Harvard Book Store; WGBH Forum Network; Yann Martel: Beatrice and Virgil

And now it's my pleasure to introduce Yann Martel. Well many authors thrive on fast paced page turning plots Yann Martel offers a quieter more contemplative alternative. Having studied philosophy a Trent University in Ontario he uses his writing both fiction and nonfiction to explore the human condition and fundamental questions of spirituality philosophy and morality. Mr. MARTELLO is the award winning author of both short stories and novels and gained worldwide acclaim for the 2001 publication of his novel Life of Pi. That novel which tells the story of a young boy stranded at sea with a small cast of animal companions explores issues of spirituality self-knowledge and what it means to be human. It garnered critical and popular praise. Winning the prestigious Man Booker Prize and appearing on book club reading lists across the world. His new novel Beatrice and Virgil is the story of an author a taxidermy a taxidermist turned playwright and the play he has written to tell the stories of the worst acts committed by

man through the story of two animals. The novel becomes an both an allegory for the horrors of the Holocaust and an exploration of the way the history is represented and the powers and limitations of fiction. In her review for The Huffington Post Nina sank of it she writes Beatrice and Virgil is a chilling addition to the literature about the horrors most of us cannot imagine and will stir its readers to think about the depths of depravity to which humanity can sink and the amplitude of our capacity to survive. Now thank you very much for your patience this evening and please join me in welcoming Yann Martel. Thank you. Thank you Rachel. What I propose to do is do a short reading from Beatrice and Virgil and then I have a question period. I often find interaction with readers more interesting actually than just

reading to you so. Just to set up what I'm going to read Erasmus is a dog. Henry has written a book that was not published it was a flip. I said So you know here I may do a short reading that will have a Q&A. Erasmus is a dog and he has written a flip book which was not published a flip book there for a book with two sets of pages you have to flip it sort of like this a book with two front covers. He has met this taxidermist and this occurs during their first encounter. The taxidermist has been working on a play for several years I'll read a brief extract of that play in a second short reading. Henry looked around. An impulse of pity made him think he should buy a stuffed animal. He had noticed the platypus tucked away on a shelf but it wasn't for sale. It was a painting mounted on a dark wood base floating two inches above it webbed feet outstretched as of the

strange little animal were swimming along a river bed. Henry wanted to touch its bill but refrained. Among the displays of skeletons there was a remarkable skull. Hovering under a glass dome at the end of a golden rod. It had the appearance of a holy relic. The bone shone bright white and there was power to that whiteness as it was to the stare of the light a large eyeball sockets. He made his way back to the front of the store. Erasmus at his side. How much for the Tigers. Out of curiosity he asked the taxidermist moved to the counter pulled open a drawer and brought out a notebook. He flipped through some pages. The female and the cub. As I said are from Van England and Van England. A firm in India in addition to being fine specimens superbly mounted they're also antiques together with a male that would be the taxidermist sided figure and he whistled in his mind at that price if those animals had wheels they'd be a

sports car. And the cheetah. He asked. The Notebook was again consulted. It sells for and the taxidermist stated another figure. Two Wheels this time a sleek powerful motorcycle. Henry looked at a few more animals. This is all fascinating. I'm glad I came. But I want to keep you any longer. Wait. Henri froze. He wondered if all the animals had also tensed. Yes he said. I need your help. The taxidermist said. Yes my help you mentioned that in a in your letter. What exactly did you have in mind. And we wondered if the man was going to make him a business proposition. He had invested small sums here and there mostly in ventures that had failed. Was he now going to find himself investing in a taxidermy concern. The thought intrigued him. He rather liked the idea of being bold and of being involved with all these animals. Please come to my workshop the taxidermist said signaling with a sigh. What with his wide hand the side door

through which he'd gone to fetch Henry's book. There was something commanding about the desk. The gesture sure said Hennery and the walk through the workshop was smaller than the show room but better lifts a barred room cut across the back wall above a double door letting in natural light. I think smell of chemicals humming in the air. A chain was hanging from the wall with a hook at the end of it. They were animals again there were animals again on shelves and on the floor though far fewer than in the display room and some were entirely to some bodied just a pile of hide or a mound of feathers and others were works in progress. A mannequin made of wood wire and cotton batting for a round animal a large bird likely lay unfinished on a work table at the moment the taxidermists appeared to be working on a deer head mount. The skin was not yet properly fitted on the fiberglass mannequin head and the mouth was a tongueless toothless gaping hole revealing the yellow fiberglass jaw of the mannequin.

The eyes had that same yellow glow. It looked grotesquely unnatural. A server version of Frankenstein. The desk stood in the corner of the room opposite the door. On top of it among various papers and items Henry noticed a dictionary and an old electric typewriter. The taxidermists apparently had no interest in new technologies. The desk had one wooden chair the taxidermist sat on it. Please he said. He indicated the only other place to sit. A plain stool in front of the desk without worrying any further vote. Henry's comfort he pulled the cassette player from a drawer and reset them. The taxidermist set the player on the desk and pressed the rewind button. There was a were blocking sound. A moment of strain then the rewind button popped up the taxidermist press the play button. Listen closely he said. At first Henry could hear only a grainy sound as an old tape rub against a tired head.

Then another sound emerged. At first distance than coming through in waves with greater clarity it was a clamoring chorus of barked grunts. These went on for some several seconds until suddenly from their midst drowning them out. A new and distinctive show erupted. It was a loud and continuous a robust Howell that kept increasing in volume until it reached a prolonged and formidable roaring pitch. Vaguely like someone waking up and stretching and letting out a mighty growl. Only someone superhuman Nimrod a Titan Hercules. It had a deep throated timbre and it was very powerful and we had never heard anything like it. What emotion did it express. Fear and anger lament. You couldn't tell. EROS must seem to know as soon as he heard the bark groans he stiffened and his ears pricked up and he thought he was playing curiosity. But the dog seemed to be trembling.

When the howl started he burst into barking. He too was either afraid or angry and he bent down and picked Erasmus up and squeezed him to his chest to silence him. I'm sorry he said to the taxidermist. I'll just be a second. He hurried to the showroom untied Erasmus to the leg of the tilt counter. He said to the dog. He returned to the shop. What was that. He asked sitting on the stool again and pointing at the cassette player. It's Virgil replied the taxidermist who they're both here. He indicated what he meant with a nod of the head in front of his desk set next to the wall stood a stuffed donkey with a stuffed monkey monkey sitting on its back. Beatrice and Virgil from the play you sent me. Henry asked. Yes they were alive once you wrote that. Yes what I sent you was the opening scene. The two characters are animals. That's right. Like in your novel

Beatrice is the donkey. Virgil is the monkey. So he was the author of the play after all. A play featuring two animals that have extended conversations about a pair Henry was surprised he would have picked realism as the taxidermist favorite style of representation. Evidently he was misjudging him and he looked at the dramatic person I standing next to him. They were exceptionally lifelike. Why a monkey on a donkey he asked the taxidermist replied the howler monkey was collected by a scientific team in Bolivia. It died in transit. The donkey came from a petting zoo. He was hit by a delivery truck. A church was thinking of using it for a nativity scene. Both animals happened to arrive on the same day at my shop. I had never prepared a donkey before nor a howler but the church changed its mind in the scientific institute decided it didn't need the howler. I kept the deposits and the animals that happen on the same day to their abandonment and the two animals came together in my mind.

I finished preparing them but I've never displayed them and they're not for sale. I've had them for some 30 years now. Virgil and Beatrice my guide through hell. Hell what hell have you wondered. But at least now he understood the connection to The Divine Comedy Dante is guided through inferno in purgatory by Virgil and then through paradise by Beatrice. And what would be more natural for a taxidermist with literary aspirations than to fashion his characters out of what he worked with every day. So of course he would use talking animals. And so the taxidermists have been working on this play for a century for decades and stuck. And he reveals he reads out loud portions of this play to the OT to Henry. And so this is one brief section of the play. Beatrice I've had enough of lists Virgil so have I. Beatrice size laser head down and falls asleep.

Virgil wanders off in the bushes. He finds a large piece of cloth bright red and pattern once is a tablecloth. A bolt of fabric. Virgil picks it up and plays with it. He waves it about throws it in the air and watches it fall wraps himself in it. Then he falls back and starts wrestling with it. The red cloth above him and he on the ground on his back. Suddenly he stops and turns to the audience. Virgil. Someone is dying and as they are dying they grab at the red cloth of suffering and they pull and tear at it and nothing before in their life has involved them so completely emotionally or overwhelmed them with such crushing intellectual totality. I'm dying I'm dying. So the cloth becomes everything they see and feel covering the walls and ceiling of their rooms or their room or if they are dying in the open feeling the entire dome of the sky. But getting closer by the minutes

until the red cloth of suffering clings to their body like clothing only tighter then clings like a shroud only tighter then clings like involving bands only tighter until the red cloth clothe them until the red cloth chokes them and they breathe their last eye which moment the cloth as of pulled by a musician by magician vanishes and there is only a body left surrounded by people whose very pulsing being has made them incapable of seeing the cloth and life goes on triumphant. One might say until the day the red cloth flutters into your view and you realize it's coming your way. And you wonder with utter disbelief how you could have missed seeing it before how you could have ignored it. But your contemplations are cut short because you've already fallen back and started wrestling with a red cloth of suffering pulling and tearing at it. Virgil wrestles with the red cloth. Beatrice waking up. What are you doing. Virtual stopping instantly. Nothing. Just

folding this piece of cloth. He holds the cloth into a neat rectangle and puts it down. Beatrice Where did you find it. Virgil pointing there pétrus. I wonder how it got there. Virtual I don't know. Silence. Virgil. We could do with a little good cheer. Beatrice we could Virgil something funny. Beatrice something very funny virtual but not empty good cheer. BEATRICE. No thank you. Well now's your chance to ask me questions I've never been to Boston. Despite the incredible success of Life of Pi I was kind of puzzled that my publisher sent me to Jacksonville Mississippi. Sent me to Memphis sent me to all kinds of places but I never actually came to Boston. And I figure it's because

there's so many things on offer here I suppose that they figured all one author will be lost in a in a sea of activities but I've never been here so. This is your chance to ask me a question you're welcome to ask me questions about Life of Pi. The book is just out here Beatrice and Virgil so I suppose if those you read any of my books it's more likely you've read Life of Pi than Beatrice and Virgil. I have a question about the writer's life in general and what you do to keep up the inspiration because I know it can't just be there all the time. It's a good question. Well here a little inspiration right little. I'm 46. I've only written four books and I've been doing it full time since I was 26. But you know. In that romantic vision we have of artists we see them they're writers scribbling away. That composers has been scribbling away in my experience. You just need a little bit of inspiration.

And then it's more hard work. It's more technique. So in my own writing process. I started Life of Pi in India as my second time to India. Well first of all sorry to backtrack I guess. First you have an openness to stories. Obviously if you're a writer you are seeking to understand life through stories and just as I suppose a composer seeks to understand life through melody and therefore is always open for any melody in the wind. Same with a story with a novelist. You're always consciously and unconsciously. You can sit down if you want to say a second question. You're either consciously or unconsciously looking for stories. So with Life of Pi I was in India I was my second time the first time I'd been there just backpacking. And the second time. Those who read Life of Pi You remember the authors you know the authors in India working on a novel set in Portugal. Well that's quite true I was in porch I was in India working on a novel

set in Portugal which in fact will be my next novel. But I thought time when I started Life of Pi I couldn't figure out how to tell the story. And so I set it aside and then I was suddenly in India for no real reason. I had come there because it was cheap and exotic and I thought it would stimulate my creativity while not spending too much of my money which I didn't have much of. And so suddenly I was there really for no purpose I didn't mean to go to India just to backpack again. And so I had this sort of moment of oh what am I going to do here so I just go back to Montreal or should I stay there. I said what's crazy I flew in all the way here was expensive some will stay here for a little while. And I was in I was in that state of openness and I started noticing what was before my eyes I started noticing India and it is remarkable how one can not see what is in front of one's eyes. Here I consciously decide OK MAS will be here I've nothing to do in a moment of leisure and therefore openness. And one of things I happen to notice is the religious experience of India

in India for better or for worse religion is very much a part of the Indian experience experience you still see religion everywhere in India it's still part of the mainstream you see mosques churches temples all over the place. And manifestations of it too in the way people dress and the famous things they have in their forehead that indicate something. And so for the first time in my life and I don't know where that came from I guess it would be inspiration. I just thought I'd look at religion my background is completely secular. I'm from Quebec which is the the most secular province in Canada and my parents are very much typical of that province very secular very anti-clerical. So I didn't grow up with religion at all so I wasn't baptized so I was baptized. I was born in Spain but we never stepped into a church at all. Art replaced religion art replaced religion as a means of understanding who we are and why we are. And I grew up quite happily with that. And then I studied philosophy at university as Rachael mention and that's a

guaranteed way of making you an agnostic. And so I was also happily you know I was of I was I was a contented reasonable creature. But I guess by the time I got to India I was actually quite tired of being reasonable. I was tired because as a I guess as a boy as a fairly bright student I had been trained to be reasonable. We aspire to that in the West to be very reasonable to be rational. And I got to I got to India and I got tired of that. And maybe that's why I decided to look at religion. And then I posited this idea What if I had a religious character because after all I think art is about exploring the other. I don't believe in an artist's autobiography To me art is exploring the other positing otherness. And so I thought what if what if I have this character who has faith. Wouldn't that be interesting because after all in very few novels take on religion any more you know Catholic novelists of all you know there have been one since Graham Greene essentially it's very

rare to have mainstream novelists a serious novelist take on religion and take it seriously take it as a valid proposition and for understanding the world of the universe. So I thought well here what if I have a character who is religious and. And then one of those one of those magical alchemical moments where disparate elements came together and I remember very clearly where it took place I was most boring in geography here but there's a little in India there's a place called hill stations. It's incredibly hot in coming up to the monsoons in India so the British would escape to hill towns which were higher up and it was cooler. And so there was like I was in the closest Hill Station to Bombay on top of a rock looking down at the plane. And I first of all remember this Brazilian review of a Brazilian novel I'd read in which a character ends up on a lifeboat with an animal. And I completely forgot about it I just remembered at that moment and suddenly I saw that to say I'll take that premise put my character there and he'll have three

religions not one and they'll be one set of facts but two stories that go with it one with animals one without. So right from the start I had that idea of life being an interpretation. And you know life being one set of rational facts but with many possible interpretations and they are the ones that define your life. So I had that right away on that rock. And so that was the key moment of inspiration. And after that I did a lot of research on religion shipwrecks on animal behavior. But it all started with that moment of inspiration. The research that I did led me to have more ideas which led me to have more research to do more research and therefore more ideas. So I think inspiration is key but it's sort of like baking you know you can't bake bread without yeast. You don't need three kilos of yeast it just needs a little bit of yeast and then the rest is the other ingredients and the kneading and everything else and that's the case with my other novels too same thing with Beatrice and Virgil It started with this idea of I've always been interested in the

Holocaust but how can I approach it. And I said I had this idea as a result of working on Life of Pi. What if I approach it in animal disguise and despite having animals Beatrice and Virgil is very very different from Life of Pi Life of Pi. I imagine the reading experience was that in a sense you forget yourself and you were taken in by the animals. So you're looking at the animals as animals the animals after all are not anthropomorphized. With Beatrice and Virgil is the opposite. I was hoping the animals would bring you back or I hope the animals bring you back to your humanity. So in this case the animals act as a mirror. So the direction the psychic direction is quite difficult and different. But it is the same thing I did. You know what if I posit animals to approach the Holocaust what if I take an obvious literary ploy an obvious literary device and park it next to this tragedy called the Holocaust. How would they mix.

So that was sort of the emotional moment when I did research and then this one was particularly torturous. But it was still the same case you have an idea then you build on it. It's a very slow process. Life of Pi took me to two and a half years of research and then two years of writing which strikes me as like lightning speed not compared to Beatrice and Virgil which despite being far shorter took me much longer it took me years to figure out what I could do to the Holocaust not being involved in any way not being Jewish not being Eastern European as a complete outsider. What was my end to it. And also there's something very story defeating about the Holocaust which is why it's dominated by historians and survivors. It's not a terrain that's particularly friendly to people who tell the truth by inventing things. It doesn't lend itself to imaginative interpretation. So it took me years to figure out what I was trying to do. But it started with that moment of

rationing and it's all perseverance. See I can get really long answers to very short questions. You're saying you're a full time writer and have been since you were 26. I was wondering if you could talk a little bit more about that maybe what a typical day looks like for you and secondary to that. What kind of fiction do you like to read. My process of my my life as a writer Well I'm I'm from Canada so we have the luck of having a very generous support system. The Canada Council for the arts which I guess is the equivalent of the National Endowment for the arts I think. But what's great about the Canada Council for the arts is that it gives grants at every level to artists including ours in terms of writers who haven't even published. If you have promise you can get a grant it's still highly competitive. But I had a first. I was first published but in a literary review called the Malahat review out of the University of Victoria. Same thing in the

US you have tons and tons of little literary reviews that have circulation you know tiny maybe 2000 but they are edited by people who love the word. The money is minimal but it is a testing ground. It is a testing ground. If you aspire to write especially short fiction the first step is to get published in one of these literary reviews. So I had one published the second one. Then I was lucky to win this prize called The Journey prize which was $10000 which you know 20 20 20 years ago. I had no money it was like manna from heaven it was so much money. I lived on it for two years. And because of that I got a Canada Council grant so I was lucky to be able to fairly early on wake up in the morning and have nothing to preoccupy me except some story some character and I had and so I wrote some short stories because that was the way for me to start writing you. It's very hard to write a novel right away it's a daunting

task so I started with short stories I wrote for a while I was writing stream me short stories and I was going. I always forget how many days in a year three hundred sixty four five thousand one hundred sixty five of these and have a quarter page introduction and they're going to be called literature in a rush so each of these stories will be less than two pages. I only got about 10. But I wrote these very short things I'm just trying I was experimenting What can I do with the written word. What do I like. What works for me. Then they got progressively longer and I said I got the journy prize and I had the luck of meeting an agent and eventually a publisher the publisher who administered the prize had my stories for a while they didn't want to publish them then another publisher took me on and they've been my publisher for all my books in Canada and my book sold my first book my collection of short stories after several years had sold eight hundred copies and then. But I had the luck that I had a bit of money it was published in eight countries and each country gave me a little advance.

And I had these grants from the Canada Council and so I'd start running out of money but luckily before I completely run out of money I'd finish another book so I finished my second book my first novel sells and it got published I got a few advances tiny advances and after several years had sold one thousand two hundred copies. You know welcome to the world of literary fiction. And then luckily by the time the money from self had run out before Id run out I had won and finished Life of Pi and then I didn't have to worry about Canada Council grants anymore. That's sort of my career arc. My daily life as a writer is nothing special. I can work anywhere I'd table computer has to be a bit quiet but I can work anywhere I work sort of all the time. I'm a very efficient writer. I check emails and I play Spider Solitaire. Now the reason I play Spider Solitaire actually is because it focuses me. I am intensely happy when I'm about to play Spider Solitaire because it's

quite fun and I start forgetting everything else so it starts to focus my mind. So I play about four games and then I start feeling I'm wasting my life. And then I switch to writing. So it's a process and then once I write it's very inefficient I mean you know I type some sentences not happy with them so I delete them then I write them again and at most all right I take lots of notes. So with Life of Pi it took two years I was writing reading books taking notes so I had about three or four hundred pages of notes which I'd cut up then and put in different below PPS in chronological order so the writing process would start by opening that on the lope looking at what I had there. Pasting it onto the computer if it fitted and I tinker with it and the new techs to be very laboriously written so fresh text at most I think I've ever written is maybe half a page in a day and that's fine I'm in no rush really. You know it's not quantity it's quality. And plus I don't have that much to say some will take my time saying it.

So that's what I do all day long until I'm interrupted. And you know luckily I've done well. If life I had not done well I would have been 39 years old with a terrible CV you know Hobby writing. So I would have been completely unemployable. And it's terrifying actually. You know when those of you here who write or aspire to write you put everything in and it's not just a job. It's your whole soul. Every ounce of creativity everything you know about life you invest yourself entirely and to get nothing in return is soul killing. And you can do it. You know I remember for years I had very little money I mean I remember two years before I finished Life of Pi my declared income after various deductions you know legal and illegal after various deductions my my income was $6000 a year. I was way beneath the poverty line. But I was totally happy I was doing what I wanted to be to do I'd wake up in the morning my only concern was this tiger in a

lifeboat or. And so it's fine to be you know it's fine to be in your 20s and being poor and doing what you want to do it's finding your 30s with the time you get to your 40s doing you want to do but being poor sucks and so many writers I know are in their 40s and 50s have given it all to art and get nothing got nothing in return. So. I was incredibly grateful for the success of Life of Pi not to have to not have those material worries about about life anymore. It was an incredible relief. Otherwise my artistic process hasn't changed I still work as much as I have an 8 month old baby so he definitely distracts me from writing I have less time for it. But that's the process. Do you spend all day at it and you hope you wish you hope for the best. I.

Just had a question about Life of Pi I was reading part of it today that I talk to a lot of friends about about this issue at the beginning where you say that animals are actually happier than they are in the wild and I wonder where you got that impression and if you believe that or that's just the character talking.