SARA
FRANKEL
449
moved around all their lives. So I don't feel outside of anything; I
don't feel disoriented . I think if I went to Africa, or South America,
or Australia, I might feel disoriented, more than in Italy or France.
But today, with quick travel, television, all the things we know about
each other-I don 't think you can compare the traveller of the past
with the writer today. Writers like Shelley and Byron, for instance,
got away from England for liberty, freedom of behavior-and also
they lived more cheaply, I suppose, although that certainly wasn't
Byron's problem . For him it was a love of adventure, and he was
also exiled because he'd already made love to his sister, he was
thrown out of England, practically. One way or another there were
very good reasons why those people should be exiled. As I say, I'm
not an exile so much as a traveller.
SF: Waugh once said that he thought the writer, the artist, should
"stand out against the tenor of an age and not go flapping along; he
must offer some little opposition." Do you think it's true that the
relationship of a writer to his community, or his age, should be one
of opposition?
MS:
Oh yes, no doubt. Some opposition and some innovation, I
would say. Otherwise he 's not an artist; he might just as well be a
copyist. There's no point unless you
have
something-unless you can
improve on society the best thing you can do is to keep quiet.
SF: You once said that travelling puts you in a position
to
write bet–
ter in opposition to the world .
MS:
Yes, you know what you're writing about better when you
travel. I think I know more about the English from the ones I meet
abroad than I do sometimes in their own setting. It's like taking a
picture and putting it in another frame: you see an altogether dif–
ferent aspect.
SF:
Do you think it makes any difference to a writer to live in a coun–
try where the language is not his own?
MS:
No, I don't think so.
It
depends what language, perhaps. But
all Latin languages are the basis of English . Besides, with a new
language comes a new thought process, always, and this helps you to
understand
how
people think-their language is an expression of
their thought process, which is different from one's own, and this is
a help to understanding people . On the other hand , I like to hear
English spoken a lot, and I go back to England at least once a year,
sometimes twice.
SF:
One of your characters, Fleur Talbot in
Loitering with Intent,
