Nnedi Okorafor brings a writer to life in her novel Death of the Author
The Nigerian American writer discussed her book on Bookends with Mattea Roach
With two Masters and a PhD in literature, Nnedi Okorafor has read literary critic Roland Barthes's essay Death of the Author more times than she can count.
In it, Barthes argues that the author must die so the reader can live. But, as a creative writer, that concept has always rubbed Okorafor the wrong way.
"When you create something, it's like giving birth — your DNA is all over that thing that you've written. It's inevitable. It is not something that can be changed or altered," she said on Bookends with Mattea Roach.
"This idea of separating the two, I just don't think it's possible and I don't think it's necessary."
That's why Okorafor's latest novel, Death of the Author, questions that theory and plays with metafiction to examine what being an author really means.
Death of the Author tells the story of Zelu, a Nigerian American writer whose breakout sci-fi novel catapults her to literary fame and commercial success — but also becomes distorted in the way she hoped people would understand it.
Okorafor is a Nebula and Hugo award-winning writer and scholar based in Arizona. Her books include the Binti trilogy, Who Fears Death and Lagoon, which is currently in development to be a movie.
Okorafor joined Mattea Roach to dissect her approach to storytelling and how her experiences as a Nigerian American inform her novel.
Mattea Roach: Your main character, Zelu, is in this position where her family doesn't expect much of her, but she has big dreams. What are Zelu's thoughts about taking agency over her own life at the beginning of this book?
Nnedi Okorafor: Zelu is from this big Nigerian American family and part of the culture is community over the individual, and she's part of that. So being Nigerian American, she experiences this push and pull between the individual — Americans are very individualistic — and the community coming above the individual — that's the Nigerian side. That push and pull has always been in conflict and kind of molded and merged with her.
MR: What is your personal connection with Zelu and what do you feel is different between you and her?
NO: Zelu is definitely grown from me. I can say that. I can admit that. But there are many, many differences. First, she's definitely more brash and impulsive than I am. There are things that she does that I would never in a million years do. Then there are things that she does that I really wish I could do. I do not have the guts to do. There are things that she blurts out, just no holds barred. The way that she navigates things is very different from the way that I would.
The way that she navigates things is very different from the way that I would.- Nnedi Okorafor
But in terms of her family dynamics and her family structure, that's very familiar to me, that is my family. That part is near autobiographical.
MR: I want to ask a bit about that family structure because you mentioned this relationship that Zelu has with being Nigerian American — this tension between having the community-oriented nature of the Nigerian community living in the U.S. versus that American individualism and her desire to go her own way. Can you talk a bit about what that means for you in your own life?
NO: This is what I wanted to write about from the beginning. From the first novel that I wrote, I wanted to write about the Nigerian American experience because I don't feel like it's discussed enough. I've been in conversation with it from even before I was a writer. My siblings and I, we would always turn and deal with it. It wasn't something where we decided on one thing and went with that, like, "Oh, I want to be American, Oh, I want to be Nigerian." We were both and neither.
It's very important for me to write about that because the confusion, the clarity, all the contradictions, it's just so much. In this novel, I went in and put it directly on the page.
MR: You mentioned earlier in that response this is something that you'd wanted to write about from the very beginning of your career as a writer, but you've also said that it felt like you couldn't write this story until now. What made you realize now was the right time?
NO: I had been thinking about it for a while. In this case, I have two sisters. There are three of us and then one younger brother, seven years younger. My sisters were all one year apart and I'm the youngest. My middle sister passed away. We were very close. We were the trinity.
I started writing Death of the Author literally two days after her passing. It was as a way to deal with it. That gave me the courage because I needed courage to write this one. There's so much of my actual family and me and all of my life in this book and it was scary. And to do that, grief pulled me through it. The power that grief has and that feeling of it, made me realize that it's time to put this down was what allowed me to write this thing.
MR: When you were 19, you had a spinal fusion surgery which led to a complication where you became paralyzed from the waist down. I understand that was the time where you really turned to writing stories and that was where you got into creative writing. What was it about that situation that made you want to turn to writing?
NO: I was a big reader before. I was an athlete. And then when I wasn't on the tennis court or the track, I was in the library. And that was the only hint that I would be doing what I am doing today. Other than that, I didn't write anything creatively. I didn't make anything up. I just wasn't open to that idea of writing, like actually being the person to write.
Both of my parents were doctors. Being Nigerians, you know there are, what, four careers? Doctor, engineer, lawyer and failure. You don't go into the arts. So it just didn't cross my mind. It was not in my orbit. I was interested in the sciences. I was good at math and I did love reading though, so that was the only hint.
The moment when I was in that hospital, I was a paralyzed athlete and they didn't know if I would ever walk again. That combination put me in a really dark state of mind. I started writing this story to myself in the book, I, Robot and there was something about that moment.
It was powerful and I haven't stopped writing since, literally.- Nnedi Okorafor
That moment was magical. That moment was cathartic and it was a discovery. It was like an incredible, amazing discovery because I literally discovered storytelling in that hospital bed. It was intoxicating. It was sweet and delicious. It was energizing and invigorating.
It was like light that came into that dark room and lit everything up, and all the darkness, those shadows that were descending on me went away. It was powerful and I haven't stopped writing since, literally.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. It was produced by Ryan B. Patrick, with thanks to Ailey Yamamoto.
