Books

John Banville

Writer

'The only function of art is to make us feel more alive'

A leading figure in contemporary literature, John Banville –who also writes crime novels under the pseudonym Benjamin Black– delves into the selfish side of love

Many know him for his lit­er­ary alter ego: Ben­jamin Black, a nar­ra­tor of crime nov­els, but John Banville (Loch Gar­man, 1945) also uses his own name when writ­ing about ex­is­ten­tial­ism and human re­la­tion­ships. The Irish au­thor, recog­nised as one of the fore­most fig­ures of con­tem­po­rary lit­er­a­ture and the win­ner of the 2014 Prince of As­turias prize for lit­er­a­ture, under his pseu­do­nym with his novel The Black-Eyed Blonde (La rossa dels ulls ne­gres, pub. Bromera,) re­turns as Banville, with The Blue Gui­tar (La gui­tarra blava, Bromera), a novel that reeks of po­etry por­tray­ing the self­ish side of love.

Why did you de­cide to make the pro­tag­o­nist of your new novel a man who you your­self de­fine as a “mon­ster” ?

I didn't de­cide. In fact, if I look back, I can't even re­mem­ber how I started writ­ing the book, I sim­ply re­mem­ber writ­ing it. He was al­ready there, so I didn't have to in­vent him. Franken­stein wasn't wait­ing for any­thing ei­ther, the mon­ster just ap­peared on his table.

The title refers to a poem by Wal­lace Stevens. What does the poem mean, and what is the con­nec­tion to the novel?

Ac­cord­ing to Stevens, the blue gui­tar changes every­thing, and al­lows him to go more deeply into the process of art. Life be­comes more vivid, closer, with art. The only func­tion of art is this. It doesn't change us, it will not bring peace to the world, but it makes us more alive.

As usual, you nar­rate in the first per­son, is that to help the reader bet­ter delve into the char­ac­ter?

I'm not in­ter­ested in writ­ing my books for my­self; I am at a dis­tance. The first per­son, I think, is the most nat­ural way to por­tray some­one: it is a way of show­ing the world what the char­ac­ter is from within.

The book is like an ex­plo­sion of feel­ings. Is that a way for you to ex­press what is going on in your head?

The book is not talk­ing about me, it is a sep­a­rate being that I brought into the world. I do the same thing as a sculp­tor: I take a rock and it be­comes a work of art. Kafka said: “The artist is the only one who has noth­ing to say.” In my books there are no feel­ings or opin­ions, there is noth­ing of mine, there are sim­ply ma­te­r­ial things, like rocks, that I bring into the world. As a cit­i­zen I have many opin­ions, but as an artist I have noth­ing to say.

You use the pro­tag­o­nist to de­scribe the self­ish side of love, why this side?

Love is al­ways about “me”. Love is a kind of hunger, a de­sire to see the world in a dif­fer­ent way. It is a crea­ture that we all want to have with us but in fact it is al­most im­pos­si­ble to sus­tain. If peo­ple lived hap­pily with love, the world wouldn't last two min­utes. At least that's how I see it.

So you be­lieved that the pain love causes helps us to sur­vive?

Yes, cer­tainly. It is what makes us more alive, which gives more strength to our lives and al­lows us to move for­ward.

Oliver went back to where he spent his child­hood to, in a way, get his life back. Do you be­lieve these refuges we build when we are young are im­por­tant?

The child is al­ways a good re­source for the work of the artist. Baude­laire said, “Ge­nius is noth­ing more nor less than child­hood re­cap­tured at will.” You don't need to write about child­hood, but the state of being a child, this state of in­no­cence is a mag­nif­i­cent start­ing point for the artist.

In­stead of his child­hood, he tries to re­gain his muses. Who are your muses?

My only muse is my imag­i­na­tion. Noth­ing is real until we imag­ine it. This is what makes the world real. Oliver, for ex­am­ple, cre­ates an il­lu­sion in his head of his lover, Polly, which is far more tran­scen­den­tal and pro­found, even though he knows it is only an il­lu­sion.

The heir to Nabokov and Proust

Carla Gimeno

Born in 1945, Banville has had a long career as a novelist and screenwriter so that today he is thought of as one of the foremost figures in contemporary fiction. With his precise, forensic style and dark humour he is often compared to Nabokov and Proust, and he is also considered to be a strong contender to win the Nobel prize for literature.

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