Blog written by Sarah Bennett
We are both very excited and incredibly lucky to have Booker Prize-winning author Ben Okri OBE with us, speaking live about his popular collection of short stories- Prayer for the Living at Yorkshire Festival of Story this month.
Ben’s work is not only widely-acclaimed but grapples with the very nature of existence. What is reality? What is the relationship between ourselves and our dreams? How can stories help us confront the dark truths of our past and face the uncomfortable truths of our present? In another lifetime, he would be a bomb-disposal expert of the spirit, but for this one a physic and spiritual liberator through the art and act of storytelling.
This is one not to be missed! Catch Ben live on Saturday 22nd August @ 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm. You can book your space here. If you can’t wait, we managed to get hold of Ben to hear about his storytelling journey and for a pre-show preview:
I find it fascinating that your work communes with challenging perceptions of reality and blurring boundaries- both in terms of worlds and defying categorisation. What’s your take on this?
Reality is uncategorisable, so our attempt to mirror it should also be uncategorisable. Our art can only reflect our understanding of reality. Our art can never be richer than our grasp of the world. That is why we value literature. It tells us what we have become. It tracks our true inner evolution. And sometimes precedes and activates it. I am constantly trying to catch the mysterious nature of reality. It is a never-ending quest. If the form exists that catches this mystery as I constantly see it there would be no need for me to try and do it. Reality is stranger and more wonderful and sometimes darker than we think. And so are we. This makes writing one of the greatest challenges in the world.
Could you tell us about your journey into storytelling, particularly in terms of the pull towards writing? In a ‘Sliding Doors’-esque scenario, what do you think you would be doing if it weren’t for writing?
I’d be writing in one form or another. I would be a bomb-disposal expert of the spirit. I would be working with consciousness and the way we dream and the way our dreams affect our reality. I would be working with the stuff of being. I don’t know that there is a sliding door for all these things. In a world without writing I would be telling stories in the most potent way that the given society can barely conceive.
If you were to offer any story to the country right now, what would it be- and why?
It would be a story of facing the truth of the past, in order to open up the future. It seems to me that the country is locked in a dream of the past, and that dream is not entirely true. The dream has dark elements which are not being faced. Empire, race, class, and the injustices connected to them, need to be faced and purged so that the future can be freed. Otherwise these things, along with the contribution to damaging the environment, will keep coming back to haunt and dog the nation’s progress. Storytellers are the psychic and spiritual liberators of a people because they tell uncomfortable truths that must be faced for a people to really be free.
Describe Prayer for the Living in 5 words.
Life richer – stranger – than assumed.
Book your free place to see Ben talk live at Yorkshire Festival of Story.
