SCRIPT:
Interviewer:
Why don’t you tell the audience a little about yourself?
Yann Martel:
My name is Yann Martel, and I am a Canadian author. I was born in Spain to Canadian parents, and most of you probably know me as the author of Life Of Pi. My first published book was The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios and Mann Booker prize for the best book written by a Commonwealth author. And even though I was born in Spain, my first language is French and I write in English. And if that isn’t an identity crisis, I don’t know what is. Anyway, I live in Saskatoon with my wife, Alice, and our four children.
Interviewer:
What are your inspirations to write? What inspires you and gives you ideas or motivation to pick a pen up?
Yann Martel:
Many things inspire me to write. For example, different eras, the beliefs and circumstances, faith, and personal life situations. For example, Life of Pi was inspired by The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, which gave me my character, Richard Parker. It was inspired by the era in which The Emergency was declared in India, but, honestly, the main purpose of it was because I needed guidance and direction in my own life, as to not feel so lonely and lost.
Interviewer:
What experiences have you had in your life that influenced you as a person, and as a result, your writing?
Yann Martel:
My most important and influential experiences are those I got from my visits to India. Being raised in a non – religious household meant I was expected to be “reasonable”. But I got tired of that and it wasn’t getting me anywhere. I realized this on my first trip to India, the place where Gods and animals rubbed shoulders and were abound. They were everywhere. Around the corner of every temple would be a church or mosque or any other religious place of another faith. In India, the religions shared not only the area, but also the respect of the people. There is where my faith and hope awakened. Since then, I have been to India about four or five times, and all of those times, i have been dazzled. Almost always, my books have the concept of animals and faith, especially Life of Pi.
Interviewer:
What kind of ideals or philosophies do you personally believe in, which can be seen or you try to show through your writing?
Yann Martel:
My philosophy is that our identity is formed by narration, by constructing things that have a beginning, middle, and an end, that have development. Religion, for example, is profoundly narrative. All religions convey stories and I think that speaks to who we are as a species. Our understanding comes from, is exemplified, and is understood through stories, and that is what I attempt to convey through writing.
Interviewer:
Some of your most popular published pieces include: Seven stories, Life of Pi, 101 letters to the Prime Minister, and Beatrice and Virgil. Can you tell the audience about some other pieces you are proud of?
Yann Martel:
Some of my most proud and published works include The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios, which is a collection of short stories, Self, which is a very interesting book about a man discovering he is now a woman, We ate the Children Last, and my latest book, The High Mountains of Portugal.
EXCERPT:
“I must say a word about fear. It is life’s only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life. It is a clever, treacherous adversary, how well I know. It has no decency, respects no law or convention, shows no mercy. It goes for your weakest spot, which it finds with unnerving ease. It begins in your mind, always … so you must fight hard to express it. You must fight hard to shine the light of words upon it. Because if you don’t, if your fear becomes a wordless darkness that you avoid, perhaps even manage to forget, you open yourself to further attacks
of fear because you never truly fought the opponent who defeated you.”
EMULATION:
I must say a word about love. It is life’s only true purpose. Nothing can defeat love. It is pure, beautifully mysterious, how well I know. it has no rules, no law, happens when most unexpected. It is your biggest strength, which will never play against you. It begins in your heart, always… so you must let live. You must fight hard to keep it alive. Because if you don’t, if your loves becomes a spark you allow to die, perhaps even try pretend like it never existed, you may never find a match to light it up again.
EMULATION:
From of an excerpt of The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
“We fought a lot in Welch. Not just to fend off our enemies but to fit in. Maybe it was because there was so little to do in Welch; maybe it was because life there was hard and it made people hard: maybe it was because of all the bloody battles over unionizing the mines; maybe it was because mining was dangerous and cramped and dirty work and it put all the miners in bad moods and they came home and took it out on their wives, who took it out on their kids, who took it out on other kids. Whatever the reason, it seemed that just about everyone in Welch- men, women, boys, girls- liked to fight ”
We hid a lot at our house, wishing we had a home. Not just to get away from the world but to also protect ourselves from dad. Maybe it was all because we didn’t deserve a good father; maybe it was mom’s fault; maybe we didn’t have the right to be loved. Whatever it was, it seemed we always hid at our house wishing to know what a love of a home felt like- wishing to know what love from parents felt like.