1.3 Sir Ian Rankin
The idea that it is the relationships that readers form with fictional characters that keeps them reading a series of novels is something Sir Ian Rankin also recognises. In the following video he also explores the para-social relationships that people form with the characters in his books.
Download this video clip.Video player: week3_video2_ian_rankin.mp4
Transcript
IAN RANKIN
There’s no doubt in my mind that my characters are more real to my readers than they are to me. People are very worried about John Rebus, my detective, his health, the fact he has very few friends. He drinks too much. Until recently, he smoked too much. He’s now got emphysema. So he’s stopped smoking.
But he’s getting on a bit. He’s had to move from a second floor apartment to a ground floor because he can’t manage stairs anymore. They’re not worried about me, these readers. If I say I’ve got a terrible cold or the flu, just keep writing. But tell us about Rebus. What’s Rebus up to? We’re really worried about him.
And people like Cafferty as well was literally walking past-- walking down the street where I live yesterday, and a guy said to me, how’s Cafferty getting on? Because he knew that Cafferty lives in the same part of town as me and always has done. Now, that’s weird.
My hero, John Rebus, lives in the street I lived in when I was an impoverished student and started writing these books. But when I got successful, I started to move into the circles, the social circles that Cafferty, the successful businessman / gangster, moves in. So I had a big Victorian house and a lovely tree lined street. And that’s where he lived.
And then he moved to a penthouse apartment in a new development in central Edinburgh. And blow me down a couple of years later. I moved there as well. Now, I could say to you that wasn’t my choice. That was my wife’s idea for us to downsize and move to this area of town.
But maybe subconsciously, I’ve been following the bad guy around Edinburgh rather than following the good guy around Edinburgh. So, potentially, if a psychoanalyst got me on the couch, they would find there’s a lot more of the evil character, the bad character, the nasty character in me, than there is the goodie.
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It would be very interesting to get Ian on a psychoanalyst’s couch and explore the relationship he has formed with the villain in his stories, a person who he appears to be following around Edinburgh in real life!