Posted By: Katy Carr, 12 May 2010
“Norwich has turned itself into a world hub for literature”
Ian McEwan was in top form at our sold out event at the UEA last night as part of the NNF Festival and in celebration of Norwich’s bid to be a UNESCO City of Literature .
The evening started with a short speech by Chris Gribble and a film about Norwich’s UNESCO bid; well received by the audience. As a graduate of the first creative writing MA in Norwich, McEwan spoke of why he was supporting the bid in an earlier interview on the BBC – saying "Norwich has turned itself into a world hub for literature," and that "I’d be amazed if UNESCO refuses."
McEwan went on to read from
Solar, introducing the piece by talking of the inspiration for his stodgy Nobel prize winning protagonist, Michael Beard. The idea started at a conference he attended in Potsdam with a group of Nobel prize winners where he was giving the after dinner speech ("as a kind of after dinner mint"). The rivalries, egos, and "alpha-maleism" of the group led him to think that if he were to ever write a book about climate change, he’d make the central character a Nobel prize winner.
McEwan went on to read a very funny section from Solar, involving a snow mobile, and over exposure in a very delicate place that kept the audience laughing right through to the excruciating end.
Prof Jon Cook then conversed with McEwan, asking him about the research involved for the story and about the book’s exploration of the intellectual merits of studying literature as compared with science. McEwan said yes, the differing intellectual demands of the two disciplines was something that concerned him and talked of his two sons; one a scientist who had studied hard every day of the week for his degree, the other who’d studied humanities and rolled out of bed at 12ish. Why are so many kids not going into Physics and Maths? Because it’s so bloody difficult, he said.
He talked about the climate change deniers encountered in America, who were using any excuse (especially the UEA emails) to stoke their denial, but said that he couldn’t have made the book a campaigning one, as it would have died.
McEwan then answered questions from the floor. Ian Gibson pointed out how the language of science is very convoluted; how did McEwan deal with that? Yes, said McEwan, the language of science is quite intractable, but there is enough non-numerical stuff there that with time and effort one can understand it. He suggested that a science writing MA at UEA would be a marvellous idea, to overcome the divide created by the specialist language and that scientific literature needed to be moulded into a canon so we can appreciate and enjoy science in the same way as we do music. He also said that scientists should do A Level English, so that they can better communicate their ideas!
Responding to another question, he talked of the pressures of creating a comic novel and how hard it is to escape the voices of Bradbury, Frayn and other giants. When creating a funny fat man, he said, it was impossible to ignore Falstaff; “novelists too stand on the shoulders of giants.”
Pretty soon after, McEwan went over to sign books of the audience members, and stopped to talk to many of them; a great finish to a great evening.
