Showing posts with label Edinburgh book festival 2023. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Edinburgh book festival 2023. Show all posts

Thursday 31 August 2023

Culture Wars Florence in Three Fires, Denise Mina Edinburgh book festival 2023



Denise Mina held a lively chat with fellow crime writer Christopher Brookmyre

In her new book Three Fires, award-winning author Mina re-imagines the 'Bonfire of the Vanities', a series of fires lit throughout Florence.

 

Set in 15th century Florence, Three Fires tells of the story of Florentine fanatical monk Girolamo Savonarola and the first populist uprising. – 'whip people up about a common enemy'. 

-        create bogeymen, alternative society, indefinable and attack details, give people Banner, your tribe is winning. 

 

There is the French King Charles the Affable, and theological discussions – the Proud Boys bullies; the Tepids – the centrists who hold the power. Still plagues and wars.

 

The Printing Press had just been invented and BOOKS. 

Savonarola asked, why does no one listen to the poor, our government is corrupt. Florence changed at that moment. And the struggle between low and high art. 

 

As long as we’re divided, we’re containable – no commonality. People have lives to get on with, to keep society going. We need to listen to people. 

If in power too long, there is a physical change to brain chemistry and become more callous. Time limits on power.