‘We need to find an artistry to respond to the climate crisis’: Booker-prize winner Ben Okri on why artists need to take charge

No one really wins a war. Which is why, in the aftermath of World War II, as people were picking up pieces of their lives and attempting to move on, a new philosophy emerged that could justify the banality of the past and present — existentialism. Many decades later, we find ourselves in the midst of a crisis that is rearing its ugly head gradually — climate change. The spirit needed to fight the crisis is one which will require a combination of resilience and healing. Mostly, it demands a new philosophy, which writer Ben Okri calls existential creativity. It requires artists and writers to respond to climate change in their work with a sense of urgency. In Dubai to launch Expo City’s Connecting Minds Book Club, in association with Emirates Literature Foundation, Okri, who won the prestigious Booker Prize in 1991 for his novel The Famished Road, spoke about why literature, despite its flair for ambiguity, needs to make room for existential creativity. Edited excerpts from an interview:

Q) You are promoting two books here — Tiger Work and Every Leaf a Hallelujah. Why are these important?

The first of them to be published was Every Leaf A Hallelujah, which is an environmental fable for children as well as grown-ups. I would say it’s for those aged between 5-105. It’s a story of a seven-year-old girl who has to go to the forest to get a flower to save her mother. At the same time, she has to also help save the forest from being destroyed. It’s a tale about anybody who is contributing to halting climate devastation in one form or another. It’s a story of courage, the fact that our will and love are much more important than our size, which is to say that with the right kind of love, we can bring about the right kind of change. The second book, Tiger Work, which is being launched here in Dubai, has poems, short stories, interviews, letters, essays all centred on the theme of climate change. I just want to use full powers of literature to draw attention to climate change, while talking about other themes like courage, heroism, the kind of choices we have been forced to make, what we have learnt from 3,000 years of disasters from some aspects of human thinking, what kind of future we’d want if we are forced to make a choice — would we repeat human history, as we have lived it, or would we like to take human history to a more harmonious place? These are big questions that are raised in the book in an intimate way.

We have to find a new way to reach people. And there’s nothing quite like books to get people to embark on a journey. Films can do it as well, but there, you’re little passive. With books, you are part of the creation of what you read.

Q) Every Leaf a Hallelujah sounds more gentle than Tiger Work, which sounds visceral.

Every Leaf a Hallelujah is a reminder — just in case we have forgotten, which I think most of us have — that even a leaf on a tree is, in itself, manifestation of a miracle. It is a celebration of the miracle of existence. You’re right about the gentleness of the title, even though it is radical gentleness because that kind of celebration is not really fashionable in these times. We have become more ‘detached’, more ‘cool’, which really is to say we don’t want to engage with these profound and beautiful things. The title is actually saying, “Hang on, you want to celebrate big things, you want to celebrate AI, the Internet — I want to celebrate a leaf.”

There are two sides to Tiger Work. It is a poem about the threat of extinction of tigers. It’s tragic that bugs, spiders, butterflies, pandas, whales and dolphins are dying. But there is something about the tiger. As a symbol, tiger has fascinated us. There’s a reason why we have chosen it as an emblem of something very powerful. Human being is a wonderful creation, but you put him next to a tiger, your eyes will be naturally drawn to the tiger. All the poets have sensed its ferocity and beauty. So the poem is a cry of anger and anguish about increasing extinction of tigers, but it is also a reminder that we need the tiger spirit right now to see the world clearly and richly. For me, environmental work is tiger’s work. Climate activists today have to imbibe that ferocity, complexness and beauty in order to address the issue. We have to have power of persistence. We also have to have the beauty of spirit. We are not enemies of humanity, we are its best friends. We care about this unrepeatable miracle that is our planet and our presence here.

Q) In your writing, one also sees a cry for authenticity. As you said, we are celebrating AI. Artists have traditionally celebrated nature. Now with AI driving our present and future, is authenticity at stake?

I am not sure that the combination of things that makes humans unique is replaceable. I would like to give a simple example. Sometimes, you are presented with a situation that reason can’t solve. You could programme all the different levels of reason, but there are areas where reason just doesn’t quite get in, where what’s called for is an act of the heart.

There is something very strange about the human being — sometimes, very simple things can move us to a great understanding. You see a person who looks desperate and angry, and then you look at their hand, and you see them holding a toy. And you realise, “Oh, there is something going on there that I don’t quite understand.” I don’t understand how you programme a super intelligent robot to do that.

I hear some frightening stories about artificial intelligence. There is a way in which reason, which is programmable, can become terrifying when you take it to its limits. It becomes a kind of technological fascism. And it is possible to institute that without us knowing we are doing it. But human spirit can scale up and down, not at will but with the simple movement of the heart. To give you an example, my kid goes to a school and has to go to a bus stop near our house. Sometimes, she has a difficulty getting up from the bed — she is a child, after all. Sometimes, she is a bit late and hurrying with her mother to catch the bus. And sometimes, we miss the bus by a fraction of second. Now, anything that has been programmed will leave at an exact time. From time to time, the bus driver would be leaving but seeing the kid, he would pause and open the door for the kid to get in. Things like that make a difference to the possibility of human history.

anamika@khaleejtimes.com