A Gonzo Guide to the Edinburgh Book Festival

Going into Edinburgh for the first event I’ll see at this Festival, I have set up some goals. These are, obviously, to see a lot of writers talking about their books, and to interview a couple of them too. But a fiend of mine (yes, fiend, not ‘friend’) sent me a spreadsheet of ‘1001 books you must read before you die’ knowing full well that I’d have to go through it. It turns out that I’ve read a creditable 93, but this means I will be unable to resist trying to get that up to a nice even 100 during this booky period. Said fiend, who will henceforth be known as the Penguin (because he grew up in Edinburgh Zoo – son of a zookeeper) followed this coup by ‘just happening’ to find a discarded book which turns out to be registered with BookCrossing.com, the book sharing website where you read a book then pass it on by leaving it lying somewhere. He didn’t want to read it; I couldn’t refuse the challenge. Fiendish Penguin. It’s a biography of Isaiah Berlin, about whom I know very little. But this may change.

But no reading today, because I was busy going to see Tariq Ali, and Nury Vittachi. I’d have thought a political journalist like Ali would have been a clear contrast to comic novelist Vittachi, but there were similarities. A description of Ali’s talk first: Tariq Ali, for anyone who doesn’t know, is a veteran political journalist, historian and author, long associated with The New Left Review. He has also been cited as the inspiration for The Rolling Stones Song Street Fighting Man, although no-one’s quite sure of this. Anyway, Ali began his talk by thanking the Scots in the audience for the Glasgow East by-election, and mentioned that he was glad that the alternative to the Labour Party was the SNP, rather than the Tories. This evolved into a criticism of New Labour generally as having, in his view, simply continued Thatcherite policies, particularly in regard to privatisation. He then linked this to the current credit crisis, and mentioned that this is more than just about debt – it’s about commodities too, because we no longer make anything in this country. Most of the factory work in the world nowadays is being made in China, a fact underlined by Ali mentioning that after 9/11, America had to order more American flags from the Chinese. Ali then went on to say that troops are being kept in Afghanistan in order to build strategic NATO bases there, it being centred between China, Russia and Iran. All the captures of Al-Quaeda members had not occurred through military operations, he said, but through police work – the military were there for another reason. But the NATO nations, he went on to say weren’t doing very well in rehabilitating Afghanistan, because Western nations who believe in privatising their own infrastructures – hospitals, transportation systems, even schools, don’t do very well at building these things up in a country without them. He then, briefly, went on to outline how resistance to established orders was growing in the West, and flourishing in South America. All of this is my recollection of the talk, and so please don’t quote any of this – I make no claims of total accuracy. What I do try to suggest is that the whole talk was extremely illuminating, and food for thought, no matter what your political opinion. Where all of this will end, nobody knows.

Now Nury Vittachi. Vittachi writes a series of comic crime novels about a Feng Shui detective. His talk was largely about East-West relations, something that had underpinned much of Ali’s talk. Vittachi, who lives in Hong Kong, made an argument that the Chinese, and even most Asians, are not very creative. He backed this up with two arguments. Firstly, there are not many Chinese, or even Indian, novelists (the audience couldn’t name one). And secondly, he went through a list of Chinese place names which were absurdly literal, like ‘Quite Good Restaurant’, ‘Office Block’ or ‘Greenish Building’. He said that it’s getting better though, and to this end he chairs a prize awarded to the best novel set in the Eastern Hemisphere. Generally, his talk made the Chinese people seem a lot more human than recent coverage, particularly of the Olympics has, whilst also maintaining that the society is still authoritarian. His best anecdote, however, was one about a Taiwanese business that had two arms: funeral organising, and exotic dancing. A member of the organisation, influenced by Western ideas of integration, suggested ‘integrating’ the businesses. So mourners were offered a stripper at the ceremony at a discount. This proved strangely popular, and has now spread to China. Where all of this will end, I’m pretty sure nobody knows. 

The 1001 Books Spreadsheet.

BookCrossing.

Tariq Ali’s Official Website.

Nury Vittachi’s funeral stripper column.

Update: Monday, 11 Aug

A day off. Looking at the ‘1001’ books list, I realise that there are three Edgar Allen Poe titles there which are very short stories. 1 hour later, I’ve read them all. 96 done, 4 to go. I will thwart that Penguin yet!