David Mitchell proves that there is a reason for creating art, and it’s not the Da Vinci Code. Mitchell read passages from his new book Black Swan Green and answered questions for a lively audience at Cody’s on Telegraph tonight. His previous book, Cloud Atlas is my favorite contemporary fiction book, and, especially after hearing Mitchell speak tonight, he is my favorite contemporary author.
Mitchell took a while to get warmed up, drinking tea, reading from his new book, and then soliciting questions. He began to freely speak about art and his process for writing. He spoke of a universal reason for making art with so much sincerity that I almost wanted to cry. He talked about those fleeting moments of happiness – fleeting moments when everything is just right – and you notice and then they’re gone. Art is a way to make those moments tangible. And he is right.
This almost seems like an impressionist view of art, but it’s not, at least I don’t think so. It’s not so much about capturing a particular physical moment, like the sea bathed in light, but more of communicating a feeling, presence, or state. It’s about putting elements together to create a happiness that is life. Cloud Atlas is that. Cloud Atlas helped me see the world in a different way. One person tonight interpreted the “present” in Cloud Atlas as a car chase that leads to an insane asylum. Mitchell said, yes, and then the insane asylum blows up!
Mitchell said that he’s always learning from his work, and that he cringes when he goes back to older works and sees mistakes he has made, but then he is that much better. When asked about what he thinks about genre writing versus literature, he gave a nod to Dan Brown for encouraging people to read, but went on to say that one strategy is to take a cliché, say from a genre, and manipulate it slightly to create something original and interesting. I immediately thought of ways to apply this to the visual arts. What a perfect cure for postmodernism: the cliché with a hook. Cloud Atlas is completely postmodern, but it’s held together with an undeniable artistic strength that comes from thoughtful sensitivity of expression.
I haven’t read Black Swan Green yet, but it’s on my list. It is a more traditional novel, loosely based on Mitchell’s teenage years. He’s now working on a historical novel.
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