I think youth means lack of fear. You have nothing to lose, so why not try? I know that’s what gave me the courage to ask questions on Sunday, despite it being the first press conference I’d ever attended, despite the temptation to sink into the auditorium seat and merely observe.
Politics shadow the conference like a rainstorm’s cloud. At the press conference the writers are questioned on their views on Israel, on the Israeli government’s policies. But I didn’t come for this. I’m glad when the focus shifts.
I ask how a writer transitions into being a talker. Jamaica Kincaid responds that to her writing is like talking; in fact writing is an interruption of talking. Most of the writers agree, saying that both writing and talking use the same language, and the same skill with words can be applied to both.
What isn’t addressed was the factor of time. To me that is the crucial difference between the written and the spoken. I can write, because I have the time to think, to let the words lie on the page. I can even go back, and correct and change. All of that is lacking in speech, which makes it a much more difficult task, at least for me. But maybe I’m the only one. It seems all the writers on the panel feel no hesitation with speaking, despite its immediacy. As a writer, I enjoyed hearing them.
I also want to know how the writers view blogs. Do they see blogs as a good thing, which encourage new writers, new voices?
Not surprisingly, they responded with grimaces. Paolo Giardano spoke for them. He says that as much as we complain about publishers, they are doing a job. And we shouldn’t try and circulate them, but rather rely on them. His answer is understandable. He is one of the lucky ones, whom the established press has chosen. But I’m left wondering about the process of self selection. If the masses choose a writer, does this not mean the writer is good? Can we not rely on the people’s choice? Is there no tinge of paternalism, in dismissing so quickly a form of writing that many readers flock to? As a blogger, I feel we still have a long way to go.
Later, in the opening ceremony, the best speaker was the youngest. True, I was most excited to hear Shimon Peres speak, for now I could say that I’d ‘seen the president’. Yet I can’t remember what the President of Israel actually said. Snippets of his phrases, here and there, linger in my mind. It sounded beautiful, rhythmic, literary. But it didn’t say much. The person who managed to convey more, the only person whose speech I can remember now in its entirety, without looking at notes, was by young Israeli writer, Nir Baram. He started off by saying that because of manners and politeness, we lose dialogue; that there’s so much that’s not being said. He made me sit up in my chair, and want to cheer. As an Israeli with Right-wing views, I then disagreed with the rest of his speech; we don’t belong to the same political camp. However, as a Generation Y’er, I felt vindicated.
Nir Baram proved that the writing world needs the young, the same way that the technical world does. It’s ironic; the industrial corporate world, which used to be synonymous with the old and established, does recognize the need for young blood, especially in the Hi Tech sector I’m a part of. At a technical conference, all are welcomed and heard, no matter their background and credentials. Spontaneous groups break out in the intervals, where senior engineers chat with students fresh out of college. Intelligence is an equalizer; innovation is on a par with experience. Nothing like that happens here. You’re either a ‘somebody’ or a ‘nobody’, and never the twain shall meet. The literary world, which once was about rebellion against the bourgeois, staid and settled, has now become its own elitist clique, nearly impossible for a newcomer to break into.
SARA SHAMANSKY
Sara Shamansky writes a blog on her experiences as a young, single, woman in Israel’s Ultra Orthodox society. Her novel-in-progress on Shidduch dating is appearing there chapter by chapter. She will be blogging about the writer’s festival for Midnight East.
Image credit: Mishkenot Sha’ananim, Jerusalem. Photo by EdoM
