Stuart Kelly: The Browser

Published on Tuesday 7 September 2010 14:10

A sound tribute

The finale of this year's Edinburgh International Book Festival was a strange double elegy: originally, it had been scheduled as an appearance by the Portuguese Nobel Prize-winning novelist, Jos Saramago, who unfortunately died just after the programme was published. Then Edwin Morgan – one of the few Scots who deserved the Nobel – died during the Festival.

Director Nick Barley swiftly programmed a celebration of Morgan, with poets and novelists reading their favourite work by "Eddie". A highlight was Robert Crawford reading The Loch Ness Monster's Song (a sound poem: there are no real words in it) with absolute brio. The Browser recalls hearing Morgan himself read it, when the line "Zgra kra gka fok!" was, shall we say, rather more Glaswegian on the final syllable.

Jape crusader

One of the other highlights was the Story Machines strand programmed by Charlie Fletcher. Looking at narrative across politics, games and films, it had some of the sparkiest debates in the whole Festival. The contretemps between William Nicholson (of Gladiator fame) and Don Boyd (of Jarman's Tempest fame) was electrifying. "Name any film as good as War And Peace is a novel!" challenged Nicholson. "Batman!" retorted a gleeful Boyd.

Thatcher fair point, Iain

Another splendid debate discussed "transhumanism" – the idea we can genetically or technologically alter ourselves. As a wearer of spectacles, I suppose I'm already a wee tad transhuman. But the best moment was during the discussion of life extension technologies, where Iain Banks declared he was worried it would only be for the rich.

"Say what you like about Rupert Murdoch or Margaret Thatcher, but at least, at the moment, they're going to die some day," he opined.