lf you want to be a Writer...
Willi Benkovics and his Creative Source
by Dr. Friedrich Demolsky
"lf you want to be a writer- stop talking about it and sit down and write!" (Jackie Collins)
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Willi Benkovics is a novelist from Austria, an unusual and experienced fellow, who partly lives and writes in Bali. When he is working on a new novel, Willi is totally freed from normal restriction. During the time of creativity he opens himself to a wider world, to a world, where colours are brighter, sounds clearer and people are more wondrousiy complex than we nomnally realize.
I met this man last year at the Tenth Anniversary of the Rudana Museum in Ubud. He was surrounded by Bali's most famous artists when he introduced him self as a writer. Later he told me, that he was working on a criminal novel titled "Schaecher", and that its story mainly plays in Bali and other parts of Indonesia. |
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Last week Mr. Benkovics showed up in my house presenting me his recently printed book as a gift. The novel's title originated from the German version of The Bible, where this term ls used synonymously for the two thugs, who were crucfied together with Jesus a two thousand years ago. Well, l read this exiting book in the meantime and l often wondered about the author's creativity.
Just like a painter Starts with a blank canvas, Willi Benkovics started his novel with a blank page, but it is what these people bring to it by accessing their creative source within, that finally makes for beauty, excitement and pleasure.
Benkovics novel "Schaecher" was written in Bali and contains lots of autobiographic material. The story unfolds in Bali and is truly packed with excitement and erotic. The author captures the reader's attention from the very beginnings and leads his mind into the exotic and apparently peaceful world of Indonesia.
In Last Paradise of Bali, however, the tragic hero of this novel, Gregor Nemeth, is transformed in ongoing metamorphosis from a good guy, who believes in the values of love and mutual trust, into a brutal hit-man, into a killer who receives his orders from an anonym organization via the internet. Bekovics presents the abyss of a perverted reality to his reader, an abyss that exists even with in the beautiful, but artificial world of Last Paradise, a world which is füll of greed and struggle for money and power.
While many horror-scenarios in Benkovics book, did really happen on the lsie of the Gods or on neighbouring Nusa Benida, other parts of this novel do have their roots in the author's vast realms of mind.
To discern between fantasy and reality in this novel, that is the very task Bencovics is handing over to hes reader, and this might ba a heavy task, since both realms - fantasy and reality - are melting more and more toward each other in this thriller.
The tension between standing apart, and being fully involved, that is exactly what makes Benkovics as a writer. The positive thing about his writing is his capability to connect him with his true nature. A writer like Willi Benkovics gets the chance to know who he is, to know what he thinks and he finally begins t ohave a permanent relationship with his mind. Writers, such as Benkovics aren't exactly people...They're a whole lot of people trying to be one person.
After having read his book I talked to the author once more, and at this time he told me about his background. I learned that he has been married four times and that he had worked in totally different jobs and professions. He worked as waiter in different hotels, bars and night-clubs, where he came in close contact with Vienna's red-light scene. Later he worked as a trades man doing different jobs and finally he became the owner of a gourmet restaurant in Vienna, where he met with politicans, intellectuals, artists and other people from the upper class.
During his whole life, Willi Benkovics adopted and mastered many differnt roles, what forced him to deal with different people from all wlaks of life. Now, in his sixtieth, he is goingto challange himself again by becoming an artist, a writer, an author of criminal novels with autobiographic features. When I asked him what he thinks about his book and the characters therein, he simply replied: "Few of us write great novels, but all us live them".
Considering his background and his fascinating and thrilling novel "Schaecher" , the chance is given, that this man might be the upcoming shooting star on the horizon of his genere.
Currently Willi is residing in Bali where he writes on a new novel with the title "Haescher" ,wich is a followup of his first book and will be printed in 2007.
He is searching for a company, wich is interested to obtain the copyrights for making a movie about his fascinating thriller "Schaecher" wich is playing on the idyllic and lush island Bali.
Some of my readers may ask themselves, why I dedicated this column to a writer. Well, let me give you a sort of explanation by quoting John F. Kennedy, who once remarked: "All of us do not have equal talents, but all of us should have an equal opportunity to develop our talents".
The author is a retired juge and privat art collector from Austria who lives with his Balinese wife and their child since many years in Bali. Download his unique Art Books for FREE at: http://www.balifriends.com/ebooks_art.htm |
