Nearly an hour later, Roddy Doyle saunters in and steps up to the microphone, taps it thunderously, and says he's now a Yank, having been in nine cities in 10 days. We laugh.
Doyle is bald as a skinhead, it takes some getting used to. He read from Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, and a small bit on Henry Smart, an IRA volunteer, from A Star Called Henry, and some stray bits from a play he's been working on, and then he thanked Elgie Gillespie for making this so. There is a River of free flowing booze. By this point, we're all fairly toasted.
Neil Jordan, steps up, looking upscale and fashionably thuggish, wearing shades, having just returned from a TV interview, he's a rare bit of gloom, despite it being sunny, midday. Maybe the alcohol's wearing off.
He begins with: I know when I died, May 1950. It was a rare whinge, the perspective is written from that woman. He ended on an upbeat note: George killed me... He reads from The Dream of a Beast, with a segue into Interview with the Vampire.
After they were finished reading, there was a Q&A. Someone asks: Would you like to write The Commitments today?
Roddy Doyle said, Well, I'd need to express the conditions along similar lines. The Irish, the blacks of Europe would figure into it.
Jordan said the USA has been good to me, re: The Crying Game.
Unconventional sexual relationships seem to be a major attraction. I still went into shock after seeing the movie—even though someone told me the ending beforehand. Perhaps the American audience needs that to hang onto as the intricacies of the Provisional IRA would be above their heads.
Doyle said, Yeah, the audience and booksellers and films here are great. The Commitments was successful which was a mystery to me. He repeats himself: As to why they read my books, it's also a bit of a mystery to me. We laugh.
Question: did you write for the stage, was it a goal? Doyle answered, No, I wrote The Commitments as a story. It was not a natural play. The joy was in watching the actors take it and then make it their own. A learning experience.
Jordan says: Money changes everything so quickly, the refusal to live in the real world was central in The Crying Game.
Sue Fry says to Jordan: it's a dark film and the US was shocked by it. North Dublin is dark. Are there cross-cultural differences?
He said: The American audience didn't get it. Movies have no nationality. The Americans certainly didn't get The Butcher Boy, because the accent made it difficult. And there are specific issues versus generic issues, so the nationality of the film interfered.
Doyle said, Yeah, the audience and booksellers and films here are great. The Commitments was successful which was a mystery to me. He repeats himself: As to why they read my books, it's also a bit of a mystery to me. We laugh.
Question: did you write for the stage, was it a goal? Doyle answered, No, I wrote The Commitments as a story. It was not a natural play. The joy was in watching the actors take it and then make it their own. A learning experience.
Jordan says: Money changes everything so quickly, the refusal to live in the real world was central in The Crying Game.
Sue Fry says to Jordan: it's a dark film and the US was shocked by it. North Dublin is dark. Are there cross-cultural differences?
He said: The American audience didn't get it. Movies have no nationality. The Americans certainly didn't get The Butcher Boy, because the accent made it difficult. And there are specific issues versus generic issues, so the nationality of the film interfered.
She asks: What about Michael Collins?
Roddy Doyle says the distribution was underestimated. It was not tailored for an American audience. Doyle's Dublin street slang is not directly transferrable. The Snapper for example, Miramax had 17 pages of changes in the dialogue to make it more accessible to American audiences. They didn't know what a gobshite was. Readers like the Irishness of the books and then the media controls what's actually made. Now it's all about stars, not the story or the writer.
Jordan said most filmmakers did something else before they became filmmakers. I wrote short stories first. He reiterates, If you're interested in film, write it as a short story first.
Then we celebrated Myles' birthday proper with whipped cream and cake and more booze, and then the party spilled out into the street, everyone deep into their long goodbyes, until dusk fell, and chilled their bones.
Roddy Doyle says the distribution was underestimated. It was not tailored for an American audience. Doyle's Dublin street slang is not directly transferrable. The Snapper for example, Miramax had 17 pages of changes in the dialogue to make it more accessible to American audiences. They didn't know what a gobshite was. Readers like the Irishness of the books and then the media controls what's actually made. Now it's all about stars, not the story or the writer.
Jordan said most filmmakers did something else before they became filmmakers. I wrote short stories first. He reiterates, If you're interested in film, write it as a short story first.
Then we celebrated Myles' birthday proper with whipped cream and cake and more booze, and then the party spilled out into the street, everyone deep into their long goodbyes, until dusk fell, and chilled their bones.
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