When asked, the great American satirist PJ O’ Rourke responded: “Yes of course I’d like to come to Ireland in June”. And that was about it. O’Rourke, the most quoted living man in ‘The Penguin Dictionary of Modern Humorous Quotations’, will be coming to Dalkey on June 13 to speak at the Book Festival.
This reinforces rule number one of book, literary or arts festivals, which is that nobody ever got offended by being invited to something. Sometimes we forget that and think that people are “above” being asked; they are not. All they can do is decline. So why not ask them?
O’Rourke is that rare gem, a giant of American satire and analysis who has been poking fun at his own generation, the American liberal baby boomers, for years. He proves not so much rule number two but perhaps observation number two of book festivals, which is that the right-wing tend to have a better sense of humour than the left, take themselves less seriously and are inclined to be more forgiving than the men of the people.
This is the opposite of what you would imagine, but it is often true. Many commentators on the traditional left love to talk seriously about justice, equality and the rights of man, but tend to suffer massive sense of humour bypasses when their views are queried, even in a jocular, eyebrow-raising bout of scepticism.
O’Rourke also proves rule number three of book festivals – and festivals in general – which is the one I want to talk about today. It is that people like to come to Ireland to talk literature. It is a comparative advantage of this country and it is due to a rich literary tradition here.
Irish writing has for many years allowed this country to punch above its weight internationally. Irish writing in the English language has allowed what might be viewed as an Irish worldview to be projected out of this island, bringing a certain type of Ireland or Irishness to the imaginations of millions of people all over the world. Most of these people had no reason to ever think about this country before they opened a book or read a piece of poetry, listened to the lyrics of a particular song or sat in a theatre to experience an Irish play or film.
In today’s global economy, this notion of projecting an image of the country is extremely important.
Its potential is known as soft power.
In the old days, only countries with hard power – the power of the “big guy” such as military or economic power – could project an image of a country far from the homeland. Making foreign people think twice about you was power. Typically, hard power manifested itself not simply by others thinking twice about you but being afraid of you and what you might do to them.
Military power was always a function of economic power, which itself was a function of dominant resources such as coal, steel or agriculture. Hard power is the power of force: dirty, gritty, brute force. The era of hard power has lasted for millennia. It is not over, but gradually soft power is playing a role for countries without obvious resources. Soft power is the opposite of hard power.
Soft power is the power of imagination. It is the power of persuasion rather than force. The essence of soft power is getting inside other people’s heads so that they form a positive impression of you or your country.
This power can enhance the national brand enormously in a modern era. And, of course, the ability to project this brand is hugely amplified by the Internet and modern communications.
But soft power isn’t just invented. It comes from various aspects of deep culture because, like all forms of branding, the country’s brand has to be based on something. For example, the Danes’ pre-eminence in modern interior design comes from a deep artisanal tradition of furniture in Jutland.
You can see these links from the past to the present all over the world in the most unlikely of place and in the most unlikely of fields.
For example, last week I was working in Argentina and was surprised to see that, for the ridiculously fashion-conscious locals, the trendiest restaurants in Latin America are now Peruvian. This is based on the fact that Peruvian ingredients have always been highly sophisticated due to the indigenous peoples of the high Andes being so adept at agriculture.
Today, the brand of Peruvian cooking is based on this historical fact. I am no foodie, but it does seem to accord with the notion that for the national brand to be successful it has to derive from something fundamental.
In Ireland, we have this tradition of writing and, in many ways, the reservoir of historical writing nourishes successive generations of new Irish writers. It is almost as if there is a historical echo of great previous writing which emboldens those who are writing today. All endeavours need heroes who can act as role models – and what better heroes can a modern writer have than the likes of James Joyce, Samuel Beckett and John McGahern?
A good example of this is poetry.
On June 13 in Dalkey we are celebrating the 150th anniversary of WB Yeats’ birthday. Yeats reverberates today and, who knows, maybe our next Seamus Heaney is writing away crafting poetry today, inspired by the words of Yeats?
So Ireland has a comparative advantage in literature. And we are good fun, decent hosts and are easy to get to with great air links from all over the world. So why not build a small, but global business on book festivals?
In Dalkey our main sponsors, Zurich Insurance, a massive international company with deep roots here in Ireland, can see the potential and have come in to support the venture. In many ways, building a global brand with a local vibe is just what Ireland has been doing with the multinational sector. By this I mean that every time a foreign company is thinking of locating overseas, Ireland is bound to be part of that conversation. This is a huge accolade and is the product of lots and lots of small successes.
Why not do the same in the expanding business of literary festivals, building brick by brick, so that every time a big global writer is thinking about showcasing their latest work, doing it in Ireland is on the table? With global media, Twitter, Facebook and international branding in the language of the world, English, this is not an outlandish proposition.
It has to be worth a shot, no?
PJ O’Rourke will be speaking at the ZurichDalkey Book Festival on June 13th. Check out www.dalkeybookfestival.org
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Eire?
The Dalkey Book Festival is a terrific addition to the Irish Festival season, but where is Ireland’s offical “Book Town”? As the article below explains, there are 17 official international Book Towns, small towns/cities devoted to the sale of books and literature – Hay-on-Wye being the first and oldest that attract global visitors. Aside from the large number of specialist, antiquarian, general bookshops (but not the big chains) that fill the once-empty shopfronts, these towns put on events and ‘festivals’ all year round. They celebrate literary anniversaries (like the 150th birth of Yeats) to seasonal events – Christmas, Easter, Halloween… Read more »
Hi David, A superb flawless offering from start to finish. The suggestion about hosting arts festivals here is brilliant. Especially since Kilkenomics is such a runaway success. It’s also worth mentioning the charities we send abroad and the musical talent of U2 etc. Similarly the bloodstock reputation Ireland enjoys. It would be great if we could exclude the wankers and hypocrites who patronise artists. I think Joyce himself said that the last chapter of Ulysses written with almost no punctuation would keep the intelligentsia guessing for a century. John Lennon also expressed similar views when some academic ape from somewhere… Read more »
Hard power and soft power are inexorably linked. The US has hard power and is pretty much dominant in terms of soft power, culturally dominant not just in the Anglosphere but worldwide. As China gets richer I expect that it’s soft power will increase, and will India. I watch some Bollywood and Chinese movies as it is. Cultural power lags economic power, as does the decline in cultural power, hence America is about at peak cultural power but in relative economic decline.
We are not very powerful either way.
PJ O’Rourke is a legend. And you did well to get him to take part. Ireland as a literary power has peaked. The Irish media, the Irish establishment, and the Irish university sector would steadfastly maintain otherwise. But that is BS. We are on a downward slide like the rest of the Anglosphere into mediocrity. In the century ahead, the literary greats in the English language are more likely to be Indian. They still have the authenticity and the depth that has been washed out by television/over-simplification culture in the richer anglo countries. PJ O’Rourke is a genius because he… Read more »
Anthony Burgess noted how Dubliners might be fond of talking about Joyce but none of those he asked had ever read Ullysses. I also heard a French West Indian writer (on Bouillon de Culture with Bernard whatiseeezename oh yes Pivot) recall his deep disappointment when he finally arrived in France and everyone wasn’t reading Zola, Balzac and Bovary. Is there anything good being written by Irish authors these days? I thought McCabe’s Butcher Boy was good but another of his books (about Nureyev I think) was dire. Per head of population I’d guess that there are more worthwhile books written… Read more »
I would like to elaborate on the topic of projecting an image of Ireland from a foreign perspective because Ireland can offer some selling points which in my opinion are totally neglected here and which could contribute to the said soft power. I am imbued with belief that my voice is needed because it is often the case that one has to take a step back to notice certain things on the same lines as one does not see the top of one’s nose (i.e., the most insightful short history of Poland, ‘God’s Playground’, was written not by a Pole,… Read more »
David Great article and landing PJ O’Rourke is an absolute touch of pure genius.What other literary colossus of this epoch has produced the pure joy of “How to drive fast on drugs while getting your wing-wang squeezed and not spill your drink” and the “The Holy Land-God’s Monkey house”? Marx, Schumpeter and Weber just pale in comparison. Holidays in Hell just machine guns through the lunatic theories of the left and right and shows how people really live and the sometimes appalling conditions they have to live under. It just shows the genius of American literature in distilling all the… Read more »
Starry bud?
I hope PJ speaks about the plight of the Dalkey natives. I recently heard that a Sorrento terrace resident was spotted driving a 132 Audi. Austerity has been particularly cruel in the dalkey locality.
Use your imagination for what happens to your pension, cushy job and savings when the next episode arrives. There will be a distinct lack of festivity.
http://investmentresearchdynamics.com/on-the-verge-of-systemic-breakdown/
http://www.bnn.ca/News/2015/5/13/A-new-way-to-use-gold-BitGold-soars-in-TSX-Venture-debut-.aspx
I am looking at the various debt write downs offered to corporate entities owned by a billionaire. And the fact that the billionaire is a supporter of a prominent political party.
And I am wondering at how somebody had the imagination to pull together politicians, regulators, the corrupt institutional state, bank loans and dodgy officials.
Yes. Imagination works wonders in the field of financial matters.
“You say: “‘Ere thrice the sun done salutation to the dawn” And you claim these words as your own But I’ve read well, and I’ve heard them said A hundred times (maybe less, maybe more) If you must write prose and poems The words you use should be your own Don’t plagiarise or take “on loan” ‘Cause there’s always someone, somewhere With a big nose, who knows And who trips you up and laughs When you fall Who’ll trip you up and laugh When you fall You say : “‘Ere long done do does did” Words which could only be… Read more »
Finally a digital currency arises that is completely decentralized and incorruptible and solves the double-spend problem (look it up please). It resides on the internet itself and not in one location or under any one person’s/entity’s control. It cannot be shut down unless the internet itself is taken offline. So what do you guys want to do with it? Peg it to the value of gold (Bitgold or whatever), meaning we are back to the situation of ingots and vaults and central banks and corruptible guardians and guards – oh and while we’re at it lets get a debit card… Read more »
Adam
That’s the problem. If you check the index there has been wild fluctuations in the bitcoin rate measured against various indices. People don’t believe anything anymore and so they hedge their bets by putting their eggs in a lot of different baskets. There is no absolute truth or purity in any system because as you know there are no facts just an agreed consensus between interested parties until a better explanation comes along. That’s the real world Adam.
DB
http://www.gold-eagle.com/article/coming-bond-market-mayhem-positive-gold-price-silver-price
A very comprehensive essay that leaves nothing to the imagination!!
Full of stats and graphs showing how central bank policies have created one bubble after another with the final one being the current bond bubble.
The IT bubbles, housing bubbles, stock market bubbles, bond bubbles, etc. all over the world can be laid at the feet of the profligate spendthrift governments and the enabling central bankers.