….und nun folgt der 2. Teil des englischen Gastautors Jamie Byng. Sollten Sie den ersten Teil verpasst haben: Teil 1
“Basically I am an optimist because the great myth of the person who tells another person a story won’t disappear that quickly. There will always be someone who feels the need to tell a friend one of his ideas or one of his dreams.” I heard the brilliant Daniel Keel repeating this Fellini quote during a documentary about Diogenes and in response to a question about why, after 50 years, he still felt the need and desire to publish. I immediately took it to heart, literally, as for me it serves as a perfect summation of why stories matter.
I love Frankfurt because for several days it serves as a unique catalyst to the sharing of stories. For this short spell the midwives to writing, the agents and editors and booksellers and scouts, retell one another the stories that they like and which they think matter.
At the heart of all this are the authors who supply the life blood without which we would wilt. But what I have also come to appreciate is how we midwives, through our retellings, carry the mantle of the writers on. Our responsibility is to connect the words of the writers with the minds of the readers and in Frankfurt we do this through our own retellings of the stories we have read. Since yesterday I have had dozens and dozens of conversations and been told numerous stories and thought-provoking ideas. I’d like to think that I have given as good as I have got although there are two stories that I have been retelling more than any. One concerns a troubled family of abstaining vampires called the Radleys. The other is my retelling of Philip Pullman’s ingenious retelling of the myth of Jesus. Philip describes his book as “a story about how stories become stories” and I think this serves as a neat description of the Frankfurt Book fair!
One of my most inspiring meetings today had at its core a serious discussion about the essence of stories and the way that stories harden when in fact truth is a very fluid element. The “official” version of all events denies many other stories and as Anna Jarota and I discussed new retellings of the stories of Jesus and Joan of Arc, I came to make more sense of what it means to be a publisher. I was also reminded of why I love the Frankfurt book fair so much. For it is truly a human smorgasboard of story sharing!
Tomorrow I plan to tell the story of 3 nicks (Cave, Lilin and Amanitti) – living, breathing authors who will grace the city this week. And to stay on the straight and narrow. So far so good.
Lesen Sie den Blog von Jamie Byng auch unter www.faz.net/byng
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