The Kowloon Diaries

Edinburgh 2007 Art: Warhol & Picasso

My last morning in Edinburgh. I've walked past these soup cans outside the National Gallery on Princes Street every day so I couldn't leave without going in. Andy Warhol is amazing. I love how he combines high culture with low, and that's been a bit of a theme for me this summer. Afterwards I went to the Chambers Street museum to see Picasso's ceramics. Dogs, birds, flowers and fish sculpted on to dinner dishes: beautiful, and you could even see the imprints of his fingers in the clay.

Edinburgh 2007 Film Festival: Kythera

The Edinburgh Festival experience isn't complete if you don't see at least one dodgy Hungarian art film, so I went with my two sisters and one of my brothers to see Kythera. It was good that all four of us went because it turned out to be the British premiere and the director, Péter Mészáros, was there, and my family fairly boosted the audience figures. The plot was about a woman who's poor and miserable and has a loser boyfriend, and dreams of going to an idylic island - Kythera. She gets pregnant and he wants her to abort but she doesn't want to, and I'm not sure if she did or not, but soon after that it ended. Funny thing was, it was actually not bad. Some of it was amateurish, eg showing the leading man urinate twice in the first ten minutes to show gritty realism, I suppose, but it wasn't necessary. That aside, the actors were excellent, the story followed a nice arc and felt satisfying. It wasn't pretty, but at least it was a genuine attempt to show something honest in film, and that's got to be worth something

Edinburgh 2007 Book Festival: Louise Doughty

I don't know how many talks I've been too, but I'm fairly sure now that it's too many. It was with some relief that I went to the final literary event on my agenda, Louise Doughty. She's written a few novels, which I haven't read, and used to write a column for the Telegraph called A Novel in a Year, which I also haven't read. Her latest is non-fiction on how to write a novel, and I probably won't read that either. Which is not to say that she wasn't good. Everything she said was spot on, but I'd heard it all before in other workshops. My fault for going to too many of these things. The most interesting thing she talked about was how established writers are snooty towards unpublished authors. She said it's because they are insecure and want to pull the ladder up after themselves. She thinks that writing is a craft that can be taught, and that it's wonderful that so many people take up the challenge of novel writing. The main thing, she said, is to give yourself permission to take yourself seriously, even if nobody else does.

Edinburgh 2007 Book Festival: Karen Armstrong

Finally the sun came out and shone down on the Book Festival. People were sitting on the grass drinking wine and reading books, exactly as they were supposed to do. I went to see Karen Armstrong who has just published a book called The Bible: A Biography. She condemned fundamentalists but talked so comprehensively, forcefully and deeply about religion that she almost sounded like a one herself. Her point is that we shouldn't take the bible literally. We should read it as poetry. Up until the nineteenth century that's what people did. But in the nineteenth century science suddenly became all-powerful and that's when we started demanding logic and rationality from the bible, and that's when it all went wrong. (Seems to me that religion caused a few problems before then, but perhaps I need to read the book to get the finer points of her argument.) She took several stabs at Richard Dawkins, who, she says, completely misunderstands this and takes the bible literally.

She says, the bible and all religious books can be summed up thus: 'What is hateful to you, do not do unto others.' Everything else is mere commentary on that.

Edinburgh 2007 Fringe: Teenage Kicks

Wouldn't call myself a fan of John Peel as such, but I used to listen to him late at night in the 80s. Not religiously, but just because that was what was on. When I saw there was a play about him I jumped at it. I guess I look back with affection because his show was the background music, well some of it, of my teenage years. When they played the opening music ... dum-dee-dum-dee-dum-dee-dum-dee-nyeah-nyeaaah ... I was fourteen again, up past my bedtime, alone in the dark, smoking out of my bedroom window: it all came back to me. Those were the days. Well not really, cos I was a miserable adolescent, but those moments weren't bad. The play didn't disappoint. We saw Peel evolve from a hippy to a punk and beyond that. It was handled with a light touch, which was probably the right tone to set, seeing as the guy's not been dead long. There were great snippets of music from the likes of the Ramones, the Damned, Altered Images, the Buzzcocks, Elvis, and of course The Undertones. And they mercilessly slagged off Phil Collins, Dire Straits, the Grateful Dead, and Emerson Lake and Palmer ('a bunch of c*nts'), which was amusing and rather satisfying. His mission was not to give the people what they want, but give them what they don't realize they want. Sounds like a good plan to me.

Edinburgh 2007 Book Festival: Neil Bartlett & Toby Litt

This was the first event I've been to where the tent wasn't full. In fact it was more than half empty. Pity because it was one of the best discussions.

First up was Neil Bartlett on the writing process: As he works in theatre he's used to visualizing. When he's writing he's transcribing a film in his head. He writes for long bouts without planning or direction, then when he can't stand that any more he steps back and organizes. Every morning and evening he follows his intuition, then in the afternoons he organizes. He doesn't like to stop and think too much, even though it's scary. After a year working on his current book, Skin Lane, he didn't know where it was going and that was very scary. But he took the risk because he wanted to get deeper, beyond the control of his thinking mind. His notebooks take up three feet of space on his shelves. Few artists produce only one work. For most each work is just one piece of output from an ongoing process. Some of his notebooks are just stuff that he doesn't know where he will use. But it's better to be writing stuff than to be writing nothing. His influences are Rendell, Proust, Carravagio. He hates it when people ask about his writing, because it's incredibly private and it's embarassing and embarassing to talk about.

Next, Toby Litt on the writing process: His latest, Hospital, is a vomit of a book. He wanted it to have as much energy as possible so he threw it all out with great force. Only later he went back and shaped it. He writes in riffs and then cuts out what he needs. He has a list on his website of 101 influences on Hospital. His next book is about how to grow old in a youth culture. How to hit 40 and still rock.

Finally, both of them on high art and low art: Growing up middle class in a white town Bartlett experienced neither high brow or low brow culture, just a desert. He had never tasted foie gras and he had never had a Wimpy burger. Consequently as soon as he did he fell in love with both. Litt said that Hospital encompasses high and low brow. It goes from splutter/horror/gore to St Augustine/Dantes Inferno/the visionary books of the bible. He doesn't distinguish between high and low, only between comforting recognition and surprise. If you pick up a book, whether it's genre or literary, only looking for recognition then it's like doing a crossword, not really reading. Even if you're writing generically there can still be surprise. He mentioned the play about John Peel (which I have tickets for). The poster quotes Peel saying 'I just want to hear something I haven't heard before.' It's the same with books, 'I just want to read something I haven't read before.'

Edinburgh 2007 Book Festival: Janice Galloway & Alan Warner

A panel discussion with two authors who've just set up a small press. The thing I took away is that it's near impossible for small presses to get book on the shelves of high street retailers. And as independent bookshops are dying out that leaves only the internet for sales.

Edinburgh 2007 Book Festival: Lars Saabye Christensen and Maria Peura

Two Scandinavian authors that I've never heard of before. Lars Saabye Christensen is from Norway and Maria Puera is from Finland. Puera has just had her first novel translated into English. Christensen has published 13 novels and he's the leading novelist in Norway. I bought his book, Herman, and he signed it. This is the only book I've bought during the festival. I wasn't going to buy any because I don't want to carry them home to Hong Kong. But I couldn't resist because it seems so off-centre and inventive and original, and I love discovering authors outside of the mainstream.

Christensen said there was a muscle of memory, which is close to writing. You exercise this muscle by writing. When you're young you write about big issues, god, death, war, because you don't have experience so you don't have stories. His epiphany came when he heard the song Penny Lane. He thought if the biggest band in the world can write about something as small as a street in a town then so could he.

Puera was kind of funny. She said she had a great pain inside and had to write from this pain.

Christensen said reading is part of your experience as a writer. Knut Hansen was a great influence on him as he practically invented Norwegian literature with Hunger. When you read Hansen as a teenager it's like a drug, you have to read everything. Then you have to take a break from it for twenty years then try it again. If you try to come too close to his style then it's like literary suicide (because it's so powerful I presume). All writers have baggage because they have to read a lot. Through reading you find your own voice and feelings.

Puera said she was crying and screaming when she was writing because it was so painful.

Christensen said writing is intellectual, but combined with intuition, feelings and madness. He makes strict plans and then changes his plans as he writes. He knows where to start and where to end, but doesn't know how to get there and sometimes ends up somewhere else. But that's OK. He never starts with a theme. He only starts with an image or a word, then slowly builds up a universe around this.

Puera said reading is like inhaling, writing is like exhaling.

Edinburgh 2007 Book Festival: The Economics of Publishing

Later in the afternoon I made my way to the Writers' Retreat where they were holding events specially for wouldbe writers. Tonight: the economics of publishing. Didn't really learn anything I didn't know, but for what it's worth, it's like this:

The usual cover price is £6.99. The author usually gets 8-9% on the Recommended Retail Price. Why so little? Well the RRP will often be discounted and publishers typically get £3.50 out of it. Maybe less if it's a book club choice. Other costs per book: 50p for distribution, 50p for editing and design, £1.50 for marketing. That leaves £1 for the publisher and the author. (And agent presumably though that wasn't discussed.)

The big issue is marketing. Here the space shuttle principle applies. You spend tons to get it off the ground but once it's in orbit it sells on its own momentum. Publishers have to decide in advance how big they expect the book to be, then they can decide how much to spend. Yes, it's partly self-fulfilling. PR is free advertising. If you're good at PR then you should point this out to publishers. A series is like a brand. Publishers prefer series because the investment in the first book can be recouped over the subsequent ones.

When choosing a publisher it's more important that they invest in the book than pay you a big advance. Think about medium to long term gains, not short term ones. If you go with a big publisher your book may disappear into a black hole. International sales are a huge boon. Usually you just sell the rights and the author typically gets 80-85%. For films authors get 90-95% of rights revenue. Hardbacks don't make money. Most books go straight to paperback. A hardback is a publishers' way of saying they are confident about this book.

There are two kinds of self-publishing. Vanity publishing is self publishing because nobody else will publish your book. Sanity publishing is self publishing where you see it as a business. Publishers will look at self-published books. It helps them to visualize what a book will be like (well it is a book). This can be a way of showing them the potential in your book.

Edinburgh 2007 Book Festival: James Kelman

3pm the Royal Bank of Scotland tent: James Kelman 'the single most influential Scottish novelist of modern times'. The talk had a shaky start. The host behaved oddly as if he didn't know what to do. Kelman's comments lacked context as a result. I'm starting to realize how important it is to have a good host at these events. Thankfully fifteen minutes in the host ran out of questions, so opened it up to the floor. Then it got more interesting. The host may not have been interested in Kelman but the audience definitely were.

He was asked if he voted. He said no. Well, yes, once, but it was a long time ago. He's a socialist and libertine. He supports the right of any country or individual to self-determination. But he can’t stand the fuckin SNP and would never vote for them. (I didn't grasp why exactly.) He said that 'changes are afoot' in Scotland.

He was asked about his use of phonetics. He said that most literature is written in a standard voice which appears to have an RP accent. It's an all-knowing all-seeing god-voice, as if that's how god speaks. As if god comes from fuckin Hampstead Heath. He thinks god could just as well come from Glasgow. This is why he put his god-voice into phonetic Scots. But he seemed also to have backtracked from this idea and was now more interested in the rhythm and syntax and the different grammars of different speakers.

Critics have attacked him but he says you can't change what you write just because somebody doesn't like it.

He was asked about education. He said Scottish education used to be built on the tradition of great teachers. But in universities today teaching is delegated to the most junior staff. Scots should be exploring their own history, real history about people who've made a difference to the culture and country. He named dozens of people and events that we ought to know about. It was a long rant and I hadn't heard of any of them. So he's probably right.

And he got more provocative as the afternoon went on. He doesn't like creative writing courses. For one thing what the fuck is 'creative writing' anyway? Teachers should at least call it literature, and writers should call themselves artists. He hates the term because it covers everything from genre to literature as if they were the same thing. He taught at the University of Texas and University of California. He told his pupils to read Van Gogh's letters, Descartes, Marguerite Duras, and Gertrude Stein's later work. These great artists understood what art is and by reading them his students would understand. I got the impression that this didn't go down well with his academic colleagues. He was going to teach in the UK at one point, but fell out with the academics before it even started. He said that creative writing courses exist to teach students the techniques of creative writing. This only qualifies them as creative writing teachers, so it's self-perpetuating. Academics have hijacked literature. He didn't like being an academic because he couldn't be bothered with the fuckin admin. The other academics resented him for not doing the fuckin admin when they fuckin had to. He really doesn’t like academics.

And that was about it.

(Note that in order to be taken seriously as a Scottish writer you have to be very sweary. The more serious you are the more you must swear. So far every Scottish writer I've seen has used the F-word liberally. Kelman, being a Booker winner, has to out do them so he used the C-word as well, and he got a round of applause for it.)