Ben Okri: The magic in words

The Nigerian writer says words are invisible tools used to manipulate reality depending on how they are used.

Ben Okri, Nigerian poet and Booker Prize winning novelist, describes words as "invisible tools used to manipulate reality depending on how they are used."
"Words have a secret meaning depending on the perspective," he said. He gave an example of two words in his book - 'live' which if altered can be 'evil' which gives a totally opposite meaning."
He was speaking during the presentation of his first novel in seven years, The Age of Magic, at the Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF).
Arguments he used to have with his father after reading great philosophers' books groomed him to take up writing as a career he said.
Okri added that he was a student of physics and wanted to be a physicist until he entered his father's library and started reading books.
Okri encouraged people to read books slowly, as fast reading would lead the reader to miss important facts.
"To read fast is hallucination and to read slowly is a dream," he advised.
Reading and understanding a book is a "reflection of where you are at the time. So books should be re-read after some years and see how you feel about them at that time."
His latest novel, The Age of Magic takes us on a magical and literal journey in which a closely knit group of filmmakers travel from Paris to make a documentary. Unknown to themselves they carry a lot of unwanted baggage of fear, anger, jealousy and love.
Okri has published many books, including The Famished Road, which won him the Booker Prize. His work has been translated into 26 languages and has won numerous international prizes including the Commonwealth Writer's Prize for Africa, the Paris Review Aga Khan Prize for Fiction, and the Chianti Ruffino-Abtico Fattore International Literary Prize.
afkarali@khaleejtimes.com

• Sharjah International Book Fair