Interview for Swedish Channel 4. The first 24 minutes of the interview are in English. The rest is in Swedish! If you understand Swedish, could you please tell me what the critics are saying?
Please, visit the site 4 Webb-TV to watch this interview.
Dear Mr Coelho,
I have just made a rough, word-to-word transcription of the Swedish part of the interview and I am currently translating this to an English version, also word by word. I would be happy to submit the whole document when it is done since the participants “play” with their own words while describing your production, especially your latest novel. It might be interesting to follow/read this public and also staged interaction, not merely understand what the critics have to say. Where do I mail the transcription (in total 6 pages)?
Cordially,
Natascha
Thank you very much Natascha. I sent you an email from my private account, and we are going to post your translation in the blog next week. We will also include a link to the TV interview. Best regards, Paulo
Dear Mr Coelho,
Below is a rough translation of the relevant Swedish commentary of your interview and latest novel on the Malou show. I have transcribed and translated it in the form of a dialogue.
Please bear in mind that two of the participants had not read your novels before. Also remember that this is an entertainment genre where the participants have little – or no – opportunity to say what they really mean. They are probably also instructed to play with words, be funny and entertaining. In Sweden that often implies being ironic (in media), unfortunately, and there is a considerable number of viewers disliking this conversational ‘style’.
Like flowing rivers or our minds and thoughts, our spoken words do not have punctuation but pauses and prosody. I have not marked this here and now because that would have taken more time. Also bear in mind that this is a translation and not an analysis. What we get are simply fragments of thoughts, opinions, criticism and appreciation. Don’t we always, say?
Heartfelt greetings,
Natascha Korolija, Linkoping Sweden
******
Malou mm Paolo Coelho one of the world’s most widely read authors. yes? Ulrika he is not a favourite of the critics. we will talk about the book later but first about Paolo Coelho. you laughed a lot while you read it?
Ulrika yes I thought it was great. fun interview with him and he seems to be a content gentleman
Malou mm
Ulrika of course he has every reason to be after how many sold books was it Bob?
Malou I think The Alchemist is sold in about 43 – 45 millions
Ulrika oh
Malou what do you say about him Bob?
Bob yes no I would be be delighted to have dinner with him. sometimes one gets that question. whom would you like to have dinner with? and I find it to be a silly question – I don’t know – but now I know. from now on and the next coming five years I will reply Paolo Coelho I think.
Malou why is that?
Bob ((studdering)) because I feel so close, I feel so close to this man somehow. it is- all he says is just, oh it’s about me! I suppose that is why, that I am not the only one feeling this but, but this open search and… what he said about his parents that they put me in a mental institution but did so out of love and that felt so genuine… to lead a life leading to that forgiveness and openness can’t be a waisted life. ((about adolescents at school and their dreams)) to be able to fulfil ones dream and to understand that one is worth it? at least if one is born in this rich country?
Malou you have said that you’ve been inspired by him? how have you been inspired? in your novel Gunnar?
Bob well not so terribly much but there is a doctor in my novel and I let this doctor stand up and say small truths out loud like “this and this and this is how it goes”? and that might be considered as poor literature and it might well be because in Paolo Coelho’s books there are a number of characters speaking (truth) out loud
Malou and that Ulrika. what can that mean? we are to- we don’t have much time right now but we can continue so what is it that makes critics and you believe that he is not worth being reviewed? that he is a poor novelist/writer?
Ulrika I haven’t read his work before but now I have?
Malou mm
Ulrika for the purpose of this programme and I don’t think it’s a novel? I think it is, can be nice somehow but for me this is a bit like management literature? like it’s, as you say these are not even characters and it’s not even a story/plot but like you say , they stand up and deliver different types of truths? about life, straight out/on
Malou but when you listened to the interview, where there things that you could relate to?
Ulrika yes
Malou it seemed so
Ulrika yes because he talks much better I believe than he writes?
Malou mm okay ((short laughter)) but critics have accused him or an explanation to why he doesn’t belong to the fine saloons (scenes) among the great writers or is being reviewed is the fact that he writes in a very simple manner?
Ulrika yes I actually thought of that too, because I thought it was kind of- I thought it actually stood still gave me something of a migraine
Malou to read the book?
Ulrika actually yes becase it was I mean I saw no pictures, like nothing happened, I saw nothing in front of me but everything felt completely flat. I though what is this then, what is it with this, but I cannot state in simple words what the problem is? and so I started looking at it. there are very short sentences and there are very short words and very few images in this? and that makes me believe that it is easily read but it is also difficult because the imagination doesn’t- or my imagination to be correct
Malou isn’t really triggered/set off?
Ulrika no
Malou yes. I will continue and talk more about this and I will also tell why I chose this novel ((talks a bit about The Alchemist and its popularity; mentions that viewers can win a copy.))
COMMERSIALS
Malou welcome back we- you are in Malou’s book club and it is premiere today and the main novel I have chosen is Paolo Coelhos …. I had not read Paolo Coelho either like Ulrika sitting here beside me and then we have Bob Hansson who enters
BoB =who had read!
Malou but I want to say that I chose it becasue I was so curious on Paolo Coelho and The Alchemist is the most sold of this novels in the whole world and his books have captured so many people and therefore I had to read it too to see what has fascinated the readers? I thought that this book which is about a woman… ehm who’s adopted and then finds out that she is a gypsy which we no longer call them but in the book she is a gypsy and attempts to go to Transylvania to explore herself and where she comes from. it is an exciting storytelling technique because different individuals tell the story about this woman from different perspectives and one still gets a picture of the person one reads about. and then there is a very exciting end which I will not reveal. and then it is about dancing and that maybe fascinated me most as I like to dance. dance leading to all sorts of contexts. ehm I’m starting with Bob who will not say what he did not like but what he liked about the book/bovel? or did you like the book?
Bob yes I liked the book. I’ve appreciated his previous works too and not because it is that good a literature or because I as a writer say oh he got it there or oh what a craftsman he is no I also carry on a spiritual quest (spiritual travelling ) if I am to label a bit. I am more a traveller than a poet of a platform and… therefore ((referring to a Zen-master)) what happens to me when I read Paolo: I am reminded about the parts of myself that I like. the meditative parts and the open parts and sort of forget the frightened parts about me. the parts that can be angry with critics and so I get somewhere where I am reminded that life is… it is much greater than so. much safer than so.
Malou mm why should one read the novel or do you think one should read it?
Bob I don’t believe there are any novels that must be read ((about being forced to read it for the TV-show)) so half the book I thought oh what is this, what is this, and then the reading speeded up and then I had to read twice as fast as I usually do and thenI got into some sort of trance. at that point my brain started dancing and the book got so much better. it got really good and then I didn’t have the time to think oh oh oh this was a bit difficult to read
Malou ((laughs))
Bob first nothing happens but the you read and
Malou but the storytelling you did find it fascinating to let several differens people tell about one and the same person?
Ulrika yes I thought that was very exciting. I thought personally that was exciting but I have to comment what you said because I quite understand what you mean by saying that it can be lika a manual, that his books may be like manuals because a spiritual travel is like dancing that is to do something on your own but I still think this is more of that //a manual// than literature? becasue it’s not, it is more- it is not what I can get out of his text but more sort of what his text can make me do, in that case, with my own life
Bob yes but that is- that’s the best part of it isn’t it?
Ulrika yes but- literature can work in many different ways? this is I think more of such things, what I can get, I can also get that kind of experience from a managementbook or a book about yoga
Malou but you’ve still considered this becasue what we have is a poor fit here. here you are and other literary critics and out there are the readers and very many of them love the books? you must have considered this poor fitting and what is it that they love about the books?
Ulrika yes I looked that up actually I was so terribly curious on this so last night I sat up and checked the web and took part of other peoples’ written reviews?
Malou mm
Ulrika so what do they think in various places when doing this and it is, one notices like Bob and I have spoken about this before that ehm it is quite, his texts are everywhere in society somehow and are common goods like the Bible almost or something and
Malou do you think that people, that many are seeking something?
Ulrika yes and time to time but on the web anyhow when people write their own reviews it is like this thing between me and Bob I mean completely split?
Malou mm
Ulrika so even if all have read it, half of them have the opinion you have (Bob) and the other half have my opinion and then we’re talking about ordinary people and not critics but the readers. so that’s it. I think that also among the readers there is a split. whether one gets something out of it or not.
Malou well okay eh before we move on and talk about your literature tip…
((Malou asks Bob to read out of Coelho’s latest novel.))
Dear Natasha,
thank you for translating the interview in Swedish. It’s very kind of you to let me know what’s going on.
Much love
Paulo