So, does he work with a musical backdrop? What I like about jazz is its humility, the idea that as a listener I can move from one instrument to another, give a certain instrument predominance and then let it retreat into the background.” “Music? Well, the other day I was listening to Thelonious Monk. He’s asking what it is to have faith from a French intellectual’s perspective. “I recently read Le Royaume, or The Kingdom, by Emmanuel Carrère. Given his omnivorous reading and general cultural engagement, the opportunity to ask Hage about his current reading and listening is hard to resist. I also think it’s time for the conversation that’s already happening and that I hope this book will help along.” I think it’s a humane book, a book that’s championing humanity.
It should be considered a safe space where everything can and should be expressed.” It seems more and more exterior factors demand a kind of pedagogical, moralistic contribution to literature, but for me it’s about freedom. People who want that should read a particular kind (of book). “Sympathy is irrelevant in literature,” he said flatly. Hage is pursuing something altogether different. If you demand that a work of fiction provide stable demarcation lines between good and evil, you’re best advised to move on. Honour-bound to serve them, though also paid handsomely, Pavlov is in no position to play favourites, aiding people who have exhibited some very dubious behaviour and even indulging in some himself when the occasion calls for it. People who want that should read a particular kind (of book).Īs for the titular society, it is a loosely knit group of people whose outcast status in life is mirrored by their need for an unconventional handling in death. Article content Sympathy is irrelevant in literature. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. This is a place where even the funeral processions get attacked. Handily, Pavlov lives next to a cemetery, and has witnessed so many funeral processions that he can accurately guess the age of the deceased before the grieving party comes into view.
Pavlov, the novel’s central figure, is an undertaker, named by his undertaker father in honour of the Russian scientist whose research with dogs chimes well with the nightmarish world Hage creates: in a place gone seemingly mad, canines can look like the noblest creatures left. That’s in the background, and it’s there for a very specific purpose. In the end, I chose Beirut because it’s familiar terrain for me. “It may sound cold to say this, but I needed an abundance of death to write this book. “I originally thought about setting the book in Sarajevo,” he said. Underlining his point, Hage revealed something intriguing about the new novel’s genesis. Manage Print Subscription / Tax Receipt.
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