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Kirsi     1.8.2024    

Avainsanat:

Kazuo Ishiguro: The Summer we Crossed Europe in the Rain

“…how do you create a story that lingers in the mind for days, months, even years after a book is finished?

This may be a matter of taste. A story that lingers long in the mind may not be better than one that doesn’t. But because of my background in song, the longevity of a story’s impact has always been of paramount importance to me. When I struggle to put a novel together, I’m often struggling to figure out not so much how to grip the reader (though that too), but how to say what I wish to say in a way that might haunt people for a long, long time.

It’s probably already clear how this near-obsession comes from songwriting. A song lasts only a few minutes. Its impact can’t afford to reside just in what happens during the moment of direct contact. A song lives or dies by its ability to infiltrate the listener’s emotions and memory, and, like parasite, take up long-term residence, ready to come to the fore in moments of joy, grief, exhilaration, heartbreak, whatever. No one aspires to write a song that catches the attention only while it’s being heard, then gets forgotten. That’s not how song works.”