing about writing reviews is that there are lots of different approaches, and we can put in as much or as little work as we want. Since you write reviews for fun, it’s definitely not something you want to make hard work of. It’s interesting, though, because your reviews are always very detailed and thoughtful, so I imagined you’d put a lot of work into them. Maybe you do, really, in an unconscious way, but it just doesn’t seem like work

Comment on How much would you pay for a short story? by Andrew Blackman

Andrew Blackman — Mon, 21 May 2012 21:48:52 +0000

Thanks Vishy, and no problem about being late! I’m still thinking about what to do, so appreciate your contribution. If you can remember where you read that article, please let me know – I’d be interested to read it…

Comment on Learning from Derek Walcott: Bim Literary Festival, day one by Andrew Blackman

Andrew Blackman — Mon, 21 May 2012 21:33:31 +0000

Hi scholarly, thanks for visiting, and I’m sorry to hear that they turned you away. To be honest, I think it helped that I am a white man. My wife is a black Barbadian and I have noticed that I often get treated better than she does in her own country. It’s heart-breaking to see. Colonialism’s roots run deep. There was one other gatecrasher in the class – a white American woman.

I also inadvertently helped myself by arriving 15 minutes late, which meant that the class was in full swing and I just walked in mouthing an apology and sat down, and I guess they didn’t want to interrupt things so nobody said anything.

I understand your point, especially after your nasty experience at the Walcott event, but I didn’t really find that the festival as a whole was elitist – there were quite a few free events open to the public. In London we’d usually have to pay for events like that, especially with big name authors like Walcott, Lovelace and Clarke, so I thought it was good to make the events free.

It’s true, though, that there were several workshops and classes which were all full quite early. There didn’t seem to be much publicity about the festival, so the problem was that by the time most of us heard about it, the events were full, mostly with people connected to the organisers or the university. I think better publicity would have enabled the general public to sign up in time.

I’d love to hear more about your book – it sounds fascinating. I’ve asked questions about West Indian reading audiences in some of my other posts, so it sounds as if this book would be for me. Do you have a publication date yet? Is there anywhere online I can find more information about your work – or can you email me about it? Thanks!

Comment on The Sense of an Ending, explained by Andrew Blackman

Andrew Blackman — Mon, 21 May 2012 21:15:42 +0000

I’ll look forward to reading your review when you do get to it, Vishy – and please do come back and comment on this post if you end up disagreeing with my interpretation!

Comment on The Sense of an Ending, explained by Andrew Blackman

Andrew Blackman — Mon, 21 May 2012 21:14:32 +0000

True, it’s fascinating that there are so many interpretations! I also wonder about the relationship to Frank Kermode’s original critical text with the same title, The Sense of an Ending. Has anybody read that? Maybe that holds a clue as to how Barnes wants us to read his book and his ending.