Tim Winton: I’m Like A Tradie, I Just Show Up To The Bench And Hopefully The Job Shows Up.

Acclaimed author Tim Winton is at it again and has released a new book called Juice. He spoke to Clairsy & Lisa to tell them what it’s all about

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
He's won the Miles Franklin Award record four times and
has been named a Living Treasure by the National Trust.
His new book, Juice, is out today. Good morning, Tim
Winton made welcome.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Oh morning guys.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
So Tim, I've never heard a book described as cli
fi before.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
It sounds vaguely pornographic.

Speaker 3 (00:22):
Vaguely climate fiction. It's climate fiction.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
Well, I reset my brain. Okay, climate fiction.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Oh look, it's not. It's just as an adventure story.
I don't even know what montection means, but.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
Clifi.

Speaker 4 (00:39):
Go figure, So what what is the Where is the
idea for Juice come from?

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Oh? I guess I've I've been looking at you know,
the way that the planet's going in the way that
we're kind of just avoiding acting on it. You know,
there's the changes happening to it, and you know, I
so I just, you know, I kind of imagine the
world a little bit into the future and the kind

(01:08):
of the world that we'd have to deal with, you know.
So I just placed these people in a kind of
extreme environment and saw what they would do is cruel experiment, Yeah, yes, yes,
collecting water and trying to stay out of the harsh
heat during the day, even in winter, that kind of thing. Yeah, look,

(01:30):
I think I think what we forget is that, you know,
the northern half of Australia is already right on the
edge of extremities, you know, I mean, and you know
we've just got through a winter where we had forty
degrees you know, temps in the forties in the winter time.
If you add add a few more degrees to that,
you know, that's that's a bit of a bit of trouble.

(01:51):
And look, you know, when you're when you're writing novels,
you're essentially putting people in extreme positions and what they do.
If there's no trouble, there's no story.

Speaker 3 (02:04):
No struggle here. Did I read somewhere that.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
You said, correct me if I'm wrong that this is
a story anguished over a novel you were scared to write,
but felt an obligation to attempt.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
Yeah. Look, I think it's the biggest issue of our day,
and I think it's a it's a tough thing to
address it. It's hard to get right, you know, it's
hard to bring readers along with you. It's certainly scaring
the pants off our politicians. They're doing everything in their
power to avoid taking action. And yeah, look, so it's

(02:37):
a you know, it's a big, heavy subject and I've
tried to tackle it in a way that's appealing to
a reader and somehow, you know, to provoke some kind
of response.

Speaker 3 (02:48):
Yeah, ridges the gap.

Speaker 4 (02:50):
Yeah, that's in a story, yes.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
Yeah, but fundamentally it's a it's a survival tale adventure
about a guy just trying to make his way in
a in a tough world. And he's you know, the
book starts with him traveling across a landscape with a
with a kid who happens not to be his and
he's just responsible for her, and he's just trying to
keep himself and her alive in a pretty hostile environment.

(03:18):
When when the world's sort of going to pieces, and
you know, when when, as we're seeing on the news
every night, you know, when when a society comes to pieces,
everything is harder. You know, people resort to savagery. You know,
it's not when a climate falls to bits, society falls

(03:39):
to bits. I think we forget, you know, Yeah, when
we take, we take for granted how safe and comfortable
we are, and it only takes a few things to
go wrong, you know, you know, and it's it's like
it's what we're seeing on the news, and you know,
it's tough. I mean, look, I think we still think
that climate is all in the future. But half a

(04:01):
million people die every year just from heat related illnesses,
I'll own, and so you add a few more degrees
to that, and yeah, it's all sets up. Tim.

Speaker 3 (04:11):
When I saw that one minute video, I think it
was that you did talk about the premise, and it
made me think of how we can't control when we're
born where or when we're born the situation our family's in,
and things like location and rich or poor, or war
zones or state of the environment is one of those.
It let me down that sort of path, And there's
a part of this where the character is starting to
think about the people who caused all issues in the

(04:32):
first place.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
Yeah. I think if you if you find out that
the conditions that you're living in the results of the
way other people lived, and you're essentially damned for other
people's sins, what does that do to you? I think
that would be almost deranging, you know, to find that out.

(04:55):
But yeah, I think we're all at the of what's
gone before, you know, and we have to somehow cope
with you know the conditions and the cards that are
that we're dealt with.

Speaker 4 (05:12):
You know, there's one thing I've always believed is that
prevention is better than the cure, you know, So, I mean,
there's no use just waiting until the end, as you say,
until the you know, the wheels fall off societies. We
know it.

Speaker 1 (05:23):
Him Now, we've for the last couple of weeks Him,
we've been talking about the growing film and TV industry
that's going on in Wa. We're getting we're getting the
Malaga Film studios opening up, We're getting people making films
down south, up north, just in York. And you, of
course have had several of your works transformed into translated,

(05:47):
you know, to the screen. How do you feel about
what's what's going on right now in Wa?

Speaker 2 (05:53):
I think it's terrific. Yeah, when you you know, I mean,
I've been in this paper for well so long it's
almost embarrassing too. And say the numbers, friends, it was
almost forty years ago, I was almost unheard of. The
filmmate and you get local crew and you know, to

(06:14):
have been able to employ hundreds of people over all
that time in productions and for that to becoming more
more common and intensifying. I think it's a really great thing.
And this is a great place to make films. It's
a it's a great place full of talent and potential,

(06:34):
and I'm really proud of of what w A has
been able to do in recent years.

Speaker 3 (06:39):
You know, it is a.

Speaker 1 (06:40):
Great place to make films. And I always cite and
I hope I didn't imagine this somehow, and you're going
to you're going to dash my thoughts on a little,
but I always cite the guy that made Cloud Street
said said, we have to film it in w A
because you can't recreate the light that w A has.

Speaker 2 (06:57):
No I think that's I think that's fair. And things
look pretty great here day.

Speaker 3 (07:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:06):
Yeah. And also, I mean one of the reasons it's
a good place to make films is that it doesn't
rain all the time. You can go to incredible places
all over the world, but it's going to rain half
the time, and and that just you know, when you
when you can't you know, when it's costing millions of
dollars a day and sometimes millions of dollars a minute

(07:26):
when you can't shoot because of the water. Yeah, Look,
I was really pleased at Cloud Street got shot along
the river and thought I thought it looked great.

Speaker 3 (07:38):
You know it does and a lot more reliable, like
you said, than shooting in Melbourne, where you'll get the
sunshine for two hours and.

Speaker 1 (07:46):
Possibly desired too for you know, to go with the plant.

Speaker 2 (07:50):
Well, well we're should have given the now States starts
in the tropics, it ends up on the on the
veranda of the Antarctic geographical covered Yeah.

Speaker 3 (08:01):
Tim, Whether we talk to songwriters a lot about where
the magic comes from, where the songs come from? What
about your ideas and therefore the creative stuff for you?
Is it the times you just lock yourself away and
something will happen or you have to have that bit
of inspiration.

Speaker 2 (08:15):
Oh look, I just go to the desk, you know.
I'm like, I'm just like a training I just show up,
show up to the bench, and hopefully the job turns up,
you know. And I know if I don't sit down
and wait for something to show up, it might turn
up when I'm not there and when I've missed out.

Speaker 3 (08:32):
I love that man nic philosophy.

Speaker 1 (08:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (08:35):
And if you've got a special desk, is it like
an old timer?

Speaker 2 (08:40):
Yeah? Yeah, I think I've got an old public service
desk com in nineteen sixties. Yeah, we've got for twenty bucks.
I think I was a student.

Speaker 3 (08:47):
They're the best bargains.

Speaker 1 (08:48):
Keep doing that, Tim, because jobs keep showing up and
we love it. So Juice is out now, all five
hundred pages. It's a big one.

Speaker 2 (08:58):
Yeah, it's a brick, isn't it. You can always you
can always use it for a doorstop.

Speaker 1 (09:03):
Jim, thanks for chatting to us this morning.

Speaker 2 (09:05):
It was good to catch up on your guys.