Every couple of weeks, I will be blogging about some of the 'New Writing Talent' that has been published in From Glasgow to Saturn, the creative writing magazine at Glasgow University. Some immensely talented writers are being published each month: the magazine publishes the best short works by members of the university community, studying any subject. This means writers from a large range backgrounds and subject specialisations submit work, and as writers are encouraged to submit poems, drama and short stories in any genre or style, the range is always surprising.
As with John Jennet's interview a few weeks ago, I have selected my favourite piece of writing from a recent issue - a piece that shines for me - and hunted down the author, to talk to him about his writing process and inspiration.
Richard Scott Pye is a medical student at Glasgow University and a very talented short story writer. I greatly enjoyed his piece Anatomy published in Issue 12 (March 2009) of FGtS, particularly because he writes with a quite spare exactness, and a very appealing dark humour. Here's an excerpt from Anatomy:
An open dissection kit lay neatly alongside the cadaver, its stainless steel instruments resting on an inner lining of red fabric. His white coat was pristine – he washed it after every dissection – and its pockets were stuffed with blue latex gloves.
- You’re a keen one, aren’t ye pal? Three times – four maybe – that I’ve seen you in here this week.
- Well, there’s a lot to learn.
The cadaver lay on a steel trolley, one of a score arranged in rows across the room. A black bag, covering its head, rustled against the breeze of the air conditioning, giving an impression of breathing.
- You’re on the way tae being a doctor?
He pulled on a pair of gloves. Doctor: it seemed like a foreign word.
- Only three years left now.
The thorax had been opened previously. He pulled back the ribcage on each side. The thoracic organs lay tidily in place. He removed the darkened lungs and placed them at the foot of the trolley. Nestled beneath was the heart, its arteries and veins severed already. He thought of their names - vena cava, aorta – and of a diagram he’d seen in the lab that morning. He lifted the heart from its recess.
Read the rest here! Over to the interview:
Tell us about yourself - when did you start writing fiction? How would you describe the kind of writing you do?
I grew up in a small town called Shotts, where my house was nestled in a peculiar location between a maximum security prison and the crumbling remains of a Victorian psychiatric hospital, both of which proved the frequent cause of nightmares when I was younger. I moved to Glasgow two years ago and am currently in my second year at the medical school.
I started writing in my own time when I was about fourteen, and since then it’s been an important aspect of my life. I was always encouraged to write creatively at school, and I’ll always be indebted to my teachers for giving me that motivation.
I think my writing tends to be pretty dark and gloomy; a bit morbid I guess. I’m not really one for happy endings.
Anatomy is an intense, concise and vivid piece: can you talk about what inspired it?
I wrote Anatomy at a point when I was questioning my decision to study medicine: the workload had become increasingly demanding, and I found myself losing interest in the content of the course, which can at times feel tediously irrelevant to clinical medicine, and frustrated at the sheer volume of factual information I was obligated to memorise.
Above all, I was worried that medicine would eventually come to dictate all aspects of my life, repressing any creativity or originality, any independent thought. You can’t dispute what you learn in medicine; you have no choice but to accept the information presented to you. There are no debates or discussions, only brief periods of doubt that are quickly resolved by consulting a textbook.
So I guess Anatomy was an attempt to turn this fear of losing myself entirely to medicine into a piece of creative writing, an act that would challenge and – I hoped - resolve my original concerns.
I love the medical detail and terminology in Anatomy; for me, it introduces a real coldness, a precision that gives just the right amount of distance and shows you have some sleight of hand. There have been a lot of doctors who were also successful writers - like Arthur Conan Doyle, William Carlos Williams and Rablais! And then there are the writers who qualified as doctors, but spent more time writing - like Keats and Chekov and
It certainly is an extraordinary list, and one from which I frequently seek reassurance!
I’d say doctors can be good writers because they are afforded the right to investigate the lives of those they treat, without much restriction, and thus are exposed to a vast array of personalities and situations that most people would not encounter. Doctors confront pleasure and pain; birth and death; every emotion from pure joy to complete despair.
Even as a medical student, I’ve talked to a huge variety of people, from an old eccentric ex-politician with a failing heart to a lonely young mother struggling with depression. We’re taught to analyse every aspect of a patient’s life and, in the absence of solid information, to speculate and hypothesise on what is causing their problem. In spite the concerns I had when I wrote Anatomy, I’ve realised that studying medicine actually helps enhance and develop critical and imaginative thinking.
More practically, as writing can be a challenge in terms of time management and motivation, doctors may have the advantage of being obliged to adopt good organisational skills, although personally my time management is dreadful!
I would say writing and medicine are two vocations which, although separate, seem to work synergistically.
Who or what influences your writing? Any favourite authors or books to recommend?
I was surrounded by Stephen King novels when I was younger and so I consider his writing to be a big influence on my own, particularly his older works like It and The Stand. I admire his ability to carry a vast ensemble of characters without overcrowding a story, and that’s a quality I’d like to bring to my own writing.
James Kelman’s writing style is really distinctive and memorable. I recall that after I read How Late It Was, How Late - in which the main character is blind - Kelman had been so effective in conveying blindness that I struggled to adapt to characters having normal vision in the next book I read. Needless to say, I was suitable impressed.
What are your ambitions as a writer? (or what are you up to now and what are your plans for the future?)
Currently I’m devoting all of my time ensuring I avoid having to re-sit any exams this summer, but I’m hoping to put a great deal of time into my writing over the summer break and throughout third year. I’ve been working on a few short stories that I’m hoping to submit to different magazines. My main ambition would be to get started on a novel; I’m just patiently waiting on that elusive spark of inspiration…
I was recently appointed editor of Surgo, the medical school magazine, which has been in print since 1934. I’m apprehensive about keeping it all running smoothly, but I’m looking forward to working with the rest of the team and attempting to keep the medical school reasonably informed and entertained.
Where else can we read your writing?
I’ve got a story appearing in the Student Network writing anthology which is due out later this month.
And in Surgo of course, although I must forewarn that medical student humour is terribly esoteric and doesn’t tend to translate well for students of other faculties!
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