Watch: William Finnegan // Barbarian Days
I've never been particularly fond of writer's festivals. Mostly I've been disappointed when authors I enjoy simply read their works verbatim with no added insights or observations, or when their voice isn't much of a reading voice at all. In the same way that David Beckham was a fascinating soccer player, till you heard him talk about it, some authors have great voices for writing, and only writing.
Not so William Finnegan.
In this short clip by Darius Devas, the author of Barbarian Days gets it right on both counts: among excerpts from his memoir he adds unique observations on the surfing life, and they're clearly enunciated in Bill's relaxed delivery. It's a shame it's not longer.
Stay tuned for more shorts like this from Darius in the coming weeks.
Comments
Cool. One of my all time favorite books. His words capture the feeling of surfing and being a surfer better than most. The video suits his narration.
Lovely to just listen to nice words spoken well.
Fond memories of long talks with Bill overlooking the point at Jardim, after a "vigorous session", i.e. frightening and elating.
He did a pretty good interview on RRR a couple years back. I can’t find the link anymore though..
Here's the link to the RRR interview (although it's only available to members - must be because it's an old one). Will give it a go as I didn't hear it at the time.
https://www.rrr.org.au/on-demand/archives/1351-william-bill-finnegan-rad...
Barbarian Days was a cracking read.
Nice. Looking forward to seeing more of Darius's work. Aside from surfing he's done some great films with themes on mental health and the stolen generation. A lovely guy too...onya mate!!
Yeah, I've known Darius for a while. He's done some great stuff in the past and he's also got some good work on the boil.
Loved Barbarian days and could relate to the Fiji aspect of it running into John Ritter in Vanuatu probably a month or so after Williams encounter with John.But to me the section on Madeira and the fears and emotions he described were on the money .....describes surfing perfectly.
Beautiful, thankyou.
He's got the goods, not two ways about it. Barbarian will stand the test of time.
" or when their voice isn't much of a reading voice at all" AKA Bill Bryson.
Really enjoyed reading the book a few years ago. He captures the essence of surfing in a way that few other writers can. Could relate to it and the characters in it having grown up and surfed from that era. The clip of the Pass made me realise why I left the area about 15 years ago for less crowded regions.
In his book a friend agreed surfing was a great sport
His reply it's not a sport but a path in life
Could listen to him talk story for a while.
Re Barbarian Days - the best surf related book I've read, in fact streets ahead of anything else which makes me think I've missed something. There's another thread somewhere but can anyone suggest another read which compares to Finnegan's work?
Upnorth, I haven't found anything remotely as good. No one that really manages to convey the surfing life, experience and obsession as well as Finnegan does. But I'm in the market for more.
Mountaineers seem to get it, and there are parallels between climbing and surfing. Walter Bonatti's The Mountains of my Life was good. Reinhold Messner's bio, too.
Helps if you're a mountain person, of course, but not strictly required.
Or you could watch Valley Uprising, The Dawn Wall and Free Solo. I would suggest watching them in that order. Epic set of films. I think climbing and surfing have a lot in common as well. The climbing films are much better than the surfing equivalents as well from a story telling perspective. Although I am hoping the new Michael Oblowitz film will be a ripper. His last one was.
Valley Uprising is a hoot!
I'll have to grab that one IB, thanks!
Cheers IB will check those out.
If you are into mountain pursuits the Bothy Bible by Geoff Allan might be interesting, a run down of bothies in Scotland. Not all, there are still plenty of secret spots but a good selection. A good read from an interest point of view as each bothy has a history, many pre dating the clearances with the crofters making new lives in Oz among other places.
Some such as Peanmeanach have names with links to the Vikings and the norse system of land division. Pean derives from peighinn meaning 'pennyland'- 20 of these, each with a farm, made up an 'ounce land', an acreage capable of producing an ounce of silver in rent. Pretty cool to be able to pitch up there these days and still have a roof for the night and a fire for free. And of course if you get stuck on a Scottish mountain at any point you might be able to find refuge.
It's a different context, but to me Tim Winton captured something very special with a few of his descriptions in Breath.
Here's the link to a classic surf article Finnegan wrote for the New York Times many years ago: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1992/08/24/playing-docs-games-part-one
Good words.
True, most sessions are unremarkable but when all the stars align and you get it 'on', it becomes so remarkable it's almost ethereal.
Enjoyed the book too.
add "180 degrees south" from patagonia to that list. has surfing and climbing.
valley uprising is so good.
the GF read barbarian days -- it gave her a vast array of language to relentlessly mock me with when i check out the surf...now she's all "waves are too fat, wide, blown out", "dredging too hard off the reef for you?"
Ha Ha!
That was really powerful.
Sitting here utterly distracted from the surfer vibe this morning, just checking Swellnet intermittently to detox from a world of abstract figures when I clicked on this . Been a while since I’d read the book and lost a bit of appreciation for it during that time. I’d misremembered it for the overdrawn final chapters relating to the authors personal relationships.
Time for another look .
Maybe even the audio version if it’s read by Finnegan.
Thanks.
Clip was beautifully well made too.
Audio book is read by the man himself, well worth a listen, I've done so 3 times.
Very sweet meditation on surfing, really wonderfully put together.
"Most sessions were unremarkable."
It's true, but sometimes a shitty, onshore solo session out in the middle of nowhere can leave such an impression. You never know when the mood will catch you just right. Sometimes I can be out in the middle of a crowd and somehow be the only one out there.
How does one subscribe to a youtube channel. went looking on youtube and couldn't find anything.
"Sometimes I can be out in the middle of a crowd and somehow be the only one out there."
That's profound man.
So much online content steals time from us.
Not this.