From: Kelli Roberts (kellir@earthlink.net)
I went back to your website this morning to see if you'll be in my area for readings. I've breezed through it before, but today I just read and read, and a few hours after I started on the "Ask Nicola" archives I made it to the end, feeling as though I'd just had a long conversation (ok, so it was a little one-sided....) I started taking random notes as I read, and now I have 5 pages of authors to check out and questions that came to mind as I was reading, and I felt the inspiration to write to you after that.
Of your books, I've only read "The Blue Place" so far, which I read a few weeks ago. I felt like I was rather belatedly reading it, but now I'm happy that I did, because I only have to wait another week to find out what happens next! I really loved the book; I kept reading it more and more slowly, trying to make it last. Unfortunately, I read the reviews of "Stay" on the BluePlace listserv before I read TBP, so I knew that Julia was going to die and I kept waiting for it to happen. I wonder how it would have made me feel had I not known about it ahead of time..... I must admit, at the beginning I found Aud to be rather irritating, because people who are so self-composed and who do everything so perfectly often make me feel that way, but I grew less and less irritated as I began to discover Aud's less-than-perfect traits. I really got involved in her life and kept hoping that it would all work out for her (even though I already knew it wouldn't). I think the scene that really stood out for me, the one that made me realize that the armor with with Aud had surrounded herself was beginning to disintigrate, was at the end when Aud saw Julia shot, but didn't fully realize it was her until a few minutes later. *That* was a spellbinding scene. I am very eager to read "Stay" so I can find out how Aud deals with the heartbreak.
After reading the archived messages regarding making TBP into a movie, I can't get the question out of my mind of who could play Aud. Not coming up with much, though. Judy Davis keeps coming to mind, though she's too old... Jessica Alba from Dark Angel could handle the physicality, but I can't see her having that detached elegance that Aud does.... I think my old martial arts teacher in Massachusetts would be great; 6' tall, blonde, blue eyed and very strong, both physically and mentally, though she's over 40 also.... I hope if it does come to the big (or small) screen you can maintain the right to approve and veto the actress - I keep thinking of the huge mistake that was made when Kathleen Turner was cast to play VI Warshawski. Worst thing I've ever seen....
I do have 2 questions for you (finally!), both of which come from your archived responses on your site. First, you have mentioned that you had a dream about a woman which you drew upon in creating Aud, and you also used the reading you had done about Aud the Deepminded. How did you connect those two incidents to create Aud for the novel?
Secondly, in one reply you were mentioning books that people may not realize are science fiction. You said that "The Handmaid's Tale" is SF, which I can understand, but why do you consider "The Robber Bride" to be SF? I love that book, and now I need to go back and reread it from a new perspective.
If you have made it this far, thank you. I apologize for rambling, but after reading through your site, I felt like I had a lot to say. I really admire your openness in your commentary, and especially your lack of restraint in telling it how like it is to those who want you to do their work for them. Your description of your arrival at Michigan State in 1988 made me laugh out loud - something I don't often do.
I talk a little about the genesis of Aud in the
interview I did for the Nan A. Talese website, but the shorthand version is that she came from a dream, and I then spent the next few years accreting little bits of odd information until I started to have an idea of who this woman was. Her name, for example, came from an afternoon browsing through the stacks of the Gwinnett County (Georgia) Library. I came across a book on Norwegian architecture, which led to an old (circa 1940) Norwegian history text, which mentioned a woman called Aud the Deepminded. Without knowing anything else, I knew I'd found my character's name. "Aud," I thought (it rhymes with cloud), "Aud." And the idea of someone being so remarkable in her own time that she went down in history as The Deepminded fascinated me. Here, I thought, was a formidable person: intellectually, emotionally, and physically. I had an image of a woman whose mind was like a fjord, deep, calm, and cold. My task with these books is plumb those depths and see what happens. One bonus: I've become so interested in the original Aud that I want to write a novel about her. Failing that, some non-fiction.
As for The Robber Bride, well, for a while there I looked at your question and thought, "Huh, damned if I know why I thought it was science fictional," but then I thought about it a bit more and began to remember my reasoning. It's been a while since I read the book but the speculative fiction aspects are almost wholly to do with the way Atwood delineates (or, rather, doesn't delineate) the character of Zenia.
Zenia is pretty much a cypher. She exists only to elicit responses from the other characters, to reflect them, bring them into focus both for each other and for the reader . She's a variant of the Grimm figure, the robber bridegroom. Atwood hints (rather skillfully, if I recall correctly) at her Otherness, her possible demonic qualities. Her power is certainly seen as greater than anything the other characters can explain. She is, essentially, mysterious. Atwood isn't really a realist; most of her fiction is clearly rooted in arealist reading. I'd be willing to bet (not vast sums, but enough to buy someone a decent dinner), that a lot of her early reading was science fiction and fairytale and possibly myth. But, hey, I'm just speculating.
