This Saturday (May 17th) I’ll be on a panel at the Hawaii Book and Music Festival. I’ll be up there with Patricia Wood author of THE LOTTERY. She’s terrific–smart, animated, engaging, exuberant. I, however, tend to zone out at these things or simply nod like crazy, pretending to understand what the moderator is talking about. I’m supposed to address The Novelist’s Agenda:
How do I communicate a larger meaning and intent, how I use the story to advocate. How I manipulate the reader
to sympathize, to be enthralled, persuaded of my POV. If I did any of these things I probably wouldn’t be a novelist. I work by not thinking about anything but the story–I don’t know how to do it any other way. I’m a book bumpkin, and I’ve never cared to know themes or agendas. As Flannery OC says, “When you can state the theme of your story, when you can separate it from the story itself, then you can be sure the story is not a good one.”
I don’t know why I’m on this panel, but I refused to do a reading because I did one last year in this huge auditorium and there were, like, ten people there, and they didn’t laugh at parts that were totally funny.
Hawaii Book Festival. Saturday, May 17th. 11am.