Flirt: The Interviews (12 page)

—I like what Leonard Bernstein said after your death: “Benjamin Britten was a man at odds with the world,” he said. “It's strange, because on the surface Britten's music would seem to be decorative, positive, charming, but it's so much more than that. When you hear Britten's music, if you really hear it, not just listen to it superficially, you become aware of something very dark. There are gears that are grinding and not quite meshing, and they make a great pain.” I think a singer knows this, and also that pain is made and pain is unmade in the singing.

—Night has fallen on us gently and it's time I left.

—Not yet.

—Yes, I'm afraid.

—Will I see you again?

—Oh dear. Please. Look at this garden of yours when those tears come. Think of your daughter and her music, your dog and her delight to have a woman like you at her side. Think of your work and, above all, continue. In “Curlew River,” as the Traveller climbs into the boat, the cry of the Madwoman is heard as she approaches on the western side, accompanied by a bird-like flutter-tongued flute. Yes, she is tortured by sorrow, and still the leaping chromatic motif suggests not bereavement but excitement, and her words indicate she is trying to find the answer to a riddle:

—She doesn't sound like a Madwoman to me. She just needs a break from the landscape, a few days in the city, maybe see a hockey game or get a fancy haircut, new shoes.

—Indeed. She is not mad, but visionary. She will carry on and she will come back.

—This garden without you now? It matters to me that
you
come back, Benjamin.

—No, my dear girl, you must understand this, and so must your daughter and the boy next door, too, and your husband who should have known but chose to forget: sounding right, sounding right is all that matters.

These pieces are fictional in intent and execution, but I have made frequent use of secondary sources in order to convey with respect and authenticity the spirit – and sometimes the real-world words – of those “interviewed.” Biographies, magazine articles, bits from newspapers, television interviews, online interviews in odd places like
harryrosen.com
, liner notes: these are only some of what I consulted for each interview before imagining it. A few call for special mention: when Alice Munro speaks of writing as “a fight against death,” she is quoting herself in an interview conducted by Graeme Gibson, and the interviewer is quoting John Gould; Humphrey Carpenter's biography of Benjamin Britten was essential, as was Jim Hughson's interview with Markus Näslund on
Snapshots
; the work of Brian Pronger is alluded to in the Bobby Orr interview. Richard Ford's responses are taken verbatim from an interview I conducted with him by phone for
The Georgia Straight
, except his ideas about suicide, which are imagined; the questions he's asked in the story were not the same as those I asked. I borrow, too, from my own book,
Cold-cocked: On Hockey
.

Kind and helpful editors have published some of these stories in
Brick
,
The New Quarterly
,
Short Story
,
CNQ: Canadian Notes & Queries
. Ally Hack was a most meticulous researcher who now has a special place in her heart for Janet Jones-Gretzky. Thanks to John Metcalf and John Burns.

The British Columbia Arts Council provided funding at just the right time. Their support – and that of friends, colleagues and students – matters.

As always, Max Jackson.

Vancouver-raised
Lorna Jackson
began her working life as a musician and travelled throughout British Columbia for nine years as a bass player and singer. She has published a collection of short stories,
Dressing for Hope
, and a novel,
A Game To Play on the Tracks. Cold-cocked: On Hockey
, the first book to explore a woman's way of watching the game poet Al Purdy called a “combination of ballet and murder,” was published by Biblioasis in 2007. As well, her non-fiction and literary journalism have appeared in
Brick, Quill & Quire, The Georgia Straight
, and
Malahat Review
. She teaches Writing at the University of Victoria.

Copyright © Lorna Jackson, 2008

 

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Jackson, Lorna Mary, 1956-

Flirt : the interviews / Lorna Jackson.

eISBN : 978-1-897-23170-8

 

I. Title.

 

PS8569.A2645F55 2008 C813'.54 C2008-900198-2

 

 

 

 

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