Natik Rasulzade: “A writer should cater only for himself”

Sequel to the interview with the Honoured Art Worker and holder of the “Shokhrat” (Glory) order, one of the most popular writers not only in Azerbaijan, but in the whole of Europe, Natik Rasulzade.


-What are your childhood memories?
- I think that these memories stay with us for all our lives. I still remember that when I was 7-8 years old, we lived on Teze Pir Street, near a mosque, and kids went to play football in the court of that mosque. And the yardman, who also carried out the rite of washing the deceased, chased us out with his broomstick. And when he was not there, we could play for as long we wanted. These were the 50s and there were almost no cares on the streets of Baku. The old “Pabeda”, “ZIM” and “Moskvich” cars drove at 30 km per hour. So we could play football right on the traffic way and than just scatter when a car appeared. But they drove by every 5 minutes, so we preferred to play in the mosque yard.
For the most part, my memories are reflected in my essays, short stories, plays and novels. There is a good phrase for that, I think the French writer Françoise Sagan said it: “When writer writes, he dips the pen into his own heart”, which means we create our works from our memories.

- Do you believe in God, in destiny, in vocation? Is a writer’s success, predetermined by destiny, or is it a product of hard work?
- I do believe in God, but not as unconditionally as those pious people who perform salah five times a day. I’m a man, questioning everything, I’m an agnostic, who believes in God. I’ve been a writer for more than 40 years. And being a writer means thinking, questioning, having doubts. So I often think, if God arranged everything here in the right way then I come to conclusion that there are a lot of wrongs in this world.
As for success, it’s hard to say. Foe example, about 20-30 years ago I published my new books in a large number of copies: 30-40,000 in Azerbaijan and about 100,000 in Moscow. These books circulated from hand to hand, so instead of 30,000 people they were read by 200,000 to 300,000. Now the Internet has pushed a bit aside the writer’s work. People became more pragmatic, practical. They only want to get that kind of information that will help them gain something. The Internet’s information is for the brain, and the literature is for the soul. And that’s very important, because the ideal prosperous democratic society is impossible without the perfection of people’s souls, and that’s what literature does.


- Apart from your creative work, you teach literature in the Literature Institute. Does the modern youth have interest in books?
- I studied in this Institute. Back than, we lived in the enormous country of the USSR: about 250 million people, and that was the only Literature Institute in the country. There was a great competition and it seamed that only talented ones could get through the entrance examinations. But than we realized than about 10-15 % of students were completely ungifted. It’s always like that in all institutes, especially at the Art faculties. So when I meet my new students for the first time, I always ask them if they came here on their own initiative and if they are going to become writers. Only one or two of 18-20 answer affirmatively. There are a few gifted students and we should pay them special attention. We have a lot of students, who entered the Institute only to get the diploma. Life is an interesting sort of thing: I know a lot of guys how have an education of engineers but work in a completely different area. But there still some students in our Institute that are likely to become writers and I try to teach them the skill.

- In your story “The House” the central character was moved away from the society and found himself in a hopeless situation on a railway stations where no trains go in an endless steppe, and there’s no way out. He has to live with a family – namely, people, who are complete strangers to him. Tell us please how did the plot come to your mind and what’s the main idea of the story?
- “The House” is a philosophical essay. No one values what he has, but when he’s deprived of it, he yearns to get it back. The character of the story makes two big mistakes. First, he leaves his usual fussy surroundings, as he’s sick of them. He takes a random train and… gets to the place he would like to escape and starts to value his past life. The idea is not new, but it still can be interesting. We should value our present lives, should try to get the best of them, perfect ourselves and other people spiritually. It’s hard to describe the story in brief, because there are absurd, even surrealistic elements, interesting unusual characters in it. The station, where the principle character has to stay, is inhabited by people who have lost every connection to the real world.
The story is translated into many languages, including European ones too. I received letters from Poland, Hungary.
It also demonstrates that all character traits manifest themselves only in threatening situations. So one has to stand up to them, or he dies. My character could not stand up to the circumstances. I consider this story to be one of my best works.


- Russian director Fuad Shabanov wanted to shoot a film, based on this story…
- Yes, we discussed it with him. I had added many tings to the original story – some visual pictures, for example. The book can present all author’s thoughts, but a scenario is a completely different sort of thing. It has to be perceived visually. But there are, unfortunately, some financial problems. Faud now is in a search for sponsors. If it all works out, I would be glad to shoot this film.

- Do you have a favorite modern writer?
- Yes. It’s Gabriel García Márquez. He’s 80 years old, but he still writes (and I hope he will for a long time still). I read his recent work (it was published 5-8 years ago). And his “One Hundred Years of Solitude” – I read it over and over again! I have a lot of other favorite writers, but they are all classics: Gogol in the first place, than Chekhov, Nabokov and many others.


-What are you working on now?
- I’m working on a story which touches upon some topical society problems. There will be a lot of interesting characters and crime. Readers like it, but I’ve never written to be liked. I always tried to write my works in a way that I would appreciate them myself, as I am the most fastidious reader. And if I like it, than a thoughtful reader will like it too. A writer should cater only for himself, and that's what I always do.


Interviewed by Ramin Naziev, Baku. Exclusively for VK.