Stealing from Conversational Reading
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One of the authors I was very glad to cover in Issue 15 was Brian Evenson. For those who haven't read it yet, Matt Bell writes a fantastic essay that really reveals Evenson to be an intriguing writer doing some worthwhile writing.
For Evenson fans, or those yet to be converted, I found a rather good, lengthy interview conducted by Larry Nolen. Here's a choice quote:
Larry Nolen: Interesting that you mention Kafka
here, as I thought when I was reading [your other work] that there were
hints in your stories of his use of a direct voice to accentuate the
surrealness of the surroundings. Hadn't considered Beckett, however. If
pressed, what one element, if not more than one, of Molloy would you
say might be found in your work?
Yes, Kafka's there and I feel like I learned a tremendous amount for
him. With Beckett, there are things he does in Molloy that I think were
very influential for me: the way that Molloy and Moran become doubles
of one another and yet remain intact, for instance. I also very
laboriously compared the French and English versions of the novel word
for word, and published an article about that, so I think I've thought
more closely about the words and sentences of Molloy than any other
book I've read, and it's a book I re-read regularly. I love the tone of
Molloy as well, and the shift in tone from the first to the second
part. I love the moment in the second part when a stranger thrusts his
hand at Moran and the latter says "I can still see the hand coming
towards me, pallid, opening and closing. As if self-propelled. I do not
know what happened then. But a little later, perhaps a long time later,
I found him stretched on the ground his head in a pulp. I am sorry I
cannot indicate more clearly how this result was obtained…" That
passage does a whole series of things I find astounding. When I first
read that, it really crystallized something for me, and I think a lot
of my fiction has been an attempt to create for others the feeling I
felt when reading that. That's just the tip of the iceberg.
More like the above at the link.
More from Conversational Reading:
- Beckett Centennial The New York Sun has some info on Grove's forthcoming boxed set of virtually all of Beckett's works. Grove Press, Beckett's original American publisher, has...
- Michael Martone Interview at The Quarterly Conversation We just published an interview with Michael Martone, creator of delightful experimental fictions. I think most people who read this blog know Martone, but for...
- RTW/Interview with Chad Post of the Dalkey Archive Press By now most of us are aware of May’s Reading the World program. For those who haven’t yet heard: 100 bookstores, 5 publishers x 4...
- Damian McNicholl Interview Damian McNicholl’s A Son Called Gabriel is flat-out a great book. Maybe the best way to put it is that over a very busy weekend...
- Coetzee and Crossreferencing Matthew Cheney: And then I realized that I was marking up my teaching copy of Michael K. as if I were marking up a poem. ...
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