All language subtitles for Masterclass Salman Rushdie Teaches Storytelling and Writing - 12.Developing Your Narrative Style

[MUSIC PLAYING]

SALMAN RUSHDIE: To my
mind, issues of rhythm

are absolutely central
to-- to meaning.

The way in which a sentence
or a paragraph sounds

helps to convey a meaning
almost subliminally so

below consciousness.

The reader gets it without quite
knowing how they're getting it

because it is a kind of music.

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This is maybe the
first time in my life

that I've really,
in an extended way,

tried to talk about
the act of writing.

You know, in a way, this is
a sort of creative writing

course.

And-- and what has concerned
me sometimes about creative

writing courses is
that they're very,

very good at teaching
craft skill, you know,

very good at teaching
craft skill, you know,

and not so good at
individualizing the voices

of the different
writers, you know,

so that people can come out
of a course having acquired

a considerable
amount of skill and--

and an ability to
write well, you

know, to write very
well sometimes.

But sometimes, I feel
this kind of sameness.

Everybody coming out of the
same class kind of in a way

writes in the same way.

And-- and in the same way as
when one talks about dialogue,

And-- and in the same way as
when one talks about dialogue,

the important thing is
differentiation to try and make

sure that the characters speak
in different ways, you know.

I mean, that's true of
writers too, you know.

You want to-- you don't want
all writers to sound the same.

So craft is great.

And it gives you
a foundation which

is a very important foundation.

But you have to at some
point move beyond that

into something more individual.

Style is the manner
in which you choose

to adhere to or choose to break
the rules of classical form.

Voice is your
touch as an author.

It is what makes a piece
of writing your own.

These are imprecise terms.

You could say that-- that
the style must be suited

to the character and that of
the story that you're telling

to the character and that of
the story that you're telling

whereas the voice is somehow--

somehow you.

It's the thing that is there in
whatever you write, you know,

that you should be able, and--

and we are able in--

in good writers, to see their
voice in whatever they write.

There are a few writers who seem
to know from the very beginning

There are a few writers who seem
to know from the very beginning

something about--

about their voice.

And-- and there are
others who you can see

working their way towards it.

Doesn't really matter
which, you know.

There's-- there's no--

one is not better than the
other as a way of proceeding.

I would say that what you should
do with any piece of writing

is to make the
style decisions is

to say, what is it that
will allow me most clearly

to say, what is it that
will allow me most clearly

and effectively to
portray the characters

and to tell the story?

And if you do that properly, and
you do that over and over again

in story after
story, then whatever

it is that may in the end
feel like your voice that

may feel like, you
know, you as a writer,

who you are as a writer,
that will emerge.

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A writer with a unique
literary voice is Franz Kafka.

When you read a story like
"Metamorphosis" in which,

in the first
sentence, we discover

that the main character
has mysteriously

been transformed into
a giant insect lying

in his bed in his
family apartment,

but he's a bug, a
human-sized bug,

there's never an attempt to
explain why this has happened.

there's never an attempt to
explain why this has happened.

It simply is so.

And even though the novel is--

the novel-- the novella,
the short story,

is about the
character's feelings

about his own metamorphosis and
how his family reacts to it,

the emotion is kept
very much at a distance.

There's no attempt to--

to draw cheap
sympathy, you know.

It's very objective.

It's very objective.

And yet, the result of it
is one of the great stories

of 20th century literature.

And in his other books
too, you know, in--

in "The Trial," at the very
beginning of the trial,

the character, Josef K., is
arrested in his own apartment.

Men arrive in his
apartment and arrest him

for he has no idea why.

And in the whole book,
nobody ever tells him why.

And-- and he is treated
to successive indignities

And-- and he is treated
to successive indignities

and dangers, humiliations,
without any attempt to--

to draw us in and
explain things to us.

And his tone of voice
is always distant.

The reader is never allowed
to be cozy with the author.

And yet, the result of that in
his hands is to create these--

these texts which are so
unusual that they've given

rise to a word.

The Kafkaesque-- we all
recognize what the Kafkaesque

The Kafkaesque-- we all
recognize what the Kafkaesque

is, the world
according to Kafka,

in which mysterious things
happen for no reason.

And your life can be
forfeit without your ever

knowing the reason why.

Write in a way which doesn't
have a warm, emotional, cozy

feeling, you know, that you're
not inviting the reader in.

You're saying, I'm
sitting over here.

You're sitting over there.

I'm going to do the writing.

You're going to do the reading.

In a way, some of the
most remarkable books

In a way, some of the
most remarkable books

have used that
distancing technique.

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Languages have rules so
grammar, spelling, punctuation,

sentence structure,
subject, verb,

object, like that,
in English, anyway.

And you have to
know those rules.

You don't necessarily
have to keep them.

You don't necessarily
have to keep them.

But you have to know
them because what

one might call style is what you
decide to do about those rules,

whether you decide
to play by the rules

or whether you decide to
bend or break them, and--

and if so, why?

For example, if you are
writing in the first person

voice of a teenager like, you
know, "Catcher in the Rye,"

voice of a teenager like, you
know, "Catcher in the Rye,"

for example, if you're writing
in the voice of a poorly

educated person, then
some of those rules

may need to be ignored in
order to effectively portray

the voice of that person.

So-- so style is
what you do in order

to most effectively
communicate what

to most effectively
communicate what

it is you're trying to say.

First of all, you need to know
the rules of the language.

I mean, you really
do need to know

about grammar and syntax
and sentence structure

and paragraph structure.

The paragraph is sort of
the basic unit of prose.

And-- and it needs to have
a little internal cohesion

of its own.

And when a new thought
comes in, then you

need to have a break
in the paragraph.

So-- so yeah.

So-- so yeah.

It's very important
to know those rules

even if then you
decide to break them.

There are wonderful examples
of writers who more or less

abandoned paragraphing and--

and present you with
a long unbroken text.

For example, in Gabriel Garcia
Marquez's novel "The Autumn

of the Patriarch," he
suggests to us, the readers,

he suggests that the
dictator, the patriarch,

he suggests that the
dictator, the patriarch,

whose rule is stifling
and absolute somehow

stops time from moving, you
know, that nothing changes.

Everything is always the same.

And the fact that the book is
written in these very, very

long unbroken sections is
in a way of saying, here

is a kind of stagnation.

Nothing is moving forward.

The world has just
stopped like this.

The world has just
stopped like this.

And the long sentences and the
unbroken paragraphs in a way

give you that feeling.

So he is breaking the rule.

But he's doing it for--

to-- in order to
communicate something.

So every decision in
writing needs to be-- you

need to know why you're
doing it, you know.

I mean, read Strunk and White.

Their book, "The Elements of
Style," is a very good start.

When you feel confident at
the use of classical style,

When you feel confident at
the use of classical style,

then you can ask yourself
from project to project,

from book to book, from scene to
scene almost if that's the best

way of doing it or if some
deviation from classical style

will actually help the
reader's understanding.

I think the main
thing that I would

say about developing a
prose style is don't think

about it as being about you.

about it as being about you.

Think about it as being about
what you're writing, you know.

If you think it's about you,
then-- then ego intrudes,

you know.

And it can actually
get in the way.

If what you do is focus
on thinking about what

is the most effective and
powerful way of telling

the story you've
set out to tell,

the rest will take
care of itself.

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In terms of exercises,
I think all you can do

is to say give yourself
a task of saying

if I want to write
a love scene, what

is the best language for
doing that, you know.

And-- and you might initially
think that the best language

And-- and you might initially
think that the best language

for doing that is something
lyrical, you know,

something in which the
emotion is very evident

and on the surface,
you know, because--

because you're trying to
talk about two people who

are falling in love.

That might not be the case.

It might be that actually
to take a little step back

and to write a little more
dispassionately about it would

actually have a very
interesting effect in a way

actually have a very
interesting effect in a way

to write against
the grain of what

you're trying to write about.

You can try it both ways.

Try-- try writing it as
a very emotional passage,

and then try writing about
it very unemotionally.

Same event.

Same thing happening.

And see which works
better for you.

It can sometimes
be very effective

not to write about it
in the most obvious way.

This is a passage from
"The Moor's Last Sigh"

in which the narrator
is-- is talking

about a kind of profound
moment really that in which

he's not present at the first
moment at which his mother

and father made
love to each other.

They just-- when they--
after they had met.

And I found myself wondering
how would one do that?

And I found myself wondering
how would one do that?

How would one talk
about something

as in a way forbidden as that?

And it led me into a
kind of wider thought

that one of the hardest
things to write about is sex.

Because it can be so crass,
you know, when written about.

And-- and, as it were, the
gymnastic elements of sex,

And-- and, as it were, the
gymnastic elements of sex,

you know, can be the--

the ones that just,
if you write them out,

you know, they seem absurd.

And so what I thought I'd do
is to give that awkwardness,

that embarrassment about writing
about it, to the narrator who's

writing after all
about his parents

so he doesn't know
quite how to do it.

So he-- so he does
it by not doing it.

He does it by
leaving things out.

I mean, in a way, I think
it is quite lyrical.

It's sort of-- sort of comic
lyrical but with the emphasis

It's sort of-- sort of comic
lyrical but with the emphasis

on--

on comic.

"Way up there near the
roof of Go-Down Number 1,

Aurora de Gama, at the age of
15, laid back on pepper sacks,

breathed in the hot, spice-laden
air, and waited for Abraham.

He came to her as a
man goes to his doom,

trembling but resolute.

And it's around here
that my words run out.

And it's around here
that my words run out.

So you will not learn
from me the bloody details

of what happened when she
and then he, and then they,

and after that she,
and at which he,

and in response to that she,
and with that, and in addition,

and for a while, and
then for a long time,

and for a while, and
then for a long time,

and quietly, and noisily, and
at the end of their endurance,

and at last, and after
that, until phew, boy, over

and done with."

So it's just a way of
writing about sex without--

while leaving all of it out.

And I thought that
might be the kind

of embarrassed, awkward way
in which the character would

face such a-- such a moment.

face such a-- such a moment.

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To be in charge of language,
to have a command of language,

means that--

means that it works for you.

You don't work for it.

There's an enormous
spectrum here

because there are writers with--

who deliberately use a
very large vocabulary

and feel that they need that.

Vladimir Nabokov is
a writer like that.

Vladimir Nabokov is
a writer like that.

On almost every page
of Nabokov, there

are words that you have to
scratch your head about.

He's, you know, he's slightly--

his style is
slightly "show-offy."

And he-- he likes to
display his erudition.

There are other
writers whose writing

comes from a much
smaller group of words

but which served their
purpose very well.

You know, Dr. Seuss decided
to write everything he ever

You know, Dr. Seuss decided
to write everything he ever

wrote in what in those days
was called basic English, which

was a very small
vocabulary that people

needed to know in order to be
able to communicate in English.

And all his-- I mean, the
colossal success of these books

is because they're written in
this ultra simple language.

You know, "I do not like
green eggs and ham."

You know, "I do not like
them, Sam, I am," you know.

There's no long words.

There's no complicated ideas.

But there's a kind of
brilliant musical use

But there's a kind of
brilliant musical use

of very simple language.

To me, the rhythm
of a language is--

the rhythm of a sentence
is very important.

And-- and I do spend a long
time on that, you know.

Sometimes, I'll change
the order of words,

if that lends a better
musicality to the sentence,

if that lends a better
musicality to the sentence,

add a word sometimes
or subtract a word

if that improves the
music that I'm hearing

in my inner ear, so to speak.

And to my mind, issues of
rhythm are absolutely central

to-- to meaning, you know, that
the way in which a sentence

or a paragraph sounds helps
to convey a meaning almost

subliminally, you know, so--

subliminally, you know, so--

so below consciousness.

The reader gets it without quite
knowing how they're getting it,

you know.

So-- so I-- yeah.

I mean, one way of doing this
is to try reading what you've

written aloud and listen to it.

Listen to it.

See if it sounds nice, you know.

And if it doesn't, see what
you can do to kind of even

it out and to--

and to give it some
rhythmic quality

because it is kind of music.

because it is kind of music.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

I want to read you a passage
from "The Satanic Verses" that

makes use of musicality
in its language.

"Gibreel, when he submits
to the inevitable, when

he slides heavy-lidded towards
visions of his angeling,

passes his loving mother, who
has a different name for him.

Shaitan, she calls him, just
like Shaitan, same to same.

Because he has been fooling
around with the tiffins

Because he has been fooling
around with the tiffins

to be carried into the city
for the office workers' lunch.

Mischievous imp, she slices
the air with her hands.

Rascal has been putting Muslim
meat compartments into Hindu

nonveg tiffin carriers.

Customers are up in arms.

Little devil, she scolds, but
then folds him in her arms.

My little faristha.

Boys will be boys.

And then he falls
past her into sleep,

growing bigger as he falls.

And the falling begins
to feel like flight.

And the falling begins
to feel like flight.

His mother's voice wafts
distantly up to him.

Look how you grew,
enormous, brava, applause.

He is gigantic, wingless,
standing with his feet

upon the horizon and his
arms around the sun."

I wanted to-- in this--
in this moment, I--

I wanted to evoke
somebody falling

into a dream-like
visionary state

because this is
where we begin to see

because this is
where we begin to see

the extent of Gibreel's descent
into a kind of insanity.

And-- and I wanted
it to feel like that.

I wanted it to feel like
a descent, like a fall

from sanity towards insanity.

And one of the
things that I studied

when I was writing
the book was how

people who have talked
about seeing visions

talk about them--
talk about them.

Joan of Arc, St.
John the Divine,

Joan of Arc, St.
John the Divine,

all sorts of people
who have been--

who have had this kind
of visionary experience--

what does it sound like
when they talk about it?

And-- and one of the things
that I found was that they--

it does feel like they're--

like they're falling
into something,

you know, that into
like another reality.

And so that's what I wanted
that moment to feel like,

that he's falling
out of the real world

into another reality.

into another reality.

First of all, it's a--

it's a very long sentence.

It's a sentence that could be
broken into many sentences.

Instead, it's just
broken by commas.

And in a way, the sentence
is too long, you know.

And so the-- the realities
in the sentence begin to,

you know, to-- to
blur into each other.

you know, to-- to
blur into each other.

Part of it has to do with the
speech rhythms of-- of how

his mother speaks to
him are the speech

rhythms of a kind of
Bombayite Indian English.

So she's-- she's talking
in nonstandard English.

So that immediately creates
an air of something--

So that immediately creates
an air of something--

something not
straightforward, something

different in the language.

The idea is that he's
falling into a vision,

and he's seeing things.

And the first thing
he sees is his mother,

and then he falls past
her into the full vision

of being the angel.

So it's an attempt
to represent the--

So it's an attempt
to represent the--

the phenomenon of--
of seeing visions.

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