S1: Welcome in San Diego. It's Jade Hindman on today's show. This year's Writers symposium by the sea brings esteemed author Jamaica Kincaid to town. We'll talk with her. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. For more than three decades , the annual Writers Symposium by the sea has brought esteemed authors to San Diego's shores to reflect on their work and literary legacies. It's been held at Point Loma Nazarene University , and it will be February 25th through the 27th. One of the authors appearing at this year's festival is Jamaica Kincaid. For more than 50 years , Kincaid's writing has often defied categorization and comparison through books like Annie John and The Autobiography of my mother. Her work weaves from weaves from fiction to nonfiction , often actually intersecting the two. She is also known for her essays as a longtime writer with The New Yorker magazine. Her most recent book is called Putting Myself Together. Jamaica Kincaid , welcome to Midday edition.
S2: Thank you. Uh , you make me sound really , um , interesting. I'll have to tell my.
S1: You are interesting. And it's a it's a it's an honor to have you on. Um , okay , so first I'm going to ask you. You you were born and spent much of your childhood in Antigua. In a recent profile in the New York Times , you revealed your theory that you are who you are at the age of seven. So when you reach seven , you said that is your life. And you you just repeat that until you are 100 and you say you find that thought actually comforting ? Tell me about why. Oh.
S2: Oh. Um. Uh , why do I find it comforting ? Oh , because you have been seven for so long. Um , uh , it's nice to know that , uh , it's not that you , uh , do the very same things , but you do variations on them , and then suddenly you realize. Oh , but that's just what I did when I was seven. For instance , I enjoy completely being alone. I'm not lonely at all. Uh , I was an only child until I was nine years of age , and , uh , I loved , uh. Well , yes , I loved it , um , especially because my mother , uh , made me not play with other children. Um , she was from Dominica , and she considered , uh , Antiguan um uh , behaviour and culture rather inferior. So she never would let me have friends , which is something I wrote about in a book called Annie John. And the friend I had was the read girl and Antiguan , uh , girl. So , um , I think that now I am almost 77 years of age , how much I enjoy being alone , and I , I'm always mystified by , uh , uh , people looking for companions or marriage or whatever , you know , but , uh , it is true that also I have , um , bad luck been lucky enough to have some of the best friends of anywhere. Um , dearest of all , uh , my friend Ian Frazier and my friend Candace Ware , whom you wouldn't know. But you should know Ian Frazier. He's the most extraordinary writer , and we've been friends for these many years. And not just friends. Uh , in which , you know , you say hello. We speak to each other every week after he gets out of church where he has , uh , on Sundays , where he has wiped his , uh , sinful soul clean. And then I begin to encourage him to put small smudges on the on.
S1: Well , Jamaica , I have to ask. I have to go back and ask. I mean , why is seven that magic number ? Um.
S2: I , I don't , but it's seven. Of course , there are all sorts of , um , uh , uh , in religions in which numbers are three for Catholics , I think 13. Four. Of course , Obama says , but seven , I think , is important , and then ten is important. But for me , it was seven. It was at seven. I discovered John Milton or was forced to discover John Milton. It was at at seven , I had my first realization into , uh , uh , the complications of being , um , singled out especial at seven. I was much I was regarded , I should say , as being much more smart than the other kids who were not only seven , but much older. And my teachers used to parade me around to the various classes to show me off as , um , you know , uh , a brilliant person. And , um , I became , uh , as you can imagine , uh , very proud of myself and very , um , high handed. And of course , then my , uh , schoolmates , uh , proceeded to waylay me after school and put me in a tub , of which was the outdoor toilet. And so I had to walk home with , um , uh , dripping in , uh , uh , shit. And I , um , consider that really an interesting , uh , moment that should happen , uh , an event that , um , is really good for pride , right ? Uh.
S1: I'm so sorry that that happened to you. That is awful. Oh.
S2: Oh. I'm not. I'm rather glad.
S1: Okay , well , you know , it's.
S2: Quite a lot out of it as a writer.
S1:
S2: I actually didn't know that people still wrote , um , important things , you know , poems , literature. Um , after Kipling. Kipling was my last encounter in the , uh , British Empire. Um , of a serious writer. And really , Kipling is a despicable person. Um , so imagine that. Um , but my mother taught me to read when I was very young. And by the time I was three and a half , I could read. There was one interesting thing. She didn't tell me there was an alphabet. And so when she finally sent me to school when I was three and a half and , uh , but you could only go to school when you were five. And so she told me to if anybody asked to say I was five. And so I went to school and I could read everything. But then there was this thing called the alphabet and even worse were vowels. Vowels were problem. And , uh , so I never , um , came to writing and , and , uh , like , um , the English language , um , has written in a way that ordinarily you would. And I now suspect that that whole experience has been a tremendous influence on the way I write. Mm.
S1: Well , I want to ask you this , you know , because your relationship with your mother , your your connection to her , um , disconnection from her , perhaps , as well , shows up in much of your work.
S2: And I don't mind that. I don't find that hateful at all. I think that's really kind of interesting. Of course , if you were the person being eaten at night , it might not be so inspiring. But my mother , um , has always seemed even as a child. I mean , I had no idea she would become so prominent in this thing I do called writing. Um , but she was always tremendously mythic in my mind. First of all , as I said , she came from Dominica. And , uh , even in these small islands , you know , the people who are dominated by colonial powers all have their own , um , peculiarities. And not only that , they take on the rivalries of the they're colonial , uh , they're called colonial conquests. So the people who speak French or patois will feel very superior , uh , to the people who speak English , because you know the superior.
S1: Well in Jamaica. That's interesting because you write a lot about colonialism and also about gardening. So I'm wondering how those two things intersect.
S2: They no , they don't intersect. They , um , support each other , uh , colonialism , call it to be colonized. It's not or just thrown around every which where , uh , every which where , every which way. But , um , uh , you know , the the act of colonialism Zation is parasitic and , um , uh , so. Well , how I came to equate this with with gardening , I started to , um , the the King James Version of the Bible was very important in my education. We actually read it in school , not , uh , to make us Christians. That was already a foregone conclusion. And , um , not the Christians that live in Mississippi and those kinds of nonsense places. Um , and I don't mean the black people who live there , but , you know.
S1: I mean.
S2: Um , uh , but the , uh , the kind of , um , uh , I could see colonialism , for instance , from , uh , reading Genesis that , uh , the world was made and then it was colonized , and then was the naming of the , uh , things in it that gave Adam the power to do. And , um , it's not clear to me that those names he gave them were really their names that they themselves knew. Uh , so I , I started , um , yeah , uh , with that and of course , again , to go back to seven , that was the sort of thing I knew at seven. At seven. Um , by the way , I'm not at all opposed to the Ten Commandments being nailed at a school door. I just wished the people nailing it would read it.
S3: Well , that is that is not.
S1: Unreasonable at all. That is good. Listen , one one place that colonization was like , was really on the big stage was at the Super Bowl on Sunday. The Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny brought attention to the colonial history of his home island during his performance.
S2: I found it brilliant in going over it in my mind. Um , uh , the many things , um , he said , the many things he did. I , I thought , um , it was , it almost had a , uh , he an in his white suit , and it almost had the for me , um , a kind of prophetic ness about him. He seemed like a , um , a prophet waving through and giving people , uh , a vision of what had happened , um , without them knowing it. Uh , and those of us who know it. Who have lived it. We might have forgotten , because we've all moved to Florida and are voting for horrible people. And suddenly we were reminded it just was like something Babylonian. You know , when or something from Jeremiah , when the Israelites were doing some sort of nonsense , eating , um , cakes made in the shape of Baal , and then God comes and just says , no , I don't mean , I mean , I don't mean to be terribly , uh , religious , but , uh , and I am not at all , but I do find these , um , uh , old texts inspiring. And , uh , so to go back to the , uh , uh , Super Bowl , I thought it was beautiful. And the the details of the history in it , um , uh , was fascinating , and I , I , I know he's a brilliant man , but I wondered about I , I not wondered I admire the scholarship , the pains he took and this whole , uh you can't separate it. And one shouldn't in my mind anyway. Separate what the the brutal football. Who thought football would do this ? Um , uh , would educate Americans about history , starting with Beyoncé and and Kendrick Lamar and Elvis. It was just , uh uh oh my goodness.
S1: Oh , art is certainly a vehicle for , um , lessons and all sorts of things. Um , I have to it always is. It really is. But I have to leave our conversation here. We could go on for hours and hours is so interesting. Um , I have been speaking with author Jamaica Kincaid , who will be appearing at this year's Writers Symposium by the Sea on Thursday , February 26th. You can find a link to tickets on our website , KPBS Jamaica. Thank you so much. This was such an interesting conversation.
S2: Thank you.
S1: That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.
