Power of words proves enticing

By MARGIE THOMSON books editor

Pushing through the loudly buzzing crowds at the Hyatt Regency over the weekend, it was clear that the fourth Auckland Writers and Readers Festival was a stunning success. Organisers confirm that, with 7000 tickets sold by yesterday morning, attendance was up 10 per cent on the previous festival, and many events were packed.

Creative director Peter Wells was thrilled and said the festival's demographic had changed, with more men, a broader cultural mix (probably thanks to the overall theme of Worlds Within Worlds) and more younger people than previously (thanks partly to hip lit stars Jonathan Franzen and Rick Moody).

The following is a taste of selected events over the first three days of the festival.

Opening Star Night with William Dalrymple, Linda Grant and Jonathan Franzen.

Dalrymple: "Every day [in India] something weird happens and as a writer that's wonderful."

Grant: "Pain and pleasure is the point of writing."

Franzen ("I'm a binge and purge kind of guy") said the single most memorable line of the night when, asked by host John Campbell what he was currently working on, kind of gasped and waved his arms awkwardly before replying helplessly, "Breathing".

New Zealand Herald Lunch with Linda Grant.

"Suffering does not ennoble, it makes people shut their ears to the suffering of others." And, warning against self-righteous judgment on other people's actions: "We think, in that person's circumstances I would do this, but the truth is that we don't know."

Be Gentle With Me, It's My First Time.

Victoria McHalick revealed that published novelists have the same demons as everyone else: "Your judgment on the worth of your book is that it's not really up to it and that someone might find out you're completely lacking in talent. I felt HarperCollins was doing me a huge favour. My husband had to take me by the shoulders and say, 'HarperCollins is not a charitable institution'."

Chinese Takeaways.

New Zealand-born Gilbert Wong on the problem of being part of a visible minority group. Handing over a parcel of lamb chops recently, the butcher said to him in friendly fashion, "You speak English so well!" Says Wong: "You can live here your whole life and still be classed as an outsider."

An Hour with Jonathan Franzen.

In which Franzen revealed himself as a Mr Fixit guy, able to stop a squeak in his computer with a pencil and the torque of a rubberband. "We live in a very surface-oriented culture, where everyone is trying to impress each other with their sneakers." And, on writing: "When you get the tone you can do anything; without it, you're lost. The tone is the grail."

Friday Night Special with Anthony Beevor, Sarah Dunant and Rick Moody.

Beevor: "All one can do is advance the barriers of knowledge and leave the judgment up to the reader."

Dunant, on starting her new historical novel: "I had the big picture of history and books full of details, but I had to find a way to write the damn novel. Two large slugs of frozen vodka is the only thing that's a good aid to writing."

Moody, rising to his feet to read his bizarre Cheese, The Proposal, gratefully acknowledged the applause: "After what we did to global politics this year, you're very kind."

Migrations and Arrivals.

Manying Ip on Chinese New Zealanders in the workforce: "The doctors and architects of today are not very different to the greengrocers of yesterday. Self-employed by design or default, we may not be fully integrated with the economy."

Penny Bieder, recounting the story of the first two Jewish immigrants to New Zealand, plucked from the sea hundreds of kilometres from where their ship went down with no other survivors: "When they were asked how they had survived they said, 'We just kept on talking'!"

Agitating or Reporting with Nicky Hager, David Leser and Mike Johnson.

Hager: "You can tell who's powerful when whole areas of discussion are marginalised by threats of being called anti-American."

Johnson: "Good or accurate reporting is not that different from agitating these days."

Leser, on the embedding of journalists in Iraq: "In a way the entire American media has been embedded in the White House."

White Mughals: Words and Pictures with William Dalrymple.

(A packed session and one of the most entertaining of the festival.) On late 17th-century English paintings of voluptuous Indian women: "These are written up as Oriental fantasies. Bollocks! These are not fantasies, these are portraits of people's wives." And, on the excision in Victorian times of references to earlier Indian-British liaisons and cultural exchange: "It's been rooted out and it should be put back in because it shows how civilisations can come together."

Maori, Pakeha: Which People and Culture has Primacy?

Referring to legislative processes that exist to protect Maori interests, historian and iconoclast Michael King said he would like to see such measures of respect for Pakeha culture as well. "I'm asking for a mutuality of respect," he said. And, "Neither culture has nor deserves primacy." Chair Buddy Mikaere commented that we had been in a politically correct-free zone.

Captain Cook, Criminal or Hero?

An immature question, Anne Salmond concluded. She and fellow panellists Robert Sullivan and Carl Stead agreed that Cook was a hero, but one with flaws.

An Hour With Rick Moody.

"Saint Augustine said that language was for praising God. Even though I'm not writing about that, I'm trying to get at that."

An Hour With Les Murray.

"It's awfully nice of you to clap, but if you clap them all you'll get sore hands, and if you don't clap for some I'll get a broken heart, so how about you just save it all for the end?"

Girls Night Out.

Elizabeth Knox conjured caves and vampires; Kim Mahood congratulated us on the lack of nutters in the audience and wondered if they'd all emigrated to Australia; The Topp Twins did what they always do, producing tears of laughter among the New Zealanders, and a look of total mystification on the faces of the international guests.

* The New Zealand Herald is a gold sponsor of the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival

Auckland Writers & Readers Festival, May 15-18, 2003