‘Those who, at first, burn books, will, in the end, burn men.’
Heinrich Heine
This past seven days has seen Banned Books Week in the United States. And, no, it’s not a week when books are banned all over the country. Instead, it’s an event which celebrates books, the ideas expressed within them and the freedom to read them, something that is not always the case despite the fact that all this is supposed to be enshrined in the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
I did find it a bit strange when I heard about it. I know there have been instances of books being banned in Britain, but that seems to be more of an historical thing rather than a modern and ongoing problem.
The idea of books being banned, or of groups or individuals ‘challenging’ books that are being stocked in public libraries or taught in schools, seems to feed into a stereotypical idea that we sometimes have of Americans as religious fundamentalists with a narrow-minded and insular view of the world.
Yet, there are many, many more people in the United States who cherish their freedoms – of speech, access to information and ideas, and of expression in the written word – and they are engaged in a constant battle with an intolerant but aggressive minority who would, for example, like to see the Harry Potter books banned from schools and libraries. ‘Ridikkularus Extremis!’ as the young wizard might say.
Apparently, the ten most common reasons for books being challenged/banned in the United States over the past 20 years are: Sexually Explicit; Offensive Language; Violence; Unsuited to Age Group; Occult; Homosexuality; Religious Viewpoint; Nudity; Racism; Drugs.
When I read that list, the first book that sprung to my mind was Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh. It falls into at least six of those categories. Quite apart from the fact it’s a wonderfully entertaining read, and the most shoplifted book of the 1990s in Scotland, apparently, it is also one of the most important books published in this country in recent years, and the idea of anyone trying to ban it is just plain crazy.
Banned Books Week in America is both a celebration of books and an opportunity to remind all right-minded people to be vigilant about those who would censor what we can read or write, or what our children can read. The week is coming to an end – it’s been running from September 24 to October 1 – and we should all give our support to writers, librarians, parents and teachers throughout the United States who are bravely standing up to censorship.
And while we rightly cherish our freedoms in this country – I happen to think that the Harry Potter books are wonderful and were one of the main things in encouraging an enduring love of books and reading in my daughter – we should not be complacent. There are plenty of people in our country who, given the opportunity or right circumstances, would be only too happy to dictate to us in a similar way.
We should remember, too, that the desire to ban books, or worse, is not a preserve of the right-wing or the religious fanatics. People on the other end of the political spectrum have been just as guilty in this regard, and people with extreme, rigid and unbending views always target books and writers for expressing different views.
I used the quote at the top of this blog in another post recently, but I thought it was worth using again. Heinrich Heine was a German writer whose words from the first half of the nineteenth century were a portent of the horrors in Germany in the 1930s and ‘40s. It remains a chilling warning even now.
If there is one caveat in all this, it is the question of whether, in defence of free speech and freedom of expression, we allow everything and anything to be said or printed. Obviously, the answer is no and we have various laws in this country which deal with things that are libellous, racist, obscene or actively incite people to violence.
As parents, one of our responsibilities should be to ensure that what our children read is age-appropriate, in much the same way that you would monitor what they’re looking at on the Internet. Trainspotting, for example, is a book that pupils can choose as their personal study book at Higher level (age 15-16) in Scottish schools, but you wouldn’t let a seven-year-old read it.
However, if like me, you have a teenage son who doesn’t read books – not even ones that I’ve written – then you don’t have any problem at all!
author@paulcuddihy.com or you can follow me on Twitter @PaulThe Hunted
So I’m sitting in a hotel room in Strathpeffer in the Scottish Highlands, listening to Matt Monro singing about ‘Days Like These’ as I scribble away in my notebook, finishing off a short story.
I know many people find it distracting but I like to listen to music while I’m writing. I’ve found, over the years, that it’s the best way to drown out the general noise and bedlam in the house that would otherwise put me off, and I enjoy listening to my iPod while I write.
Of course, it’s not just any music – I don’t put the iPod on ‘shuffle’ because that would be a hindrance rather than a help; either I’d start singing along to a song – which would then annoy whoever is watching TV – or I’d keep skipping songs that I didn’t want to listen to.
When I was writing Saints and Sinners, I listened almost exclusively to Clannad, a band who hail from Gweedore in Donegal. The songs seemed to fit in with the feel of the novel, and it did help having the music in the background. It was never distracting and, after a while, it became part of my writing ritual.
Michael Caine in The Italian Job
There are three different voices in the novel, and I listened to one song in particular, Coinleach Glas an Fhomhair, whenever I was writing any chapters from Kate’s point of view. It’s a beautiful song and I found it really helped in finding a female voice in my writing. The title of the song, according to Google Translate, means ‘Green Red Autumn’ – nothing is a mystery any more, as a friend of mine always tells me – although I will have to ask a couple of my Irish-speaking friends for help with the pronunciation.
When it came to writing The Hunted, I listened to Corinne Bailey Rae. Don’t ask me why – there is no connection with the book. I just think she’s a wonderful singer and, again, it is music that can be played without distracting me.
However, I changed tack when I was editing the manuscript. For some reason, the Simple Minds album, New Gold Dream, worked best for me. It’s a brilliant album which always reminds me of my teenage years –a long time ago now! – and, of course, they do have a song, Hunter and The Hunted, on the album.
Recently, as I’ve been scribbling away on a batch of short stories I hope to unleash on the world soon, it’s been the Ray LaMontagne and The Pariah Dogs album, God Willin’ & The Creek Don’t Rise, I’ve been listening to.
Every writer has their own habits and rituals. I like to write a first draft in a notebook before I type anything out – I even have a favourite kind – a poor man’s moleskine notebook from Asda! I also have a certain type of pen I prefer to use as well – a bit weird, I know, but it works for me. If I’ve got these things to hand, then I can just put on the iPod and start writing.
And while Matt Monro did help me with my writing, that’s not my favourite memory of the song. That came a couple of months ago when we’d gone up to the Campsie Hills one day. Driving back down the ‘slightly’ winding road at the end of the day, I put On Days Like These on full blast and imagined I was re-creating the opening scene of The Italian Job – happy days indeed!
author@paulcuddihy.com or you can follow me on Twitter @PaulTheHunted
I love books. That will hardly come as a surprise to any of you but I thought I’d admit it, nevertheless. My love of books isn’t just restricted to reading them. I love buying them, collecting them, having them in my house… and there are thousands of them, literally, or should that be literary?
Even if I never buy another book in my life, I know that I will never get round to reading all of the books I own just now. I’m not getting any younger, after all. But the inexorable march of time is only part of the problem. I look at some of the books I have and wonder what on earth possessed me to buy them in the first place? My problem is that I can’t pass a bookshop without going in, and once inside, I feel it’s rude not to buy something.
Now, I’m about to embrace the book-reading technology of the twenty-first century and buy a Kindle. I have resisted ebooks for as long as I could; I have dismissed them and denigrated them, but they are the future… or at least, an important part of it.
It has been a long journey for me to get to this point. As I admitted already, I love books – to have, to hold, to own, to read. That won’t change, but having spoken to a couple of fellow bibliophiles who were previously ebook sceptics but are now fully-fledged converts. I suspect, or fear, I am set to follow suit.
It’s becoming an increasingly popular format and last year more ebooks than paperbacks were sold in the United States. That trend that is set to continue. My new novel, The Hunted, will be available in this format, while I know the publishers of my first novel, Saints and Sinners, are set to do so the same thing with that book.
The subject is also fresh in my mind, having read last week that the man acknowledged as the creator of ebooks died. Michael Hart was a student in Illinois back in 1971 when he started Project Gutenberg, which aimed to copy tens of thousands of books into electronic form and distribute them for free. His idea might have taken almost 40 years to become globally accepted, and it’s not a universally free concept, but it is still a remarkable one. And Project Gutenberg apparently now has 36,000 books, in 60 different languages, all in ebook format and available for free.
If I have one fear, and I hesitate before saying it in case word gets back to my house, is that buying a Kindle could put my book collection under threat. The question I know that is sure to be asked is, ‘If all those books can fit in the palm of your hand, then why should they take up so much space in the house?’ But I’m not giving them up. Not a single one! To borrow an infamous quote from the late, gun-loving actor, Charlton Heston, ‘From my cold dead hands….’
Having said all that, I did stumble upon details of the forthcoming Guardian and Observer Book Swap, which encourages people to give away their books, or at least one of them. The idea is to pick a book you like, put a special sticker on it that the newspapers supply on which you explain why you like the book, and then leave it somewhere that it can be found. It’s a good idea, although after having initially thought of a favourite book to give away, I then began to come up with reasons not to, and instead began to think of alternative candidates; I’m sure there’s a Jeffrey Archer book in the house somewhere that my mum gave me as a Christmas present many years ago!
Here’s the link if you’re interested in taking part. BOOK SWAP
author@paulcuddihy.com or follow me on Twitter @PaulTheHunted
After literature and sex, football is one of the great pleasures’
Pier Paolo Pasolini
I found this quote about five years ago when I was doing research for a university course I was trying to organise on ‘Football and Literature’. In fact, I liked it so much I even got a t-shirt with the quote on it. I still have the t-shirt, though the course never got off the ground. And I’m sure that not everyone – if anyone – would agree with the order that Pier Paolo Pasolini prioritised his three great passions!
It has been something that’s puzzled me for a long time – why has football always been so poorly represented in literature? Perhaps this was why only three people signed up for my course! (If you are one of those three people reading this blog now, thank you for your commitment – I hope you got your money back!)
Sport enjoys much more prominence in American literature, from novels specifically about a particular sport such as Shoeless Joe by WP Kinsella (which became the film, Field of Dreams) through to being an important part of what would be considered high-brow literary tomes such as Don De Lillo’s Underworld or the first two books in Richard’s Ford’s ‘Frank Bascombe Trilogy’ – The Sportswriter and Independence Day.
Football is an integral part of many people’s lives. It can be a focal point for them and their family and friends, it can be a source of identity and pride within communities; it can cause divisions, provoke anger, make or break relationships. In short, it should provide plenty of inspiration for writers. Yet, there remains a paucity of good football fiction. It could just be a long-standing literary snobbery about the ‘working man’s’ sport, but there is definitely a rich seam waiting to be mined.
It’s not as though Scottish writers haven’t previously ventured on to this football field. Football is a regular ‘character’ in many of Irvine Welsh’s books, while Robin Jenkins, who I believe is the greatest novelist Scotland has ever produced, wrote two novels with football playing a central role – ‘A Would-Be Saint’ (1978) and The Thistle and the Grail (1954).
The Thistle and the Grail is the best novel about football that I’ve ever read. It tells the story of Drumsagart Thistle and their obsessive bid to win the Scottish Junior Cup. It is a captivating book, very funny in parts, and an excellent portrayal of small-town life in Scotland.
Step forward Alan Bissett, a fine Scottish writer who has just published Pack Men (Hachette Scotland). It’s the fictional story of four Rangers-supporting friends who travel to Manchester for the 2009 UEFA Cup final. I’m looking forward to reading it and I wish the book every success, not least because I hope it might encourage other writers to tackle the subject of football… myself included!
A few other football book recommendations (fact and fiction):
Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby
Dynamo by Tariq Goddard
The Football Factory by John King
The Beautiful Team by Garry Jenkins
The Miracle of Castel di Sangro by Joe McGinniss
The Damned United by David Peace
And I can’t write about football and literature without mentioning Willy the Wizard by the genius who is Anthony Browne. Get this book. NOW! Even if you don’t have children. It tells the story of Willy the chimp who finds a pair of old football boots which give him incredible skills on the pitch. And if that’s not enough, Willy also wears the green and white Hoops! What more do you want from a book?
author@paulcuddihy.com or follow me on Twitter @PaulTheHunted
‘The healing place of the soul.’
Inscription over the door of the Library at Thebes (ancient Greece, circa 1800BC)
Earlier this year I embarked on my self-titled Saints and Sinners Library Tour 2011. I visited nine libraries – just one short of my target of 10 that would have justified a tour t-shirt. My ‘tour’ took me from Royston to Rutherglen, and beyond, as I talked about my novel, reading from it, answering any questions and finishing off with a couple of songs!
It was always an enjoyable event – I’m only speaking for myself here – and every one was different. There were three people who came along to Maryhill Library, while about twenty-three packed into Uddingston Library.
And I met a whole range of interesting people – from a woman who runs a magazine for vampires – or maybe it was for people who’re interested in vampires? – to a fellow writer once labelled as the ‘most dangerous man in Scotland’ by a judge in the 1970s. I also met two distant relatives for the first time, and I’d like to think that I also gained a few new readers along the way.
The first thing I always said at every event was that libraries are one of our most valuable but under-valued resources. I genuinely believe that. And what worries me, particularly in this so-called age of austerity, is that libraries will be seen as an easy target for cuts.
Bishopbriggs Library
My parents used to take me to Bishopbriggs Library when I was younger, and I did the same thing with my children, taking them to the same library. It’s where my love of books was fostered, though one traumatic episode in my formative years could have put me off reading for life.
I remember being in primary six and every Friday afternoon, the teacher would read a couple of chapters from a book called Master of Morgana by Allan Campbell McLean. It’s a wonderful adventure story for kids set on the isle of Skye, and I was absolutely captivated by it, so much so that, after a couple of Fridays, I went straight from school to the library, got the book out and had it finished by the Sunday night.
Unfortunately, I then went into school on the Monday morning and told everyone else in the class how it ended, spoiling it for them. My punishment was getting the belt, and for years after that I was always appalled at the thought I’d been belted for having the initiative to go and read the book myself; the reality, of course, was that I was being punished for ruining the story for everyone else!
Libraries have existed for thousands of years, and they are places which celebrate the written word, the joy of learning and the simple pleasure of reading. Anyone can use them and everyone should.
They are also FREE… it costs you nothing and you can learn everything.
We should cherish the libraries we have in our communities. We should use them more often – I’m as guilty of not doing so as most of you probably are these days – and we should be thankful that we have them.
Think about any country where a dictatorship emerges. Writers are usually among the first to be targeted while books which do not conform to the ruling dogma are proscribed or destroyed. As the nineteenth century German writer Heinrich Heine prophetically said, ‘Those who, at first, burn books, will, in the end, burn men.’
There are all sorts of quotes to extol the value of libraries. My favourite is from the Roman philosopher, Cicero, who said that ‘to add a library to a house is to give that house a soul.’
It’s a quote I often use whenever a new batch of books appears in my house. The standard response is usually: ‘Not more f***** books!’ I think it might have been Plato who said that.
Check out the Love Scottish Libraries website and add your support for our libraries. Click HERE
You can email me at author@paulcuddihy.com or you can ‘follow’ me on Twitter @PaulTheHunted
