{"id":69,"date":"2012-01-27T12:07:09","date_gmt":"2012-01-27T01:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/misrule.com.au\/wordpress\/?page_id=69"},"modified":"2012-01-27T21:56:31","modified_gmt":"2012-01-27T10:56:31","slug":"phillip-gwynne-interview","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/misrule.com.au\/wordpress\/interviews\/phillip-gwynne-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Phillip Gwynne Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Nukkin Ya by Phillip Gwynne<\/p><\/div>\n

This interview was first published in Viewpoint: On Books for Young Adults<\/a> Spring 2000, Volume 8 N\u00ba 3 It was published on the occasion of the release of Nukkin’ Ya<\/em>, the sequel to his award winning debut novel Deadly, Unna?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Go here<\/a> for a review of Deadly, Unna?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

_________________________<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1998, I was asked to review Phillip Gwynne\u2019s Deadly, Unna?<\/em> for this journal. I don\u2019t know if other critics feel this way, but I often take a proprietorial interest in books I\u2019ve reviewed \u2014 especially the ones I\u2019ve loved, and especially if they\u2019re by a new author. I ask booksellers how they\u2019re selling, I keep a watchful eye out for other critic\u2019s opinions, I watch their progress in literary awards. And I look out for new works by the author. Gwynne\u2019s sequel to Deadly<\/em>, Nukkin\u2019 Ya<\/em> has been as well-received as its predecessor. I didn\u2019t get to review this book, but I wanted to talk to Gwynne about his writing. He was kind enough to indulge me.<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the great pleasures of reading Nukkin\u2019 Ya<\/em> is being back in Blacky\u2019s company. You\u2019ve captured his voice again perfectly; yet he\u2019s changed, too. He\u2019s matured, his observations of people are as shrewd as ever, but he\u2019s lost some of the na\u00efve jocularity that characterised him in Deadly<\/em>. How did you “find” Blacky\u2019s voice in the first instance, and how was it revisiting him in the second book?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Blacky\u2019s voice started in something I wrote that was based on my own life. About growing up in the country, being in a big family, playing footy. Then it occurred to me one day that I could use that voice (or something close to it) to write a story, to write fiction. It\u2019s then that the voice started to change, became somebody else. It\u2019s funny, I have vivid mental pictures of all the characters in the Point and the Port, except for Blacky. He has no face, no body.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t find it very difficult to find the voice again. To tell the truth I could probably keep writing in that voice until the cows came home. That\u2019s why, initially, I was very reluctant to write a sequel to Deadly, Unna? <\/em>I wanted to move on, experiment with different voices, different characters. But Blacky wouldn\u2019t leave me alone.<\/p>\n

There are certain similarities between the details of Blacky\u2019s life and of your own \u2014 do readers assume the books are autobiographical? Where do you draw the line between drawing on your own experiences and fiction?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s an easy assumption to make. Blacky is one of eight kids, so am I. He grew up in the country. So did I. The central event in Deadly, Unna?<\/em> \u2014 the Aboriginal kids getting shot in the pub, actually happened. Blacky\u2019s world is (or was) pretty much my world. But he\u2019s not me. I guess you stop using fact and resort to fiction when you need to \u2014 when the story needs a hurry-up, when something needs to happen so you invent it.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t remember reading many non-Aboriginal authors who depict Aboriginal characters, and the interaction between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal characters so easily, so naturally as you do. Often the depiction of Aboriginal characters seems awkward and self-consciously “respectful”. In your books, these relationships read so naturally that I imagine it must be because you grew up knowing Aboriginal people as people, rather than as a cause.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t know Aboriginal people that well. I only lived in that town from ages 7 to 13 and the only time I got to hang out with Nunga kids was on and around the footy ground. But I have spent a lot of time overseas, and have got to know people from other cultures pretty well so maybe that\u2019s got something to do with it.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve never been keen on causes, even during the 70s when it was de rigueur. As for ideologies I\u2019ve always been very suspicious of them. Which is not to say that I don\u2019t believe in things, and that I\u2019m not passionate about them, it\u2019s just that I don\u2019t need a vehicle for that passion.<\/p>\n

I always thought Deadly<\/em> was set in the 70s, but the cultural references in Nukkin\u2019 <\/em>seem much more contemporary \u2014 “Home and Away” and body piercings for instance.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes Deadly,Unna?<\/em> is set in the 70\u2019s but not strictly so. A lot of the cultural references (pollywaffles, Brady Bunch) are from that era, but if you look closely you\u2019ll find many things that don\u2019t belong to that era. For example, the kids says “heaps” \u2014 that was never part of the vernacular then.
\nYou\u2019re right \u2014 the cultural references in Nukkin’ Ya<\/em> are even more jumbled. I was never after historical veracity however. Emotional veracity \u2014 yes, but not historical. I haven\u2019t thought about this much but how about this for an explanation \u2014 I didn\u2019t want Deadly<\/em> and Nukkin Ya<\/em> to belong to a period because then people could say that those attitudes prevailed back then. As you and I know those attitudes did prevail back then, but they also prevail now. So why didn\u2019t I set it now? Maybe I wasn\u2019t confident writing about kids now. The really funny thing is that many people have told me that I\u2019ve got the language right, that\u2019s how kids talk now, but the kids I was writing about were 70\u2019s kids (except for the “heaps” and other bits that I dropped in).<\/p>\n

I\u2019d suggest that\u2019s because your use of the vernacular is character-based, rather than an attempt to give the writing a faux authenticity.<\/strong><\/p>\n

You\u2019ve written the screenplay for Deadly<\/em>; what differences have you found in writing for the screen compared to writing prose? And how did the screenplay influence the writing of Nukkin\u2019 Ya?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t really writing for the screen, I was adapting for the screen. I don\u2019t think I could write a screenplay from scratch. I love language too much, and in a screenplay language comes behind character and plot and those sorts of things. But it was an enjoyable process for most of the time. I think I learnt some valuable lessons about plotting and as a result I think the plot in Nukkin’ Ya<\/em> is much stronger than the one in Deadly, Unna?<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Several of the reviews of Nukkin\u2019 Ya<\/em> have expressed hope for a third novel about Blacky and Clarence, and there certainly seems to be more story left to tell about their lives \u2014 are you interested in taking them further, or do you want to take your own writing on a new adventure?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well put! I\u2019m going to stop pestering Blacky, Clarence, Pickles et al for a while and let them get on with their lives. I\u2019m writing an adult\u2019s book at the moment and I made a very deliberate decision to write in third person \u2014 I don\u2019t want Blacky trying to sneak in while I\u2019ve got my guard down.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This interview was first published in Viewpoint: On Books for Young Adults Spring 2000, Volume 8 N\u00ba 3 It was published on the occasion of the release of Nukkin’ Ya, the sequel to his award winning debut novel Deadly, Unna? … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":7,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"sidebar-page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-69","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/misrule.com.au\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/69","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/misrule.com.au\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/misrule.com.au\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/misrule.com.au\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/misrule.com.au\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/misrule.com.au\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/69\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1232,"href":"http:\/\/misrule.com.au\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/69\/revisions\/1232"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/misrule.com.au\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/misrule.com.au\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}