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William Golding Talks to John Carey
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12480 |
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Section : |
Book World
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| Issue
Date : |
7 / 1987 |
7,503 Words |
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Roger Lewis is a fellow of Wolfson College and a lecturer
at Mogdalen College, Oxford University, and writes
regularly for Punch. |
Carey: You don't like being interviewed, I know. Is it because you want to be private? Or is it because you feel that a writer writes, and that is his medium, and talking something entirely different?
Golding: I think it's mostly, if not all, a writer writes. There is nothing to a writer but his books. After all--this Egypt I've just been to--there's nothing of a scribe but his hieroglyphics. That's his signature, his moira, his fate.
Carey: So it's almost like saying, Why should a painter be asked to expound his philosophy? He paints.
Golding: Yes, that's right.
Carey: Could we, though, talk a little about your life? You have written about your father, who was obviously a remarkable man. Did you ever feel in his shadow?
Golding: Yes, I did: unconsciously, I think for a long time. But later, when one starts looking back over one's life, I did see that I'd been in his shadow, particularly, I suppose, philosophically, in that he had made of himself a Wellsian rationalist--should I call it--and because he was who he was, I took this; and for a long time I suppose I half convinced myself I was a rationalist, atheist, and so on. Whereas I don't think I was instinctively any of these things at all. This is a condemnation, I suppose, of a human relationship. Because I should have freed myself from him early, or he should have pushed me off, or something. But there it
... (1913 of 40637 Characters)
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