03-15-10: A 2010 Interview with Elif Shafak

"I know that culture that exists in my country, that is carried on by women, generations of women."

— Elif Shafak

You can certainly hear them all when you speak with Elif Shafak; the prudent 21st-century hausfrau, the passionate 13th-century mystic, the mysterious writer living a world away from wherever you are. After the interview, I talked to a friend about my experience, and he suggested that Shafak was a shamanic presence. The words are on a printed page and the voice is encoded by digital technology. The supernatural is not, in this case, shy or retiring.

Whenever I do an interview, though it is just myself and the interviewee in the room, there are others who help make it happen, and their contribution to the final digital document is critical. In this case, Martha Cullimore and Holly Watson went way out of their way to bring Elif Shafak to Santa Cruz. They were major threads in the warp and woof of this particular tapestry.

It´s not surprising, I suppose, that a conversation this easy and this enjoyable brings to mind the work in discussion. When I read ´The Forty Rules of Love´ for my confab with the ever-perceptive Alan Cheuse, I found myself really entranced by the meta-fictional aspects of the novel, by the gorgeous prose, by the involving — and huge! — cast of characters.

But when we spoke, it was a different matter. Sitting down to talk to her, the spiritual aspects of the novel seemed more present, more pressing. The layers of reality that this novel creates, the echoing reflections of mirrors aimed at mirrors, seemed to clamor for attention. And though I felt as if I had not prepared at all, the conversation unfolded as if I were talking to an old friend who had just emailed me a précis of how a fine interview might unfold. Of course, in some cases, it is possible to over-prepare, and I do prefer never to really know what it is I´m going to say and when. In that sense, I just wait for the connections to form. I listen to the voice of the person in front of me. You can hear her voice, with a long and amazing reading preceding the interview, by following this link to the MP3 audio file.

http://bookotron.com/agony/news/2010/03-15-10-podcast.htm