Reviewing The (Paris) Review

Catherina Adams at Inkslinger has an interesting project going on. She’s working her way through the recently repackeged and rereleased four-volume set of The Paris Review Interviews, pullin out interesting quotes and remarking on them.

For instance: Who’s Got the Moves: John Gardner & Technique (Paris Review Interviews, Vol. 2):

Last Wednesday I brought up the dicey subject of style — that aspect of writing that many believe cannot be taught. Even while writing the post, I wondered what John Gardner would say on the subject, so I jumped to Vol. 2 of the Paris Review Interviews where his can be found. Gardner was measured on the subject, although very clear about the relationship between style and the world view of the author, much like Capote:

One of the first things you have to understand when you are writing fiction — or teaching writing — is that there are different ways of doing things, and each one has a slightly different effect. A misunderstanding of this leads you to the Bill Gass position: that fiction can’t tell the truth, because every way you say the thing changes it. I don’t think that’s to the point. I think that what fiction does is sneak up on the truth by telling it six different ways and finally releasing it. That’s what Dante said, that you can’t really get at the poetic, inexpressible truths, that the way things are leaps up like steam between them. So you have to determine very accurately the potential of a particular writer’s style and help that potential develop at the same time, ignoring what you think of his moral stands. . . .

This is a project perfectly suited to the blog medium, as well as great publicity for the interviews (The Paris Review should really have hired someone to do just this).

Incidentally, we’ll be publishing an essay on Gardner v. Gass (with much discussion of The Peterson Kid (see above link)) on Monday when Issue 18 of The Quarterly Conversation goes live.

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