Lazarus

The Globe and Mail profiles Nick Cave, who, it appears, has just finished work on a novel:

The book, which Cave finished mere days ago, is called The Death of Bunny Munro, and it grew out of a screenplay that never got made. Munro is "just not a good guy," Cave says.

"But I've always liked things like those Jim Thompson novels, where you've just got [a protagonist who's] flat-out evil. But there's always something a little endearing about him. And Thompson would draw you, chapter by chapter, into this vortex, where your sympathies are stretched finer and finer. I've always found that interesting in his books."

Curiously, Cave says the biggest difference between songwriting and novel writing is that "I find the writing of novels and stuff easier. It's because you're pursuing one idea for a sustained amount of time.

"My problem always is coming up with the original idea - that 'What am I going to write about?' And you have to do that over and over and over again with songs. Every time you finish one, you just have to work out what the next one will be. What's your theme?

"To write a novel, you only need to get a basic idea and run with it. It's the same with scriptwriting. Scriptwriting is even easier, because in most cases you're supplied your theme. Someone says. 'Will you write an Australian western?' Well, yeah, why not? It's not rocket science to do that - you get some archetypes, stick 'em on their head, and do this and that with them.

"But songwriting - I mean, the amount of times I've rung up my friends and said, 'Right, look, will someone tell me what to write a song about?' And someone will go, 'Well, what about trains?' And you go, 'Oh, all right.' "

Comments

[cari]

Ah, Nick Cave. One of my longest-running crushes. Love him, love him, love him. Did NOT love And the Ass Saw the Angel. Though I haven't read it in 17 years or so, so maybe I'd like it more today? (No, probably not.) I'll give him another shot with this new one. (Have I mentioned that I love Nick Cave?)

[georgekaplan]

This seems like a simplistic view of writing, or at least a false creative dilemma - pieces of fiction should be as long as they need to be, not, say a novel's-worth of pages on one idea. Some ideas make novels, some make shorter things. Maybe he should be writing longer songs/pieces or shorter stories.