Interview with Ivan Vladislavić

Nice to see TQC contributor and Leve translator Jan Steyn landing an interview with Ivan Vladislavić at The White Review. Vladislavić is the author of The Loss Library, among other good things (for more, see Steyn’s essay in TQC).

Apparently Vladislavić essay on Robert Walser and photography, ‘The Last Walk’, appears in The White Review No. 5, so go get a copy.

QThe White Review — You are not only astute in conceiving of and describing the artworks that go into your books but also quite canny about the institutions and trappings of the art world. Double Negative for instance contains a sidesplitting scene where the protagonist, a late-blooming artist, suffers through being interviewed by a shrewd self-promoting critic. Is the world of letters any better than this?

AIvan Vladislavić — When I had just published my first book, I was interviewed for a magazine. The journalist sat down opposite me and took a copy of my book from his bag. ‘I haven’t read this yet,’ he said. ‘I wanted to look at it last night, but something came up.’ He glanced at the blurb. ‘Says here the stories are about power relationships. Where do you stand on the whole art and politics thing?’ It could only get better from there.

The art world seems to attract more than its share of charlatans and fools, but perhaps they’re just more visible than in the literary world or the music world or anywhere else. I’m reminded of Woody Allen’s satires on pretension in the film world or Robyn Orlin’s parodies of dance critics and adjudicators. In any event, the art world seems to ‘stand in’ for the literary world in The Exploded View or Double Negative. A certain kind of writer might have similar concerns and pursue similar strategies to artists like S. Majara or Neville Lister. In the same way, the commentary on the art world might apply to the book world too.

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