M.A. Something that is immediately evident in reading your novel is
the presence of a great number of animals. What role do they play? Are
they symbols?
N. Well, let me think, the animals are the friends of Euchrid,
his
only friends really. What is interesting about this character of Euchrid
is that anybody who actually is is his friend, who shows him friendship,
he hates more than people who continually castigates him. I mean, no,
animals are not used as symbols in the book. There is a mysterious element
to the the animals in the book, I'm trying to remember the book I wrote a
long time ago. But there are some interesting things about the animals,
the way he talks about them, for instance, or the way he's obsessed with
animals, the way in fact the animals are dead, by the end they are all
dead, because of what he has done to the animals, because of the way he
has kept them. I don't want to sit here and talk about what each animal
represents symbolically or whatever, because it wasn't written that way.
The animals are his dumb, mute friends.
M.A. I've read somewhere, that, speaking about ATASTA, you said
"Read it and forget who I am" or something like that. But in the book
there are many things that appear in your lyrics as well, especially
characters are obviously really yours, even their names, like Crow
Jane...Did you decide to write the novel because you needed more space to
develop your characters? Did you feel that a song was no longer sufficient
to express what you wanted to express?
N. It's very difficult to say something in three verses. When you write a song you get three verses, four verses to say what you want. When you write a novel, you can really grab something by the throat and take it down, and descend with that, and go, and take it to it's furthest extreme, in a way, I mean, the book was conceived a long time before a lot of these lyrics we are talking about ever were in my head, so what really happened was that I created in my head this mythical landscape in which Euchrid and the story operated and, because I was writing the book continuously, and I was quite obsessed with the book, many of the songs also came from the same mythical landscape.
M.A. This is very interesting, because many people who write
songs or poems, find it difficult to face such a far-reaching work as a
novel. I must admit I was rather sceptical, before reading the book I
thought "Let's see how he finds his way out of this" but I
was...
N. ...Pleasantly surprised...(laughter)...Well, for
me,
I've always written stories. Most of my good songs, I would say, most of
my great songs are stories basically, and I think that's what I have a
certain gift for: the narrative form of song writing or writing a book,
and, so I think it was just...for me it was the logical step.
M.A. Are you interested in what we may call the social meaning
of
madness or only in the individual, personal aspects of it?
N. I'm more interested in... I don't know what you mean,
actually. What I've tried to do with the book and what I've tried to do
with a lot of my songs, in say "Jack the Ripper" or "Henry's Dream" is
somebody telling their story and what interests me is the secrets or the
lies, even the lies or the "untruths" that these people are telling you
about themselves. Euchrid, for instance, you feel sorry for Euchrid, he
seems like a sad character for much of the book and as the book continues
you realize more and more that Euchrid is insane, criminally insane and he
is a bad person, he's actually an evil person, in a way, and what I've
tried to do with that was to create an evil person that you could feel
sympathy towards, right up to the end. And I hope that it wo�rked, if you
still love Euchrid even though, in the end, he's murdered his father, he's
tried to murder the little girl, he's done disgusting things to all his
animals... And, in regard to madness, when you say madness you refer to
criminal insanity, and there is some sympathy towards these characters, in
a way.
M.A. There is a question I have always wanted to ask you: what's
your idea of women? In the book there are two opposite characters, Cosey
Mo and Beth, the prostitute and the infant, and they are both positive
characters.
N. Yes, sympathetic characters. They are the good people in the
book, really, but the worst things happen to them. So the question was:
what's my attitude towards women. Well, I'm obsessed with them, I love
women...It's what I've tried to talk about earlier, when I was talking
about the subject of love. I find their gestures or hte way they look or
whatever very inspiring, but at the same time, I'm writing about the other
side of love a lot. I know, it always sonds terrible if I say this, but it
exites me, in a way, to write about violence towards the things that I
love. It's a very exciting sort of thing to write about: it's dangerous,
it's not morally correct. It's always exciting to write about things that
are not morally correct, I find, rather than writing about things that are
morally correct, which I find quite boring. So many of the women in my
work are treated very badly but then so are the men, as well.
M.A. Did you choose the cover for the English edition of your
book?
N. Yeah!
M.A. It's
perfect.
N. Julia Margaret Cameron, who photographed children, basically, a lot of children; she photographed Tennyson and many writers and stuff, as well, but she was one of the first female English photographers, I guess the first female photographer of any worth, and she created these "biblical pictures". An amazing woman.