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The Seductive Power of Words |
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| 10/12/2010 |
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A incidentally gothic novel – “I don’t like irony in writing,” says Christian Mørk, “nor sarcasm. I don’t want to run the risk of the reader believing me” – Darling Jim is set in Ireland, which according to its writer, “is the only place where this novel could have been set. It’s a strange country, where young people speak Gaelic on their cell phones, where the dominant values have not changed: religion, respect, family values.”
Inspiration for the novel came from an article Mørk happened across in a newspaper, about a woman and her daughters who were found dead in a house. “I had no intention of writing this kind of story, it just knocked at my door,” he says.
The darling Jim of the title is a seanchai, a traveling storyteller, who charms and seduces the local women wherever he goes. “I was interested in depicting the seductive power of words. And I wanted to say how every type of seduction is dangerous. For example, sociopaths are always fantastic tellers of tales. But the seduction I write about has nothing to do with sexuality. My parents were actors, so I’m no stranger to the power of words. My character Jim has no limits. He can say everything he wants to say. I’m not interested in knowing who killed whom. I’m greedy. I’m interested in the motivations,” explains the writer.
Mørk, who was born in Denmark but has lived for years in the US (though today he divides his time in Paris as well), adds: “I no longer know what my roots are. I wrote this book in English then translated it into Danish. The language you use very much influences the style of writing. When you use English, you pay a lot of attention to plot. With Danish, on the other hand, the intimate voice and details are more much important. By page 20 you’ve already forgotten about the story.”
The book he’s currently writing is part of a trilogy, about an archeologist with memory loss, who while studying the origins of some bones must also investigate her own past and discover who she is. “To me, writing is a question of life and death. I don’t want to be a narcissistic writer, I want to work,” concludes Mørk.
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