If you could change the ending of any book, which one would it be?
I always think that the ending is the most difficult part for an author to write. Unless it’s a series of books, the characters are going to be left in limbo even if you tie up their stories with a nice little bow. There are a number of examples of stories where alternative endings have been discovered.
Charles Dickens wrote an original ending for Great Expectations where Pip and Estella meet again in 1861 and Pip finds that she is married and that no hope of romance exists. A friend persuaded him to write a more hopeful ending, the one that was actually used, where the opportunity for the two to finally get together is clearly suggested if not spelt out. Given everything that happened between them the ending that was used was clearly unrealistic, but it was the ending that the readers were hoping for so, onto the advice of that friend he gave them that hope, albeit in an ambiguous way.
There is, in many cases, a tension between what the author wants to write and what they feel their readers would like to see. Arthur Conan Doyle had had enough of Sherlock Holmes and wanted to write other characters, so he sent him to his doom over Reichenbach Falls. The readers, however, had not had enough of the detective and Conan Doyle found himself writing many further stories in the series after finding a way for Holmes to survive. It’s interesting to think about the continuing love for Holmes and to wonder if it would still be as strong if far fewer stories had been written.
I am just one reader and, occasionally I will find an ending frustrating or disappointing, but that is purely my opinion. It is the author, whose decision it is, who has lived with the book and the characters for so long and it is they who must decide on an ending that makes sense to them and gives them a feeling of completion. As my two examples above indicate, even the greatest writers have always been prey to public opinion, and nowadays there’s a growing market for the continuation of a character or a series after the author has died.
The idea of an ending that I would change probably shows my lack of understanding of the book. However, there was one ending that I was so shocked and upset by that I never read that book again. I was a massive fan of the Narnia books and I was full of anticipation when I picked up The Last Battle. It was a very grim book throughout but I stuck with it, certain that C.S. Lewis would end the series on a high note. Instead, he abandoned Susan and told us that she was no longer a friend of Narnia. All of her siblings were called to the land they loved but she liked lipstick and boys and was reluctant to discuss their adventures because she was a teenager who was preparing to go out into the world and wanted to leave her childhood behind her at that time. I never forgave Lewis for leaving her alone and grieving for her family. It just seemed so spiteful towards a character I loved. That’s the ending I would change.
Which languages do you speak and how did that impact your life?
I have always been, sadly, extremely poor at language learning. I do my best but it just never seems to be possible to get past the most basic level. The first language I tried to learn was French at school, but it never stuck even though I wanted it to.
In Japan I started to speak Japanese at a very low level and I was encouraged at first by colleagues, but I then didn’t progress as they thought I should and they started talking about me behind my back saying how I was lazy and disrespectful for not improving. In my third year there a really unpleasant headmaster at a school where I got little or no support got one of my colleagues to translate his diatribe about how bad I was. Suffice to say I didn’t have good feelings about the Japanese language by the time I left.
The same thing happened in Hong Kong with Cantonese. No matter how hard I tried it never stuck and in fact it was worse than Japanese. In Saudi Arabia, yes you guessed it, the same picture. When I look back I think it was down to a number of factors. I felt under a huge amount of pressure to improve and I found that pressure weighing on every sentence meaning that I could never relax enough to let myself learn properly. I know from my teaching career with EAP students that you can get the best results by making them as relaxed as you can. In a sense I have channelled my frustration at never getting past a kindergarten level in any other language and I am trying to make sure that as many other students as possible are supported and feel like language learning can be fun.
So, onto the here and now. I am learning German and relearning Japanese on Duolingo and I am thoroughly enjoying it. Why? Well, I am doing it for me and I am not thinking about being tested by people in the country itself. I am also enjoying it because it’s not many people who decide to learn a new language after they turn 60 and I feel like it’s really improving my thinking processes. The German was because I went to Austria in November last year and Japanese because I actually enjoyed the language for the first few months before the pressure ramped up. It’s a great language to look at with the Kanji.
Last week, Rhea, one of my students from last year’s summer course at the RCA invited me to the first showing of her Masters project, which was amazing. The incredible variety of work around the exhibition was testament to the incredible amount of talent in the place. One of the works had a section with Chinese characters on a grid and I recognised all of the numbers as they are the same in Kanji, as Chinese writing was adopted by Japan very early in it’s history. Rhea wrote some characters on the grid and asked me what it meant. I had no clue, so she told me that it was the nearest equivalent to David using those characters to make the sound. I was really touched that she did that for me. Here’s my name in Chinese
What’s the best advice you’d give to someone younger than you?
I have often written about the upbringing that most of my generation had, where confidence was seen as too close to arrogance by many older people. We were told not ‘to blow your own trumpet’ and many of us kept that approach throughout our lives, or at least I have. The interesting thing is that I see that arrogance, which our elders were afraid of, around me all the time. Almost all of the politicians and higher ranking managers I have seen or worked under are convinced they are amazing people who have a real gift. The only gift they actually have is self-confidence that has gone full speed into arrogance. They must know it deep down because otherwise they wouldn’t seek to make those they are in charge of miserable especially if they indicate any disagreement. You see it in the US and the UK at the moment where certain politicians try to turn people against each other and deliberately try to make the lives of people they disagree with as difficult as possible.
Given all that I have said you would think that I would be a total believer in the approach my parents’ generation took, but the opposite is true. I think that the way forward is to encourage young people to have confidence in themselves from a very early age. My theory is that if we do this, they will be able to handle success in a more balanced way. When you expect to succeed, I feel you are more likely to handle that success well. The generation who were told not ‘to blow your own trumpet’ are, I think, afraid that someone will take their success away and act accordingly.
So, if you are younger than me and you are still reading this, be confident in yourself and treat your success as a reward but don’t use that success to subjugate others. My generation have failed the world around them in so many ways but if we can bring up the next generation to handle their success with good grace and good judgement we may finally help the world.
Who are you most inspired by?
Like most people I am inspired by people in any field who created their own pathways. The people who have looked at a situation that never previously existed and brought that situation into being.
Looking back to my childhood, there was almost zero interest in women’s sport. In 1970, the F.A. finally lifted the ban on women playing football on any of their pitches after 50 years of sexism and misogyny. Of course, that meant that in the UK women’s football was starting all over again. The disinterested mass of the public either ignored these young women, denigrated them or belittled their skills and achievements. They carried on playing in the face of all this. Then in 2022, the Women’s European Championships took place in the UK and the magnificent Lionesses won the tournament. Their league, the WSL, went from strength to strength and I started to go to the Emirates to watch the Arsenal Women’s Team 5 or 6 times a season. Every player on the pitch stands on the shoulders of those trailblazers as they often acknowledge, but they have become the trailblazers for a new generation as they become ever more skilful and successful. Our Lionesses got to the final of the 2023 World Cup and retained their European crown in 2025. They have made the game a true part of the national psyche and they are continuing to build on their amazing achievements.
David Pearce - Popular Culture and Personal Passions 