ad info




CNN.com
 MAIN PAGE
 WORLD
 ASIANOW
 U.S.
 LOCAL
 POLITICS
 WEATHER
 BUSINESS
 SPORTS
 TECHNOLOGY
 NATURE
 ENTERTAINMENT
 BOOKS
   news
   interviews
   first chapters
   reviews
   reader's cafe
   bestsellers
   games
 TRAVEL
 FOOD
 HEALTH
 STYLE
 IN-DEPTH

 custom news
 Headline News brief
 daily almanac
 CNN networks
 CNN programs
 on-air transcripts
 news quiz

  CNN WEB SITES:
CNN Websites
 TIME INC. SITES:
 MORE SERVICES:
 video on demand
 video archive
 audio on demand
 news email services
 free email accounts
 desktop headlines
 pointcast
 pagenet

 DISCUSSION:
 message boards
 chat
 feedback

 SITE GUIDES:
 help
 contents
 search

 FASTER ACCESS:
 europe
 japan

 WEB SERVICES:
Books Chat


A Chat With Richard Flanagan About ‘The Sound of One Hand Clapping’

April 4, 2000
Web posted at: 4:00 p.m. EDT

(CNN) -- Australian novelist Richard Flanagan writes about characters who are "forgotten by history, irrelevant to history, yet shaped entirely by it." In his second novel, "The Sound of One Hand Clapping," he explores the lives of Slovenian immigrants Bojan and Sonja Buloh, a father and daughter. He reveals two characters caught up in the tragedy and brutality of life, trapped by their own history and bound by love.

Flanagan, winner of the Australian Bookseller's Book of the Year Award, joined a book chat on Tuesday, April 4, 2000, to discuss "The Sound of One Hand Clapping." His previous novel, "Death of a River Guide," also won major Australian literary awards. The author participated by telephone from Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. CNN.com provided a typist. The following is an edited transcript of that chat.

Chat Moderator: Welcome to CNN, Richard Flanagan.

Richard Flanagan: It's nice to venture into cyber-space the day after I see the NASDAQ has plummeted to previously unthought-of depths! I must say, I wasn't prepared for this obsession with the Internet! Everything here is dot-com. It's like a gold rush!

Question from Cleo: Hello, is this book based on a true story?

Richard Flanagan: No. I grew up in a small mining town in a remote part of Tasmania, full of immigrants. And from a very young age, I remember their most extraordinary stories. It never ceased to astonish me how they imprinted upon one's soul in such a remote place. You might have written the great epic movement of history of the last 100 years -- fascism, nationalism, communism, the disappearance of nations, languages-- and all that would exist in one person's own story.

So, the novel, like any other novel, is bits and pieces of several people's stories, and a whole lot of it is made up as well, as a novel must be. But I do have a Slovenian wife, which is why I made the character Slovenian, because that is the migrant world I knew best.

  RESOURCES
TEST CNN Chat Calendar
How to Connect
Message Boards
Time Zone Converter
Discussion Standards
 

Chat Moderator: What is the significance of the book's title, "The Sound of One Hand Clapping?"

Richard Flanagan: To my shame, I must admit that its true significance is that as I came to the end of writing the novel, it had no title, and desperately needed one. It seemed like a good title at the time. Many people have much cleverer interpretations of what the title means than I do, and when they tell me, I of course nod sagely and agree. But the truth is that these characters, as Dante wrote, were not living, nor yet were they dead; and that their lives are utterly bereft until they managed to manifest the love that they have for one another, and redeem themselves through that love. Until that time, each character knows the sound of one hand clapping, which I take to be an infinite nothingness.

Question from NoReality: How did you pick your subject matter?

Richard Flanagan: What a splendid name, NoReality! I wish I had one like that! I suspect the truth is that I don't really choose any subject. It's just that a particular theme assumes an ever-larger portion of my soul and imagination, until I can do no other, than to begin to write it and allow it to spill out of me.

The Serbian writer, Kis, wrote, "What defense have I against nothingness, but this arc in which I pull together everything that was dear to me -- people, birds, plants and animals -- everything that I carry in my eye and in my mind, in my heart and soul."

I feel that this is how I arrive at writing books, that I merely gather all the processes together, and try to make a book that might find some meaning out of them.

Chat Moderator: One book reviewer spoke in terms of people like the Buloh family being shaped by history. Do you think people like the Buloh's also help shape history, especially social history?

Richard Flanagan: There's a line somewhere in the book that talks about how, in the end, people do stand somewhere beyond history, because history cannot take into account the great irrational forces of hate and of love.

At the end of a century, of the greatest horrors committed in the name of historical forces -- nationalism, industrialism, fascism and communism -- I was intrigued as to how two characters might seek to somehow speak of their own humanity in a way that was an act of defiance against these historical forces, against history. It seemed to me that the only way they could do that, and the most profound, subversive and moving way they could do it, would be in the love they would show each other.

Question from Sunny1_CNN: Richard, what kind of competition were you up against for the Australian Bookseller's Book of the Year award?

Richard Flanagan: That's an unusual award, in that it's all books, not just literary books, so it's an unusual award that is highly regarded in the industry. It has to combine virtues of popularity and quality, which is not to say that my book succeeded in either way, but only that those judging thought it did. I don't think prizes should be taken at all seriously, and they're most certainly not the meter of what is good and bad in writing. They are, however, an embarrassment that one must learn to endure. :)

Chat Moderator: You have directed a film based on this book, which has been released in Australia and Germany. Do you plan a wider release for it?

Richard Flanagan: The American film distribution has largely closed itself off to foreign films in the last five years. They weren't interested in my film, because they believed that Americans don't like films that are dark and by their likes, difficult. This is a problem for all film-makers outside of America. Unless you fit a certain formula that distributors claim Americans wish to see, it's almost impossible to get a release in the U.S.A.

Question from JimL: Do people make history? What is the relationship between people and historical forces?

Richard Flanagan: Jim, you've thrown me the big one! I've spent two novels trying to work it out, and I don't have any ready or quick answers to give. It more and more seems to me, though, that what is special in life is seeking to find the universal and the infinite in a single image of a face or a gesture.

Question from Asher: Speaking of nationalism, what is your take on the British Monarchy's response to white Australian’s treatment of the indigenous people?

Richard Flanagan: I missed the Royal visit, because I've been away for a while, so I’m not entirely sure what the response was. I can say that the present Australian government's record on indigenous issues is appalling. It leaves millions of Australians feeling intensely ashamed.

Chat Moderator: Are the members of the Buloh family universal immigrant figures? Is this story an allegory?

Richard Flanagan: Chekov writes to his brother that it is not for the writer to judge his characters or his stories, but merely to report them impartially. Readers make books much more than writers do. It is not for a writer to say whether his work is allegorical or symbolic or universal. If others find those meanings in the work, then I am of course flattered.

I'm not trying to be dissembling here. I don't set out to consciously write something allegorical when I'm working. I think it's dangerous for writers to be too conscious and clear about what they're writing. I think it was Faulkner who said that the moment a writer knew what it was he was writing, he wrote nothing worthwhile.

Question from Cleo: What were your thoughts when you won the Australian Bookseller's Book of the Year Award?

Richard Flanagan: Don't drink too much! :)

Chat Moderator: It has been said that you like to write about those whom history has forgotten. What do you want us to know, understand, and remember about the characters of Bojan and Sonja Buloh?

Richard Flanagan: Simply, that love matters.

Chat Moderator: Do you have any final thoughts for us?

Richard Flanagan: I have none, really. It is a difficult responsibility and an onerous one that a writer has in this day and age, that they're expected to explain aspects of their work about which they understand almost nothing. I have a suspicion that writers are essentially inarticulate, because if they could say things quickly in a few sentences, they wouldn't need to spend thousands of words saying what they understand about this life. :)

Chat Moderator: Thank you for joining us today, Richard Flanagan, to discuss your book, "The Sound of One Hand Clapping."

Richard Flanagan: Thanks, very much! :)


CNN COMMUNITY:
  • Go to our auditorium chat room
  • Check out the CNN Chat calendar
  • Participate in our book message boards

  • RELATED SITES:
    More information about this book from barnesandnoble.com

    Note: Pages will open in a new browser window
    External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.
     LATEST HEADLINES:
    SEARCH CNN.com
    Enter keyword(s)   go    help

    Back to the top   © 2001 Cable News Network. All Rights Reserved.
    Terms under which this service is provided to you.
    Read our privacy guidelines.