episode 95 - John Banville - part 01

A prolific and much-acclaimed author, playwright, and critic, John Banville has written novels under his own name and genre thrillers under his pen name, Benjamin Black. His 2005 novel, The Sea, won the Man Booker Prize, the highest literary award in Britain. In this interview, John Banville discusses his most recent novel, The Infinities, in which Greek gods and mortals gather at the Irish country home of a renowned mathematician who is dying. Banville also comments on The Sea and The Untouchable, the latter sparked by the life of the British spy Anthony Blount, part of the Cambridge Five, a circle of privileged young men who passed secret information to the Soviet Union during World War II. Banville notes that he writes in Hiberno-English, a poetical English influenced by the Irish language. He says he regrets never having gone to university, explaining that an education "gives you a sense of ease in the world." He also admits that he never rereads his novels and "loathes" what he's written, always hoping that his next book will be better.

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[vk342]

2:00 "The world is not real until it's been pushed through the mesh of language." Good quote.