animal individuals

Do you think animal's emotional side and their social life etc. is underestimated by the humans? And why? Do you think animals' positions in human society will change in the future?
Swix

Yes,definitely underestimated. But don't you think that we tend to underestimate the intelligence of most cratures, and of most strangers, of most other cultures? Such underestimation is usually a function of ignorance and fear. I certainly hope that animals' positions in human society changes in the future. I'd like to see an end to hunting for sport, and an end to torture and thoughlessness. We think of ourselves as an intelligent and enlightened species. Let's act like it.

Psalms

The newspaper that arranges this net-meeting writes that you say that elephants have their own psalms or hymns or whatever it´s called in english. Could you elaborate?
Reverend Horton Heat

I have never, ever said that elephants have their own psalms or hymns. In the real world, they sometimes move their trunks and growl in unison, and an elephant expert named Cynthia Moss once said, regarding this behavior, that, "If I didn't know better, I'd swear they were singing." So in my novel (which is, after all, invented reality) I had my elephant characters singing. Sue me, Reverend.

Animla rights

Do you contribute to the conservation of elephants and their habitat/environment?
Zap

Yes, absolutely. Since writing "The White Bone," I have contributed a lot of time and money to trying to save the elephants, even though I don't have much hope for their long-term survival. I don't want to live in a world where there are no wild animals. I think it would be a huge tragedy, a huge failure on the part of humans.

Hello!How do you think the media has presented you?Do you think they have described you the way you are? Do you have any comment on how media present other famous people? We are working on a project at school on how media present famous people, so we hope you can answer our questions!!!!!
Therese & Julie

In general, I think I have been treated pretty fairly by the media. Not entirely accurately, but that can't be helped. The media are obliged to come up with a "story," and sometimes they create one out of nothing. They also tend to go into an interview with an agenda, a pre-conceived notion of who you are, and all their questions are intended to support this pre-conception. Still, what I have said to the media has rarely been taken out of context. I have little to complain about. Maybe because my personal life is pretty boring!

So what?

Yes, we are religious animals. We are stunned that most people don´t know this, and are very pleased that one of you two-legged, little ones are realizing this. Would you be interested in attending the mass I´m holding next sunday? Just get on the next plane to Kenya, and follow the arrows from the airport.
Pope Tantor VII

Sorry, I'm busy next Sunday.

Metaphor

Hi ms Gowdy. Elephants? Is it meant like a metaphor? You know, thick skin, but cry easily. Supposed to be smart, but never accomplish anything except to produce a new generation.
Andreas

No. No metaphor intended. And elephants aren't just "supposed to be smart." They are smart. Huge, complex brains, highly evolved in the cerebrum and cerebellum. There is both behavioral and physiological evidence to suggest that their memories are phenomenal, far better than ours. Who knows what marvelous thoughts form in their minds, what stunning conversations they have with each other. (We know that their communciations are extremely complicated). Whether or not you believe that what we humans do is smart, is open to question. Certainly destroying the planet must seem like a pretty stupid occupation from the perspective of other species.

Author = Job?

Why don´t you get yourself a real job? Is that something you get to hear a lot, or are you so "big" now, that most people actually recognize writing as a job?
Kermit

I've had plenty of "real jobs." I've been a secretary, a bookkeeper, a stock broker, a literary editor, a piano teacher, a creative-writing teacher, I've worked in TV, etc. etc. From the time I was 14 I was obliged to work part time to pay my way. Up until a few years ago, I taught at Ryerson University to make ends meet. Now, it true, I make enough money that I don't have to do anything but write, but writing is harder than anything I've ever done. How I sometimes long to go back to a "real job!"

early reading

which was the first novel / book you loved deeply? (As a child, juvenile or adult by your own choise)
Morten Haugen

I loved fairy tales of all kinds, and I think they influenced my writing. In common with many woman novelists, I adored Jane Austen. Who else? When I was quite young I read a book called "The Tree that Stood Still," which haunted me. I remember that I wrote the author a fan letter, but I can no longer recall her name.

Travel

You must be travelling a lot, as a writer during so many years- any favourite places? Africa? Where would you like to go if you had the chance? Per
Per Misund

It's true, I travel a lot for business. I'd rather not travel so much, as I can't write on the road, and I hate leaving my house and cat. Favourite places? Well, Oslo is pretty beautiful. Also I like Hanover Germany (all the canals) and Amersterdam (even more canals). African was beautiful but heartbreaking. So much povery and political upheaval. In the parks in Kenya we had to travel with armed guards because Somalian gunmen were crossing the boarder and assaulting tourists. I hated South Africa. It is physically breath-taking but still full of racism, and the gap between the haves and have-nots is huge.

Ratings

So, you hosted a litterature-program? Top ratings, I presume. Those kinds of programs always have a HUGE following, right?
Juritzen

Well, no, not top-ratings, I'm afraid. And I was just a guest host, one of six. What this show (called "Imprint") did, was use published writers to interview published writers. At first, we weren't very good. I know I wasn't. I tended to look bored when the writer talked on and on, and I got nervous and laughed inappropriately. But I did get the chance to talk to some wonder writers, such as Julian Barnes, Amy Hempel and the great Czech writer, Ivan Klima (whose book "Love and Garbage" I highly recommend).

Mordechai

Being canadian and all, have you ever met Mordechai Riechler? One of the greatest writers Canada has raised. Agree?
Just me

Yes, I agree. And I have met him. I'm good friends with two of his sons, Daniel and Noah. Mordecai is a wonderful man, very funny, very blunt, a loyal friend and father. He is one of Canada's national treasures.

Wilbur Smith

Wilbur Smith might not be a Nobel-candidate in litterature, but he has written a couple of beautiful books where he also describes the world from an elephants point of view. Have you read some of theese? How did you come to all this knowledge about elephants? I'm halfway through The White Bone now, and I would like to thank you for a wonderfull book! :-) Zap
Zap

Thank you, Zap. No, I haven't read any of Wilbur Smith's works, and I didn't realize he'd written books from the elephant's point of view. I will certainly look for those books now and thank you for brining them to my attention. As for knowing about elephants, I spent about a year, full-time, reading every research book I could find on the subject. Of course, I was obliged to learn not only about elephants but about every creature and every type of vegetatiion elephants come across in the course of their day. I also spent 3 weeks on a game reserve in Kenya, following a family of elephants.

Loved your book

I loved your book, and I totally agree with John Irving, and the paper VG, who rolls the dice to a 6. Dagbladets review is all wrong! How do you feel about reviews?
Merethe Larsen

Thank you for your support. I take the reaction of readers far more seriously than I take the reaction of reviewers, who sometimes try to appear clever at the expense of the book they are reviewing. In the end, newspaper reviews matter very little. Books sell by word-of-mouth. And I do understand that "The White Bone" is a challenging novel. There are readers who are simply not going to appreciate what I am trying to do. That's okay. It's a big world.

Reviews

The Review in this newspaper, Dagbladet, today was not very positive. The critic Anne Lise Jomisko thinks your book is full of clichés, and compares the book with the Disney movie "The Lion King": "...exept that the movie is funny." Your comments?
Andreas

Luckily for me, I don't read Norwegian. I don't know what she means by the cliches. I spend thousands of hours trying to avoid cliches. I challenge her to find a single one. I never saw the movie "The Lion King." I hear it was good, but anthropomorphizing the elephants was never my intention. I suppose my reaction to what she said is that the nature of her review is somewhat of a cliche. Of course, everyone is entitled to an opinion, and this happened to be hers.

Web sites

Hello, I read your book and enjoyed it very much. I see you recommend a number of books about elephants. My question is: Are there any good elephant web sites you would like to recommend? Best wishes, Sara
Sara Sundby

The books mentioned at the back of my novel are not recommended texts. Rather they are just a list of the books I consulted for my research. I certainly would not recommend Ernest Hemingway's "Green Hills of Africa," in which all he does in kill whatever he sees (his motto seemed to be, "I don't know what it is, but it's dead now." The books by Cynthia Moss and Iaian and Oria-Douglas Hamilton are very information. As for web sites, I'm sure there are plenty, but I didn't consult them myself, as I didn't get onto the net until a couple of months ago, long after I finished writing the novel. Best wishes to you, too.

Music

So, which instrument(s) do/did you play? (I´ve read a short bio)
M. E.

I used to play the piano. I had ambitions to be a classical pianist. But I wasn't good enough. So I sold the piano and got a job in publishing, editing musical texts, then gradually moving into fiction and biographies. I was fired when I started re-writing people's books, introducing characters, making the plots more exciting. Needless to say, the writers were pretty unhappy with me.

?????????

When can we expect a combo-book based on this one, and "Kissed"? You know, there are a lot of so-called elephant-cemetaries, so it would be perfectly possible to combine these two. A necro-zoophile experience.
Egil

Actually, elephant cemetaries are a myth. Elephants don't go to any specific place to die. What, in fact, happens is that when elephants get old and their molars (teeth) are worn out, they tend to hang around swamps were the vegetation is soft and chewable. So that's where they tend to die. It's like old humans going into old folks' homes. As for elephant necrophiles, they don't exist, either. Humans are the only species warped enough to want to make love to their dead. I'm sure other species must think of us as psychotic apes. By the way, the necrophile in my story "We So Seldom Look on Love" (upon which the movie "Kissed" was based), was itself based upon a real woman named Karen Greenleigh, who lived in California and practiced her brand of love-making in the early '70s. I guess what I'm trying to get across here, is that everything I write has some grounding in fact.

Elephants ??

Why did you use elephants as main characters ??? Do you have any experience with elephants before you wrote this book ???
Alexander Opsal

Hi, Alexander? Nice to meet you again, but I prefer in person. Regarding my experience with elephants, I had little aquaintance with elephants. I'd seen a few in zoos, but years ago I stopped going to zoos because I can't bear to see innocent animals in what amount to prisons. (And did you know that, world-wide, most zoos are unregulated? Which means that zoo keepers can do whatever they want to the animals.) Anyway, I had to go to Africa before I saw elephants for any length of time in the wild.

Hello Gowdy

Yes, it´s completely true. Us elephants are extremely intelligent. I would just like to thank you for writing this book about us. By the way, do you think that we should start an elephants-rights group? I mean, just writing this mail took me three hours. So, issue no. 1: Make elephant-sized keyboards!
Tantor

There are, already, many elephant-rights groups, or at least groups trying to save the elephants from extinction due to poaching and loss of habitat. Look up "African elephant" on the web and you'll find the names of these groups. (By the way, elephants communicate infra-sonically, that is, by way of long-distance, low-frequency rumbles. They find computer technology outdated.)

Just wondering something

hi! why did you choose exactly elephants to write about? why not another animal?? bye!
huma

I have always been deeply interested in animals and animal behavior. I zeroed in on elephants after seeing a National Geographic documentary featuring wild African elephants. In this documentary, which was narrated by zoologist Cynthia Moss, a family of elephants was shown coming upon the scattered bones of a long-dead elephant. The members of the family became very quite and reverent. They picked up the bones in their trunks, smelled and fondled them, then put them down and covered them with sticks and dirt. And then some of the elephants turned around and (as in my book)lifted one hind foot and passed it over the bones. Cynthia Moss said she had witnessed this behavior dozens of time and didn't know what it signified unless, as she said, "the elephants were sensing some emanation." I found this to be extremely moving. Obviously the elephants had some understanding of death. They also seemed conscious and highly intelligent. So I started reading more about the African elephant and discovered how complex and social they are, how much like us. It occurred to me that they would make excellent subjects for fiction. Certainly they have a story to tell: the disappearance of the species from hunting, poaching and loss of habitat.