Fiction & Biography
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Scotland’s most acclaimed contemporary poet is publishing a pithy book of aphorisms. Allan Radcliffe has a brief encounter with DON PATERSON.
his TesllVe season. when you‘re haring around
toyyn. desperately endeayouring to dream up
inspired stocking l'illers l'or your loyed and not—so-loy ed ones. despair not. Your search is oyer. No need to resort to a rummage in the bargain bookshop lor' the dreaded Uri/c lino/ts of. [The .S‘lrrrr' and Ten (lilt/ ('u/m and Yin and More. Instead. head straight for the section marked ‘lntriguing New \Yor‘k l'rom Scotland‘s Best (‘onternporary Poet. and grab a copy ol' |)on Paterson‘s inspired collection ol‘ aphorisms. 'I'lrr' lino/t o/o'lrm/orriy'.
Despite Aristotle's \yarning that ‘it is unbecoming l‘or young men to utter maxims‘. distilled \yisdom has enliyened literature from the pithy statements oT Hippocrates to the \yitty musings oT Oscar Wilde. \yho prel‘aced 'l'lrr' l’r't'rrm' o/‘lhrrrurr (inn with some 20 r'el'lections on the nature ol‘ art. Yet. in this day and age. when we don't like our \yriters to be too cley'er- cleyer. the deliberately contriy ed collection UT aphor'isms has become someyy hat unlashionable. has taken the Dundee-born musician and poet l)on Paterson \y'ho rel‘ers to the aphorism in this yery hook as 'the elite l‘orm nonpar'eil' and ‘sirnultaneously perl‘ect and per'l'ectly dispensable" to reyiy‘e the phenomenon with a collection of reflections on loy e. death. religion. art and cr'eati\ ity.
So \y hat is the attraction of the form to this double TS liliot .»\yyard-yyinning hard'.’ '\\'el|. they do all seem to come through some "bossy Viennese tannoy" as someone PM it. so ,V‘tllil'c inclined to distance yoursell' from them.‘ he says. ‘But I do like that they operate on the principle of breyity being the ultimate courtesy you cart pay the reader. who generally has much better things to do with their time. Though it's ;-.lso to: them to \york out which are a bit tongue-in- cheek and which are deadly earnest. The more proyocatiye you are the more \aried the interprelations.’
102 THE LIST -.~.\‘-:
‘IT'S LIKE TRYING TO CATCH BUTTERF LIES WITH A FISHING ROD'
Paterson‘s ‘shadoyys‘. \yhich \ary in length l‘rorn a pair ol‘ \yor'ds (‘Ur'ayity l‘luctuates') to a sentence (‘liyerything in nature we don‘t understand we once called miraculous‘) to a paragraph. all exhibit the same pottage ol. the highbroys and eyeryday with lyrical crispness that characterised works such as Lam/rug [jg/Ir. And. like a collection of poetry. the book can be opened at any page. read aloud and enjoyed Tor its musicality as much as its meaning.
Yet. while Paterson has preyiously said that poems arriye in the l'orm of words rather than ideas. he belieyes the rey'erse is true in the case ol‘ his aphorisms. ‘The task becomes trying to find the most elegantly briel‘ way to put this idea. this momentary conyiction you'ye just sul‘l‘ered. The fact that the moment passes is not necessarily an indictment of the conyiction. But the poem is lar‘ loo sloyy' it form to nail those things: it‘s like trying to catch butterflies with a lishing r‘odf
Most l‘ascinating here are Paterson‘s writings on the cr‘eatiy'e process and the struggle l'or‘ genuine originality: ‘ll‘ 1 try to write anything longer than a single sentence. I find mysell‘just making things up.‘ Most r'eyealing from this master of the elegantly simple sentence is the epithet ‘ln all literary matters. to delete in error is better than to include in er‘ror‘.'
So. can 'less is more' be the goyerning principle oT his \york'.’ ‘1 don't take any pleasure in self- editing. but I do it and then always l‘eel better al'teryyards. \Yith poetry it's built into the process; all poetry is is what you omit. until there‘s just one thing left. But after this book I think some l'olk will yyish I had been a bunch more ruthless. Though you should'y'e seen what I lel‘t out.‘
The Book of Shadows is published by Picador on Fri 17 Sep.
books@list.co.uk
Debt/rants under the mIC/Usrfope This issue Hazel Marshall
Who she? When she was about five. Hafel Marshall wrote tiny stories which \\ ere all one sentence long and had no punctuation Inspired by l nrd Blyton. she penned her trrst hook aged 11? lhe four girls in this story ‘ Julie. Julia. Juliet and. em. llrlary ~ travel in a cruise shrp on the Rhine in search ot a missing emerald necklace. More recently, Marshall has been producing .rrtt; programmes for Radio Scotland. Her debut Inspired try her love of the medieval period which she studied at trrrr\.~ersrty and the deeds of explorer Marco l‘olo. she has given us [rode/eso/ne Ange/s and Hyrng Mach/lies. a kalerdoscoprc adventure of heavenly bodies. hellish plots and explosive characters. Set in medieval Europe at the time when Venice was the centre ot Civilisation, the book explores a world far removed from Jet planes and rockets but where human flight is only a leap of larth away. So, what actually happens? Blanco Polo is determined to fly and he's been rnvrted to uncle Maleticro's castle to invent a flying machine. He travels from Italy to Spain encountering pirates. greedy Catalans. and Eva, who has been taken to Spain With her guardian angels for an arranged marriage.
First line test 'Count Malelrcro cursed as his cape swept a dish on to the floor. He snrtfed. He cooldn't be sure but it smelt as though he had knocked over a dish of pickled qoinces.’
(Kate Ewart)
I Troublesome Ange/s and Fly/rig Machines rs out now {)r/h/rs/red by Oxford University Press.
Likes medieval stuff and variations on the name Julie