Thursday Oct. 21, 1982 I Kaleidoscope I 7
4/At/'
A.sheville novelist, Gail Godwin, autographs one of her novels after
a reading from her upcoming novel, The Finishing School
Staff photo by David Pickett
Novelist describes joys
By Joe Scotchie
Record Review
tray Cats
harp claws
This is the final part of an interview
conducted by Joe Scotchie with
novelist Gail Godwin. Godwin was
in Asheville on Oct. 3 to read from
her new novel, The Finishing School,
still in progress.
J.S.: Your reading came on
Thomas Wolfe’s 82nd anniversary.
Being from Asheville and leaving
Asheville to go out in the world,
have you ever felt an affinity or in
spiration from Wolfe?
G.G.: Oh, sure. In fact, I wouldn’t
write about Asheville for years,
because I felt he had already
preempted the landscape. I used to
pour over his books. I haven’t
reread them in a long time. I think I
will. And I think that Look
Homeward, Angel will stand to
many re-readings.
J.S.: How does it feel to be back?
G.G.: Oh, it always feels good to
be back. And it feels especially good
to be asked to read in your home
town. I love that. And I love the
idea of reading a work in progress
before people, some of whom I’ve
known for years.
J.S.: You live in Woodstock, which
is in upstate New York. Is it
becaup you wish to stay away from
the highly competitive New York
literary scene?
G.G. That gets to you. It seeps
through, somehow. I live in
Woodstock because it’s a very pret
ty community. In fact, physically it
looks a lot like Asheville. It has the
mountains; they’re not as pretty as
Asheville mountains, but the New
York competitive literary scene does
reach out that 100 miles. I can feel
it if I let myself.
J.S.: Do you ever have insomnia
problems where you just lay in bed
at night, haunted by a word or an
idea that should have been added to
that day’s work?
G.G.: I sure do. In fact, the book
I’m writing now, I was thinking
about it so much. I had not begun it
yet, but I was thinking about it. I
had insomnia and was going over
and over how I might begin it. And
then I went to sleep and I actually
dreamed the opening paragraph. I
dreamed exactly how it would be, I
had the sense, when I woke up, to
get up and write it down, because
you usually don’t. You say, “Well, I
can remember this tomorrow” and
you don’t.
J.S.: Tennessee Williams says that
writing is like being free. Whenever
you get some part of your work just
right--a scene, a chapter, or just a
line-- do you get a feeling of immor
tality, like this thing you have could
just go on forever?
G.G.; I get a feeling of having just
filled up the moment totally. You
know that’s a rare feeling. You just
feel that you’ve filled up that circle
completely. There’s no little edge or
blank spot. The whole thing’s filled
in. That’s how I feel when
something has come out right.
J.S.: In a technological age that is
becoming a computer age, it seems
that the written word and the joys
and freedom one finds in being
caught up in a book may be on the
brink of extinction. As a working
writer and a teacher of writing, what
advice would you give for writers to
remember, especially in moments of
total despair?
G.G.: First of all, I want to argue
with this reading experience being
on “the brink of extinction.” It’s
By Kari Howard
Meow! These cats have sharp
claws! And they know how to use
them. In Built for Speed, the Stray
Cats aim for the jugular and trium
phantly draw blood.
It took a lot of perseverance to
achieve this effect though. This trio
of tomcats first prowled around
Long Island [their home turf] with
little success, so they leapt over the
Atlantic to London in the summer of
1980. The atmosphere was ripe;
young Britons who had long nur
tured the Great American Dream
caught the Cats by their tails and
spun them into a whirl of Top 20
hits. Rockabilly was revived.
The Stray Cats are a mixture of
of writing
something you do by yourself.
J.S.: I’ve heard people in the com
munications field say that years
from now, ten years from now, you
won’t need a book. You’ll just get
this computer plate, turn it on and
there will be a book in front of you
on the screen.
G.G.: Well, now I can understand
all this new technology. I can
understand if you had to look
something up and looked it up on
the big machine. That’s fine, you sit
at the machine and find the page and
go home. But no one is going to take
a machine to bed with them. So the
reading experience will always be
private. I do think there will always
be some form of book. People just
like having something they can hold.
They like turning their own pages.
J.S» The Dictionary of Literary
Biography lists Edith Wharton,
Jane Austen and George Eliot
among your favorite writers. Are
there any others you would add?
G.G.: I like Dickens a lot, and
Henry James.
J.S.: So what would your advice
for writers be?
G.G.: The only thing I can say is
that writing should be a way of life.
If you write, it should come out of
everything you are and everything
you do. If that happens, you just
can’t go wrong.- It’s when it’s
separated from what you are and
what you do, that the trouble comes
in. Because the motive and the act
are separate.
early rockabilly, jazz, and a little bit
of rhythm and blues. Their style is
pure, all-American with a vitality
reminiscent of Elvis’ earliest record
ings. Indeed, these alley cats may
even dethrone the “King,” who,
after all, was really just a pretty
puppet whose hips twitched on com
mand. The Stray Cats have a raw
force that cannot be controlled by
any strings.
Strings of another sort vibrate
with exquisite abandon under the
masterful hands of lead singer
/guitarist Brian Setzer and bassist
Lee Rocker in their runaway hit,
“Runaway Boys.” Their first
British release, which reached the
Top Ten in December, 1980, became
an anthem to teenage rebellion.
Words like “Running faster, faster
all the time/ You’re under age and
God knows that’s a crime,” cheered
frustrated British youth suffering
from post-punk depression. They
found new heroes in the Stray Cats.
There was not even time for a cat
nap-two months later they spit and
clawed their way through the
Bri i«h charts with “Rock this
Town,” only recently released in the
U.S. Here, percussionist Slim Jim
Phantom excels on his unbelievably
tiny stand-up drum set:
Despite the sparseness of
instruments- lead guitar, double
bass and drums only- the Stray
Cats make a big sound. Whether
lamenting the restrictions of age, or
despising that frightful dinosaur,
disco, the Stray Cats dare the
listener to cross their path. As in
“Rock This Town,” the Cats com
plain “...all they played was disco,
man/ Come on baby, baby. Let’s get
outta here right away.”
Feline slinkiness emanates from
“Stray Cat Strut,” a bluesy number
where Setzer purrs, “I’ni, flat broke
but I don’t care/ I strut right by
with my tail in the air.” The tempo
is different, but the message is the
same; Don’t let your parents live
your life for you. Do it yourself. And
do it with style.
Built for Speed is a purrfectly
delightful release; you can bet your
nine lives that it will make you grin
like a Cheshire you-know-what.