Nick Hornby. “Phones get blamed for all sorts of things, but they make people read”

Their portraits hang above the desk where he spends most of his days; Charles Dickens and Prince have long been Nick Hornby’s two idols, two masters who each contributed to his love of literature and music. But also his approach to creativity. Bestselling author of a generation successfully adapted for film (High fidelity, About a boy), scripts (WildWith Reese Witherspoon where the last episode? State of the Union ), the 67-year-old writer has been weaving a prolific body of work since the 1990s, in which pop culture and literary craftsmanship meet, dramaturgy and satire, through characters that mirror the existential questions of British society and beyond. . So many trends inspired him by the two icons that he highlights in common Dickens and the Prince are a very special kind of geniusa brief essay published in early October. A tribute combined with a reflection on the pains and mysteries of creation.

Madame Figaro: How was the idea of ​​this book born?
Nick Hornby: It was during the Covid-19 pandemic that a huge box set was released that collected the album’s recordings. Sign the Times (1987), Prince. Looking at the libretto, I was struck by the fact that he was working on several things at once, like Dickens. So I started thinking about what connects them. Dickens wrote millions of words, Prince thousands of songs. Then looking back at their childhood, their huge output and the speed of their work, I thought it was a good way to write about the creative process.

You are approaching the concept of genius, its definition. What was yours before writing this book, and has it changed?
I thought it was enough to write two perfect books in your life to be a genius. Now I think that it actually happens very often, and to be a genius it is not enough to have talent and practice, you also need to be “fed” by many things. Dickens, for example, was not only a theater lover, he knew every character, studied the roles of his favorite actors. Prince, for his part, started listening to records at a very young age that someone his age wouldn’t. nor were youths of the same complexion present He already had this passion.

I never stop, I can’t wait to tackle one task, then the next, and so on

Nick Hornby

Their photos are pinned in front of your desk, aren’t these two figures intimidating with their enormous creative flow?
I’m not a genius, but I also have this creative flow. I never stop, I can’t wait to do one thing, then the next thing, etc. At least I have something in common with them. I love the story of Prince, who just built his studio and discovered that the sound is bad it looks like it was recorded underwater. nevermind, he used it for the song.

But you emphasize that all artists are afraid of failure, that they are afraid of never doing the same as their previous works. Do you know this feeling?
Yes, it’s very common among writers. Every now and then I get asked to read an excerpt from one of my books, and each time I tell myself that I’ll never be able to do that well again. Sometimes it’s even a text I wrote three weeks ago. But don’t compare a work-in-progress that isn’t fully formed to a finished book that has benefited from an editor’s reading, or, in the case of a screenplay, to the input of actors who have told you which lines; which ones work and which ones don’t. It’s all teamwork. It’s scary when you’re alone.

Your book deals with the issue of faith. Prince and Dickens believed in themselves, in their stories and in their songs, and you have always had that throughout your career.
This has never been a problem, but then it has to happen: you don’t start believing you’re a writer when you don’t write anything. Then, when you’ve done something, you have to be judged, first by yourself, then by an agent, an editor, a publisher, and then by critics and readers. So, yes, faith is the basis of everything, but it is not enough. That said, Dickens and Prince succeeded so quickly that I don’t think they doubted themselves the way the rest of us did. That’s what I find extraordinary about them. By the age of 24, they had already been famous all their lives.

In the book, you talk about your childhood and how you read a lot to fight boredom. You say that if your boys read less, it’s because they’re less bored. But can you get them interested in reading? or culture.
We have to think about how culture develops first.One of my boys told me something that stuck with me. He asked what illiteracy was. I told him that it refers to people who can neither read nor write. His response was: “But how can you survive if you can’t read or write? Everything I need is on my phone.” they are better informed than I was at their age, they are much more aware of the world around them. When I was their age, when the news came home, I didn’t listen to it. It wasn’t until much later that I became interested in current affairs. Maybe those young people who don’t read novels today will read them later. Or not? maybe novels will no longer be the primary means of telling stories, after all, written stories were born when the printing press was invented a few centuries ago; by then, oral culture had existed for thousands of years. In the 17th century, the center of culture was the theater, then in the 19th century, poetry. Then came the cinema, then the soap operas. Today, technology allows for hybrid forms of words and images.If we accept that visual media is an art form, perhaps we should understand that this is where we are headed.

What books and records would you recommend for accessing the works of Prince and Dickens?
People always make the mistake of starting with Dickens’s shortest novels. Hard times. But I think it doesn’t really show what he can do.I’d rather recommend it Great expectationsOr David Copperfield. If they are so long, it is because he was trying to make money by making them into TV series. But they are very funny stories, there are incredible characters, you can feel all the joy that comes from telling stories without being censored. As for Prince, it’s definitely a must-start Sign the timesa double album in which there are so many different musical styles and where the writing is so good that it is impossible not to find masterpieces.

Dickens and the prince are a special geniusr, by Nick Hornby, 181 pages, €19.90, La Cosmopolite – Stock.