#litx — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #litx, aggregated by home.social.
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‘When the system makes everything possible and you don’t fear any consequences, some people discover entirely new human beings inside them. Schoolboys one day are now running around violently with Kalashnikovs. When there are no consequences, the ground of civilisation turns out to be quite thin.’
Nino Haratischwili on violence and war in 1990s Georgia.
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Maren Uthaug in conversation with Karoline Kjær Hansen at LiteratureXchange, discussing ’Women and Power’ with sharp sight and wit - I finally worked out why I got a sense of déjà vu. It reminded me of seeing Thelma and Louise in the cinema when it came out. Men and women laughed in different places. And when we did all laugh in the same place, women laughed … differently.
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If you think I had the social grace to not ask a Nobel laureate to sign a grubby worn 23-year-old paperback edition of one of his novels, then you have another think coming. He, on the other hand, had the social grace not to hesitate and just kindly signed both the new and the old book. And how beautifully he signed them too - the dying art of an aesthetic signature.
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It was interesting and, appropriately, somewhat discomfiting to hear Abdulrazak Gurnah in conversation at Aarhus literary festival. The Nobel laureate from Zanzibar whose work focuses on the legacy of colonialism, speaking to a mostly white, mostly Danish audience in a colonial land. During discussion about European tourism in Africa and neo-colonialism, I could almost hear Denmark and Danes loudly not being mentioned by name. Gurnah was reserved, careful and insightful.
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Rachel Cusk is as interesting and deep and complex-thinking in conversation as she is in her written work. A pleasure to hear her at a LiteratureXchange festival event. I appreciate it when authors of her stature come to smaller places, not just to fancy capital cities and fancy flagship festivals, when they happily turn up for readers in libraries in small cities and towns.
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"Shuggie was cancelled in Texas. I was supported by the librarians. A single librarian stood up and spoke out first. That took bravery and moral clarity.
Librarians are on the frontline. Support library unions, support librarians. It starts with them coming for queer books, then they'll come for them all. Wherever you go, if you see a library, support it."
US-based Shuggie Bain author Douglas Stuart in conversation at LiteratureXchange Aarhus Literary Festival
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Asked about his literary influences, Erlend Loe said: Douglas Adams, Samuel Beckett and Thomas Bernhard.
If you've read Erlend Loe, these names make immediate sense. If you haven't read Erlend Loe, then I apologise for wasting your time as you read this toot when you could be reading Erlend Loe instead.
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Something that struck me after a range of events at Aarhus International Literature Festival: every author mentioned how nice it was to be in a packed room having a slow, deep, collective conversation about books with no distractions, no clickbait-questions, nobody recording video, no online fights.
It was liberating and lovely, they said. It struck me that writers from different countries and generations each brought it up, unasked, independently of one another. It resonated.
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‘War reorientates a person. It humbles desires and ambitions. They become small. You become small. You no longer have dreams to be a doctor, to marry, to travel. There is only the need to survive. War is the shrinking of desires in the shadow of self-preservation.’
Chigozie Obioma on the aftermath of war and the fact that Biafrans who fought in the Nigerian civil war will not speak of their experience surviving the slaughter. Not one word, to this day, not even to their families.
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Long ago, I did a googlewhack. I typed two words into the search box and Google produced one result. That was before Google could find everything & rank it. Which was before now, when we can’t find what Google has found among the mess of AI & ads.
I remembered my googlewhack when I discovered that every Fediverse post with the LiteratureXchange tag #LitX is from me. I feel there should be a googlewhack-like word for this, for a lonely hashtag that one soul has been using to talk to themselves.
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Just struck me that 5 Aarhus literary festival events I attended were held in, respectively: Chinese; English; Danish; German; Norwegian.
This is typical of the entire LiteratureXchange programme. I’m now idly wondering if this is typical of all lit-fests or is a minority-language country advantage. An English-speaking festival might narrow down international invites to authors who speak English. A minority-language country doesn't have the option, which might liberate the invite list.
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"We never say: 'oh, novels aren't really my cup of tea.' Because everyone knows that novels can be many different things. Short stories can be too. But when someone asks: 'What are you writing now?' and you say 'short stories', they say: 'ah, OK, well will there be a novel soon?'
Thomas Korsgaard on switching to stories after a series of prize-winning novels as a way to escape the pressure of expectations. 'I thought: what do people not want to read?'
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"Nothing is correct, everything is true."
Judith Hermann, on writing autofiction.
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Am childishly happy that Thomas Korsgaard signed my book. Not only because I have signed copies of his other books, so my collection remains complete. But because this short-story collection blew me away. Two months after reading them, I'm still thinking about details and sentences and the characters.
I’m a fangirl so my opinion can’t be trusted, but I think Snydt Ud Af Næsen is Yiyun Li-good. Alice Munro-good. Russell Banks-good. Dare I say it? William Trevor-good.
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"Short stories are often sad and often open-ended. They draw you in, and when they end, it’s like you’re left standing in the rain."
I heard Judith Hermann say that during a conversation with Dorthe Nors at a previous LiteratureXchange festival and it remains the best description of short stories I've ever heard.
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I know it's rude to brag, but Judith Hermann signed my book.
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Reading Chigozie Obioma’s war novel The Road To The Country at the Read for Peace read-in alongside people including Chigozie Obioma feels meta. It also feels like the equivalent of people who sing Imagine together on TikTok and think they've created world peace.
We know we’re doing nothing. ‘War & conflict’ is an Aarhus Literary Festival theme. The Læs for Fred read-in champions reading as a way to increase empathy by gaining insight into other people's lives.
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I know it's rude to brag, but Chigozie Obioma signed my book.
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These would strike me as strong themes in Thomas Korsgaard’s fiction: Lonely young men. Lonely old men. Lonely middle-aged men. Lonely boys. Men on the edges of society. Men struggling for social acceptance because of their sexuality, their masculinity, their poverty, their violence, their passivity, their dysfunctional families, their provincial roots, their lack of social capital.
So I was struck by the fact that of 50 guests at a #LitX event to discuss his work, 47 were women and 3 were men.
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This is the kind of advertising I don’t mind seeing in public spaces. Author photos on bus stops. Citywide banners promoting a major literary festival with top Nordic and international authors. Main organiser: the library. 157 free and affordable events in schools, public squares, community venues and library branches.
Aarhus International Literature Festival. LiteratureXchange. Why yes, I have tickets. Why yes, you should probably #MuteMeNow.
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“Borges imagined that Paradise would be a kind of library. I think Paradise is a library like Dokk1. This is the most surprising and wonderful library I've ever been in. Now I want to be a librarian in Dokk1.”
Yan Lianke, at his LiteratureXchange event held at Dokk1 Aarhus Main Library. It was a delight to see how delighted he was by our library. We are lucky.
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Climate activist authors led the way at the LiteratureXChange Literary Climate March. It started with fine readings by Carsten Jensen & Silja Henderson. Their literary climate collective 'Forfattere Ser Grønt' works closely with Extinction Rebellion. They were inspired by the UK climate group Writers Rebel. But wanted a softer name that was more culturally Danish. So they chose ‘Writers Seeing Green.’ In the sense: writers seeing red about the climate crisis.
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A literary climate march as the official opening event of a literary festival. ‘It’s so bad even the introverts are here.’
Climate action and sustainability are the themes of the Aarhus lit fest LiteratureXChange. If you think it's just words, it isn't. Well it is, but not in the greenwashing way. Other events include ‘Catastrophe therapy & climate anxiety’, a ‘Can literature save the climate?’ conference, and 'the climate in literature' author talks.