THE SUNDAY TIMES
OXFORD LITERARY FESTIVAL
Nicholas Newman 10 April 2008
 If you're interested in books, famous authors,
celebrities and fine dining, the Sunday Times Oxford
Literary Festival, in the first week of April, is the
place to be.
Book fans, at the festival, were able to walk with the
literati gods and soak up the Oxford dream. If you were
lucky, you might perhaps, speak with your favourite
author.
Certainly, the festival's choice of writers was eclectic,
from local science writer Richard Dawkins, London poet
Ben Okri, former politician and television presenter
Oona King, Sunday Times columnist Cristiana Odone, derivatives expert
Nassim Nicholas Taleb,
playwright Tom Stoppard and novelist Fay Weldon.
As for the writers' performances during the week, many
were very professional and gave slick sales
presentations of their latest books. Today, writers are
like medieval itinerant traders travelling from town to
town with their wares. This means most have become well
practiced in their jokes and speeches, though for some
they don't even bother to change the script, even for
the next presentation they are in that very same town.
In effect, visitors to the literary festivals are paying
to see a series of book commercials.
Dawkins was at the festival to promote his latest book
‘The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing’. This
excellent new book is a collection
of writings by different scientists, chosen by Dawkins,
that captures the joys of scientific understanding since
1900 to the present day, for the public at large.
What was memorable about Dawkins’ presentation, was
that he arranged to have former BBC Radio Oxford
presenter
David Freeman
interview Richard Dawkins about his work, opinions and
his latest book, with Dawkins wife reading out
appropriate, but often amusing passages to the great
enjoyment of the audience present.
Amongst the questions Dawkins’ was asked was, what he
thought of his critics. Dawkins answered that he
regarded them as insignificant ‘fleas’.
One of the writers included in his book as an extract, is
best selling Cambridge University scientist Steven Hawking’s work ‘A Brief History of Time', though Dawkins
admitted with a laugh: ‘I must be the one of the
extremely few people who managed to finish reading the
book to the very end.'
Amongst other writers Dawkins admires is Peter Atkins,
Dawkins has included an excerpt in his anthology from
Atkins book ‘The Creation Revisited’ Dawkins observes:
‘Peter writes in a wonderful poetic style, worthy of
Carl Sagan.'
One of the sublime moments at the festival were London
poet Ben Okri reading extracts from his latest book of
poetry ‘ Starbook'. His verse made one believe one was
in a world of fairy tales, not the hard realities of the
modern world. When Ben finished the audience broke into
long sustained cheers.
The Black Swan Phenomenon
Attending a presentation given by
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
proved to be a disappointment. Taleb had problems right
from the start, in his production about his book ‘The
Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable'.
Instead of providing a thought provoking account of the
usage of the Black Swan logic phenomenon, the audience
was subjected to a rather repetitive and confusing
ramble through the topic, which at times gave the
impression that a black swan was some sort of black
parrot rather than an Australian variety of Swan.
He argued that the Black Swan phenomenon is an event or
occurrence that deviates beyond what is normally
accepted as a situation, and that would be extremely
difficult to predict, for example the fall of the Berlin
Wall. The author contended that this phenomenon is used
by speculators as a basis for their computer models to
predict prices in futures markets.
Taleb managed to sow such bewilderment in my mind, that
subsequently forced me to consult my notes, from my
university days about the use of the Black Swan
phenomenon to clear up the resultant confusion Taleb had
caused in his talk.
As for side events there were discussions on current
affairs, some of which were sit down formal dinners with
the writers speaking on topics that are commonly
fashionable with the literati. The trouble was, their
dialogue often revealed, how generally ignorant the
speakers were outside their particular expertise.
The Business of the Festival
Behind the scenes the real business of the festival was
taking place, with deals during festival week were being
struck as writers, agents, publishers and Public
Relations reps were busy networking at a string of
parties held in Oxford's many colleges or over lunch in
the cities restaurants. For many of the publishers, the
Oxford Literary Festival is really a book trade event
for publishers like Blackwells and Oxford University
Press to promote their books.
Certainly, to the visitor, the festival was organised in
a very professional, yet unobtrusive manner. The
festival has grown, over the past twelve years from just
a few rooms in Oxford's Union building in the heart of
the old city to taking over Christ Church, Oxford's
largest college with its many available rooms and many
other locations throughout Oxford’s town centre.
Where were the popular European writers?
What struck me about the Sunday Times Literary Festival
was that this was really an English book fair, not a
European literary festival. It's as if our neighbours in
mainland Europe with their wealth of talented writers
did not exist. Where were the popular European writers
who publish their books in English, like Danish science
writer
Bjorn Lomborg, Swedish crime fiction author Hakan
Nesser, and Italian novelist Umberto Eco?
Now that the Oxford Literary Festival has ended for
another year, it is time to remedy this situation and
bring a taste of European talent to visitors to the next
literary festival to Oxford in 2009.
The Festival ran from Monday 31st
March– Sunday 6 April 2008
Further information
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