Audre Lorde wrote about the diametrical difference between the erotic and the pornographic, in that the erotic is emotionally charged whilst the pornographic is sensation without feeling. V: As always with Rooney, the sex is part of her preoccupation with the mundane and the real.
The action in the novel in that this action is found in interactions between the characters, making the novel personal and character-driven but not strictly plotless, as Rooney charts a clear trajectory in all four characters’ lives.Ī: I completely agree with Victoria – while overall the pace of the novel is slow, there are still key turning points that move the plot forward. The story feels strongly rooted in following the lives of the characters, so it never feels directionless. V: I wouldn’t agree with that necessarily. The novel could be described as plotless, would you agree with that? He realises he cares about Alice, as it is her that his thoughts turn to. I think it’s a novel about love being humanity’s redemption in a society where everything else is unforgivingly commodified.Ī: The novel also offers moments of varying definitions of love, such as when Felix cuts his hand. V: It’s a novel which is self-conscious about its own status as a novel about love… Alice and Eileen ponder whether there can be any value in books about romance in the face of impending apocalypse, or whether in fact it is one of the only things worth writing about. So do you think it could be called a novel about love? V: I think that the only way the novel could be classified is simply as contemporary literature, in that it is a work which is deeply concerned with the state of our current historical moment and the plights of the people living within it. For me, the most important relationship is the friendship between Eileen and Alice. I imagine it will be regularly marketed as romance, but I don’t see the novel as a romance. How would you classify the novel, if you think it needs classifying?Ī: While Beautiful World, Where Are You could fit into a whole range of genres, I don’t think that there’s one categorisation that would be fully accurate. These questions invite you to have your own conversations about Beautiful World, Where Are You.
Here, Aileen and Victoria, themselves both English Literature students at the University of Manchester, chat about the novel. They met while studying English Literature at university and are now navigating complex romantic relationships. The novel follows Alice, a successful novelist, and her best friend Eileen, who works at a literary magazine in Dublin. Sally Rooney’s hotly awaited third novel, Beautiful World, Where Are You, covers themes of friendship, honesty and love.
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