Capital Times, What's on in Wellington

winesale.co.nz

10 February 2012

More dough than Terry Serepisos

Martin Doyle

17/03/2010 11:13:00 a.m.

I was unsure about whether I would go hear Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveler’s Wife speak in Writers and Readers Week.  After all, her work is so gifted and so different from the usual formulaic dross that she could never measure up to my expectations, surely, even if she did cartwheels across the stage in leopard-skin tights.  
But, showing pathetic lack of judgement and irrational optimism, I turned up at the Embassy and plonked myself in the front row. I’m not used to these things and I seemed to be the only one gorging himself on popcorn. Behind me were hundreds of Wellington’s sharpest intellects and connoisseurs of fine writing.
And lo, my heroine Audrey Niffenegger. Only 46 but with a face like your grandmother’s following an all-night binge. A lived-in body with long, flat red hair, and a calm, vibrant voice.  
A centred person with what most would call eccentric tastes in writing and art, even naming two Outsider Artists (some nobody in Chicago and a woman who died in a concentration camp) as important influences on her work.
Someone in the crowd asked: “If you yourself could travel through time, where would you go?” She said she’d go to London in the 1890s to meet Aubrey Beardsley.  He was the gay-guy who did all those dreamy line drawings of the grotesque and the erotic and died of TB at 25. Just imagine that: “Aubrey, meet Audrey”. She knows how to pick’em.
The Time Traveler’s Wife was her first novel.  A small San Francisco publisher gave it a go. It didn’t do too badly. Two and a half million copies at the last count.  She’s got more dough than Terry Serepisos.  
While trying to dig up ideas for her second novel, Her Fearful Symmetry, she worked fearfully hard in Highgate Cemetery in London. And still does, she says. You always need “an experience while you’re researching”. And talk to people and ask questions.
Some of her ideas are like revolutionary prescriptions for how to go about writing or staging. For example, the idea that “all the characters have an equal part of reality.  Make them live on the page.”  In this, I thought of Jane Campion’s very human group surrounding John Keats in Bright Star.  
And then, what must have been a world-shattering bombshell for most… Even though she was sitting in front of a huge movie screen, she said she had never seen the film The Time Traveler’s Wife, and did not want to. For a simple reason: in order “to keep the movie I already had in my head”.  
She didn’t actually add, but I wondered if she thought, readers’ visions of a book are worth protecting in the same way. Mmn. Gulp. Cut!
So in the end, it wasn’t a matter of whether Audrey Niffenegger would have any impact on Wellington. The real question is: are there any survivors in the rubble?
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Cover Story

Best of Wellington 2011

Fringe Festival

Briefs

  • From police to employers chamber

    JOHN Wills has been appointed as interim chief executive of the Employers Chamber of Commerce (ECCC), effective immediately.

  • Save the Rhino

    A concert this weekend features local performers including Jomba, Skapiti, and Siggy. It is part of an international awareness day to support the petition to the South African government to stop rhino poaching. The Waterfront, Marine Parade, Raumati Beach, 11 February.

  • Jazzy clouds

    The first performance of  jazz musician Mike Nock’s choral work Land of the Long White Cloud will be sung by the Orpheus Choir at Soundings Theatre,  Te Papa, 18 February. It’s a free concert and only expected to last about 10minutes.

  • On board

    CONRAD Smith, the new Hurricanes captain has rejoined the team after an extended RWC break, in time for the sellout pre-season game at Managatainoka this Saturday.

  • Share the vision, free

    SIR Paul Callaghan a trustee of Zealandia, formerly the Karori bird sanctuary will give a talk about the vision and importance of the sanctuary for New Zealand. Rutherford House lecture theatre1, 5.40pm, February 13.

  • Indian art money

    MORE than a dozen locals are showing and selling their art, at that well known art space, Betty’s Bar on Blair St, to fundraise for the Karunai Dhan primary school in India. From 5pm, February 10.

  • Star signs

    INTERNATIONAL astrologer Faye Cossar, a former Wellingtonian is visiting the city to conduct workshops and a public talk. Cossar is unusual in that she holds a Masters degree in astrology. February 14.

  • The Great Outdoors

    GREATER Wellington’s Great Outdoors summer events programme continues this week with a daughter, mother, grandmother mountain bike ride at Belmont Regional Park on February 12 and an evening guided walk from East Harbour Regional Park on February 8.

  • Swimming challenge

    SWIMMERS looking for a challenge can take up the long-distance summer swim challenge at Wellington City Council pools.
    Participants have until April 30 to swim or aquajog 53 kilometres, the distance equivalent to doing a circuit of Lake Mead in Nevada.
    The distance covered is recorded by pool staff and there are spot prizes along the way.

  • On your skates

    SOME of the world’s best skaters are in town for Bowl-a-Rama 2012, a week long celebration of skateboard culture.
    The competition is at Waitangi Skate Park on February 11, but there are additional events throughout from February 8 to 12, including an art exhibition by local and international skateboarders at 15 Courtenay Place.

  • Safer outdoors

    A new website has been created to make planning for safe outdoor activities easier.
    AdventureSmart,org.nz provides safety information and support for those planning land, snow, water, boating and air activities.

  • Sommerfest

    SOMMERFEST, Wellington’s family-friendly food and beer festival, takes place in the Worser Bay Boating Club on February 26.
    The annual festival offers a range of boutique beers matched with great food tastes.
    Breaking with tradition this year there will also be margaritas from 5pm.

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