tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11311702445454466822024-03-17T22:02:31.481-05:00DRAGONFiccioneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11113302074119512881noreply@blogger.comBlogger8362125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131170244545446682.post-78087827367227592542024-03-14T04:31:00.003-05:002024-03-14T04:32:09.905-05:00‘I’m happiest in the studio, naked and drinking mezcal’: is Buika the most liberated performer on Earth?<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPdZshDQwNqjSbzUkaJ9xG5Bm9GYtXhg_9WGYmr1iN2226tooi6g6TBGu2gcgB39Nfo5ZHknWaXNO6bJaVJv8dc_3JemxoBtOD9LFRGJ6bE3P8WfAYNtGpZTgwp7dpBSUiX3Zau11d5IaFunlkZ90uvUK-ifoHNtaM4xyVG9qGsAUdp8MSSkRq4PiMjyw/s960/IMG_0101.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="706" data-original-width="960" height="294" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPdZshDQwNqjSbzUkaJ9xG5Bm9GYtXhg_9WGYmr1iN2226tooi6g6TBGu2gcgB39Nfo5ZHknWaXNO6bJaVJv8dc_3JemxoBtOD9LFRGJ6bE3P8WfAYNtGpZTgwp7dpBSUiX3Zau11d5IaFunlkZ90uvUK-ifoHNtaM4xyVG9qGsAUdp8MSSkRq4PiMjyw/w400-h294/IMG_0101.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="dcr-1djovmt" data-gu-name="headline" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column-end: headline; grid-column-start: headline; grid-row-end: headline; grid-row-start: headline; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-14qe9do" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-14emo0l" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-1bb1jtq" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-direction: column; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px 0px 24px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-13fq93x" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 4px 0px 0px 6px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Interview</div><h1 class="dcr-cxzgoi" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: 1.75rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 2.1875rem; margin: 0px 0px 0px 6px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 1;"><span class="dcr-19anx8e" style="-webkit-box-decoration-break: clone; border: 0px; box-shadow: -6px 0 0 var(--headline-background); box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 4px 4px 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘I’m happiest in the studio, naked and drinking mezcal’: is Buika the most liberated performer on Earth?</span></h1></div></div></div></div><div class="dcr-1yi1cnj" data-gu-name="standfirst" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-column-end: standfirst; grid-column-start: standfirst; grid-row-end: standfirst; grid-row-start: standfirst; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-1teqwow" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 12px; max-width: 540px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">She is the ‘singer from everywhere’ who belts out numbers ‘with her heart ripped out’. As the flamenco fusion phenomenon blazes into Britain, she reveals all about her new superpowers – and the exoplanet she hid on during Covid</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Etan Smallan</p></div></div><p>Tuesday 12 March 2024</p><p><br /></p><p class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><span class="dcr-1ipjagz" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: 111px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: 92px; margin: 0px 8px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: text-top;"><br /></span><span class="dcr-1ipjagz" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: 111px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: 92px; margin: 0px 8px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: text-top;">B</span>uika has forgotten about our interview. The Spanish singer-songwriter was in her studio, preoccupied. “Completely stoned with my music,” she says, once her manager has given her a prod and she connects with me via video call from the Dominican Republic. “I’m so sorry.”<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><span></span><p></p><p class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">What is she working on? “Well, actually, it’s very complicated,” she says, as a ceiling fan whirs over head. “During the pandemic, it was too much for me. I was secluded and I was afraid of everything. So my solution was to escape – oh, you’re going to think I’m crazy. OK, my solution was to escape to an exoplanet.” She is now recording 13- to 15-minute tracks of thoughts and music inspired by her imaginary planet.</p><div id="sign-in-gate" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><gu-island config="{"renderingTarget":"Web","darkModeAvailable":false}" data-island-status="hydrated" deferuntil="visible" name="SignInGateSelector" priority="feature" props="{"contentType":"Article","sectionId":"music","tags":[{"id":"music/music","type":"Keyword","title":"Music"},{"id":"culture/culture","type":"Keyword","title":"Culture"},{"id":"campaign/email/sleeve-notes","type":"Campaign","title":"Sleeve Notes (newsletter signup)"},{"id":"stage/flamenco","type":"Keyword","title":"Flamenco"},{"id":"music/popandrock","type":"Keyword","title":"Pop and rock"},{"id":"type/article","type":"Type","title":"Article"},{"id":"tone/interview","type":"Tone","title":"Interviews"},{"id":"tone/features","type":"Tone","title":"Features"},{"id":"profile/etan-smallman","type":"Contributor","title":"Etan Smallman"},{"id":"publication/theguardian","type":"Publication","title":"The Guardian"},{"id":"theguardian/g2","type":"NewspaperBook","title":"G2"},{"id":"theguardian/g2/arts","type":"NewspaperBookSection","title":"Arts"},{"id":"tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-culture","type":"Tracking","title":"UK Culture"},{"id":"tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-g2-production","type":"Tracking","title":"UK G2 production"}],"isPaidContent":false,"isPreview":false,"host":"https://www.theguardian.com","pageId":"music/2024/mar/12/buika-interview-singer-naked-mezcal-flamenco-fusion-exoplanet-liberated","idUrl":"https://profile.theguardian.com","switches":{"lightbox":true,"prebidAppnexusUkRow":true,"abSignInGateMainVariant":true,"commercialMetrics":true,"prebidTrustx":true,"scAdFreeBanner":false,"adaptiveSite":true,"prebidPermutiveAudience":true,"compareVariantDecision":false,"enableSentryReporting":true,"lazyLoadContainers":true,"ampArticleSwitch":true,"remarketing":true,"oscarsNewsletterEmbed2":false,"articleEndSlot":true,"keyEventsCarousel":true,"abOscarsNewsletterEmbed":false,"registerWithPhone":false,"targeting":true,"remoteHeader":true,"slotBodyEnd":true,"prebidImproveDigitalSkins":true,"ampPrebidOzone":true,"extendedMostPopularFronts":true,"emailInlineInFooter":true,"showNewPrivacyWordingOnEmailSignupEmbeds":true,"prebidAnalytics":true,"extendedMostPopular":true,"ampContentAbTesting":false,"prebidCriteo":true,"okta":true,"imrWorldwide":true,"acast":true,"automaticFilters":true,"twitterUwt":true,"prebidAppnexusInvcode":true,"ampPrebidPubmatic":true,"a9HeaderBidding":true,"prebidAppnexus":true,"enableDiscussionSwitch":true,"prebidXaxis":true,"stickyVideos":true,"interactiveFullHeaderSwitch":true,"discussionAllPageSize":true,"prebidUserSync":true,"audioOnwardJourneySwitch":true,"brazeTaylorReport":false,"externalVideoEmbeds":true,"abSignInGateAlternativeWording":false,"callouts":true,"sentinelLogger":true,"geoMostPopular":true,"weAreHiring":false,"relatedContent":true,"thirdPartyEmbedTracking":true,"prebidOzone":true,"ampLiveblogSwitch":true,"ampAmazon":true,"prebidAdYouLike":true,"mostViewedFronts":true,"discussionInApps":false,"optOutAdvertising":true,"abSignInGateMainControl":true,"headerTopNav":true,"googleSearch":true,"brazeSwitch":true,"darkModeInApps":true,"prebidKargo":true,"consentManagement":true,"crosswordMobileBanner":true,"personaliseSignInGateAfterCheckout":true,"redplanetForAus":true,"prebidSonobi":true,"idProfileNavigation":true,"confiantAdVerification":true,"discussionAllowAnonymousRecommendsSwitch":false,"dcrTagPages":true,"permutive":true,"comscore":true,"ampPrebidCriteo":true,"abMpuWhenNoEpic":false,"newsletterOnwards":false,"youtubeIma":true,"oscarsNewsletterEmbed1":false,"webFonts":true,"prebidImproveDigital":true,"ophan":true,"crosswordSvgThumbnails":true,"prebidTriplelift":true,"weather":true,"disableAmpTest":true,"prebidPubmatic":true,"serverShareCounts":false,"autoRefresh":true,"enhanceTweets":true,"prebidIndexExchange":true,"prebidOpenx":true,"prebidHeaderBidding":true,"mobileDiscussionAds":true,"idCookieRefresh":true,"discussionPageSize":true,"smartAppBanner":false,"boostGaUserTimingFidelity":false,"historyTags":true,"brazeContentCards":true,"surveys":true,"emailSignupRecaptcha":true,"prebidSmart":true,"shouldLoadGoogletag":true,"inizio":true,"abSectionAdDensity":true,"remoteBanner":true}}" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></gu-island></div><aside class="dcr-15xdhc" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.15; margin: 14px 0px; max-width: 90%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><svg class="dcr-scql1j" style="fill: var(--pullquote-icon);" viewbox="0 0 22 14"><path d="M5.255 0h4.75c-.572 4.53-1.077 8.972-1.297 13.941H0C.792 9.104 2.44 4.53 5.255 0Zm11.061 0H21c-.506 4.53-1.077 8.972-1.297 13.941h-8.686c.902-4.837 2.485-9.411 5.3-13.941Z"></path></svg><blockquote class="dcr-zzndwp" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; quotes: none; vertical-align: baseline;">If a politician finds the time to talk about love and donkeys, I like them</blockquote></aside><p class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">Buika has been compared to Amy Winehouse, Billie Holiday and Édith Piaf. She has collaborated with everyone from Santana and Seal to Pat Metheny and Anoushka Shankar. She is also a judge on Amazon Prime’s singing talent show Operación Triunfo, which airs in 33 Latin American countries. A conversation with the 51-year-old is not unlike an interstellar experience: she is unrestrained and transcendental, as happy talking about her love life as her records. And every candid comment is punctuated with an explosion of laughter – a throaty roar from the soul. Yet the basics can be hard to pin down.</p><p class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">Does she, I ask, still live in Miami? “I’ve got a secret for you, my brother,” she says. “If you spread your love, you have a home everywhere in the world!” What I can establish is that she is in Punta Cana between stops on a world tour that will shortly reach London, a city that evokes memories of “a lot of cold and a lot of love”.</p><p class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><br /></p><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">At the end of every tour Buika used to ink her skin, but there isn’t much space left. Instead, she says: “I tattoo on my heart and in my mind.” On one arm, she says she has two butterflies “because my flight is like the butterfly’s. I fly in all directions to be straight.”</span></p><p class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">She is no easier to pin down when it comes to genre. The self-taught “singer from everywhere” (New York Times) who only knows how to perform “with her heart ripped apart” (Pedro Almodóvar) has flitted between flamenco, Spanish copla, jazz, pop, rumba, R&B and soul since her debut solo album in 2005. But she hates “psychoanalysing myself. I’m not going to do that. I’m a free spirit and I’m a free note. Let yourself be! That’s why I feel I fit in to every music from the world. No matter if it’s from Russia, from England, from America, from Africa, I think that my voice is going to sound good.”</p><aside class="dcr-15xdhc" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.15; margin: 14px 0px; max-width: 90%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><svg class="dcr-scql1j" style="fill: var(--pullquote-icon);" viewbox="0 0 22 14"><path d="M5.255 0h4.75c-.572 4.53-1.077 8.972-1.297 13.941H0C.792 9.104 2.44 4.53 5.255 0Zm11.061 0H21c-.506 4.53-1.077 8.972-1.297 13.941h-8.686c.902-4.837 2.485-9.411 5.3-13.941Z"></path></svg><blockquote class="dcr-zzndwp" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; quotes: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Oh my God! I used to go on stage barefoot – well, same as I do now</blockquote></aside><p class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">Buika is currently in her happy place, if you remove the intrusion of this journalist from the equation. The singer, who regards herself an introvert, is never more content than when sitting alone in her studio, naked, smoking and drinking mezcal. “I got to be honest, yes, I do sir. Every time I can.” She tells me she has never voted because she wants “to agree with everybody. I don’t really understand about right or left or red or blue. If a politician finds the time to talk about love and donkeys, I like them.”</p><p class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">Her longtime producer, Javier Limón, has described her, somewhat contradictorily, as “an extraterrestrial” and “the most liberated woman on earth”. Buika says: “I dream I am. I discovered my superpowers when I turned 50. They give me big and tremendous feelings of freedom.” What was she frightened of before? “Oof, everything. Because that’s how they taught us: that we have to be scared of not having money, scared of not being in love.”</p><p class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">Touring is a family affair. Buika’s production manager is her 24-year-old son, Joel, while her musical director is the boyfriend she recently re-connected with in Spain after first meeting when he was 16. “He used to come for the weekends to see our band playing and I used to see a little boy. He used to ask for orange juice and milk in a blues club. But after 20 years, I found him again in the street and I was like, ‘Hmm, hmm, you look good. How old are you now?’ And he was like, ‘Old enough to make you happy.’ He just shot my heart.” She adds: “My man is, like, 10 years younger than me. Because at my age, options are not better!”</p><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">Buika grew up in Palma de Mallorca, in the only black family for miles around, inhaling flamenco, Gypsy and African folk songs like air. Her father was a pro-democracy politician in exile from Equatorial Guinea, who walked out when she was nine. The teenage Buika, she says, was “a wild animal. Oh my God! I used to go on stage barefoot – well, same as I do now – with chewing gum in my mouth, with no bra. I was the enfant terrible,” she says, guffawing. “I used to invent a lot of stories because I didn’t want to face pain. But the first time in my life I heard applause from the audience, they saved me. They gave me the possibility of being someone. I owe them everything.”</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAdL9VGLie4WgJT3pKyb9UPl-V1MCGD-8tWX-1X31AVy3EvurjRIT3jAJ-K9RuWhBBl4SJi0EYfEL2jM03dyaNxJn_k-XoWKWPRmm-NdLr2gdpITWjDsfFgDyAnOzm1xC6MsoUZJfBB4oQIHFlwkoQpZA4VmFDEIy90uGKenaPQ8Pwdkwzuv-SRgSD-MM/s890/IMG_0100.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="618" data-original-width="890" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAdL9VGLie4WgJT3pKyb9UPl-V1MCGD-8tWX-1X31AVy3EvurjRIT3jAJ-K9RuWhBBl4SJi0EYfEL2jM03dyaNxJn_k-XoWKWPRmm-NdLr2gdpITWjDsfFgDyAnOzm1xC6MsoUZJfBB4oQIHFlwkoQpZA4VmFDEIy90uGKenaPQ8Pwdkwzuv-SRgSD-MM/s320/IMG_0100.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><figure class="dcr-173mewl" data-spacefinder-role="inline" data-spacefinder-type="model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.ImageBlockElement" id="60179e06-716f-4782-8687-ff3583ef126b" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; 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border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: GuardianTextSans, "Guardian Text Sans Web", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: 0.875rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 18.9px; margin: 0px 0px 6px; padding: 6px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="dcr-1inf02i" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; fill: var(--caption-text); font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 4px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1em;"><svg height="13" viewbox="0 0 18 13" width="18"><path d="M18 3.5v8l-1.5 1.5h-15l-1.5-1.5v-8l1.5-1.5h3.5l2-2h4l2 2h3.5l1.5 1.5zm-9 7.5c1.9 0 3.5-1.6 3.5-3.5s-1.6-3.5-3.5-3.5-3.5 1.6-3.5 3.5 1.6 3.5 3.5 3.5z"></path></svg></span><span class="dcr-1qvd3m6" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">‘It’s not easy being me’ … Buika performing during the Jazz of the Dnipro festival in Ukraine in 2021.</span> Photograph: Future Publishing/Getty Images</figcaption></figure><p class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">As the queen of flamenco fusion, Buika has a Latin Grammy to her name, plus two US Grammy nominations, as well as two books of poetry and a role as a wedding singer in Almodóvar’s <a data-link-name="in body link" href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/aug/25/the-skin-i-live-in-review" style="border-bottom: 1px solid var(--article-link-border); border-image: none; border-left-color: currentcolor; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-color: currentcolor; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-color: currentcolor; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-color: currentcolor; text-decoration-style: solid; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Skin I Live In</a>. She says she often channels her “naughty” hard-drinking, chain-smoking grandmother, with whom she shared a first name, Concha, although she has always gone by her surname professionally.</p><p><br /></p><p class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">Did Concha sing too? “Yeah! All my family do. Because we are from a little tribe called <a data-link-name="in body link" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubi_people" style="border-bottom: 1px solid var(--article-link-border); border-image: none; border-left-color: currentcolor; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-color: currentcolor; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-color: currentcolor; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-color: currentcolor; text-decoration-style: solid; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">the Bubis</a>. And it’s not the same as in Europe where you write down your story: tribes in Africa, they sing it.”</p><p class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">It is all some distance from Las Vegas, where she started out as a “hungry” Tina Turner impersonator with a two-year-old child, before finding her own uniquely raw and raspy voice. I ask how she would react if she discovered a Buika impersonator in a casino today. She lets out that gravelly howl. “I think that she would go crazy,” she says. “It’s not easy to be me!” She pauses and shoots me a gap-toothed grin. “But it’s fun.”</p><footer class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><p class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><span data-dcr-style="bullet" style="background-color: #866d50; border-radius: 50%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; content: ""; display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; height: 13px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0.2px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 13px;"></span> Buika plays <a data-link-name="in body link" href="https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2024/event/buika" style="border-bottom: 1px solid var(--article-link-border); border-image: none; border-left-color: currentcolor; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-color: currentcolor; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-color: currentcolor; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-color: currentcolor; text-decoration-style: solid; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">the Barbican, London</a>, on 19 March.</p><p class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/mar/12/buika-interview-singer-naked-mezcal-flamenco-fusion-exoplanet-liberated">THE GUARDIAN</a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0hp0qCItaQGghtO7Evz5-f2NXYW1JzRxysI8Tm9Zc4hk-gtHO1n7NOiURWQQvGvXgax2hF4SsOwPNFUjK_obxM3HNtEw9KyqVwr8QhmsDVDeTJMBTftvNBHL4v7pcp2HdjACsDSCoYyZpfxCETxEh8eX01_O6SDaGlYFKZqbTMC8PPfAUBeyebmp1qMU/s117/IMG_0079.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="115" data-original-width="117" height="115" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0hp0qCItaQGghtO7Evz5-f2NXYW1JzRxysI8Tm9Zc4hk-gtHO1n7NOiURWQQvGvXgax2hF4SsOwPNFUjK_obxM3HNtEw9KyqVwr8QhmsDVDeTJMBTftvNBHL4v7pcp2HdjACsDSCoYyZpfxCETxEh8eX01_O6SDaGlYFKZqbTMC8PPfAUBeyebmp1qMU/s1600/IMG_0079.gif" width="117" /></a></div><br /><p class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; 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text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-fbiRqEATGljEBAbWm-JfpnnhvndhLW6YH8Qdj02kLo7izndYSnk4o6AC7seE054O-LnNamy0fTfiQk0URJLB2LxLjdvSSpHLIfW8-biSLvJp2mD-H_ja0_QL5Z1JIPFLLOULJI7xNnnZMqUjuqKbO1AUTx_-iPKoOW7ogMGw3W5OcnP8VSo0YmebiPQ/s2048/61028875-8926-4760-96C8-0ECA7D4C6F28.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1611" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-fbiRqEATGljEBAbWm-JfpnnhvndhLW6YH8Qdj02kLo7izndYSnk4o6AC7seE054O-LnNamy0fTfiQk0URJLB2LxLjdvSSpHLIfW8-biSLvJp2mD-H_ja0_QL5Z1JIPFLLOULJI7xNnnZMqUjuqKbO1AUTx_-iPKoOW7ogMGw3W5OcnP8VSo0YmebiPQ/w504-h640/61028875-8926-4760-96C8-0ECA7D4C6F28.jpeg" width="504" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>Kate Winslet </p><p>for The New York Times </p><p>March 2024</p><p>by Jack Davison</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN_ybUj-H-6EkgdCfCFDLm0ykPFu34SeaBd8SJcMJxEr85HXxmp-mF5bfrKVr-0RLo-qWktSQU19z3gaMURqs5WdTIBehNQQzxgQUOCDX1k-VShpt1BrlTghXfdKDtA3CQoqSrEV3w7Pv7SsFoRpH0iz1TDm-iRAVW-DWcYn_9QvoV5nq03c3N3cHM7JY/s2048/9F052EB4-D1E6-4D56-86CC-CFA096262669.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; 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text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7-INpxs6E5ARtNUfSLb7RxsPkdgCZQXPfteVn7W0IYHRtxaSg5dp33Jp9fPs3eJYoiqgyc85a6AM5ln_KRu6AKfca1g4-rWdaJ6epKMLxoD1saCfvCM283oqaghn8xLYWvcVriZC3iLkmD6lGYXzF_DdozkBMRN73Irz5Vh5p_lvLW0dTj9jAZIe4bR0/s1024/F507FE06-6698-469D-91F3-69891649BC5F.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1024" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7-INpxs6E5ARtNUfSLb7RxsPkdgCZQXPfteVn7W0IYHRtxaSg5dp33Jp9fPs3eJYoiqgyc85a6AM5ln_KRu6AKfca1g4-rWdaJ6epKMLxoD1saCfvCM283oqaghn8xLYWvcVriZC3iLkmD6lGYXzF_DdozkBMRN73Irz5Vh5p_lvLW0dTj9jAZIe4bR0/w400-h225/F507FE06-6698-469D-91F3-69891649BC5F.webp" width="400" /></a></div><div class="top-container" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 33, 33); color: #212121; font-family: "Sequel Sans Book"; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 2rem; max-width: 102.4rem; outline-color: rgb(5, 121, 199); padding-left: 1.5rem; padding-right: 1.5rem; padding-top: 2.4rem; text-align: center; width: 375px;"><h1 class="content__title" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Sequel Sans Head", sans-serif; font-size: 3rem; line-height: 3.4rem; margin: 0px; outline-color: rgb(5, 121, 199); padding: 0.4rem 0px 0.8rem;">Ellen DeGeneres' Iconic Oscars Selfie Happened 10 Years Ago Today</h1></div><div class="site-bg article-columns" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 33, 33); color: #212121; font-family: "Sequel Sans Book"; font-size: 18px; outline-color: rgb(5, 121, 199); position: relative; z-index: 1;"><div class="article-column article-column--left" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: rgb(5, 121, 199);"><div class="content__header-img centered" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px auto; outline-color: rgb(5, 121, 199);"><div class="content__header-img-wrapper" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: rgb(5, 121, 199);"><div class="content__header-img-wrap" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px auto; max-height: 56.27vw; max-width: 102.4rem; outline-color: rgb(5, 121, 199); overflow: hidden;"><picture style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: rgb(5, 121, 199);"><source media="(max-width: 375px)" srcset="https://www.etonline.com/sites/default/files/styles/1280x720/public/images/2024-03/GettyImages-476996143.jpg?h=c12e0b96" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: rgb(5, 121, 199);"></source><div class="img-full " style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; outline-color: rgb(5, 121, 199); width: 375px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-image: none; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; opacity: 1; outline-color: rgb(5, 121, 199); overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-image: none; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; opacity: 1; outline-color: rgb(5, 121, 199); padding: 0px;"><img alt="" aria-hidden="true" src="data:image/svg+xml,%3csvg%20xmlns=%27http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%27%20version=%271.1%27%20width=%271280%27%20height=%27720%27/%3e" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-image: none; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; opacity: 1; outline-color: rgb(5, 121, 199); padding: 0px;" /></span></span></div></picture></div></div></div></div></div><h2 class="content__subheading" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 33, 33); color: #212121; font-family: "Sequel Sans Head", sans-serif; font-size: 2.2rem; font-weight: 400; line-height: 2.8rem; margin: 2rem 0px; outline-color: rgb(5, 121, 199); padding: 0px;">The star-studded pic included Bradley Cooper, Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts, among other A-listers.</h2><div class="content__body-main" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 33, 33); color: #212121; font-family: "Sequel Sans Book"; font-size: 18px; outline-color: rgb(5, 121, 199);"><div class="ctd-body" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: rgb(5, 121, 199); text-align: center;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.8rem; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 2.4rem; margin: 2.2rem 0px; outline-color: rgb(5, 121, 199); padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: rgb(5, 121, 199);">Feel old now?</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.8rem; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 2.4rem; margin: 2.2rem 0px; outline-color: rgb(5, 121, 199); padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: rgb(5, 121, 199);">Yes, </span><a href="https://www.etonline.com/people/ellen-degeneres" rel="" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-image: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), linear-gradient(rgb(201, 235, 16), rgb(201, 235, 16)); background-position: 80% 80%, 0px 84%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; background-size: 0px 2px, 100% 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212121; font-family: "Sequel Sans Body"; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.5rem; outline-color: rgb(5, 121, 199); position: relative; text-decoration-color: rgb(253, 177, 15); text-decoration-skip-ink: none; text-decoration-thickness: 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Ellen DeGeneres</a><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: rgb(5, 121, 199);">' iconic Oscars selfie -- taken by the one and only Bradley Cooper -- went down exactly 10 years ago today at the 86th Academy Awards.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.8rem; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 2.4rem; margin: 2.2rem 0px; outline-color: rgb(5, 121, 199); padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: rgb(5, 121, 199);"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.8rem; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 2.4rem; margin: 2.2rem 0px; outline-color: rgb(5, 121, 199); padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; outline-color: rgb(5, 121, 199);"><br /></span></p></div></div><p><br /></p>Ficcioneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11113302074119512881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131170244545446682.post-34574776987458994132024-03-04T06:52:00.002-05:002024-03-04T06:52:39.880-05:00Edmund White / Interview <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFtLXnNXddI05b-rjOtpH1TkQHQYG41U4ao17kTVGefltP9JUFQdWR0jrWwFxKNmWSPUjaUkrYtLNMInOOy9HuvhOcHyzUIayaBVpse-tNBJEsoOyrVE6ibidMhNe-Jlo4XAmV9EW7fIHp4R82XbY9EV6AERHNINT4vbd9WkUSayqeyfTaREaW7buv/s620/Edmund%20White%20001.webp" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="345" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFtLXnNXddI05b-rjOtpH1TkQHQYG41U4ao17kTVGefltP9JUFQdWR0jrWwFxKNmWSPUjaUkrYtLNMInOOy9HuvhOcHyzUIayaBVpse-tNBJEsoOyrVE6ibidMhNe-Jlo4XAmV9EW7fIHp4R82XbY9EV6AERHNINT4vbd9WkUSayqeyfTaREaW7buv/w550-h345/Edmund%20White%20001.webp" width="550" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Edmund White</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><br /><br /> <br /><div class="body" style="line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0px; padding: 0.5em 0px 1.5em; width: 548px;"><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><h2 class="title" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="color: #8e7cc3; font-size: x-large;">Edmund White</span></h2>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;">by <span class="author-name" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://bombsite.com/articles/author?issue=47&who=Kirili%2C+Alain" style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Alain Kirili</a></span></span></h3>
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BOMB 47/Spring 1994, LITERATURE</h3>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 1.3em;">During a very pleasant dinner at Edmund White’s apartment in Paris, I proposed we simply continue our conversation rather than conduct an interview. Edmund had just been to see my sculpture show at Galerie Daniel Templon. And I was deeply immersed in reading his extraordinary biography,</span><span style="line-height: 1.3em;"> </span><cite style="line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Genet</cite><span style="line-height: 1.3em;">. I have long been a fan of Edmund’s novels,</span><span style="line-height: 1.3em;"> </span><cite style="line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Forgetting Elena</cite><span style="line-height: 1.3em;">and</span><span style="line-height: 1.3em;"> </span><cite style="line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">A Boy’s Own Story</cite><span style="line-height: 1.3em;"> </span><span style="line-height: 1.3em;">being my favorites. And, being a Parisian who now lives in New York, I was curious about this American living in Paris. We did continue our conversation, on a December afternoon shortly after our dinner, and again at his home.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">Edmund White</span> Do you always work with music playing?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">Alain Kirili</span> Never with music. I like to memorize it and absorb it, but when I create I really need silence, total concentration. How about you?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">EW</span> I always work with music.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">AK</span> You write with music?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">EW</span> With music, yes. I always have, my whole life, and my father did too. We lived in a house that was flooded with music from dawn to dusk. My friends who are composers think I’m crazy, because they can’t bear music. Of course, that’s because they listen to it so carefully that they don’t want it as a background. Virgil Thompson once said to me, “I think you like music for the reason lots of writers do, because it gives you something to resist, so that you can concentrate better.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">AK</span> It’s a kind of challenge.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">EW</span> That’s right. When you worked with Roy Haynes, (creating sculptures while he was drumming), did you take your inspiration from what he was drumming, or were you working independently?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">AK</span> I pushed my gestures, making them a little quicker than what I’m accustomed to. That was the main stimulation Roy gave me. The strange thing is that he did follow what I was doing, but at other moments he would move even quicker, anticipating me, and I would follow up what he was doing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">EW</span> So sometimes he took the lead, and sometimes you took the lead. You were definitely interacting back and forth.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">AK</span> Yes, certainly, we were interacting. You told me last time that you knew Mingus. Could you tell me more about your interest in jazz and in Mingus particularly?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">EW</span> It’s more in Mingus than in jazz per se. I don’t know that much about jazz. As a 12-year-old boy, I used the money from the first job I ever had to buy a record player and my first record, which was by Chet Baker. I met Mingus in New York, in 1962 or ‘63, right after I got out of college. Two girls I went to school with, Ann McIntosh and Janet Coleman, were helping him edit his book, <cite style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Beneath the Underdog</cite>. They would invite him to parties, and I would always see him there. I spent New Year’s of 1963, ‘64, and ‘65, I think, in his apartment. The most beautiful moment was this: one New Year’s Eve we were all screaming and carrying on, and he said, “Be quiet! Listen to the silence. I could orchestrate that!” He wanted to notate it, he felt he could write all that down. And it’s true, once you’re very quiet you hear the creaking of the building, the traffic, you can even hear the furnace in the basement.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">AK</span> I think it’s great that you care to read artists and write about them. You recently wrote a beautiful text on Ross Bleckner.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">EW</span> I’ve written on Philip Taaffe and Richard Prince, too…and Duane Michaels, and Robert Mapplethorpe, and different photographers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">AK</span> Tell me about your interest in a book that is crucial to me, Jean Genet’s <cite style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">L’Atelier d’Alberto Giacometti</cite>. This is a book I like to give as a gift.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">EW</span> What’s great about that book by Genet is that he doesn’t try to sound like an art historian. He doesn’t talk about art history. It seems to me that all most critics know how to do is trace influences. So they say, this artist is a little bit of this or that. Genet was capable of that kind of criticism, and when he wrote about an artist he didn’t like very much, for example, Leonor Fini, he resorted to that kind of art historical talk. But when he wrote about an artist he really loved, he invented a whole new language for discussing him. As when he proposes that the statues of Giacometti should be offered to the dead, and that they should be buried. He talks about the wound each person must have in order to have a sense of beauty.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">AK</span> I thought it was remarkable—and I like the way you emphasize this in your biography of Genet—that a novelist, a writer should have such an appreciation for the differences between a sculpture in plaster and a sculpture in bronze. Genet spoke about how great it was to see the plaster, and how Giacometti’s didn’t lose anything when they were transferred in bronze.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">EW</span> That’s right. He said he thought that the bronze was pleased…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">AK</span> Yes, exactly.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">EW</span> Genet was a writer who would travel to look at paintings and sculptures. He would go to the Hague to look at paintings, he would go to Germany, he would travel all over the world, actually, to look at works of art.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">AK</span> The thing I find most interesting and remarkable—especially considering the different sexualities of Genet and Giacometti—is the way Genet raises very direct questions that are definitely not typical of art criticism. Genet talks about Giacometti’s cult of prostitutes, he asks about Giacometti’s lifestyle, about the way he lives. Art historians rarely address such issues, and here it gets very intense when he asks about the <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">poules</em>, the whores.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">EW</span> People say Genet would not have liked a biography—and it’s true he probably wouldn’t have, since he lied so much. But on the other hand, when he wrote about Giacometti he didn’t write about him in a formalist way. He talked about very human things. And interestingly, in<cite style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">L’Atelier d’Alberto Giacometti</cite>, he gives little bits of conversation between the two of them, as in the wonderful exchange where Giacometti says to him, “How handsome you are, how handsome you are…like everybody.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">AK</span> As an artist, I think it’s intriguing to think about how you, being an artist yourself, a writer, were affected by the writing of this biography. How is this project situated in your life, in your development? After your first series of novels, you have devoted seven years to the biography of another writer. Can you predict what effect this will have on you? How did you absorb or assimilate this experience, how will it affect your next books?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">EW</span> It’s hard for me to know because I’m writing them now. But I think the best example Genet provides is that of doing something in the strongest, simplest possible way. Making a big, bold gesture. For example, I’ve just finished writing a short story, and I like to think it’s less confused and more direct, simpler, than anything I’ve written before. I don’t want to write in Genet’s style—I think it’s idiotic to copy somebody’s style. But you can copy their example, which is the example of someone who goes to the limit. If one definition of a successful work of art is something that has fully exploited all the possibilities within the invented genre, then Genet is certainly successful in those terms. You couldn’t do anything more along the lines he was pursuing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">AK</span> So the example he provides is that sort of radicalism, or intensity, taken as a stimulation, as a challenge. What’s the title of the next book?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">EW</span> I’m writing several different books. I’m writing a novel called <cite style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Farewell Symphony</cite>; I’m writing a book of short stories called <cite style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Skinned Alive</cite>; and I’m writing a book of essays called<cite style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Burning Library</cite>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">AK</span> We spoke a little bit about the collection of essays, <cite style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Burning Library</cite>. Could you tell me more about it?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">EW</span> It’s essays from the late 1960s until now, some of which are art essays. Since I’m a writer who publishes so much in Europe and in little magazines all over the world, I don’t think there’s anyone, not even my mother, who has seen everything I’ve written. So there will be a lot of surprises for people, because there are little art essays I’ve written for <cite style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Parkett</cite>, in Switzerland, or for instance, I wrote a catalogue essay for Robert Mapplethorpe when he had an exhibit in Holland. I wrote about Prince the singer and Richard Prince the artist…There’s a long interview with me that was done for <cite style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Paris Review</cite> and that’s probably the best interview I’ve given. So there’s all kinds of things. There’s also a lot about the history of the gay liberation movement. In 1970, I had already started writing about that subject in essay form, and I continue to do so up to the present. So there are essays on everything from the very beginning of the gay liberation movement to the whole question, now, of political correctness.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">AK</span> Political correctness is a subject that’s tough to address.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">EW</span> How do you feel when Robert Rosenblum says, in his essay about you, that you are an artist who’s recuperating the past, who is a very cultured artist, one who is linked to great artists of the past?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">AK</span> Well, I think of myself as an artist who is not amnesic. Certainly, one of the reasons for living in New York is to appreciate a different way of life, a different culture, but also another ethic—and, thus, not to take the French way of life as natural. There is no such thing as a “natural” way of life. For me to be a foreigner helps me evaluate the different traditions that we, in the Western world, are still confronting.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">EW</span> Do you say “them” when you look at French people, or do you say “them” when you look at Americans? I mean, do you find Americans easier to understand now than French people? Do you find yourself more of a sociologist studying the French, or studying the Americans?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">AK</span> Well, at this point, I feel like a foreigner everywhere. I feel that very deeply, a sort of irreducible <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">étrangeté</em>, or foreignness. How about you?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">EW</span> I actually feel now that Americans are harder for me to understand; I’m more interested in studying them than French people. I don’t go to America very often, only three or four weeks every year, and when I do, I’m always thinking, Oh, that’s what they are doing now, that’s what they think, etc. For one thing, American culture seems to evolve much faster than French culture.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">AK</span> What’s intriguing for me is that I’ve come to a similar point. I’ve lived in New York for 12 years now, and sure, France has started to become more and more foreign to me. And when I come here, to France, I’ve started to feel the difference in their speed of evolution, or whatever, almost like a foreigner. And in fact I like that disconnection (<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">laughter</em>).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">EW</span> One thing that always strikes me as a big difference between America and France is this: I’ve a friend who’s an art dealer who told me an American woman walked into his office and said, “Last year I had no money and I was living in one room; now I have millions of dollars and I’m living in 20 rooms. I don’t know anything about art, so I want you to buy lots of art and put it on my walls.” And I thought, that would never happen in France. First of all, people don’t make money that quickly. Secondly, if they made it, they’d pretend they’d always had it. They’d never go in so naively and say, “Please tell me what I should buy.” And if they had just made new money, they’d want to buy old paintings. They wouldn’t want new paintings, they would want it to look as if they were from an old family with ancestors.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">AK</span> How many years have you been in France?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">EW</span> 12 years…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">AK</span> What made you decide to live in Paris? What was it you liked?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">EW</span> Well, I like the fact that it is so calm here. People don’t bother you too much. And I also like being slightly out of it, in terms of America. I like being close to other countries in Europe.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">AK</span> It’s a base.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">EW</span> Yes, a base. I go to England, to Switzerland, Italy, Germany, a lot—especially England, maybe once a month. I have more friends in London than in Paris. So London’s really…I just don’t like the city very much. I also feel the English like me more if I live in France than if I were to live in England.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">AK</span> (<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">laughter</em>) What do you like about Paris itself?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">EW</span> I like the beauty of the place. I like the food. I like the calm. I think that French people are very difficult to get to know, but once you do they’re the best friends, the most loyal friends, because they have a cult of friendship in a way most people, most countries, don’t. And even if France has very few great writers right now, it has lots of great readers. In other words, there are many extremely cultured people who read for the pure pleasure of it, and who have read everything. I know lots of people like that here, and not many in New York.</span></div>
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People in New York are very <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">interesse</em>, they’re looking out for their own interests, they’re always networking, they all want to climb the ladder. You never know whether they like you for yourself or because you can help them with their career. Whereas here, I don’t think people are like that so much. When I first arrived in Paris I wanted to give a party and invite all the journalists and all my friends. And a French woman friend said, “We don’t do that in France—you have two parties, one for your friends, one for the journalists, but you don’t mix them.” But in New York you mix everybody.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">AK</span> Very true. In New York you feel that the notion of network often involves people who share the same background, in terms of universities and so forth.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">EW</span> Here too, with the Grandes Écoles, Sciences Po, and all that.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">AK</span> Do you think that affects the writer? That sort of school?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">EW</span> Camus said America is the only country where writers are not intellectuals. It’s true that here in France you tend to meet people who are writers. And when you dig a little deeper it turns out that their father was an editor at Gallimard, that they’re from a grand bourgeois family, or their great-grandfather was Francois Mauriac, or they were ranked number one at their school, or they were a professor of philosophy and now they’re a novelist. In other words, there’s a profile of people who live in the fifth, sixth, and seventh arrondissements, who all know each other, who tend to have a private income, and who tend to have a very exalted idea about art, and who want to be <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">hommes de lettres</em> in the sense of wanting to combine writing essays with writing novels, who read everything and are au courant with everything. Someone like Marc Chodolenko, for instance, who is a friend, who won the Prix Medicis many years ago—every time I go to the Louvre he’s there. He’s always there, studying everything. He has never written a word about art, he never will, it’s just that he wants to know all about it. I mean, there are these culture vultures. But in America I have many students of writing who go on to become writers, and their mother’s a nurse or their father’s a truck driver. They become writers but they’re not intellectuals; they haven’t read very much. They’re from modest families. Maybe that’s why American fiction is so vital and gutsy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">AK</span> This is what is all the more extraordinary about someone like Genet. He’s self-taught. He knew how to create his network, by being somewhat protected by Cocteau, but at the same time he came from…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">EW</span> Nowhere…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">AK</span> Exactly. From nowhere.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">EW</span> I think it helped in his case that there was the war. There was such chaos during the war, so many people were compromised by being collaborators, that suddenly there was an opening up in French culture that allowed a lot of talented nobodies to emerge. I don’t think they would have risen before the war. There are certain great exceptions. Celine, for example, was not from an important family; he was just a great writer. Obviously there are always going to be the “genius” exceptions. But I think the chaos of the war actually helped Genet to write, and then to be published and recognized.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">AK</span> With regard to what you said earlier about Rosenblum’s statement that my work has a memory or a heritage, I myself dealt with post-war chaos, being from the first generation after the war, a generation that had to make connections all over again. When I was a 20-year-old in Paris, there were no major artists 10 or 15 years older than myself, representing the previous generation, that I could meet. Yves Klein was dead, Dubuffet was totally inaccessible, and thus the generation between me and the artists I could meet was an American generation. That’s how I met Robert Morris and Rauschenberg; it’s one of the main reasons I went to New York.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">EW</span> I see…I wonder, I feel that one of the historical movements you connect with is Abstract Expressionism. But Abstract Expressionism itself was anything but a historical movement. It was interested in discovering the new, in pulling a vision out of the guts. It was very improvisational, like jazz, and it was heroic in that fiercely romantic and individualistic way. Even when someone like Robert Rosenblum can link it with the Northern, German tradition, I don’t think American painters thought in those terms. They themselves thought they were doing something brand new. And I know in your case when you do modeling that is non-figurative, that this represents something new as well.</span></div>
<div class="aa" style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-top: 0.75em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">
So my question is, how important is it for you to do something brand new in a kind of heroic way, like the Abstract Expressionists, and how important is it for you to see yourself in a tradition? Or is this a false dichotomy?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">AK</span> No, I think the answer is something I can observe in your case too. You gave me an answer earlier about Genet that’s very similar to what I want to say now. You said that Genet provided a heroic or radical example that stimulates and pushes you in your work. Similarly, for me, the power of the transgression that occurs in the Abstract Expressionists, their “heroic” sense of urgency, is absolutely crucial. It’s their sense of urgency that’s important for me, something they possessed more than anyone else at the time, excepting perhaps the jazz players. There is probably, as you have mentioned, a great connection between Charlie Parker and Jackson Pollock. What they shared is the sense of urgency.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">EW</span> I think that’s right. Actually. Philippe Sollers, when he wrote about your sculpture<cite style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Commandment</cite> when it was installed in Paris, said that you were more recognized by the Americans than by the French. Would you say that’s true now? Was it true when he wrote it, in 1985 or 1986?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">AK</span> For the most part it’s still true now, if only because the community of artists is so much larger in New York. Personally, you know, my priority has always been to have the respect and concern of my <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">confrères</em> —what’s the word?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">EW</span> My colleagues.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">AK</span> Yes…So in some ways I feel I’m more a part of the New York art scene than of the one in Paris.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">EW</span> Is there a Paris art scene?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">AK</span> Is there a Paris art scene…That indeed is the question.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">EW</span> Didn’t you say once that you sculpted while listening to Sollers recite from <cite style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Paradis</cite>?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">AK</span> That’s right. Something very helpful for me is to hear the French language. It’s hard for me to escape French. It’s my mother tongue, and I’ve never really mastered English; I don’t have that Nabokov-like talent in language. Are you going to write in French someday? You speak it well enough, eh? Would you find it stimulating to write in French, or merely inhibiting?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">EW</span> (<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">laughter</em>) I think I would just make mistakes. It’s easy to make mistakes, especially if you have never been trained in a language. I never studied it to write it. I suppose I could if I worked with somebody.</span></div>
<div class="aa" style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-top: 0.75em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">
Samuel Beckett, obviously, only became a great writer after he began to work in French. If you look at Watt, the last book he did in English, and then the trilogy, the first books he did in French, there’s a tremendous leap forward—and it comes from writing in French. In his case he was a descendent of Joyce, he was Joyce’s secretary, and in a way was too clever, knew too many words, had too many ideas. He was over-refined. But by writing in French he was forced to concentrate himself and simplify. I think that helped enormously. At the same time, he made another change; he began to write in the first person and say I, which he’d never done before. Those two things, I think, simplified and gave tremendous strength to his writing.</span></div>
<div class="aa" style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-top: 0.75em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">
But in my case, I don’t have the problem of being too clever. Writing in English is a problem already. It’s not that I write too well, but that I’m always trying to write well enough. Gertrude Stein said, when she lived in Paris, that what she liked about it was that she felt she was the only person in the world who spoke English, that she was alone with the language. I like that part. I like writing in English in Paris.</span></div>
<div class="aa" style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-top: 0.75em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">
The story I just wrote takes place in the Midwest in 1957, and I find that all those words we used to say in 1957 come back to me; I have a perfect memory for them. The longer I’m away from that world, the more crystal clear it becomes to me. (<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">laughter</em>)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">AK</span> Speaking of such clarity, it’s true that living in New York, I have a better, clearer appreciation of what is specifically French. I’m much more aware of this now than if I had stayed in Paris all this time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.25em 0px 0px;">EW</span> You made me laugh the other day when you talked about the work ethic. You said that when you first arrived in New York, you were impressed by how hard everybody was working. But I found that what I like about Paris is that I don’t work so hard. I relax more and I practice the art of the <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">flaneur</em>. I spend hours walking around looking at books and things like that, without worrying about wasting time, which I used to worry about all the time.</span></div>
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</div>Ficcioneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11113302074119512881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131170244545446682.post-2137709353733307832024-03-04T06:52:00.001-05:002024-03-04T06:52:19.351-05:00Tony Miramontes / Polaroids <p><br style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><img fetchpriority="high" src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/753/21845412631_26292f32e6_b.jpg" style="background-color: white; border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; height: auto; letter-spacing: 0.16px; line-height: inherit; max-height: 2048px; max-width: 100%; text-align: -webkit-center;" width="750" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><span face="ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;">Janice Dickinson</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><a name="cutid1" style="background-color: white; color: #00a3d9; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;" target="_self"></a><br /></p><h1 class="b-singlepost-title entry-title p-name" ng-non-bindable="" style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 2.0625em; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; font-weight: 300; letter-spacing: 0.16px; line-height: 1; margin: 0.9em 0px 0.5em; max-width: 1100px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 2.0625em; letter-spacing: 0.16px;">Tony Viramontes </span></h1><h1 class="b-singlepost-title entry-title p-name" ng-non-bindable="" style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 2.0625em; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; font-weight: 300; letter-spacing: 0.16px; line-height: 1; margin: 0.9em 0px 0.5em; max-width: 1100px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;">POLAROIDS</h1><p><br style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><img loading="lazy" src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/619/21648941789_0c7e4a6574_b.jpg" style="background-color: white; border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; height: auto; letter-spacing: 0.16px; line-height: inherit; max-height: 2048px; max-width: 100%; text-align: -webkit-center;" width="750" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><span face="ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;">Leslie Winer</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><img loading="lazy" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5780/21214761103_3f20f4fddf_b.jpg" style="background-color: white; border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; height: auto; letter-spacing: 0.16px; line-height: inherit; max-height: 2048px; max-width: 100%; text-align: -webkit-center;" width="750" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><span face="ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;">Marie Helvin</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><img loading="lazy" src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/645/21809688876_5ddb82f0b6_b.jpg" style="background-color: white; border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; height: auto; letter-spacing: 0.16px; line-height: inherit; max-height: 2048px; max-width: 100%; text-align: -webkit-center;" width="750" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><span face="ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;">Steven Meisel</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><img loading="lazy" src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/739/21647784520_c2d7077e90_b.jpg" style="background-color: white; border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; height: auto; letter-spacing: 0.16px; line-height: inherit; max-height: 2048px; max-width: 100%; text-align: -webkit-center;" width="750" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><span face="ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;">Janice Dickinson</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><img loading="lazy" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5764/21213071714_571f47bc0c_b.jpg" style="background-color: white; border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; height: auto; letter-spacing: 0.16px; line-height: inherit; max-height: 2048px; max-width: 100%; text-align: -webkit-center;" width="750" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><span face="ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;">Nick Rhodes</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><img loading="lazy" src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/691/21213071944_da0ea64dd7_b.jpg" style="background-color: white; border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; height: auto; letter-spacing: 0.16px; line-height: inherit; max-height: 2048px; max-width: 100%; text-align: -webkit-center;" width="750" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><span face="ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;">Mike Hill</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><img loading="lazy" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5688/21823972752_e8dec371d8_b.jpg" style="background-color: white; border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; height: auto; letter-spacing: 0.16px; line-height: inherit; max-height: 2048px; max-width: 100%; text-align: -webkit-center;" width="750" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><span face="ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;">Janice Dickinson</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><img loading="lazy" src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/594/21823972872_04b8bd6cb8_b.jpg" style="background-color: white; border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; height: auto; letter-spacing: 0.16px; line-height: inherit; max-height: 2048px; max-width: 100%; text-align: -webkit-center;" width="750" /><span face="ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><span face="ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;">Brad Harryman</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><img loading="lazy" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5725/21213071954_5651f1298b_b.jpg" style="background-color: white; border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; height: auto; letter-spacing: 0.16px; line-height: inherit; max-height: 2048px; max-width: 100%; text-align: -webkit-center;" width="750" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><span face="ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;">Greg Thompson</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><img loading="lazy" src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/628/21835824955_a4e1b30d2e_b.jpg" style="background-color: white; border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; height: auto; letter-spacing: 0.16px; line-height: inherit; max-height: 2048px; max-width: 100%; text-align: -webkit-center;" width="750" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><span face="ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;">Karen Bjornson Macdonald</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><img loading="lazy" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5625/21845412421_ee59cc49a8_b.jpg" style="background-color: white; border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; height: auto; letter-spacing: 0.16px; line-height: inherit; max-height: 2048px; max-width: 100%; text-align: -webkit-center;" width="750" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><span face="ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;">Rene Russo</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><img loading="lazy" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7572/15591156924_a53f4f1bc1_o.png" style="background-color: white; border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; height: auto; letter-spacing: 0.16px; line-height: inherit; max-height: 2048px; max-width: 100%; text-align: -webkit-center;" width="800" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #242f33; font-family: ProximaNova, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><br /></p><p><a href=" Janice Dickinson Leslie Winer Marie Helvin Steven Meisel Janice Dickinson Nick Rhodes Mike Hill Janice Dickinson Brad Harryman Greg Thompson Karen Bjornson Macdonald Rene Russo Everyday I Show свободная от рекламы площадка для вдохновения, созданная на добровольных началах и поддерживающая свое существование исключительно за счет энтузиазма её смотрителей и благодарных подписчиков. Однако желающие поддержать проект могут воспользоваться платежными формами ниже:">LIVE JOURNAL</a></p><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi2yEryr4Jaeofar9gALJzwSEnM_OvNT4NCQxNSXSpEHyV7utdaN6mwTMSF_kPeBjHFVfjivpBFBCX3tjbm4G3qsvyCZ7WNNig5u5HNSX0N2x8knB4qyySE5ymvNn9XE4Cjb0IhJcB-0vTILqCpmGvl8VYHZzL1lltvFT0VsPFtcUE4YkXCGiRwWixDFA/s117/0000%20dragon_circle_un%20cuarto.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="115" data-original-width="117" height="115" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi2yEryr4Jaeofar9gALJzwSEnM_OvNT4NCQxNSXSpEHyV7utdaN6mwTMSF_kPeBjHFVfjivpBFBCX3tjbm4G3qsvyCZ7WNNig5u5HNSX0N2x8knB4qyySE5ymvNn9XE4Cjb0IhJcB-0vTILqCpmGvl8VYHZzL1lltvFT0VsPFtcUE4YkXCGiRwWixDFA/s1600/0000%20dragon_circle_un%20cuarto.gif" width="117" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Ficcioneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11113302074119512881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131170244545446682.post-80886790547678049792024-03-02T03:38:00.004-05:002024-03-02T03:38:27.295-05:00Former Irish Times critic Eileen Battersby dies following car crash<p style="text-align: center;"> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjNjSbBdhhqhpyhJjgsJoFBW76QXo3eBb5I0O15ljWDP2KIIDFZ1cBymDaZqexX0f0aWYM0gnwMsgXnc5nCFVi3EI1oJOBCw82R3e73rqrn8aSCzmO7ILf6jpch-zwPVEw5gUT7GfxAIgbYU278wRrSmOsBz_crRwB5Ia8eNGV6Y-dFOA-di4aPsoCW=s620" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="330" data-original-width="620" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjNjSbBdhhqhpyhJjgsJoFBW76QXo3eBb5I0O15ljWDP2KIIDFZ1cBymDaZqexX0f0aWYM0gnwMsgXnc5nCFVi3EI1oJOBCw82R3e73rqrn8aSCzmO7ILf6jpch-zwPVEw5gUT7GfxAIgbYU278wRrSmOsBz_crRwB5Ia8eNGV6Y-dFOA-di4aPsoCW=w602-h320" width="602" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span face="DINWeb-Medium, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #888888; font-size: 12px; text-align: start;">Eileen Battersby with one of her dogs ‘Kingsley’ in 2011. <br />Photo by Bryan O’Brien</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><hgroup style="background-color: white; color: #515151; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif;"><h1 style="color: black; font-size: 32.8px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.1em; margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 10px 0px 5px; text-align: center;">Former Irish Times critic Eileen Battersby dies following car crash</h1><h2 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Literary correspondent critically injured in single-vehicle crash 4km outside Drogheda</span></h2></hgroup><div class="article-top-area" style="margin: 5px 0px;"><br /></div><div class="article-top-area" style="margin: 5px 0px;">Marie O'Halloran</div><div class="article-top-area" style="margin: 5px 0px;">Sun, Dec 23, 2018, 23:11 </div><div class="article-top-area" style="margin: 5px 0px;">Updated: Mon, Dec 24, 2018, 10:50<div class="article-metadata" style="background-color: white; color: #515151; flex-flow: column-reverse; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 5px 0px;"><div class="author"><br /><span class="byline" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="color: #999999; display: inline-block; float: left; font-size: 13px; font-weight: 600; line-height: normal; outline: 0px; width: 496px;"><br /></span></div></div></div><p class="no_name" style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 16.8px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1.5em;">Former <em>Irish Times</em> literary correspondent Eileen Battersby has died following a car crash in Co Meath on Saturday.</p><p class="no_name" style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 16.8px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1.5em;">Ms Battersby (60) was critically injured in the single-vehicle crash in the townland of Sheephouse on the Oldbridge to <a class="search" href="https://www.irishtimes.com/topics/topics-7.1213540?article=true&tag_location=Donore" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #23517a; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Donore</a> road, 4km outside <a class="search" href="https://www.irishtimes.com/topics/topics-7.1213540?article=true&tag_location=Drogheda" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #23517a; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Drogheda</a>. She and her daughter, Nadia, who was also injured in the incident, were taken to Our Lady of <a class="search" href="https://www.irishtimes.com/topics/topics-7.1213540?article=true&tag_person=Lourdes+Hospital" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #23517a; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Lourdes Hospital</a> in Drogheda.<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p class="no_name" style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 16.8px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1.5em;">In her career with <em>The Irish Times</em> Battersby wrote about all aspects of the arts, particularly literature, as well as on classical music, archaeology, historical geography and architectural history. Four-times winner of the National Arts Journalist of the Year award, she also won the Critic of the Year accolade and published a number of books.</p><p class="no_name" style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 16.8px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1.5em;">Originally from California in the US, she studied history and English at UCD and later earned a masters degree in literature at the university, with her thesis on the American writer <a class="search" href="https://www.irishtimes.com/topics/topics-7.1213540?article=true&tag_person=Thomas+Wolfe" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #23517a; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Thomas Wolfe</a>.</p><p class="no_name" style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 16.8px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1.5em;">She started her career in journalism with the <em>Sunday Tribune</em> before moving to <em>The Irish Times </em>as a literary reviewer and arts journalist in 1988, joining the staff in 1990. She was appointed literary correspondent in 2000 and left <em>The Irish Times</em> in July 2018.</p><p class="no_name" style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 16.8px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1.5em;">Often controversial in her reviews, she became one of the country’s leading critics with an encyclopedic knowledge of the literary canon.</p><p class="no_name" style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 16.8px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1.5em;">With her interest in archaeology she also reported each year from the winter solstice at <a class="search" href="https://www.irishtimes.com/topics/topics-7.1213540?article=true&tag_company=Newgrange" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #23517a; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Newgrange</a>, Co Meath.</p><h4 class="crosshead" style="background-color: white; font-family: Lato, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 1.1em; margin: 0px; padding: 4px 0px;">Horsewoman</h4><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 16.8px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1.5em;">A horsewoman and animal lover, she frequently wrote about animals including in her own books. <em>Second Readings: From Beckett to Black Beauty</em> was published in 2009. <em>Ordinary Dogs — A Story of Two Lives</em> was published by Faber in 2011. <em>Teethmarks on My Tongue</em>, her first novel, was published in the US by Dalkey Archive in 2016, and in the UK by Apollo, Head of Zeus, in 2018.</p><p><br /></p><p class="no_name" style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 16.8px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1.5em;">As a literary critic she was a major supporter of fiction in translation. In one of her last articles she wrote a review of <em>Brothers in Ice </em>by Alicia Kopf, a pseudonym of Catalan artist Imma Avalos Marques. Her view of the debut: “Is it a novel? Who cares? This is fast, fluid, exciting narrative; random, philosophical, alive, questioning, full of precise set pieces, sensations, regret, emotion, self-doubt, defiance, curiosity and a feel for history, fact and human behaviour.”</p><figure class="inline__content inline__content--image" style="background-color: white; color: #444444; display: table; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 16.8px; margin: 6px auto 18px;"><img alt="Eileen Battersby pictured in 2010 near her home in Co Meath. File photograph: Alan Betson" height="349" src="https://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.3741173!/image/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_620/image.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="620" /><figcaption style="caption-side: bottom; color: #888888; display: table-caption; font-family: Lato, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 1.4em; padding: 8px 0px 0px;">Eileen Battersby pictured in 2010 near her home in Co Meath. File photograph: Alan Betson</figcaption></figure><p class="no_name" style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 16.8px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1.5em;">The Editor of <em>The Irish Times</em>, Paul O’Neill, said Battersby’s “distinctive voice, passion, insight and sharp critical faculties” had made “an immeasurable contribution to <em>Irish Times </em>literary coverage over three decades and won her an international audience and reputation as one of the most influential critics of her generation”.</p><p class="no_name" style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 16.8px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1.5em;">On behalf of her former colleagues and friends, he extended his sympathy to her daughter, Nadia.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 16.8px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><em>Irish Times</em> Books Editor Martin Doyle said: “This is truly shocking news. My heart goes out to Eileen’s daughter Nadia. </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 16.8px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1.5em;">“Eileen was a fearless and forthright critic and was internationally renowned as a passionate champion of literature, particularly works in translation. </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 16.8px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1.5em;">“Her enthusiasm was infectious, be it for her beloved horses and dogs or a newly discovered or neglected author. She will be greatly missed.”</p><h4 class="crosshead" style="background-color: white; font-family: Lato, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 1.1em; margin: 0px; padding: 4px 0px;"><em>‘Passionate curiosity’</em></h4><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 16.8px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><em>Irish Times</em> writer, columnist and former literary editor Fintan O’Toole said: “Everything Eileen wrote was marked by a passionate curiosity. She had an insatiable interest in art, in architecture, in archaeology and of course in literature, especially fiction.</p><p class="no_name" style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 16.8px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1.5em;">“That curiosity extended to fiction in translation: she wanted to know what was being written in Korea or in Bangladesh just as much as in <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #23517a; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Ireland</a> or Britain,” he added.</p><p class="no_name" style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 16.8px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1.5em;">“As a critic she could be fierce, but I think everyone recognised that the fierceness was a product of her passion and of the very high expectations she had of what a book could and should achieve. And it was that same fierce passion that made her such a powerful advocate of the books she loved and championed.</p><p class="no_name" style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 16.8px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1.5em;">“You always knew that if she raved about a book it would be well worth reading, and that’s the best thing you can say about a critic.”</p><p class="no_name" style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 16.8px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1.5em;">Man Booker prizewinner and former <em>Irish Times</em> literary editor <a class="search" href="https://www.irishtimes.com/topics/topics-7.1213540?article=true&tag_person=John+Banville" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #23517a; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">John Banville</a> said: “Eileen was my dear friend – and the most delightfully difficult person I ever worked with.</p><p class="no_name" style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 16.8px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1.5em;">“Part of the difficulty was that she would <em>NEVER</em> relent when the question was of quality – in her purview, no talent went uncelebrated, no mediocrity went unmasked.</p><p class="no_name" style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 16.8px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1.5em;">“She loved literature with a passion almost as intense as her love of animals and the natural world. And she had such a rich sense of humour, especially when the joke was on her. Oh dear, how we shall miss her.”</p><figure class="inline__content inline__content--image" style="background-color: white; color: #444444; display: table; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 16.8px; margin: 6px auto 18px;"><img alt="Photograph: Alan Betson/The Irish Times" height="420" src="https://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.3741499!/image/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_620/image.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="620" /><figcaption style="caption-side: bottom; color: #888888; display: table-caption; font-family: Lato, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 1.4em; padding: 8px 0px 0px;">Photograph: Alan Betson/The Irish Times</figcaption></figure><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 16.8px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1.5em;">President Michael D Higgins said news of Battersby’s death “ will have been heard with both shock and enormous sadness by those familiar with her work.”<br /> </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 16.8px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1.5em;">He added: “They will have been impressed over the years by the sheer breadth of her interests, her insatiable curiosity for what was being produced in writing in both English and lesser known languages, which she reviewed in translation.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 16.8px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1.5em;">“Among all those, including Sabina and I, who have read her unique pieces over the years, there will be a feeling that criticism of fiction in particular has suffered a great loss. Indeed, to all those in the world of<br />books, there will be a sense that a critic relied upon by so many readers, and respected by writers, has been taken from us.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 16.8px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1.5em;">“All of us owe her a debt of gratitude for her unstinting efforts to bring the best writers from around the world to our attention, her unflinching standards, and for the enthusiasm with which she brought her celebration of all aspects of the arts to so many different audiences. Sabina and I send our deepest condolences to her daughter Nadia, and the members of her family”.</p><p class="no_name" style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 16.8px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1.5em;">Séamus Dooley, Irish secretary of the National Union of Journalists, expressed condolences to the family and friends of Battersby, whom he described as a “unique figure in Irish journalism.</p><p class="no_name" style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 16.8px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1.5em;">“Eileen was a unique figure in Irish journalism. She brought style, colour and flair to her work. Eileen loved language and in recent years as a novelist and a regular contributor to <em>Sunday Miscellany</em> enjoyed reaching new audiences. Our sympathy to Nadia, to her extended family and to all who knew and admired her work”.</p><h4 class="crosshead" style="background-color: white; font-family: Lato, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 1.1em; margin: 0px; padding: 4px 0px;">Appeal for witnesses</h4><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 16.8px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1.5em;">Gardaí in <a class="search" href="https://www.irishtimes.com/topics/topics-7.1213540?article=true&tag_location=Ashbourne" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #23517a; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Ashbourne</a> are investigating the crash which happened at about 2pm and have appealed for witnesses or anyone with information to contact them on (01) 801 0600, the Garda confidential line on 1800 666 111 or any Garda station.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 16.8px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/former-irish-times-critic-eileen-battersby-dies-following-car-crash-1.3741172">THE IRISH TIMES</a></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 16.8px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhSfVLuAWCLNZrQ0jLhS6gAlTO7V-TM6QuHH4KukeaAis1EsLJmYwp4xPIsyR5TN_j9Fp3NmSHsDjNqul3a9D3W1nlruZij4LYhpOG6pNkhuGSYCIpiUbg-8NmToPMTa3P61VDuRkK_Iw7LmlACcLcQ3VsLkaKWKOtgOzl-MQG744cWOsm1ynl6OW_k=s117" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="115" data-original-width="117" height="115" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhSfVLuAWCLNZrQ0jLhS6gAlTO7V-TM6QuHH4KukeaAis1EsLJmYwp4xPIsyR5TN_j9Fp3NmSHsDjNqul3a9D3W1nlruZij4LYhpOG6pNkhuGSYCIpiUbg-8NmToPMTa3P61VDuRkK_Iw7LmlACcLcQ3VsLkaKWKOtgOzl-MQG744cWOsm1ynl6OW_k" width="117" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 16.8px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 16.8px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 16.8px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><br /></p>Ficcioneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11113302074119512881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131170244545446682.post-47401727489278037962024-03-02T03:37:00.002-05:002024-03-02T03:37:16.062-05:00A History of Loneliness by John Boyne review / A denunciation of the Catholic church<p> </p><div class="dcr-1t8m8f2" id="img-1" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><picture class="dcr-evn1e9" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block;"><img alt="SPAIN-RELIGION-POPE-ABORTION" class="dcr-evn1e9" height="279" src="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Arts/Arts_/Pictures/2014/9/30/1412086504024/SPAIN-RELIGION-POPE-ABORT-011.jpg?width=465&dpr=1&s=none" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; flex: 0 0 auto; font: inherit; height: 372px; margin: 0px; object-fit: cover; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 620px;" width="465" /></picture></div><p><span class="dcr-1bn3p0w" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></p>Photograph: Dani Pozo<p><br /></p><div class="dcr-1djovmt" data-gu-name="headline" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-area: headline / headline / headline / headline; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-14emo0l" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 620px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-1msbrj1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 36px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-wwluea" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 5px 0px 0px 6px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-n35fox" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 3px; -webkit-box-decoration-break: clone; background-color: #6b5840; border: 0px; box-shadow: rgb(107, 88, 64) 6px 0px 0px, rgb(107, 88, 64) -6px 0px 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: 23px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="dcr-hosx8y" href="https://www.theguardian.com/tone/reviews" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; -webkit-box-align: center; -webkit-box-pack: justify; align-items: center; background: transparent; border-radius: 0px; border: none; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-flex; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; height: initial; justify-content: space-between; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-height: initial; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-underline-offset: inherit; text-wrap: nowrap; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: white;">Review</span></a></div></div><h1 class="dcr-186f9ox" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 4px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #6b5840; font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 2.125rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px; padding: 4px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">A History of Loneliness by John Boyne review – a denunciation of the Catholic church</h1></div></div></div><div class="dcr-1yi1cnj" data-gu-name="standfirst" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-area: standfirst / standfirst / standfirst / standfirst; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-xq41iu" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 3px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--standfirst-text); font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 12px; max-width: 540px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The story of a guilty priest and the church's cover-up of sexual abuse makes for a lacerating portrait of Irish society</div><div class="dcr-xq41iu" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 3px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--standfirst-text); font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 12px; max-width: 540px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div class="dcr-xq41iu" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 12px; max-width: 540px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-1yi1cnj" data-gu-name="standfirst" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--standfirst-text); font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: medium; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-area: standfirst / standfirst / standfirst / standfirst; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-xq41iu" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--standfirst-text); font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 12px; max-width: 540px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent;">Helen Dunmore</span></div><div class="dcr-xq41iu" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--standfirst-text); font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 12px; max-width: 540px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent;">Fri 3 Oct 2014 08.59 BST</span></div></div><aside class="dcr-1rbr3jc" data-gu-name="meta" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-area: meta / meta / meta / meta; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-14emo0l" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 620px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-c7ke56" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-rnfrqq" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-9dgpdq" data-print-layout="hide" style="-webkit-box-pack: justify; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; justify-content: space-between; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 6px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-10u93vk" style="-webkit-box-flex: 1; -webkit-box-pack: end; border-bottom: 0px; border-image: initial; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 1px solid var(--article-border); box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-grow: 1; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; justify-content: flex-end; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-14baf59" style="align-items: flex-start; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-direction: row; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><gu-island config="{"renderingTarget":"Web","darkModeAvailable":false}" data-island-status="hydrated" deferuntil="idle" name="CommentCount" priority="feature" props="{"discussionApiUrl":"https://discussion.theguardian.com/discussion-api","shortUrlId":"/p/42xht","format":{"display":0,"theme":3,"design":5}}" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><data class="dcr-1nkkvzh" data-testid="comment-counts" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; align-self: flex-end; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-direction: column; line-height: 1.3; padding-top: 5px;" value="5 comments on this article"><div aria-hidden="true" class="dcr-zknr8s" data-testid="long-comment-count" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/dialog/share?app_id=180444840287&href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fbooks%2F2014%2Foct%2F03%2Fa-history-of-loneliness-john-boyne-review-catholic-church%3FCMP%3Dshare_btn_fb"></a><br /><br /></div></data></gu-island></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></aside><div class="dcr-ch7w1w" data-gu-name="body" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--standfirst-text); font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: medium; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-area: body / body / body / body; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 5;"><div class="dcr-a3jqao" style="-webkit-box-flex: 1; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; flex-grow: 1; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 620px; z-index: 1;"><div class="dcr-ty818o" id="maincontent" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="article-body-commercial-selector article-body-viewer-selector dcr-1n99hlx" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><span class="dcr-11l45yn" color="var(--drop-cap)" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 111px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: 92px; margin: 0px 8px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: text-top;">"I</span>reland is rotten. Rotten to the core. I'm sorry, but you priests destroyed it." These words are spoken by a young man who was sexually attacked in his childhood by an Irish priest, a friend of the family. They go to the heart of this novel's passionate denunciation of the role played by the Catholic church in the scandal over child abuse by the clergy. It is a study of the corrupting effects of power in an Ireland that came close to being a theocracy. Sexuality was strictly governed; contraception, abortion and divorce were forbidden; and yet the abuse of children went unpunished and was deliberately concealed by the church hierarchy for fear of damage to the institution. It is this cover-up, this shifting from parish to parish of offending priests, this determination to put the good name of the church – and its resources – above the sufferings of children that has caused such shock, shame and anger in Ireland, and many other parts of the world.<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><span color="var(--standfirst-text)" style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit;">The central character in </span><em class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--standfirst-text); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">A History of Loneliness</em><span color="var(--standfirst-text)" style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit;"> is Odran Yates, a Dubliner who enters a seminary at the age of 17. He believes that he has a vocation: his mother has told him so. The family has already been shattered by tragedy, and Odran doesn't know his own mind. His weakness opens a fault line that will deepen throughout the novel. He hides from himself what he doesn't want to see, and tells his own story with an apparently nonchalant fluency that omits a great deal. Boyne makes expert use of the gaps in Odran's narration. Inexorably, he proves that what Odran considers to be his own innocence may also be seen as wilful ignorance. In the seminary, Odran and Tom Cardle are "cellmates" for five years, and yet although Odran considers Tom his best friend, the two do not truly know each other. Tom will become one of those priests who stays only a year or two in a parish before being moved on, and Odran will close his eyes to the implications of this. The revelation that the altar boys in Tom's parish call him "Satan" appals, but fails to enlighten him.</span></p></div></div></div></div></div><div class="dcr-xq41iu" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 3px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--standfirst-text); font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 12px; max-width: 540px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">This is a harsh, unsparing novel. Here is the church stripped bare of trust and affection between priests and people, with no credit given to its work for the poor and dispossessed. The portrait of Irish society is equally lacerating. Relationships are marked by coercion and physical violence, and the image of fathers destroying their children recurs. Tom has been forced into the seminary by his father, and has neither vocation nor religious faith. After challenging the priest instructing the class the teenager runs away, but is brutally punished by his father and later returned. Odran sees his friend's face: "the greenish colour around his right eye, the bruises diminishing at last; the nasty-looking cut on his lower lip. And did I mention that one of his arms was in plaster? Here was a boy who had been beaten black and blue." Biological fathers dominate their sons, while spiritual fathers rape eight-year-old boys. Bishops connive with cardinals to ensure that the message of concealment is enforced from the top down.</p><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">One section of the novel is set in Rome, and here Boyne loses his sureness of touch. Odran at the heart of the Vatican stretches credibility, but Odran privy to hidden details about the sudden death of John Paul I is a step too far, and it breaks the emotional focus and the tension of the novel. Similarly, Odran's experience of Norway (his sister marries a Norwegian) is somewhat idealised by the novel's need to create a society that is the opposite of Ireland.</p><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">St Thomas Aquinas considered "wilful ignorance" a grave sin against faith, and this is the indictment that Boyne builds against Odran, and against the priests who knew, might have known, must have known the reasons for some of their number being moved by the hierarchy "from Billy to Jack". Odran is named after a saint, the charioteer of St Patrick and first martyr of Ireland. This is surely ironic, for his namesake avoids confrontation wherever he can. The paedophiles are on trial at last, but the silent enablers of crime are also indicted. This scorching novel takes the reader to a wasteland, "a country of drug addicts, losers, criminals, paedophiles and incompetents", as Odran finally admits that he has not been telling us the whole story, and that the confiding tone of his voice is not to be trusted. John Boyne writes with compelling anger about the abuses of power and the dangers of submission.</p><footer class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><span data-dcr-style="bullet" style="background-color: #866d50; border-radius: 50%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; content: ""; display: inline-block; font: inherit; height: 13px; margin: 0px 0.2px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 13px;"></span> Helen Dunmore's <em class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">The Lie</em> is published by Windmill.</p><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; 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border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><br /></p></footer></div></div>Ficcioneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11113302074119512881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131170244545446682.post-36667940104555706802024-03-02T03:35:00.003-05:002024-03-02T03:35:51.652-05:00Colm Tóibín Knows What Moves the Heart<p> </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Caslon Ionic", "Lucida Console", Courier, monospace; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><a href="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ColmToibinoutsideportraitflathires.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-191958 size-full" decoding="async" height="2100" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" src="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ColmToibinoutsideportraitflathires.jpg" srcset="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ColmToibinoutsideportraitflathires.jpg 1500w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ColmToibinoutsideportraitflathires-429x600.jpg 429w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ColmToibinoutsideportraitflathires-714x1000.jpg 714w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ColmToibinoutsideportraitflathires-768x1075.jpg 768w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ColmToibinoutsideportraitflathires-1097x1536.jpg 1097w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ColmToibinoutsideportraitflathires-1463x2048.jpg 1463w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ColmToibinoutsideportraitflathires-104x146.jpg 104w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ColmToibinoutsideportraitflathires-36x50.jpg 36w" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;" width="1500" /></a></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Caslon Ionic", "Lucida Console", Courier, monospace; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><br /></p><h1 class="balance-text" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 52px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 62.4px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">BODIES</span></h1><h1 class="balance-text" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 52px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 62.4px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: georgia;">Colm Tóibín Knows What Moves the Heart</span></h1><div class="story-metadata" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px;"><div class="author-date-block" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 16px 0px; text-align: center;"><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">By</em> Kiki Smith</span></h3><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Photographed by</em> Pat O'Malley</span></h3><h6 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 16.8px; margin: 16px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">October 18, 2021</span></h6></div></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">The moon, the Virgin Mary, the beauty of internal organs—these are just a few of the topics that come up when Irish author Colm Tóibín and American artist Kiki Smith get together. This time, the occasion is Tóibín’s tenth novel, <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Magician</em>, an imaginative, exquisitely researched account of the public and private life of the great German writer Thomas Mann. If every novel is a conversation between author and reader across time, Tóibín brings it full circle. He takes us back to Mann’s age, where we meet an ambitious, closeted artist at the turn of the 20th century, mixing in German aristocracy and bohemia, just as the world was turning “modern.” Here, from across the Atlantic, two friends talk about their creative impulses and how art gets made when you leave the ego out.<span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">———</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">KIKI SMITH: My father’s side of the family is Irish. Five generations of Irish Americans until my father’s parents died and then they all just married any old body. But my father would always tell me that the Irish had the largest vocabulary of any agricultural people in the world. Was that just romance on his part?</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">COLM TÓIBÍN: You can put it down to oppression. If you have no symphony orchestra, if you have no galleries, then the oral becomes the performance.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">SMITH: I often wonder if it’s all tied to the landscape, what’s available in terms of resources. Not all places are like Italy or Germany where you can drown in all the making of art.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">TÓIBÍN: I’ve been thinking of your work, and I have something I want to read to you. It’s the second stanza of a poem, “The Moon and the Yew Tree” by <a href="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/culture/sylvia-plaths-belongings-sell-double-late-husbands-auction" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">Sylvia Plath</a>. “The moon is no door, it is a face in its own right. White as a knuckle, and terribly upset.” And then in the next stanza, she writes, “The moon is my mother. She’s not sweet like Mary. Her blue garments unloose small bats and owls.” I wanted to hear your thoughts about that.</span></p><div class="htlad-Mobile_Article_MedRec_2" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px;"><div class="htl-ad htlunit-Mobile_Article_MedRec_2" data-lazy-pixels="350" data-prebid="0x0:|768x0:" data-refresh-max="20" data-refresh-secs="15" data-refresh="viewable" data-sizes="0x0:1x1,300x250,325x204,325x508|768x0:" data-unit="Mobile_Article_MedRec_2" id="htlad-3" name="htlunit-Mobile_Article_MedRec_2" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 32px 0px;"></div></div><div class="htlad-Desktop_Article_Leaderboard_2" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px;"><div class="htl-ad htlunit-Desktop_Article_Leaderboard_2" data-lazy-pixels="350" data-prebid="0x0:|768x0:|970x0:" data-refresh-max="20" data-refresh-secs="15" data-refresh="viewable" data-sizes="0x0:|768x0:1x1,728x90|970x0:1x1,728x90,970x250,970x600,620x336,1030x590" data-unit="Desktop_Article_Leaderboard_2" id="htlad-4" name="htlunit-Desktop_Article_Leaderboard_2" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 32px 0px;"></div></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">SMITH: Beautiful. I think about pollinators a lot—nighttime pollinators as opposed to daytime pollinators. I’m making a little chapel for Mary, and for me, Mary has a fierce command like the kind you see in American nuns. A command to social justice and social responsibility. And she also has a hidden fierceness, like the moon does. Last night there was a full lunar eclipse. It was a big blood moon, but you could only really see it from the West Coast.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">TÓIBÍN: You’ve done brilliant images of the moon. How do you make them?</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">SMITH: They came out of me when I was teaching. I would take students around Munich and they were completely bored with me dragging them all over, so I sent them to the planetarium. I found a book of the moon, and I started making 15-foot paintings in sections. I’ve made a lot of them, including glass paintings and prints of the moon. But they’re pretty straightforward. For this chapel, I’ve been thinking of adding a skylight, but then I thought I could make a painting of the moon instead, only a little less cold than I normally do it.</span></p><div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_191956" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; text-align: center; width: 1510px;"><a href="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/30588_SMITH-High-Resolution-%E2%80%94-300-dpi-.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><img alt="" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-191956" class="wp-image-191956 size-full" decoding="async" height="1098" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" src="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/30588_SMITH-High-Resolution-%E2%80%94-300-dpi-.jpg" srcset="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/30588_SMITH-High-Resolution-—-300-dpi-.jpg 1500w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/30588_SMITH-High-Resolution-—-300-dpi--500x366.jpg 500w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/30588_SMITH-High-Resolution-—-300-dpi--1000x732.jpg 1000w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/30588_SMITH-High-Resolution-—-300-dpi--768x562.jpg 768w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/30588_SMITH-High-Resolution-—-300-dpi--199x146.jpg 199w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/30588_SMITH-High-Resolution-—-300-dpi--50x37.jpg 50w" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;" width="1500" /></span></a><p class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-191956" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #838282; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16.5px; margin: 4px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Kiki Smith, Yellow Moon, 1998</span></p></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></p><div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_191955" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; text-align: center; width: 1510px;"><a href="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/27779_SMITH-High-Resolution-%E2%80%94-300-dpi-.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><img alt="" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-191955" class="wp-image-191955 size-full" decoding="async" height="1543" loading="lazy" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" src="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/27779_SMITH-High-Resolution-%E2%80%94-300-dpi-.jpg" srcset="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/27779_SMITH-High-Resolution-—-300-dpi-.jpg 1500w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/27779_SMITH-High-Resolution-—-300-dpi--500x514.jpg 500w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/27779_SMITH-High-Resolution-—-300-dpi--972x1000.jpg 972w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/27779_SMITH-High-Resolution-—-300-dpi--768x790.jpg 768w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/27779_SMITH-High-Resolution-—-300-dpi--1493x1536.jpg 1493w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/27779_SMITH-High-Resolution-—-300-dpi--142x146.jpg 142w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/27779_SMITH-High-Resolution-—-300-dpi--50x50.jpg 50w" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;" width="1500" /></span></a><p class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-191955" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #838282; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16.5px; margin: 4px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Kiki Smith, Untitled (Moons), 1993</span></p></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">TÓIBÍN: For me, there’s an idea in your work of dealing with something directly. You’re not saying, this is a metaphor, or this is a piece of art. You’re saying, this is as near as I can get to touching the moon.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">SMITH: I remember [Donald] Winnicott talked about artists wanting to expose themselves and remain hidden. Sometimes I think that things mean too much to me. But I really think an artwork is a collaboration between you and the universe, and you have your own secret part of it that means something to you. I’m not interested in other people knowing anything about me in a biographical sense. I just sit around and watch Netflix and scratch for ten hours a day. Most of my life is beyond boring. The challenge is to make something that somebody else can find some entrance in for themself to have an experience. What about you?</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">TÓIBÍN: In Ireland the song is more important than the singer. The singer’s job is to sing the song. So you never ever put yourself into the song, you put the song into the song. If you didn’t do that, as a singer, people would despise you.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">SMITH: In reading you, I’ve always felt you have such a big space for kindness, for love, and for clarity. I used to make my work much cooler. And part of it was because I was afraid of language. I have this friend who’s a poet, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, who talks a lot about love, and about the things you care about. I realized how incredibly uncool it was in the art world to say you love or care about something. That might have had to do with feminism in the ’70s, how people didn’t want to be reduced to being the earth and the vessel and nature and all that. They said, “No, I want to go be an electrician’s assistant or do demo work.” But then I thought, no, that’s a really good alignment, to show what you care about and what you love. It always amazes me when people can just say things that are uncomfortable and stand in that discomfort.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">TÓIBÍN: When I write about love, it’s always about loss. That other L-word is always there, wrapped around it in some way. I’m in Dublin now, and I’m only starting to write about this city because I’m away from it more than I’m here. So suddenly it’s appearing to me as history, as something lost, as something I can almost see. Whereas I can do that much easier with Enniscorthy, the town where I’m from, because I left that place long ago. I couldn’t dream of writing about New York, where I live now, but I can write about Spain, because I spent so much time there in my youth. These places are now becoming resonant for me, where I can make up fictional events happening in them. I love bringing back an old hotel in Dublin that’s no longer there and having someone sit in it. But tackling love is a complex business if you deal with it raw, because of sentimentality Pop music has taken so much of it from us. A lyric like, “I want you, baby.” You couldn’t write that in a poem or in a novel. You’d say, “Oh shut up, say something true. Say something interesting or raw.” But let me ask you something. You make work about the body. I wonder, can gay men get in on that?</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">SMITH: Everyone is in a body. Everybody knows the intolerable awkwardness of it. I just made things about bodies because I could hardly stand being in one. It’s not painful, it just felt so awkward. I had a friend who gave me a copy of <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Gray’s Anatomy </em>and I opened it up and there were fat cells, and I thought, that’s me! I’m a fat cell. Then, nerve endings. That’s me! I’m a nervous wreck. It was like having a bible in front of you that you could find yourself in. My father [artist Tony Smith] would always talk to me about the muscles of the tongue. And he thought, between the tongue and the anus, the whole of life happens. Everybody is negotiating and navigating bodies in so many ways. You could look at any aspect of your body and see all of society and how people experience themselves—the shame of the body, the exhilaration and joyousness of the body, but also the economics of bodies, of whose bodies are cared for in this society and whose are discarded. The body has everything.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><a href="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ColmToibinbookshelfflathires.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter wp-image-191957 size-full" decoding="async" height="2100" loading="lazy" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" src="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ColmToibinbookshelfflathires.jpg" srcset="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ColmToibinbookshelfflathires.jpg 1500w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ColmToibinbookshelfflathires-429x600.jpg 429w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ColmToibinbookshelfflathires-714x1000.jpg 714w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ColmToibinbookshelfflathires-768x1075.jpg 768w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ColmToibinbookshelfflathires-1097x1536.jpg 1097w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ColmToibinbookshelfflathires-1463x2048.jpg 1463w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ColmToibinbookshelfflathires-104x146.jpg 104w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ColmToibinbookshelfflathires-36x50.jpg 36w" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: auto; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; text-align: center; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;" width="1500" /></span></a></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">TÓIBÍN: I’ve been working on this novel about Thomas Mann, and one of his most famous books is <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Magic Mountain</em>. Similar to that book, his wife Katia was diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1912 and went to a sanitarium in Davos, where he went to visit her. What Mann discovered there is the X-ray, and he puts it in his novel, because he’s going to be the first novelist to really deal with this idea of the ghostly inner self, the thing that no one can touch or feel. Another thing you’re reminding me of is that when I was in Austin, I started to go to a place called Barton Springs. It’s a famous swimming pool in the middle of Austin City. The lifeguard would go at about nine, but the place wouldn’t close until ten. So for the last hour it was ghostly and the water was barely lit. There’d be hardly anybody there. But one night in the dressing room, there were just two of us. The other guy was the most exquisite example of American white-boy–ness. He could not have been more perfect, more beautiful, more unconscious of himself. He just got naked like Americans do, and he started to walk around to shower. His showering was really theatrical. I started to think that no one could ever guess that inside him, all wrapped up in squelch, were livers and kidneys and spleen and lungs and guts. The oddest part was, he was so white, and so manicured, and so hairless and so utterly perfect. It was the most astonishing idea once you started to think about it.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">SMITH: I know what you mean. I asked the artist David Wojnarowicz to come with me to a medical testing lab, and we made X-rays of us beating each other up. About ten years ago, I used an MRI to make a scan of my skull and printed it out, and it was that feeling of looking at something that I can never see. It is extraordinarily strange that we’re in a body.</span></p><div class="htlad-Mobile_Article_MedRec_3" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px;"><div class="htl-ad htlunit-Mobile_Article_MedRec_3" data-lazy-pixels="350" data-prebid="0x0:|768x0:" data-refresh-max="20" data-refresh-secs="15" data-refresh="viewable" data-sizes="0x0:1x1,300x250|768x0:" data-unit="Mobile_Article_MedRec_3" id="htlad-5" name="htlunit-Mobile_Article_MedRec_3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 32px 0px;"></div></div><div class="htlad-Desktop_Article_Leaderboard_3" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px;"><div class="htl-ad htlunit-Desktop_Article_Leaderboard_3" data-lazy-pixels="350" data-prebid="0x0:|768x0:|970x0:" data-refresh-max="20" data-refresh-secs="15" data-refresh="viewable" data-sizes="0x0:|768x0:1x1,728x90|970x0:1x1,728x90,970x250,970x600" data-unit="Desktop_Article_Leaderboard_3" id="htlad-6" name="htlunit-Desktop_Article_Leaderboard_3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 32px 0px;"></div></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">TÓIBÍN: One of my closest relationships these days is with my oncologist, who I saw today. Everything is fine, but I have to see him every six months. The first time, he had to show me where the cancer was on a scan. And I said hold on, I can’t work it out. What perspective are we seeing my body from? It’s like holding carpaccio of yourself in your hands.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">SMITH: The body is really a miracle. Also it’s a miracle that it’s the same body in most animals, just the pro- portions, the geometry, is changing and moving around.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">TÓIBÍN: Then there’s the idea of Jesus on the cross, the idea of the arms outstretched and his body slumped, having some sort of primitive power to speak to the world to the point that he breaks down.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">SMITH: It’s power. The Virgin Mary opens her arms, but not in the same way.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">TÓIBÍN: I think Mary is much more interesting than Jesus. We literally know all of Jesus’s opinions, but we know Mary as silent. Her imploring is done with her arms. That we have to imagine a life for her makes her much more interesting, in my mind, than her son.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">SMITH: Another thing that is really moving to me is the Deposition. The fallen Jesus. Last year I made a little sculpture of Jesus after seeing that exhibition at the Met that had Spanish baroque paintings from South America. There was a whipped, bloody Jesus with his limp body. It was not an active, erect body. He’s being held. Men are expendable. Historically, at least in art, they come to these violent ends more than women, their bodies are consumed. But for me, my sister died of AIDS in 1988, and it was very difficult on my mother. And I thought, that’s why people love the Virgin Mary. Her son has died. She means something to people who have lost loved ones, often too cruelly. But I was inspired by that limp pose of the figure. It’s like how a limp penis is always much more approachable to me.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">TÓIBÍN: You’ve done a very beautiful drawing of a limp penis.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">SMITH: In my father’s sculptures there was usually a mass and then an appendage. To me, the limbs are like that, you have this mass of the body that has a vitality and then you have these appendages hanging off it. The penis is sort of the most overt image of that, but arms are like that or hair falling. I think it’s an approachable pose in the representation of Jesus. Tell me, how important is it when you write that things remain hidden, or inexplicable or impenetrable or opaque?</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">TÓIBÍN: It’s absolutely essential. The tension is between concealment and revelation. And some of the concealment is when characters in fiction don’t know how they feel or don’t behave as they should. We all have an idea of the appropriate response to everything that occurs in the world, but we don’t actually respond that way. In fiction, it’s great if you have people at the moment, not doing, not feeling, not thinking. Simply stopping and thinking about something else, or whatever the mind does to avoid the experience. It’s not merely people deciding to pretend something didn’t happen, but to actually not experience it at all. So I think you do have relationships with the lost, with people in permanent states of concealment who are forced at a certain moment to say or feel something true. But it only comes after purgatorial levels of concealment of the self from the self. That’s the tension, the frozen self in the moment and then the ice cracking and something emerging that is a true feeling. That’s what I work with.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">SMITH: I’m really like that. It’s not like I’m inaccessible to myself, but there are some things, like in most families, we never spoke about, and I don’t particularly have a language for it. I think it’s something to do with being Irish-American.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">TÓIBÍN: We brought it to America. In America, two people meet and the first person talks all about themselves and what they’re feeling. And then the second person takes over and they do that, too. In Ireland that’s not how it happens. You tell jokes, you tell stories, you do imitations, but you don’t say what you’re feeling. It drives people in America nuts. But why would you want me to tell you how I’m feeling? Why would you want to know?</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">SMITH: I have this morbid melancholia that I attribute to my Irish-Americanness. I remember wanting to go to a funeral as a small child.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">TÓIBÍN: In Ireland, from a very early age you get brought to funerals. When I was a kid, when some old lady or man died, you would be brought up to this person, who you’d only seen on the street, and there they would be laid out, dead, lying on their own bed in their bedroom. You could look up the nostrils. It was fascinating!</span></p><div class="page" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px;" title="Page 3"><div class="section" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="layoutArea" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="column" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">This November, Kiki Smith opens an art exhibition at the <a href="https://www.moderna-galerija.hr/en/visit-gallery/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">National Museum of Modern Art in Zagreb, Croatia.</a></span></em></p></div></div></div></div><div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_191953" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; text-align: center; width: 1510px;"><a href="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/26653_02_SMITH_v02-HighResolution%E2%80%94300dpi.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><img alt="" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-191953" class="wp-image-191953 size-full" decoding="async" height="1873" loading="lazy" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" src="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/26653_02_SMITH_v02-HighResolution%E2%80%94300dpi.jpg" srcset="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/26653_02_SMITH_v02-HighResolution—300dpi.jpg 1500w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/26653_02_SMITH_v02-HighResolution—300dpi-481x600.jpg 481w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/26653_02_SMITH_v02-HighResolution—300dpi-801x1000.jpg 801w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/26653_02_SMITH_v02-HighResolution—300dpi-768x959.jpg 768w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/26653_02_SMITH_v02-HighResolution—300dpi-1230x1536.jpg 1230w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/26653_02_SMITH_v02-HighResolution—300dpi-117x146.jpg 117w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/26653_02_SMITH_v02-HighResolution—300dpi-40x50.jpg 40w" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;" width="1500" /></span></a><p class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-191953" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #838282; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16.5px; margin: 4px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Kiki Smith, Lilith, 1994</span></p></div><div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_191954" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; text-align: center; width: 1510px;"><a href="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/26842_SMITH-HighResolution%E2%80%94300dpi.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><img alt="" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-191954" class="wp-image-191954 size-full" decoding="async" height="1915" loading="lazy" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" src="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/26842_SMITH-HighResolution%E2%80%94300dpi.jpg" srcset="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/26842_SMITH-HighResolution—300dpi.jpg 1500w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/26842_SMITH-HighResolution—300dpi-470x600.jpg 470w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/26842_SMITH-HighResolution—300dpi-783x1000.jpg 783w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/26842_SMITH-HighResolution—300dpi-768x980.jpg 768w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/26842_SMITH-HighResolution—300dpi-1203x1536.jpg 1203w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/26842_SMITH-HighResolution—300dpi-114x146.jpg 114w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/26842_SMITH-HighResolution—300dpi-39x50.jpg 39w" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;" width="1500" /></span></a><p class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-191954" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #838282; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16.5px; margin: 4px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Kiki Smith, Untitled, 1995</span></p></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">———</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Artwork copyright © Kiki Smith, courtesy of Pace Gallery</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><a href="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/art/colm-toibin-knows-what-moves-the-heart"><span style="font-family: georgia;">INTERVIEW</span></a></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Caslon Ionic", "Lucida Console", Courier, monospace; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOGDhRPBx3rJBW7hTDTSLslTP6NKuge3NDKHIJzfSEAB7SVGa7GuwOIvKNb3iuw-nHRuV-ZZLo6OSTsv1gu-znpXnUazuI1sTtbAF5k8FTVDlWnB4gM4QJzpYo7mQk4E8dPPJum0B1AtBqi5aGPh1HitcaJuupinPuSYxvT1ViOGo5wdo9JKCqV4qTpJU/s117/0000%20dragon_circle_un%20cuarto.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="115" data-original-width="117" height="115" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOGDhRPBx3rJBW7hTDTSLslTP6NKuge3NDKHIJzfSEAB7SVGa7GuwOIvKNb3iuw-nHRuV-ZZLo6OSTsv1gu-znpXnUazuI1sTtbAF5k8FTVDlWnB4gM4QJzpYo7mQk4E8dPPJum0B1AtBqi5aGPh1HitcaJuupinPuSYxvT1ViOGo5wdo9JKCqV4qTpJU/s1600/0000%20dragon_circle_un%20cuarto.gif" width="117" /></a></div><br /><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Caslon Ionic", "Lucida Console", Courier, monospace; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><br /></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Caslon Ionic", "Lucida Console", Courier, monospace; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><br /></p>Ficcioneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11113302074119512881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131170244545446682.post-36920573092197314362024-03-01T17:52:00.006-05:002024-03-02T03:33:35.852-05:00Conversations with Sally Rooney / The 27-year-old novelist defining a generation<p style="text-align: center;"> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEihpbeH0j5zrre_xQdm7LVcpUBivRlhRK1GBVkLX7e1clXO3Hy-xaS9UDNYcn9tLri0f4PjTEQHoZ-k2FuUI9iSdYzaUI4WHEoqIqOr4fFgd-eDMNvdWIThtvKpOG3eQRbWkrWKXzj8QXv4VAU2wFU7hirkYra1cedYW6Z-_AqRpeGXpRWKcbPPLN37=s840" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="560" data-original-width="840" height="408" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEihpbeH0j5zrre_xQdm7LVcpUBivRlhRK1GBVkLX7e1clXO3Hy-xaS9UDNYcn9tLri0f4PjTEQHoZ-k2FuUI9iSdYzaUI4WHEoqIqOr4fFgd-eDMNvdWIThtvKpOG3eQRbWkrWKXzj8QXv4VAU2wFU7hirkYra1cedYW6Z-_AqRpeGXpRWKcbPPLN37=w612-h408" width="612" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption"><br /><div style="text-align: center;">Immediacy and rawness …</div><div style="text-align: center;">Sally Rooney</div><div style="text-align: center;">Photo by Erik Voake</div></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><div class="dcr-1o9zs3h" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 6px 0px 0px 6px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-b95d9b" style="-webkit-box-decoration-break: clone; background-color: #6b5840; border: 0px; box-shadow: rgb(107, 88, 64) 0.25rem 0px 0px, rgb(107, 88, 64) -0.375rem 0px 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: white; display: inline-block; font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.25rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Interview</div></div><h1 class="dcr-1hfy3o6" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: white; font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 2.125rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 42px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 6px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 1;"><span class="dcr-154wgrb" style="-webkit-box-decoration-break: clone; background-color: #121212; border: 0px; box-shadow: rgb(18, 18, 18) -6px 0px 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 4px 4px 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Conversations with Sally Rooney: the 27-year-old novelist defining a generation</span></h1><div class="dcr-1nkhjm7" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 4px 0px 0px 6px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 1;"><br /></div><div class="dcr-1nkhjm7" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 4px 0px 0px 6px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 1;"><div class="dcr-zjgnrw" data-gu-name="standfirst" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; grid-area: standfirst / standfirst / standfirst / standfirst; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-1m6c3e" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px 0px 12px; max-width: 540px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Her debut Conversations With Friends saw her hailed as ‘Salinger for the Snapchat generation’. As her second book Normal People hits shelves, Rooney discusses post-crash Ireland, the eighth amendment, and being up for the Man Booker prize</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span><div style="text-align: justify;">Alex Clark</div></div><div class="dcr-1m6c3e" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px 0px 12px; max-width: 540px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Sat 25 Aug 2018 09.00 BST<br /></div></div><br /><br /><div class="dcr-185kcx9" data-gu-name="body" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; grid-area: body / body / body / body; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 3;"><div class="dcr-klxumw" style="-webkit-box-flex: 1; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; flex-grow: 1; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 620px; z-index: 1;"><div class="dcr-7sthwg" id="maincontent" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" tabindex="0"><div class="article-body-commercial-selector article-body-viewer-selector dcr-ucgxn1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><p class="dcr-eu20cu" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><span class="dcr-1i2w9iu" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #6b5840; float: left; font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 2.625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 4px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="dcr-1jnp7wy" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 118px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: 99px; margin: 0px 4px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; pointer-events: none; vertical-align: text-top;">S</span></span><span class="dcr-eu20cu" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">ally Rooney is one of the most exciting voices to emerge in an already crackerjack new generation of Irish writers. Her debut novel, <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Conversations with Friends,</em> was written in three months – although she says the first draft was in “a terrible state” – and published in the spring of last year, to great acclaim. And here comes her second, <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Normal People</em>, already being spoken of as even more accomplished.<span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p class="dcr-eu20cu" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">The judges of this year’s Man Booker prize seem to think so; they have included the novel on their longlist (how does she feel about making the cut? “All the total cliches,” she says. “It’s amazing.”). Last year, she was named the PFD/Sunday Times young writer of the year, and she has been shortlisted for its <a data-link-name="in body link" href="https://shortstoryaward.co.uk/articles/view/145" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #6b5840; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">EFG short story award</a> as well. And she has just become the editor of the Irish literary magazine Stinging Fly, and published her first issue. She is 27.</p></div></div></div></div><p class="dcr-eu20cu" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">We meet in a buzzy, coffee-in-a-specimen-jar type of cafe in Dublin’s Merchant’s Quay area, just south of the Liffey. Over the course of our conversation she is open without being expansive, relaxed yet precise in her responses. As we part, I check on a couple of basic facts – the name of her school, siblings, et cetera. She laughs at the lack of incident she has to relate and tells me: “Just say she was quite boring and normal!”</p><p class="dcr-eu20cu" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">Spoiler: though I’d refer you to Rooney’s new novel to ponder the complicated concept of “normal”, she certainly isn’t boring.</p><p class="dcr-eu20cu" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">What is it that Rooney does that has struck such a resonant chord? Why has she so swiftly been dubbed a “Salinger for the Snapchat generation”, a novelist of the Instagram age? According to her, “it’s just stories about fake people”. Additionally, they’re the kind of people you could easily find quite annoying: usually attractive, often quite wealthy, clever, urban and urbane, prone to self-reflection and keen on verbal sparring.</p><figure class="dcr-eiqqge" id="2ac293bd-ab8c-46a4-b0b9-4340cd4c4bed" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 12px 0px 12px -240px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-1b267dg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><picture itemprop="contentUrl" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><source media="(min-width: 1300px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 1300px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" 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120dpi)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/fd6fa911cec6e96337270bbf11a090816770d790/16_430_4712_2827/master/4712.jpg?width=605&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=310cb72cbf3677bcb725fc53a6d92527 1210w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 480px)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/fd6fa911cec6e96337270bbf11a090816770d790/16_430_4712_2827/master/4712.jpg?width=605&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=50ead5b0e006512546548c95abc9ee40 605w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 375px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 375px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/fd6fa911cec6e96337270bbf11a090816770d790/16_430_4712_2827/master/4712.jpg?width=445&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=37be32390c567bb665c915358c94f3c8 890w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 375px)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/fd6fa911cec6e96337270bbf11a090816770d790/16_430_4712_2827/master/4712.jpg?width=445&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=f0d47900543c30e1cd3828d56ee8c930 445w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 320px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 320px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/fd6fa911cec6e96337270bbf11a090816770d790/16_430_4712_2827/master/4712.jpg?width=445&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=37be32390c567bb665c915358c94f3c8 890w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 320px)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/fd6fa911cec6e96337270bbf11a090816770d790/16_430_4712_2827/master/4712.jpg?width=445&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=f0d47900543c30e1cd3828d56ee8c930 445w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 0px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 0px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/fd6fa911cec6e96337270bbf11a090816770d790/16_430_4712_2827/master/4712.jpg?width=445&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=37be32390c567bb665c915358c94f3c8 890w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 0px)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/fd6fa911cec6e96337270bbf11a090816770d790/16_430_4712_2827/master/4712.jpg?width=445&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=f0d47900543c30e1cd3828d56ee8c930 445w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><img alt="Small-town life … Castlebar, County Mayo, where Rooney was born and grew up. Photograph: Alamy" class="dcr-1989ovb" height="2827" loading="lazy" src="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/fd6fa911cec6e96337270bbf11a090816770d790/16_430_4712_2827/master/4712.jpg?width=445&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=37be32390c567bb665c915358c94f3c8" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; height: 515.984px; margin: 0px; object-fit: cover; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 860px;" width="4712" /></picture></div><figcaption class="dcr-18tbxhh" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #707070; font-family: GuardianTextSans, "Guardian Text Sans Web", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: 18.9px; margin: 0px 0px 6px; padding: 6px 0px 0px; position: absolute; vertical-align: baseline; width: 220px;"><span class="dcr-1o7qj7t" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; fill: rgb(112, 112, 112); font: inherit; margin: 0px 4px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle;"><svg height="13" viewbox="0 0 18 13" width="18"><path d="M18 3.5v8l-1.5 1.5h-15l-1.5-1.5v-8l1.5-1.5h3.5l2-2h4l2 2h3.5l1.5 1.5zm-9 7.5c1.9 0 3.5-1.6 3.5-3.5s-1.6-3.5-3.5-3.5-3.5 1.6-3.5 3.5 1.6 3.5 3.5 3.5z"></path></svg></span><span class="dcr-1f2y4fi" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Small-town life Castlebar, County Mayo, where Rooney was born and grew up.</span></figcaption></figure><p class="dcr-eu20cu" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Conversations with Friends</em> is the tale of young Dubliners Frances and Bobbi and their friendship (and more) with an older couple. In conversations with other readers, I have discovered the novel provokes a huge debate, much of it concerned with whether it has a happy or disastrous ending concerning Frances’s romantic life and her affair with the older married actor Nick. Rooney and I talk for some time about the attention that particular plot point has garnered, and I am delighted to report that she endorses my interpretation, also known as the fence-sitting position: “I don’t think I was strongly in either camp,” she says. Despite the bracing directness of her work, she seems drawn to equivocation, to teasing out the paradoxes that rigid views and actions can create.</p><p class="dcr-eu20cu" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">That tightrope act has been picked up by critics. <a data-link-name="in body link" href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/07/31/a-new-kind-of-adultery-novel" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #6b5840; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Reviewing the first novel in the New Yorker</a>, Alexandra Schwartz admitted to “the curious feeling that Rooney wasn’t always sure where she was going but that she trusted herself to find out”. And for Schwartz, it paid off: “She writes with a rare, thrilling confidence, in a lucid and exacting style uncluttered with the sort of steroidal imagery and strobe flashes of figurative language that so many dutifully literary novelists employ.”</p><aside class="dcr-1rlzoii" style="background-color: #f6f6f6; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; clear: left; color: #6b5840; float: left; font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.25rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: 25px; margin: 0px 10px 1.75rem -120px; padding: 6px 10px 12px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; width: 220px;"><span class="dcr-14gqw6s" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px 4px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><svg class="dcr-30ovmo" data-testid="quote-icon" height="49" viewbox="0 0 35 25" width="70"><path d="M69.587.9c-1.842 15.556-3.89 31.316-4.708 48.1H37.043c3.07-16.784 8.391-32.544 17.602-48.1h14.942zM32.949.9c-2.047 15.556-4.094 31.316-4.912 48.1H.2C3.066 32.216 8.592 16.456 17.598.9h15.35z"></path></svg></span><blockquote class="dcr-1u4hpl4" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; quotes: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The casts of both novels flirt with the ‘grown-up world’ while also being semi-repulsed and frightened by it</blockquote><footer style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><cite class="dcr-1dq6qie" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #a1845c; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></cite></footer></aside><p class="dcr-eu20cu" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">In <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Normal People</em>, we see Marianne and Connell from school in a small town in Sligo to Trinity College Dublin and through an on-off relationship, encountering them in a series of discrete scenes that take place between 2011 and 2015.</p><p class="dcr-eu20cu" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">The narrative is shadowed by all manner of what Rooney calls “externalities” – the extreme dysfunction and violence in Marianne’s family, her wealth and Connell’s lack of it, and the wider backdrop of post-crash Ireland and the way its class structure impacts on the social and educational lives of the young – but she was clear that its major focus had to be the protagonists’ relationship. As with <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Conversations with Friends</em>, the project started life as short stories, and with Rooney following her characters down the rabbit hole, dropping in at different moments in their lives, recording how each scene, “whether it be momentous or something small, has in some way altered the dynamic between these two people so that from this time forward it will be slightly – or a lot – different”.</p><p class="dcr-eu20cu" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">I tell Rooney that I was struck by how great the gulf was between my experience of reading <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Normal People</em> – its sheer immediacy and rawness gripped me, to the point that I read it in 24 hours, finishing at 3am – and my subsequent attempts to dissect how it worked, what level of artifice it employed and why (I add that this is intended as a compliment). What particularly compels are the baton switches of power, and the ways in which they often send the participants into bewildered disarray, as here:</p><blockquote class="dcr-1mq3jfw" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 16px 0px 16px 33px; padding: 0px; quotes: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">She comes to sit down with him and he touches her cheek. He has a terrible sense all of a sudden that he could hit her face, very hard even, and she would just sit there and let him. The idea frightens him so badly that he pulls his chair back and stands up. His hands are shaking. He doesn’t know why he thought about it. Maybe he wants to do it. But it makes him feel sick. What’s wrong? she says.</em></p></blockquote><p class="dcr-eu20cu" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">But if Rooney’s talent is for interiority, for the precise, perceptive portrayal of mental and emotional landscapes, the power of her writing also relies on setting and social context, and on her presenting unglamorous, real-world problems – in <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Conversations with Friends</em>, the central character had endometriosis – alongside less tangible challenges. <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Normal People</em> is set during the years of austerity and, she says: “It would have been really difficult for me to write about young people leaving home in the west of Ireland, moving to college, and not confront the economic disparities that were emerging at that time, like the stripping back of protections for people from working-class backgrounds who were going to college. I don’t think I would have been able to really explore what was going on in those characters’ interior lives without being sensitive to the changes that were happening outside.”</p><figure class="dcr-10khgmf" id="5a64ee54-9f65-40ba-af8c-5721c04c3752" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 12px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-1b267dg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><picture itemprop="contentUrl" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><source media="(min-width: 980px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 980px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/8c60abe238b45aec8f1bf43847ee91e50804662f/0_223_4961_2976/master/4961.jpg?width=620&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=7bd9c6107b1f6246fb31cbb697366c0d 1240w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 980px)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/8c60abe238b45aec8f1bf43847ee91e50804662f/0_223_4961_2976/master/4961.jpg?width=620&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=5399318ab440803b2c9619c70f8cbf65 620w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 740px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 740px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/8c60abe238b45aec8f1bf43847ee91e50804662f/0_223_4961_2976/master/4961.jpg?width=620&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=7bd9c6107b1f6246fb31cbb697366c0d 1240w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 740px)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/8c60abe238b45aec8f1bf43847ee91e50804662f/0_223_4961_2976/master/4961.jpg?width=620&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=5399318ab440803b2c9619c70f8cbf65 620w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 660px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 660px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/8c60abe238b45aec8f1bf43847ee91e50804662f/0_223_4961_2976/master/4961.jpg?width=620&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=7bd9c6107b1f6246fb31cbb697366c0d 1240w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 660px)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/8c60abe238b45aec8f1bf43847ee91e50804662f/0_223_4961_2976/master/4961.jpg?width=620&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=5399318ab440803b2c9619c70f8cbf65 620w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 480px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 480px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/8c60abe238b45aec8f1bf43847ee91e50804662f/0_223_4961_2976/master/4961.jpg?width=605&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=0565cd0d82ac8ad2013628325f348e0a 1210w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 480px)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/8c60abe238b45aec8f1bf43847ee91e50804662f/0_223_4961_2976/master/4961.jpg?width=605&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=57c0e369e32161174355ff96adcfeb51 605w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 375px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 375px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/8c60abe238b45aec8f1bf43847ee91e50804662f/0_223_4961_2976/master/4961.jpg?width=445&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=29f0245e3ef469aa3a140f0d187210af 890w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 375px)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/8c60abe238b45aec8f1bf43847ee91e50804662f/0_223_4961_2976/master/4961.jpg?width=445&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=82606a15119fc1296f0e71c3c35cc39a 445w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 320px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 320px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/8c60abe238b45aec8f1bf43847ee91e50804662f/0_223_4961_2976/master/4961.jpg?width=445&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=29f0245e3ef469aa3a140f0d187210af 890w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 320px)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/8c60abe238b45aec8f1bf43847ee91e50804662f/0_223_4961_2976/master/4961.jpg?width=445&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=82606a15119fc1296f0e71c3c35cc39a 445w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 0px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 0px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/8c60abe238b45aec8f1bf43847ee91e50804662f/0_223_4961_2976/master/4961.jpg?width=445&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=29f0245e3ef469aa3a140f0d187210af 890w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 0px)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/8c60abe238b45aec8f1bf43847ee91e50804662f/0_223_4961_2976/master/4961.jpg?width=445&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=82606a15119fc1296f0e71c3c35cc39a 445w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><img alt="Leaving Castlebar … a road nearby." class="dcr-1989ovb" height="2976" loading="lazy" src="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/8c60abe238b45aec8f1bf43847ee91e50804662f/0_223_4961_2976/master/4961.jpg?width=445&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=29f0245e3ef469aa3a140f0d187210af" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; height: 371.984px; margin: 0px; object-fit: cover; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 620px;" width="4961" /></picture></div><figcaption class="dcr-w6u133" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #707070; font-family: GuardianTextSans, "Guardian Text Sans Web", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: 18.9px; margin: 0px 0px 6px; padding: 6px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="dcr-1o7qj7t" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; fill: rgb(112, 112, 112); font: inherit; margin: 0px 4px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle;"><svg height="13" viewbox="0 0 18 13" width="18"><path d="M18 3.5v8l-1.5 1.5h-15l-1.5-1.5v-8l1.5-1.5h3.5l2-2h4l2 2h3.5l1.5 1.5zm-9 7.5c1.9 0 3.5-1.6 3.5-3.5s-1.6-3.5-3.5-3.5-3.5 1.6-3.5 3.5 1.6 3.5 3.5 3.5z"></path></svg></span><span class="dcr-1f2y4fi" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Leaving Castlebar ... Photograph: Alamy</span></figcaption></figure><p class="dcr-eu20cu" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">Rooney was one of those mobile young people not so long ago. She was born and grew up in Castlebar, a town of around 10,000 inhabitants which is transfigured in <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" tabindex="-1">Normal People</em> as Carricklea, a place from which Marianne can’t wait to escape (“She’s never been inside the sports centre. She’s never gone drinking in the abandoned hat factory, though she has been driven past it in the car”). Although Rooney, too, yearned for “the biggest possible urban space” that Dublin offered, her upbringing appears to have been far more rewarding and generative than that of her creation. Her mother, for example, has only recently retired from running the local arts centre; both her parents are keen readers, although Rooney describes herself as reading in “a very flimsy way” in her adolescence, picking up anything that came to hand.</p><p class="dcr-eu20cu" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">She joined a writing group when she was 15. “I would come in every week and get really excited about bringing in my little rubbish story!” she recalls. “It definitely wasn’t like I moved to Dublin and met other writers and then realised I wanted to be a writer; I was lucky that in Castlebar there’s a writing community, there were a lot of people around who were working seriously on really interesting stuff. So in that sense I was blessed, and I had people who were willing to encourage me when I was 15.” She has an older brother and younger sister, both of whom now live in Dublin.</p></div><div class="dcr-1nkhjm7" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 4px 0px 0px 6px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 1;"><br /></div><div class="dcr-1nkhjm7" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 4px 0px 0px 6px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 1;"><p class="dcr-eu20cu" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">The world she describes in <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Normal People</em> is very much the rarefied realm of Trinity College, where she studied English literature as an undergraduate before completing a master’s in American literature. In her first week there, she met Thomas Morris, who became a close friend and published ahead of her, with his short story collection <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" tabindex="-1">We Don’t Know What We’re Doing</em>. “My only experience of Dublin at the time was Trinity,” Rooney says, “which is such a tiny section of Dublin society, and very insular. When I was in Trinity, at least for the first couple of years, I didn’t really interact with anyone who wasn’t in Trinity. A lot of the years I lived on campus. And these are very much the people I write about in the book, but that’s not me making a commentary on Dublin.”</p><p class="dcr-eu20cu" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">Towards the end of <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Normal People</em>, Connell goes to see a visiting writer read from his work, and finds it lacking: “It was culture as class performance, literature fetishised for its ability to take educated people on false emotional journeys, so that they might afterwards feel superior to the uneducated people whose emotional journeys they liked to read about.”</p><figure class="dcr-eiqqge" id="9a4e3fcd-b759-4928-a12d-7f44508fb93d" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 12px 0px 12px -240px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-1b267dg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><picture itemprop="contentUrl" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><source media="(min-width: 1300px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 1300px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/6ea746ac05ee68dc6ea761795b47a76ab0e47a7e/0_123_3352_2011/master/3352.jpg?width=860&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=0274f25ce5d40a9fbaf4f6245ea0480d 1720w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 1300px)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/6ea746ac05ee68dc6ea761795b47a76ab0e47a7e/0_123_3352_2011/master/3352.jpg?width=860&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=d7b30a0ea8f4de475c9c5587cc2e60e1 860w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 1140px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 1140px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/6ea746ac05ee68dc6ea761795b47a76ab0e47a7e/0_123_3352_2011/master/3352.jpg?width=780&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=7d4136bf5a27adda3d4468df608342b7 1560w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 1140px)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/6ea746ac05ee68dc6ea761795b47a76ab0e47a7e/0_123_3352_2011/master/3352.jpg?width=780&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=212528117d28a7fd3130183da726a692 780w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 660px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 660px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/6ea746ac05ee68dc6ea761795b47a76ab0e47a7e/0_123_3352_2011/master/3352.jpg?width=620&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=09d03b70a8ae00a6abbf834f12fd4802 1240w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 660px)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/6ea746ac05ee68dc6ea761795b47a76ab0e47a7e/0_123_3352_2011/master/3352.jpg?width=620&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=0631616376e861e79304ffc89a31c4d3 620w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 480px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 480px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/6ea746ac05ee68dc6ea761795b47a76ab0e47a7e/0_123_3352_2011/master/3352.jpg?width=605&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=7db9afff1b2f1b49a36f17a35d004dad 1210w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 480px)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/6ea746ac05ee68dc6ea761795b47a76ab0e47a7e/0_123_3352_2011/master/3352.jpg?width=605&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=014fbc1720b69e72fa4601bd85723b31 605w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 375px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 375px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/6ea746ac05ee68dc6ea761795b47a76ab0e47a7e/0_123_3352_2011/master/3352.jpg?width=445&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=66e2851860bdde64fda13195a195493e 890w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 375px)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/6ea746ac05ee68dc6ea761795b47a76ab0e47a7e/0_123_3352_2011/master/3352.jpg?width=445&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=e099f07d80c72c4e82c33cd5a9ef7356 445w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 320px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 320px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/6ea746ac05ee68dc6ea761795b47a76ab0e47a7e/0_123_3352_2011/master/3352.jpg?width=445&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=66e2851860bdde64fda13195a195493e 890w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 320px)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/6ea746ac05ee68dc6ea761795b47a76ab0e47a7e/0_123_3352_2011/master/3352.jpg?width=445&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=e099f07d80c72c4e82c33cd5a9ef7356 445w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 0px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 0px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/6ea746ac05ee68dc6ea761795b47a76ab0e47a7e/0_123_3352_2011/master/3352.jpg?width=445&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=66e2851860bdde64fda13195a195493e 890w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 0px)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/6ea746ac05ee68dc6ea761795b47a76ab0e47a7e/0_123_3352_2011/master/3352.jpg?width=445&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=e099f07d80c72c4e82c33cd5a9ef7356 445w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><img alt="Signs of change … Campaigners in Dublin await the result of the eighth amendment referendum." class="dcr-1989ovb" height="2011" loading="lazy" src="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/6ea746ac05ee68dc6ea761795b47a76ab0e47a7e/0_123_3352_2011/master/3352.jpg?width=445&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=66e2851860bdde64fda13195a195493e" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; height: 515.984px; margin: 0px; object-fit: cover; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 860px;" width="3352" /></picture></div><figcaption class="dcr-18tbxhh" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #707070; font-family: GuardianTextSans, "Guardian Text Sans Web", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: 18.9px; margin: 0px 0px 6px; padding: 6px 0px 0px; position: absolute; vertical-align: baseline; width: 220px;"><span class="dcr-1o7qj7t" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; fill: rgb(112, 112, 112); font: inherit; margin: 0px 4px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle;"><svg height="13" viewbox="0 0 18 13" width="18"><path d="M18 3.5v8l-1.5 1.5h-15l-1.5-1.5v-8l1.5-1.5h3.5l2-2h4l2 2h3.5l1.5 1.5zm-9 7.5c1.9 0 3.5-1.6 3.5-3.5s-1.6-3.5-3.5-3.5-3.5 1.6-3.5 3.5 1.6 3.5 3.5 3.5z"></path></svg></span><span class="dcr-1f2y4fi" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Signs of change … Campaigners in Dublin await the result of the eighth amendment referendum.</span> Photograph: Paul Faith/AFP/Getty Images</figcaption></figure><p class="dcr-eu20cu" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">Both Frances, from <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Conversations</em>, and Connell have stories accepted by literary magazines during the course of the books, as did Rooney herself. But, like them, she didn’t embrace the prospect of the publishing world: “I wasn’t really interested in it. I wasn’t really interested in sending manuscripts out to agents. I just wanted to sit in my room and write.”</p></div><div class="dcr-1nkhjm7" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 4px 0px 0px 6px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 1;"><p class="dcr-eu20cu" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">Rooney’s characters are politically literate and opinionated to different degrees, drawn to and sometimes upended by drink, drugs and sex. Frances and Bobbi wrangle endlessly about political and economic theory; Marianne hopes for a swift and brutal revolution. Like many young adults, the casts of both novels flirt with what they perceive as a “grown-up” world – in <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Normal People</em>, there’s a dinner party in Italy, during which they squabble over the correct glasses for champagne, like middle-aged arrivistes – while also being semi-repulsed and frightened by it.</p><p class="dcr-eu20cu" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><strong style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">¶</strong></p><p class="dcr-eu20cu" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">I ask Rooney about the large and loose group of writers with whom she’s now becoming associated, a group characterised by the range and innovation of their work, including <a data-link-name="in body link" href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/nov/26/guardian-first-book-award-2014-colin-barrett-short-stories" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #6b5840; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Colin Barrett</a>, <a data-link-name="in body link" href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/lisa-mcinerney" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #6b5840; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Lisa McInerney</a> and Eimear McBride. What does she think has caused such a flourishing of new talent? “I think first of all it definitely has to do with the financial crisis,” she replies. All the writers we’ve been talking about are post-crash, and “that’s when that stuff starts getting published. So there has to be something in the cultural conditions generated by the financial crisis that’s connected to the way people are writing now, or the way they’re thinking about fiction.”</p><p class="dcr-eu20cu" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">She ponders whether the <a data-link-name="in body link" href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2010/jan/03/ireland-economy-financial-recession" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #6b5840; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">end of the Celtic Tiger years</a> brought with it not only disillusion but “also a freedom to speak more critically about Irish society, in the way that maybe there was a bit too much cultural cheerleading going on during the Celtic Tiger years. Obviously the economy in particular, but also if you look at the social change that has emerged in those years since the crash in Ireland, I think it speaks to a deep cultural shift that has taken place in part maybe because of the recession.”</p><p class="dcr-eu20cu" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">On this matter and others, Rooney is eager to qualify her arguments: she was, she points out, only a teenager during the years of boom and bust, and she is also wary of sounding as though “it was all worth it because we got some good books out of it”. But, she maintains: “I do think that it inaugurated a period of serious social critique, and from that we’ve seen a change – referendums and so on.”</p><aside class="dcr-1rlzoii" style="background-color: #f6f6f6; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; clear: left; color: #6b5840; float: left; font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.25rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: 25px; margin: 0px 10px 1.75rem -120px; padding: 6px 10px 12px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; width: 220px;"><span class="dcr-14gqw6s" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px 4px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><svg class="dcr-30ovmo" data-testid="quote-icon" height="49" viewbox="0 0 35 25" width="70"><path d="M69.587.9c-1.842 15.556-3.89 31.316-4.708 48.1H37.043c3.07-16.784 8.391-32.544 17.602-48.1h14.942zM32.949.9c-2.047 15.556-4.094 31.316-4.912 48.1H.2C3.066 32.216 8.592 16.456 17.598.9h15.35z"></path></svg></span><blockquote class="dcr-1u4hpl4" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; quotes: none; vertical-align: baseline;">By the time the abortion referendum came around, ‘it felt like I’d been nursing anger for a really long time’</blockquote><footer style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><cite class="dcr-1dq6qie" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #a1845c; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></cite></footer></aside><p class="dcr-eu20cu" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">The referendum that Rooney is talking about is the repeal of the Irish constitution’s eighth amendment at the end of May, in which the country voted overwhelmingly to allow women the right to terminate pregnancy. (We went on to talk about the other referendum, of which more in due course.) I knew that Rooney, along with many Irish writers, had been vocal in her support for the Yes campaign, and I ask her what the experience felt like.</p><p class="dcr-eu20cu" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">“It’s hard to talk about it,” she says. “It’s something that I cared about a lot for a long time.” At school, she recalls anti-abortion groups visiting and showing the pupils videos of foetuses; beyond basic sex education, there was no counter-view outlining the argument that women should have control over their reproductive rights. She was, she says, “very oppositional” and “quite belligerent”; and this, she thought, was an issue worth feeling rage over, even though the prospect of repeal wasn’t even under discussion then. By the time the referendum came around, “it felt like I’d just been nursing that anger for a really long time”.</p></div><div class="dcr-1nkhjm7" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 4px 0px 0px 6px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 1;"><p class="dcr-eu20cu" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">The day itself, she recalls, was a heady mixture of celebration, exhaustion, disbelief and relief, but it quickly yielded to a different perspective. “All that suffering was so pointless,” she says. “Why did we do that? Why did we do any of that? Thirty years. All this anger and sadness, and all the horrible things that have happened to people. People have actually suffered for this law, and people died ... It was hard to sustain that feeling of jubilation because none of this should ever have happened.”</p><p class="dcr-eu20cu" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">It’s striking that Rooney speaks in very calm and measured tones, frequently circling back to make sure she’s expressed herself clearly; but she also uses noticeably direct emotional language to describe aspects of her experience. It’s weird, she says, to let go of the “wound” that she felt over abortion law, pre repeal; and when we move on to talk about <a data-component="auto-linked-tag" data-link-name="in body link" href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/eu-referendum" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #6b5840; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Brexit</a>, she refers to the dismissive way that Irish concerns about the impact on the border and on the Good Friday agreement have been treated as “hurtful”.</p><figure class="dcr-eiqqge" id="8cee1065-e358-471d-9cc2-82a3b50aabe1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 12px 0px 12px -240px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-1b267dg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><picture itemprop="contentUrl" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><source media="(min-width: 1300px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 1300px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/e8e5712583a8fbe7f640a1946366e244c75d575b/0_192_5147_3088/master/5147.jpg?width=860&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=012b3bcef241c19f075471c086bd582d 1720w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 1300px)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/e8e5712583a8fbe7f640a1946366e244c75d575b/0_192_5147_3088/master/5147.jpg?width=860&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=caf9ad7c2a2798c8737b8937d92dd571 860w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 1140px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 1140px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/e8e5712583a8fbe7f640a1946366e244c75d575b/0_192_5147_3088/master/5147.jpg?width=780&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=f28acd9a5503fb6fe244d7555bcba0a9 1560w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 1140px)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/e8e5712583a8fbe7f640a1946366e244c75d575b/0_192_5147_3088/master/5147.jpg?width=780&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=299423da1d36302375e40ea78ddd1597 780w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 660px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 660px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/e8e5712583a8fbe7f640a1946366e244c75d575b/0_192_5147_3088/master/5147.jpg?width=620&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=5d40c0d5961893e72447dd46b058e655 1240w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 660px)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/e8e5712583a8fbe7f640a1946366e244c75d575b/0_192_5147_3088/master/5147.jpg?width=620&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=214321d4397c98ddf5a0ec1a4ca2ca40 620w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 480px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 480px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/e8e5712583a8fbe7f640a1946366e244c75d575b/0_192_5147_3088/master/5147.jpg?width=605&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=176ce59e88442c7519a96b54783d7c44 1210w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 480px)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/e8e5712583a8fbe7f640a1946366e244c75d575b/0_192_5147_3088/master/5147.jpg?width=605&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=bc43473a0f15e2675086303cb7d4a8b1 605w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 375px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 375px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/e8e5712583a8fbe7f640a1946366e244c75d575b/0_192_5147_3088/master/5147.jpg?width=445&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=31755a6f38037593fc544bd322939535 890w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 375px)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/e8e5712583a8fbe7f640a1946366e244c75d575b/0_192_5147_3088/master/5147.jpg?width=445&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=23d9d9b0649646a1744e6e595bf1b011 445w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 320px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 320px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/e8e5712583a8fbe7f640a1946366e244c75d575b/0_192_5147_3088/master/5147.jpg?width=445&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=31755a6f38037593fc544bd322939535 890w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 320px)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/e8e5712583a8fbe7f640a1946366e244c75d575b/0_192_5147_3088/master/5147.jpg?width=445&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=23d9d9b0649646a1744e6e595bf1b011 445w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 0px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 0px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/e8e5712583a8fbe7f640a1946366e244c75d575b/0_192_5147_3088/master/5147.jpg?width=445&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=31755a6f38037593fc544bd322939535 890w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 0px)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/e8e5712583a8fbe7f640a1946366e244c75d575b/0_192_5147_3088/master/5147.jpg?width=445&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=23d9d9b0649646a1744e6e595bf1b011 445w" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><img alt="Financial ruins … a half-finished new housing project at Rathkeale, County Limerick." class="dcr-1989ovb" height="3088" loading="lazy" src="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/e8e5712583a8fbe7f640a1946366e244c75d575b/0_192_5147_3088/master/5147.jpg?width=445&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=31755a6f38037593fc544bd322939535" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; height: 515.984px; margin: 0px; object-fit: cover; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 860px;" width="5147" /></picture></div><figcaption class="dcr-18tbxhh" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #707070; font-family: GuardianTextSans, "Guardian Text Sans Web", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: 18.9px; margin: 0px 0px 6px; padding: 6px 0px 0px; position: absolute; vertical-align: baseline; width: 220px;"><span class="dcr-1o7qj7t" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; fill: rgb(112, 112, 112); font: inherit; margin: 0px 4px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle;"><svg height="13" viewbox="0 0 18 13" width="18"><path d="M18 3.5v8l-1.5 1.5h-15l-1.5-1.5v-8l1.5-1.5h3.5l2-2h4l2 2h3.5l1.5 1.5zm-9 7.5c1.9 0 3.5-1.6 3.5-3.5s-1.6-3.5-3.5-3.5-3.5 1.6-3.5 3.5 1.6 3.5 3.5 3.5z"></path></svg></span><span class="dcr-1f2y4fi" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Financial ruins … a half-finished new housing project at Rathkeale, County Limerick.</span> Photograph: Tim Graham/Getty Images</figcaption></figure><p class="dcr-eu20cu" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">Well in advance of the UK referendum, she argues, “everyone on this island was saying Northern Ireland is the big issue, and none of you are talking about it. It’s like the British media just didn’t care. All you kept talking about was whether Jeremy Corbyn’s a good Labour leader and if he cares about remain enough, and tariffs and rates. Is anyone in the UK listening?”</p><p class="dcr-eu20cu" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">The stakes, as she points out, are high: “A civil conflict that claimed thousands of lives has recently finished due to an agreement that could have to be torn up. And it was maybe five minutes at the end of a half-hour Brexit chat.”</p></div><div class="dcr-1nkhjm7" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 4px 0px 0px 6px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 1;"><p class="dcr-eu20cu" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">It feels more or less the same now, she says, “and meanwhile the DUP are basically in government”. I remark that, for a younger generation, whose lives and understanding of Irish history have been imbued with the conflict, and who believed that it had been resolved, the idea that anyone would allow peace to be threatened must seem like madness. “I think we’re in that position a lot!” she laughs.</p><p class="dcr-eu20cu" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">Back to the writing. With two books out so quickly, is a third on the horizon? “I’m working on something,” she says, explaining that it only began life at the end of a recent summer holiday with her partner, a teacher. “And I honestly feel so much happier. When I’m writing something everything falls into place. When I’m not writing, stuff keeps happening to me and there’s nowhere to put it all.”</p><p class="dcr-eu20cu" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">I wonder if she feels any kind of pressure to branch out, to write something set in a different milieu or time. She assures me that a thriller, or a work of historical fiction, will not be forthcoming (“The idea of having to …” she says, and trails off). But that’s not to say that there isn’t a certain degree of self-scrutiny. “A lot of the time I read something I’ve written and I think, well, that’s competent, it’s not exactly breaking any boundaries, it’s not exactly transgressive. It’s just a bunch of fake people in a room talking to each other. But maybe there’s a value to that … ” I point out that Jane Austen’s novels could be described as fake people talking in a room, and we briefly mention Henry James. The key, she thinks, might be “finding something you can do well, and accepting that, but not forcing yourself to take on other people’s ambitions for you”.</p><p class="dcr-eu20cu" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">But it is clear that Rooney intends to keep on writing, however large or small her canvas becomes. And it’s also evident that the desire to write is its own reward. “There’s an open question, isn’t there? Why even read fiction now at this historical moment? And I can’t answer that.”</p><p class="dcr-eu20cu" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">But it’s not your job to answer.</p><p class="dcr-eu20cu" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">“No, it’s not. And I feel that I have to be very clear on that. I’m not writing to encourage people to read my book or even books in general. That’s not my job. My job is to write them. And if people want to read them, that’s great.</p><p class="dcr-eu20cu" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">“I feel like it’s tough to toe that line. I’m not trying to denigrate my work. But at the same time, I’m not making any claims for it. It is what it is.”</p><span class="dcr-1tjctaq" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><footer style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><span data-dcr-style="bullet" style="background-color: #a1845c; border-radius: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; content: ""; display: inline-block; font: inherit; height: 0.95rem; margin: 0px 0.0125rem 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 0.95rem;"></span> <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Sally Rooney’s Normal People is published by Faber</em><em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">. </em><em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Normal People by Sally Rooney (Faber & Faber, £14.99).</em></p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/aug/25/sally-rooney-interview-normal-people-conversations-with-friends">THE GUARDIAN</a></footer><footer style="border: 0px; 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font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><br /></p></footer></span></div><div class="dcr-1nkhjm7" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 4px 0px 0px 6px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 1;"><br /></div><div class="dcr-1nkhjm7" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 4px 0px 0px 6px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 1;"><br /></div><div class="dcr-1nkhjm7" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 4px 0px 0px 6px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 1;"><br /></div>Ficcioneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11113302074119512881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131170244545446682.post-81761038937536937562024-03-01T17:52:00.005-05:002024-03-01T17:52:43.486-05:00Sally Rooney’s new novel Intermezzo to be published in September<p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR0PjXZLqebhGkc4zNbMp05T0uJa6GMwxxIbnIbEZ_KxJBjR_jN74ewrW2Y9JdADE4t3NBnRIFcqi2JBD3qkL1rQ9J1gAgAhfLHzDiAwRMDzVmKDpxgEEIHto9jeb6SAreKLbU_uJ3sh_qHkd4rk8dMvlF9IpuOrd7kxOvutl9TiAvA6tAP_d7p3SlaDw/s1152/sally%20rooney%20002sw.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="768" height="598" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR0PjXZLqebhGkc4zNbMp05T0uJa6GMwxxIbnIbEZ_KxJBjR_jN74ewrW2Y9JdADE4t3NBnRIFcqi2JBD3qkL1rQ9J1gAgAhfLHzDiAwRMDzVmKDpxgEEIHto9jeb6SAreKLbU_uJ3sh_qHkd4rk8dMvlF9IpuOrd7kxOvutl9TiAvA6tAP_d7p3SlaDw/w398-h598/sally%20rooney%20002sw.jpeg" width="398" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sally Rooney</td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><div class="dcr-1djovmt" data-gu-name="headline" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-area: headline / headline / headline / headline; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-14emo0l" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 620px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-1msbrj1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 36px; vertical-align: baseline;"><h1 class="dcr-1m6z4y2" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 4px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--headline-colour); font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 2.125rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px; padding: 4px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Sally Rooney’s new novel Intermezzo to be published in September</h1></div></div></div><div class="dcr-1yi1cnj" data-gu-name="standfirst" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-area: standfirst / standfirst / standfirst / standfirst; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-1teqwow" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 12px; max-width: 540px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">The bestselling author’s fourth novel, which will focus on two brothers, is set to be a ‘standout highlight’ of this year’s fiction titles</span></span><br /></span><br /><br />Lucy Knight</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Thu 29 Feb 2024 14.00 GMT</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></p><p class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">The wait is nearly over for Sally Rooney’s legions of fans – the Irish writer has announced her next novel, due to be published this autumn.<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">Intermezzo, the bestselling author’s fourth novel, will feature Rooney’s trademark theme of complicated relationships between young people, but this time the focus will primarily be on two brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek.</p><div id="sign-in-gate" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><gu-island config="{"renderingTarget":"Web","darkModeAvailable":false}" data-island-status="hydrated" deferuntil="visible" name="SignInGateSelector" priority="feature" props="{"contentType":"Article","sectionId":"books","tags":[{"id":"books/books","type":"Keyword","title":"Books"},{"id":"campaign/email/bookmarks","type":"Campaign","title":"Bookmarks (newsletter signup)"},{"id":"culture/culture","type":"Keyword","title":"Culture"},{"id":"books/sally-rooney","type":"Keyword","title":"Sally Rooney"},{"id":"books/fiction","type":"Keyword","title":"Fiction"},{"id":"books/publishing","type":"Keyword","title":"Publishing"},{"id":"type/article","type":"Type","title":"Article"},{"id":"tone/news","type":"Tone","title":"News"},{"id":"profile/lucy-knight","type":"Contributor","title":"Lucy Knight","bylineImageUrl":"https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2019/03/21/Lucy_Knight.jpg?width=300&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=71b6ddc7898cfa56daf13790ed851f0f"},{"id":"publication/theguardian","type":"Publication","title":"The Guardian"},{"id":"theguardian/mainsection","type":"NewspaperBook","title":"Main section"},{"id":"theguardian/mainsection/uknews","type":"NewspaperBookSection","title":"UK news"},{"id":"tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-culture","type":"Tracking","title":"UK Culture"}],"isPaidContent":false,"isPreview":false,"host":"https://www.theguardian.com","pageId":"books/2024/feb/29/sally-rooney-new-novel-intermezzo-to-be-published-in-september","idUrl":"https://profile.theguardian.com","switches":{"prebidAppnexusUkRow":true,"externalVideoEmbeds":true,"abSignInGateMainVariant":true,"lightbox":true,"ophanNext":true,"commercialMetrics":true,"prebidTrustx":true,"scAdFreeBanner":false,"adaptiveSite":true,"prebidPermutiveAudience":true,"compareVariantDecision":false,"enableSentryReporting":true,"lazyLoadContainers":true,"ampArticleSwitch":true,"remarketing":true,"articleEndSlot":true,"keyEventsCarousel":true,"registerWithPhone":false,"targeting":true,"remoteHeader":true,"slotBodyEnd":true,"prebidImproveDigitalSkins":true,"ampPrebidOzone":true,"extendedMostPopularFronts":true,"emailInlineInFooter":true,"showNewPrivacyWordingOnEmailSignupEmbeds":true,"prebidAnalytics":true,"extendedMostPopular":true,"ampContentAbTesting":false,"prebidCriteo":true,"okta":false,"imrWorldwide":true,"acast":true,"automaticFilters":true,"twitterUwt":true,"prebidAppnexusInvcode":true,"ampPrebidPubmatic":true,"a9HeaderBidding":true,"prebidAppnexus":true,"enableDiscussionSwitch":true,"prebidXaxis":true,"stickyVideos":true,"interactiveFullHeaderSwitch":true,"discussionAllPageSize":true,"prebidUserSync":true,"audioOnwardJourneySwitch":true,"brazeTaylorReport":false,"callouts":true,"sentinelLogger":true,"geoMostPopular":true,"weAreHiring":false,"relatedContent":true,"thirdPartyEmbedTracking":true,"prebidOzone":true,"ampLiveblogSwitch":true,"ampAmazon":true,"prebidAdYouLike":true,"mostViewedFronts":true,"discussionInApps":false,"optOutAdvertising":true,"abSignInGateMainControl":true,"headerTopNav":true,"googleSearch":true,"brazeSwitch":true,"darkModeInApps":true,"prebidKargo":true,"consentManagement":true,"crosswordMobileBanner":true,"personaliseSignInGateAfterCheckout":true,"redplanetForAus":true,"prebidSonobi":true,"idProfileNavigation":true,"confiantAdVerification":true,"discussionAllowAnonymousRecommendsSwitch":false,"dcrTagPages":true,"permutive":true,"comscore":true,"ampPrebidCriteo":true,"abMpuWhenNoEpic":false,"newsletterOnwards":false,"youtubeIma":true,"webFonts":true,"prebidImproveDigital":true,"ophan":true,"crosswordSvgThumbnails":true,"prebidTriplelift":true,"weather":true,"disableAmpTest":true,"prebidPubmatic":true,"serverShareCounts":false,"autoRefresh":true,"enhanceTweets":true,"prebidIndexExchange":true,"prebidOpenx":true,"prebidHeaderBidding":true,"mobileDiscussionAds":true,"idCookieRefresh":true,"discussionPageSize":true,"smartAppBanner":false,"boostGaUserTimingFidelity":false,"historyTags":true,"brazeContentCards":true,"surveys":true,"remoteBanner":true,"emailSignupRecaptcha":true,"prebidSmart":true,"shouldLoadGoogletag":true,"inizio":true}}" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></gu-island></div><p class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">Peter, a Dublin lawyer in his 30s, seemingly has little in common with his younger brother Ivan, a socially awkward competitive chess player. When their father dies, the brothers’ lives change. The apparently successful and competent Peter begins to self-medicate, and struggles to navigate relationships with two women: his first love, Sylvia, and Naomi, a college student. Meanwhile Ivan becomes involved with an older woman Margaret, his life becoming quickly and intensely intertwined with hers.</p><p class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">“For two grieving brothers and the people they love, this is a new interlude – a period of desire, despair and possibility, – a chance to find out how much one life might hold inside itself without breaking,” publisher Faber and Faber’s description of the novel reads.</p><p class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">“After three miraculous books, Sally Rooney’s millions of readers will recognise the beauty and insight, the pain and hope that radiates from this new novel”, Faber’s Alex Bowler said. “But it marks an exquisite advance, too, in the work of a writer who seems so attuned to our lives, our hearts and our times.”</p><p class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">Rooney’s previous novels have all been international bestsellers, and Normal People and Conversations With Friends have been adapted for BBC television series. The writer’s most recent title, Beautiful World, Where Are You, sold more than 40,000 copies in just five days when it was published in September 2021, with 50 booksellers across the UK opening early on its publication day to cater for the demand, while a Rooney pop-up shop opened in Shoreditch. Plans are under way for Intermezzo’s publication, with Rooney expected to appear at events in London and Dublin.</p><p class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">The advanced reader copies (ARCs) sent out to influencers and media professionals before Beautiful World’s publication were called “the status galley of the summer” by Vanity Fair’s Delia Cai. Some ARCs, which were clearly marked “not for resale” appeared on trading sites such as eBay and Depop, with one copy selling on eBay for $209.16 (£165.38).</p><p class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">Bea Carvalho, head of books at Waterstones said she expects the publication of Intermezzo to be “a standout highlight” of this year’s fiction titles. “Few authors are as beloved among our booksellers”, she said. “We remember fondly launching Beautiful World, Where Are You in Waterstones Piccadilly with one of the first major bookshop book signings after the turbulent period of lockdowns and shop closures: a reminder of the joy to be found in the community of bookshops.”</p><p class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">Rooney’s books have sold 3m copies in the UK and Ireland alone, and have been translated into more than 40 languages. In 2021, Rooney turned down an offer from the Israeli publisher that translated her two previous novels into Hebrew, due to her stance on the Israel-Palestine conflict. Writing in the Observer in December 2023, in conversation with Palestinian author Isabella Hammad, Rooney wrote that she was “at a loss to understand” the recent events in Gaza. “Nothing can make sense of it. Everything in me rebels against what I’m witnessing.”</p><p class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">In 2022, Time magazine named Rooney among the 100 most influential people. The novelist lives and works in County Mayo, Ireland, where she was born.</p><p class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">Intermezzo, the cover of which is yet to be revealed, will be published on 24 September.</p><ul class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><li class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: flow-root; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 6px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><p class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">Intermezzo by Sally Rooney (Faber & Faber, £20).</p></li></ul><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/feb/29/sally-rooney-new-novel-intermezzo-to-be-published-in-september"><br /></a></p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/feb/29/sally-rooney-new-novel-intermezzo-to-be-published-in-september">THE GUARDIAN</a></p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOv8xNbX-8eHINMb9eLFXjb1RDZNVbrWpHwEdLj1yEanfdg5bFIjv7k59M6xk_75wDwedarIAUXsTCoGJ1G1LxmxIRfBmsaHDuf9xJuKFoe0hmiTRZll__hSPI3UjNuR7xLIzwVC8Q6sHhLFf7TS2d3UQpMfHdWnz8COG0hYyPYq-fMpet8OJMv41G9QI/s117/0000%20dragon_circle_un%20cuarto.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="115" data-original-width="117" height="115" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOv8xNbX-8eHINMb9eLFXjb1RDZNVbrWpHwEdLj1yEanfdg5bFIjv7k59M6xk_75wDwedarIAUXsTCoGJ1G1LxmxIRfBmsaHDuf9xJuKFoe0hmiTRZll__hSPI3UjNuR7xLIzwVC8Q6sHhLFf7TS2d3UQpMfHdWnz8COG0hYyPYq-fMpet8OJMv41G9QI/s1600/0000%20dragon_circle_un%20cuarto.gif" width="117" /></a></div><main data-layout="StandardLayout" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--standfirst-text); font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><article class="dcr-13ojipo" style="background-color: var(--article-background); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-1y30hqo" style="border-bottom: 0px; border-image: initial; border-left: 1px solid var(--article-border); border-right: 1px solid var(--article-border); border-top: 0px; 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margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 5;"><div class="dcr-v4ay52" style="-webkit-box-flex: 1; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; flex-grow: 1; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 620px; z-index: 1;"><div class="dcr-lw02qf" id="maincontent" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="article-body-commercial-selector article-body-viewer-selector dcr-1g5o3j6" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><p class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; -webkit-mask-image: linear-gradient(black, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5)); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; 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font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; top: 3165px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div class="scroll-depth-marker" data-depth="2" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--standfirst-text); font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; top: 2110px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div class="scroll-depth-marker" data-depth="1" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--standfirst-text); font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; top: 1055px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div></div></div>Ficcioneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11113302074119512881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131170244545446682.post-48042462063019207192024-02-29T16:03:00.004-05:002024-02-29T16:03:32.458-05:00Why Poor Things should win the best picture Oscar<p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEXRtE866iw_EAvEeuYeZPWQs8rcVVwVtNUX4ghJAvp2pBYbEJTKVL9sWj2_Seixi7HBQM9kiE7HoyU9lTTetIe3z6iPybAPMMRLi37f6btR7fZlo255_stmLDPCEHWoPnufMkYGPYg5VhE9BNbjuiA23mEQrJfEtcuORDEfDupL0SPOV379iaRUvSGJA/s1988/emma%20stone%20007s.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1988" data-original-width="1600" height="577" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEXRtE866iw_EAvEeuYeZPWQs8rcVVwVtNUX4ghJAvp2pBYbEJTKVL9sWj2_Seixi7HBQM9kiE7HoyU9lTTetIe3z6iPybAPMMRLi37f6btR7fZlo255_stmLDPCEHWoPnufMkYGPYg5VhE9BNbjuiA23mEQrJfEtcuORDEfDupL0SPOV379iaRUvSGJA/w465-h577/emma%20stone%20007s.png" width="465" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Emma Stone</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><h1 class="dcr-h5yuj3" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 4px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--headline-colour); font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 2.125rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px; padding: 4px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Why Poor Things should win the best picture Oscar</h1><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;">This scabrous and risky melodrama, with a magnificent performance by Emma Stone, is an object lesson in real art rising above social media scolding</span></p><p><br /></p><p>Peter Bradshaw</p><p>29 February 2024</p><p><br /></p><p class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">“You did not see me working on myself to get HAPPINESS did you?”</p><p class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">“What of the TONGUE-PLAY? Is that not happening?”</p><div id="sign-in-gate" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><gu-island config="{"renderingTarget":"Web","darkModeAvailable":false}" data-island-status="hydrated" deferuntil="visible" name="SignInGateSelector" priority="feature" props="{"contentType":"Article","sectionId":"film","tags":[{"id":"film/oscars-2024","type":"Keyword","title":"Oscars 2024"},{"id":"film/series/best-picture-oscar-hustings","type":"Series","title":"Best picture Oscar hustings"},{"id":"film/poor-things","type":"Keyword","title":"Poor Things"},{"id":"film/film","type":"Keyword","title":"Film"},{"id":"culture/culture","type":"Keyword","title":"Culture"},{"id":"film/oscars","type":"Keyword","title":"Oscars"},{"id":"film/emma-stone","type":"Keyword","title":"Emma Stone"},{"id":"culture/awards-and-prizes","type":"Keyword","title":"Awards and prizes"},{"id":"type/article","type":"Type","title":"Article"},{"id":"tone/features","type":"Tone","title":"Features"},{"id":"profile/peterbradshaw","type":"Contributor","title":"Peter Bradshaw","twitterHandle":"PeterBradshaw1","bylineImageUrl":"https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2018/01/10/Peter-Bradshaw.jpg?width=300&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=38f2aab5240221f28720ebeedc37f05c","bylineLargeImageUrl":"https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2018/01/10/Peter_Bradshaw,_L.png?width=300&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=6d421d09a037265190e3742912ce98ca"},{"id":"tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-culture","type":"Tracking","title":"UK Culture"}],"isPaidContent":false,"isPreview":false,"host":"https://www.theguardian.com","pageId":"film/2024/feb/29/poor-things-best-picture-oscar-emma-stone","idUrl":"https://profile.theguardian.com","switches":{"prebidAppnexusUkRow":true,"externalVideoEmbeds":true,"abSignInGateMainVariant":true,"lightbox":true,"ophanNext":true,"commercialMetrics":true,"prebidTrustx":true,"scAdFreeBanner":false,"adaptiveSite":true,"prebidPermutiveAudience":true,"compareVariantDecision":false,"enableSentryReporting":true,"lazyLoadContainers":true,"ampArticleSwitch":true,"remarketing":true,"articleEndSlot":true,"keyEventsCarousel":true,"registerWithPhone":false,"targeting":true,"remoteHeader":true,"slotBodyEnd":true,"prebidImproveDigitalSkins":true,"ampPrebidOzone":true,"extendedMostPopularFronts":true,"emailInlineInFooter":true,"showNewPrivacyWordingOnEmailSignupEmbeds":true,"prebidAnalytics":true,"extendedMostPopular":true,"ampContentAbTesting":false,"prebidCriteo":true,"okta":false,"imrWorldwide":true,"acast":true,"automaticFilters":true,"twitterUwt":true,"prebidAppnexusInvcode":true,"ampPrebidPubmatic":true,"a9HeaderBidding":true,"prebidAppnexus":true,"enableDiscussionSwitch":true,"prebidXaxis":true,"stickyVideos":true,"interactiveFullHeaderSwitch":true,"discussionAllPageSize":true,"prebidUserSync":true,"audioOnwardJourneySwitch":true,"brazeTaylorReport":false,"callouts":true,"sentinelLogger":true,"geoMostPopular":true,"weAreHiring":false,"relatedContent":true,"thirdPartyEmbedTracking":true,"prebidOzone":true,"ampLiveblogSwitch":true,"ampAmazon":true,"prebidAdYouLike":true,"mostViewedFronts":true,"discussionInApps":false,"optOutAdvertising":true,"abSignInGateMainControl":true,"headerTopNav":true,"googleSearch":true,"brazeSwitch":true,"darkModeInApps":true,"prebidKargo":true,"consentManagement":true,"crosswordMobileBanner":true,"personaliseSignInGateAfterCheckout":true,"redplanetForAus":true,"prebidSonobi":true,"idProfileNavigation":true,"confiantAdVerification":true,"discussionAllowAnonymousRecommendsSwitch":false,"dcrTagPages":true,"permutive":true,"comscore":true,"ampPrebidCriteo":true,"abMpuWhenNoEpic":false,"newsletterOnwards":false,"youtubeIma":true,"webFonts":true,"prebidImproveDigital":true,"ophan":true,"crosswordSvgThumbnails":true,"prebidTriplelift":true,"weather":true,"disableAmpTest":true,"prebidPubmatic":true,"serverShareCounts":false,"autoRefresh":true,"enhanceTweets":true,"prebidIndexExchange":true,"prebidOpenx":true,"prebidHeaderBidding":true,"mobileDiscussionAds":true,"idCookieRefresh":true,"discussionPageSize":true,"smartAppBanner":false,"boostGaUserTimingFidelity":false,"historyTags":true,"brazeContentCards":true,"surveys":true,"remoteBanner":true,"emailSignupRecaptcha":true,"prebidSmart":true,"shouldLoadGoogletag":true,"inizio":true}}" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></gu-island></div><p class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">“I MUST GO PUNCH THAT BABY!”</p><p class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">Emma Stone<span style="font-size: 1.0625rem;">’s delivery of the many outrageous laugh lines in Yorgos Lanthimos’s brilliant and scabrous</span><span style="font-size: 1.0625rem;"> </span>Poor Things <span style="font-size: 1.0625rem;">is cause enough to hand over the best picture Oscar right away.</span>But there is also the deliciously offensive Frankensteinian high concept, the hallucinatory cinematography switching between colour and monochrome, the inspired production design and costumes, the insinuating musical score which appears at first to mimic our heroine’s childish thumping on the piano, then surge and swirl alongside her increasing intelligence and naive sexual confidence. And of course there’s the propulsive story itself, which rockets along like a steampunk steamtrain.<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">For all these reasons and more, I want to see producer Ed Guiney take to the stage and give the climactic speech when the best picture Oscar is announced, with his co-producers Daniel Battsek, Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone herself lining up behind him.</p><p class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">Poor Things is the quite extraordinary melodrama of a young woman, played by Stone, apparently called Victoria Blessington and a member of polite society in this fantasy version of the Victorian age. She attempts to take her own life by throwing herself in the Thames. Lanthimos shoots this grisly dreamlike moment from behind her as she drifts downwards and away from us to the water, thus withholding a key fact. (I have incidentally not entirely given up on Stone starring in a Poor Things prequel, giving us her adult story until this moment.)</p><p class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">But her almost-cold body is secretly retrieved and experimented upon by troubled anatomist Godwin Baxter, played with absolute conviction by Willem Dafoe, who brings her back to life in a bizarre infantile state with a technique too awful to be revealed right away, renames her Bella Baxter and keeps her as his ward or pet or daughter in his house. Her beauty and innocence excites the protective gallantry of Baxter’s assistant McCandles (an excellent performance from Ramy Youssef), who falls in love with Bella, but her wayward behaviour earns her the disgust of Baxter’s housekeeper – a hilarious performance from Vicki Pepperdine, which we should be talking about more. But just when their domestic menage looks like settling into some creepy semblance of normality, Bella runs away with a bounder called Duncan Wedderburn: a wonderfully caddish turn from Mark Ruffalo, and so begins her Alice-through-the-looking-glass voyage around the globe and into her own frank and unashamed sexuality.</p><p class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><br /></p><figure class="dcr-173mewl" data-spacefinder-role="inline" data-spacefinder-type="model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.VideoYoutubeBlockElement" id="a1845249-d3c6-46d1-9e44-b65b4bb41905" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 12px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-13aa88h" data-component="youtube-embed" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 6px; max-width: 1444.68px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 620px;"><div class="dcr-19b0eoo" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 348.469px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" height="480" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/RlbR5N6veqw?wmode=opaque&feature=oembed" style="border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; height: 348.469px; left: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 620px;" title="POOR THINGS | Official Trailer | Searchlight Pictures" width="854"></iframe></div></div></figure><p class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">Tony McNamara’s adaptation of the original Alasdair Gray novel is masterly, as are Robbie Ryan’s cinematography, Shona Heath and James Price’s production designs, Holly Waddington’s costumes, Jerskin Fendrix’s delirious score and so much else. Emma Stone’s absolutely forthright and courageous performance carries the movie effortlessly along its two hours-plus running time, and her distinctive beauty and mesmeric eyes give her that otherworldly look. (Awards season fans may incidentally remember the 2015 Golden Globes night when presenter Tina Fey and Amy Poehler rather cruelly compared Emma Stone to the thyroid-eyed kids from Margaret Keane’s kitschy paintings in Tim Burton’s true-life film Big Eyes: “It’s cute but it’s creepy ...” Emma herself took it like a good sport. At any rate, Lanthimos has found a way to harness her unearthly beauty in this film.)</p><p class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">Since Poor Things was released, the critical discourse has got around to challenging it on the grounds that it is in fact a male fantasy: exploitative and even paedophilic.</p><p class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">My own view is that this condemnation – like the word “fetch” in Mean Girls – never caught on. Poor Things is almost an object lesson in how a real artwork rises uncancellably above political taste or social media scolding. Its transgressive energy is partly about fracturing those very strictures and going far beyond them. It is also from a European director who emerged outside the studio squeamishness of Anglo-Hollywood and it is also based on a literary source from an author whose prestige was built up before publishers learned to be terrified of the “problematic”. (The latter point is also true of The Zone Of Interest.) That said, I must now concede that Viv Groskop made a shrewd prosecution case in this paper by pointing out that for all the importance attached to anatomical detail and explicit sex, none of the guys in charge here thought to wonder if Bella could menstruate or get pregnant.</p><p class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">Well, with production co-designer Shona Heath, costume designer Holly Waddington and indeed producer-star Emma Stone, there are powerful female gazes at work.</p><p class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">Poor Things is the one movie on the best picture nomination list that works fully and completely on its own terms and which genuinely takes risks: it is shocking and exciting and funny and Stone is magnificent.</p><footer class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><p class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><span data-dcr-style="bullet" style="background-color: #866d50; border-radius: 50%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; content: ""; display: inline-block; font: inherit; height: 13px; margin: 0px 0.2px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 13px;"></span> This article was amended on 29 February 2024. An earlier version misnamed James Price as “James Heath”.</p><p class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><br /></p><p class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/feb/29/poor-things-best-picture-oscar-emma-stone">THE GUARDIAN</a></p><p class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOx5AdnaPAJyXeXeNt9-tDStMRDfdlkDrzI6_sJBUgb6hkb_PQ5TRQLxWQPx9H86JIZQUxpLDEih95irw_F-nGYkiphyZwINM_6BI0-7CanV3Ci0ow9Cgk4fbaCWvVTUtArcw8Tcpp63_WE42NU7FFxQAoYYKjUhHOjFCameMW1KQ4uecDb3Ym0h5Cds4/s117/0000%20dragon_circle_un%20cuarto.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="115" data-original-width="117" height="115" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOx5AdnaPAJyXeXeNt9-tDStMRDfdlkDrzI6_sJBUgb6hkb_PQ5TRQLxWQPx9H86JIZQUxpLDEih95irw_F-nGYkiphyZwINM_6BI0-7CanV3Ci0ow9Cgk4fbaCWvVTUtArcw8Tcpp63_WE42NU7FFxQAoYYKjUhHOjFCameMW1KQ4uecDb3Ym0h5Cds4/s1600/0000%20dragon_circle_un%20cuarto.gif" width="117" /></a></div><br /><p class="dcr-hm5hhe" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><br /></p></footer>Ficcioneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11113302074119512881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131170244545446682.post-83197113196465339022024-02-29T15:55:00.001-05:002024-02-29T16:03:59.848-05:00How Emma Stone Got Ready for the New York Premiere of Poor Things <p><br /></p><figure class="AssetEmbedWrapper-eVDQiB byBkf asset-embed" style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px auto 40px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto; width: 641.969px;"><div class="AssetEmbedAssetContainer-eJxoAx dBHGoQ asset-embed__asset-container" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW jvZaPI responsive-asset AssetEmbedResponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__responsive-asset" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; opacity: 1; overflow: hidden; transition: opacity 1s ease 0s;"><picture class="ResponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa AssetEmbedResponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__responsive-asset responsive-image" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: auto; position: relative; width: 641.969px;"><img alt="The evenings violettinged mouth played off the chartreuse yellow of the tulle dress. Goodwin enhanced Stones freckles..." class="ResponsiveImageContainer-eybHBd fptoWY responsive-image__image" sizes="100vw" src="https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/6573440d8da511e3e9494bb0/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/vf1223-emma-stone-002.png" srcset="https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/6573440d8da511e3e9494bb0/master/w_120,c_limit/vf1223-emma-stone-002.png 120w, https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/6573440d8da511e3e9494bb0/master/w_240,c_limit/vf1223-emma-stone-002.png 240w, https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/6573440d8da511e3e9494bb0/master/w_320,c_limit/vf1223-emma-stone-002.png 320w, https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/6573440d8da511e3e9494bb0/master/w_640,c_limit/vf1223-emma-stone-002.png 640w, https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/6573440d8da511e3e9494bb0/master/w_960,c_limit/vf1223-emma-stone-002.png 960w, https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/6573440d8da511e3e9494bb0/master/w_1280,c_limit/vf1223-emma-stone-002.png 1280w, https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/6573440d8da511e3e9494bb0/master/w_1600,c_limit/vf1223-emma-stone-002.png 1600w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: bottom; width: 641.969px;" /></picture></span></div><div class="CaptionWrapper-jSZdqE kIXbGQ caption AssetEmbedCaption-fNQBPI fmQnYP asset-embed__caption" data-event-boundary="click" data-event-click="{"pattern":"Caption"}" data-in-view="{"pattern":"Caption"}" data-include-experiments="true" style="--type-token: globalEditorial.context-secondary; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: VFSans, helvetica, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: normal; font-size: 14px; line-break: auto; line-height: 1.14286em; margin-top: 0.5rem; overflow-wrap: normal;"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptionText-bHjzlu iUEiRd hBkROF iXWezO caption__text" style="--color__token-name: colors.consumption.body.standard.body; --type-token: globalEditorial.context-secondary; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: normal; line-break: auto; line-height: 1.14286em; margin: 0px 0.5rem 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: normal;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; display: contents; margin: 0px;">The evening’s violet-tinged mouth played off the chartreuse yellow of the tulle dress. Goodwin enhanced Stone’s freckles for an ultra-natural effect, while the handmade Louis Vuitton choker dialed up the glamour.</p><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div><div class="CaptionWrapper-jSZdqE kIXbGQ caption AssetEmbedCaption-fNQBPI fmQnYP asset-embed__caption" data-event-boundary="click" data-event-click="{"pattern":"Caption"}" data-in-view="{"pattern":"Caption"}" data-include-experiments="true" style="--type-token: globalEditorial.context-secondary; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: VFSans, helvetica, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: normal; font-size: 14px; line-break: auto; line-height: 1.14286em; margin-top: 0.5rem; overflow-wrap: normal;"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptionText-bHjzlu iUEiRd hBkROF iXWezO caption__text" style="--color__token-name: colors.consumption.body.standard.body; --type-token: globalEditorial.context-secondary; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: normal; line-break: auto; line-height: 1.14286em; margin: 0px 0.5rem 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: normal;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><br /></span></span></div><div class="CaptionWrapper-jSZdqE kIXbGQ caption AssetEmbedCaption-fNQBPI fmQnYP asset-embed__caption" data-event-boundary="click" data-event-click="{"pattern":"Caption"}" data-in-view="{"pattern":"Caption"}" data-include-experiments="true" style="--type-token: globalEditorial.context-secondary; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: VFSans, helvetica, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: normal; font-size: 14px; line-break: auto; line-height: 1.14286em; margin-top: 0.5rem; overflow-wrap: normal;"><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ SplitScreenContentHeaderDek-emptdL iUEiRd iIQkwc dJrDEb" style="--type-token: consumptionEditorial.description-core; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: normal; font-size: 18px; line-break: auto; line-height: 1.33333em; margin: 0px; max-width: 500px; overflow-wrap: normal; padding-bottom: 1rem; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /><h1 class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ SplitScreenContentHeaderHed-lcUSuI iUEiRd euHXZX dfelga" data-testid="ContentHeaderHed" style="--type-token: consumptionEditorial.hed-standard; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: VFDidot5, helvetica, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: normal; font-size: 42px; font-weight: 400; line-break: auto; line-height: 1.14286em; margin: 0px; max-width: 500px; overflow-wrap: normal; padding: 1rem 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;">How Emma Stone Got Ready for the New York Premiere of<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Poor Things</em> </h1></div><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ SplitScreenContentHeaderDek-emptdL iUEiRd iIQkwc dJrDEb" style="--type-token: consumptionEditorial.description-core; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: normal; font-size: 18px; line-break: auto; line-height: 1.33333em; margin: 0px; max-width: 500px; overflow-wrap: normal; padding-bottom: 1rem; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;">The star of Yorgos Lanthimos’s exuberantly off-kilter riff on the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Frankenstein</em><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>tale turned up to the red carpet in a pearl-studded Louis Vuitton dress and shimmery lids—an off-screen ode to the character’s free spirit. </div><div class="BylinesWrapper-KIudk irTIfE bylines SplitScreenContentHeaderByline-kvEhqE SqSZg" data-testid="BylinesWrapper" style="--type-token: globalEditorial.accreditation-feature; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: normal; font-size: 11px; letter-spacing: 0.181818em; line-break: auto; line-height: 1.45455em; max-width: 500px; overflow-wrap: normal; padding-bottom: 0.5rem; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: uppercase;"><p class="BylineWrapper-jWHrLH jqYyWD byline bylines__byline" data-testid="BylineWrapper" itemprop="author" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" style="--color__token-name: colors.consumption.lead.standard.accreditation; --type-token: globalEditorial.accreditation-core; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: normal; letter-spacing: 0.182em; line-break: auto; line-height: 1.45455em; margin: 0.5rem 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: normal;"><span class="BylineNamesWrapper-jbHncj fuDQVo" itemprop="name" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></span></p></div><time class="SplitScreenContentHeaderPublishDate-bMGEVk dznGfh" data-testid="ContentHeaderPublishDate" datetime="2023-12-08T12:03:37-05:00" style="--type-token: globalEditorial.context-tertiary; box-sizing: border-box; color: #757575; display: inline-flex; font-feature-settings: normal; font-size: 11px; letter-spacing: 0.181818em; line-break: auto; line-height: 1.45455em; max-width: 500px; overflow-wrap: normal; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: uppercase;">DECEMBER 8, 2023</time></div><div class="CaptionWrapper-jSZdqE kIXbGQ caption AssetEmbedCaption-fNQBPI fmQnYP asset-embed__caption" data-event-boundary="click" data-event-click="{"pattern":"Caption"}" data-in-view="{"pattern":"Caption"}" data-include-experiments="true" style="--type-token: globalEditorial.context-secondary; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: VFSans, helvetica, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: normal; font-size: 14px; line-break: auto; line-height: 1.14286em; margin-top: 0.5rem; overflow-wrap: normal;"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptionText-bHjzlu iUEiRd hBkROF iXWezO caption__text" style="--color__token-name: colors.consumption.body.standard.body; --type-token: globalEditorial.context-secondary; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: normal; line-break: auto; line-height: 1.14286em; margin: 0px 0.5rem 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: normal;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><br /></span></span></div></figure><span style="font-size: large;">Bella Baxter, the curiosity (played by Emma Stone) at the center of Yorgos Lanthimos’s neo-Gothic romp, Poor Things, cuts a severe figure in waist-grazing raven hair and heavyset brows. But the character herself—a living, breathing experiment on her way to self-actualization—is really a tangle of contradictions. Her delicate beauty skews feral, her sexual hedonism is braided with the absurd. Even before the film’s New York premiere on Wednesday evening, Stone’s performance had already been drawing praise. (A snippet of a frenetic dance sequence in the trailer hints at just how much the performance is a finely calibrated, full-bodied feat.) But with a winding awards season likely ahead, how might an actor carry the spirit of this wild child onto an otherwise buttoned-up red carpet?<span><a name='more'></a></span></span><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><figure class="AssetEmbedWrapper-eVDQiB byBkf asset-embed" style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px auto 40px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto; width: 641.969px;"><div class="AssetEmbedAssetContainer-eJxoAx dBHGoQ asset-embed__asset-container" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW jvZaPI responsive-asset AssetEmbedResponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__responsive-asset" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; opacity: 1; overflow: hidden; transition: opacity 1s ease 0s;"><picture class="ResponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa AssetEmbedResponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__responsive-asset responsive-image" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: auto; position: relative; width: 641.969px;"><img alt="Emma Stone as Bella Baxter in Poor Things sporting an epic braid and deep brows. Nadia Stacey designed the characters..." class="ResponsiveImageContainer-eybHBd fptoWY responsive-image__image" sizes="100vw" src="https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/657344561bbf7dd76f79492c/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/vf1223-emma-stone-003.5.png" srcset="https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/657344561bbf7dd76f79492c/master/w_120,c_limit/vf1223-emma-stone-003.5.png 120w, https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/657344561bbf7dd76f79492c/master/w_240,c_limit/vf1223-emma-stone-003.5.png 240w, https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/657344561bbf7dd76f79492c/master/w_320,c_limit/vf1223-emma-stone-003.5.png 320w, https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/657344561bbf7dd76f79492c/master/w_640,c_limit/vf1223-emma-stone-003.5.png 640w, https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/657344561bbf7dd76f79492c/master/w_960,c_limit/vf1223-emma-stone-003.5.png 960w, https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/657344561bbf7dd76f79492c/master/w_1280,c_limit/vf1223-emma-stone-003.5.png 1280w, https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/657344561bbf7dd76f79492c/master/w_1600,c_limit/vf1223-emma-stone-003.5.png 1600w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: bottom; width: 641.969px;" /></picture></span></div><div class="CaptionWrapper-jSZdqE kIXbGQ caption AssetEmbedCaption-fNQBPI fmQnYP asset-embed__caption" data-event-boundary="click" data-event-click="{"pattern":"Caption"}" data-in-view="{"pattern":"Caption"}" data-include-experiments="true" style="--type-token: globalEditorial.context-secondary; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: VFSans, helvetica, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: normal; font-size: 14px; line-break: auto; line-height: 1.14286em; margin-top: 0.5rem; overflow-wrap: normal;"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptionText-bHjzlu iUEiRd hBkROF iXWezO caption__text" style="--color__token-name: colors.consumption.body.standard.body; --type-token: globalEditorial.context-secondary; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: normal; line-break: auto; line-height: 1.14286em; margin: 0px 0.5rem 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: normal;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; display: contents; margin: 0px;">Emma Stone as Bella Baxter in<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">Poor Things,</em><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>sporting an epic braid and deep brows. Nadia Stacey designed the character’s hair and makeup look.</p><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptionCredit-ejegDm iUEiRd hCJFDV fNaHcW caption__credit" style="--type-token: globalEditorial.context-tertiary; box-sizing: border-box; color: #757575; font-feature-settings: normal; font-size: 11px; letter-spacing: 0.181818em; line-break: auto; line-height: 1.45455em; margin: 8px 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: normal; text-transform: uppercase;">COURTESY OF SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES.</span></div></figure><p class="paywall" style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-align: justify; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Stone’s premiere look offered an early glimpse: all the polish you’d expect of a seasoned Oscar winner, with a glimmer of Bella’s idiosyncratic verve. That played out as a diaphanous yellow Louis Vuitton dress, a jeweled orchid worn on the neck with a Degas-style ribbon, raspberry lips and pearlescent eyes, and the actor’s back-to-red hair twisted into a deconstructed knot. It helps to have a creative team that has shepherded Stone throughout her career. “Since 2007—<em style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">Superbad,</em><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>her first film,” says makeup artist<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">Rachel Goodwin</strong>, speaking in the car as she and hairstylist<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">Mara Roszak</strong><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>shuttled from Stone’s hotel room to the screening. Together with stylist<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">Petra Flannery,</strong><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>the three women have the push-pull of collaboration down. “I always say we’re kind of like a band,” Goodwin<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><p class="paywall" style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-align: justify; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">In tracing the trajectory from<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">Poor Things</em><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>to premiere, Stone credits the film’s hair and makeup designer,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">Nadia Stacey,</strong><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>for such beautiful work—raw skin and runaway hair lending to that unbridled quality. “Because Bella, my character, is so without shame and self-judgment, I think that applies to beauty in a huge way, and confidence around beauty,” Stone explains via email. “So with this press tour, Rachel and Mara and Petra and I have been talking about a kind of inspiration of Bella and that sort of simplicity but still having fun with color and youthfulness.” </span></p><figure class="AssetEmbedWrapper-eVDQiB byBkf asset-embed" style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0px auto 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: start; text-size-adjust: auto; width: 641.969px;"><div class="AssetEmbedAssetContainer-eJxoAx dBHGoQ asset-embed__asset-container" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW jvZaPI responsive-asset AssetEmbedResponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__responsive-asset" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; opacity: 1; overflow: hidden; text-align: justify; transition: opacity 1s ease 0s;"><picture class="ResponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa AssetEmbedResponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__responsive-asset responsive-image" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: auto; position: relative; width: 641.969px;"><img alt="The evenings violettinged mouth played off the chartreuse yellow of the tulle dress. Goodwin enhanced Stones freckles..." class="ResponsiveImageContainer-eybHBd fptoWY responsive-image__image" sizes="100vw" src="https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/6573440d8da511e3e9494bb0/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/vf1223-emma-stone-002.png" srcset="https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/6573440d8da511e3e9494bb0/master/w_120,c_limit/vf1223-emma-stone-002.png 120w, https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/6573440d8da511e3e9494bb0/master/w_240,c_limit/vf1223-emma-stone-002.png 240w, https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/6573440d8da511e3e9494bb0/master/w_320,c_limit/vf1223-emma-stone-002.png 320w, https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/6573440d8da511e3e9494bb0/master/w_640,c_limit/vf1223-emma-stone-002.png 640w, https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/6573440d8da511e3e9494bb0/master/w_960,c_limit/vf1223-emma-stone-002.png 960w, https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/6573440d8da511e3e9494bb0/master/w_1280,c_limit/vf1223-emma-stone-002.png 1280w, https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/6573440d8da511e3e9494bb0/master/w_1600,c_limit/vf1223-emma-stone-002.png 1600w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: bottom; width: 641.969px;" /></picture></span></div><div class="CaptionWrapper-jSZdqE kIXbGQ caption AssetEmbedCaption-fNQBPI fmQnYP asset-embed__caption" data-event-boundary="click" data-event-click="{"pattern":"Caption"}" data-in-view="{"pattern":"Caption"}" data-include-experiments="true" style="--type-token: globalEditorial.context-secondary; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: VFSans, helvetica, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: normal; font-size: 14px; line-break: auto; line-height: 1.14286em; margin-top: 0.5rem; overflow-wrap: normal;"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptionText-bHjzlu iUEiRd hBkROF iXWezO caption__text" style="--color__token-name: colors.consumption.body.standard.body; --type-token: globalEditorial.context-secondary; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: normal; line-break: auto; line-height: 1.14286em; margin: 0px 0.5rem 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: normal;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; display: contents; margin: 0px;">The evening’s violet-tinged mouth played off the chartreuse yellow of the tulle dress. Goodwin enhanced Stone’s freckles for an ultra-natural effect, while the handmade Louis Vuitton choker dialed up the glamour.</p><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div></figure></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><p class="paywall" style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia, helvetica, sans-serif; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: large;">For Goodwin, that translated to a “minimalist approach to the makeup, being really strategic especially in regards to the skin,” she says of her emphasis on transparency. “That’s what [Yorgos] loves about people. He likes seeing them and not the makeup.” Skin prep was key: steam-filled shower,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>BioEffect hydrogel mask<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>from Iceland (“I’m obsessed”), hyaluronic serum for a lush, juicy effect. Next came a light touch of Pat McGrath Labs’<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Skin Fetish foundation. “It was actually designed to look like skin because she used it backstage on fashion shows where designers did not want that made-up look,” explains Goodwin, who added a<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ruddy cheek, as if flushed from the cold. The goal was “embellishing versus perfecting.”</span></p><figure class="AssetEmbedWrapper-eVDQiB byBkf asset-embed" style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px auto 40px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto; width: 641.969px;"><div class="AssetEmbedAssetContainer-eJxoAx dBHGoQ asset-embed__asset-container" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW jvZaPI responsive-asset AssetEmbedResponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__responsive-asset" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; opacity: 1; overflow: hidden; transition: opacity 1s ease 0s;"><picture class="ResponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa AssetEmbedResponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__responsive-asset responsive-image" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: auto; position: relative; width: 641.969px;"><img alt="From left The requisite preevent fries. Louis Vuitton accessories plus concealer and Lust Gloss for the road." class="ResponsiveImageContainer-eybHBd fptoWY responsive-image__image" sizes="100vw" src="https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/6573442a97e92ad7d0e0799e/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/vf1223-emma-stone-003.png" srcset="https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/6573442a97e92ad7d0e0799e/master/w_120,c_limit/vf1223-emma-stone-003.png 120w, https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/6573442a97e92ad7d0e0799e/master/w_240,c_limit/vf1223-emma-stone-003.png 240w, https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/6573442a97e92ad7d0e0799e/master/w_320,c_limit/vf1223-emma-stone-003.png 320w, https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/6573442a97e92ad7d0e0799e/master/w_640,c_limit/vf1223-emma-stone-003.png 640w, https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/6573442a97e92ad7d0e0799e/master/w_960,c_limit/vf1223-emma-stone-003.png 960w, https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/6573442a97e92ad7d0e0799e/master/w_1280,c_limit/vf1223-emma-stone-003.png 1280w, https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/6573442a97e92ad7d0e0799e/master/w_1600,c_limit/vf1223-emma-stone-003.png 1600w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: bottom; width: 641.969px;" /></picture></span></div><div class="CaptionWrapper-jSZdqE kIXbGQ caption AssetEmbedCaption-fNQBPI fmQnYP asset-embed__caption" data-event-boundary="click" data-event-click="{"pattern":"Caption"}" data-in-view="{"pattern":"Caption"}" data-include-experiments="true" style="--type-token: globalEditorial.context-secondary; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: VFSans, helvetica, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: normal; font-size: 14px; line-break: auto; line-height: 1.14286em; margin-top: 0.5rem; overflow-wrap: normal;"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptionText-bHjzlu iUEiRd hBkROF iXWezO caption__text" style="--color__token-name: colors.consumption.body.standard.body; --type-token: globalEditorial.context-secondary; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: normal; line-break: auto; line-height: 1.14286em; margin: 0px 0.5rem 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: normal;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; display: contents; margin: 0px;">From left: The requisite pre-event fries. Louis Vuitton accessories, plus concealer and Lust Gloss for the road.</p></span><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptionCredit-ejegDm iUEiRd hCJFDV fNaHcW caption__credit" style="--type-token: globalEditorial.context-tertiary; box-sizing: border-box; color: #757575; font-feature-settings: normal; font-size: 11px; letter-spacing: 0.181818em; line-break: auto; line-height: 1.45455em; margin: 8px 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: normal; text-transform: uppercase;">COURTESY OF RACHEL GOODWIN.</span></div></figure><p class="paywall" style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-align: justify; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">For the eyes, Goodwin settled on a “super, super elegant flick”—refined and subtle in deep brown. She first nestled a pencil along the lash line, and then followed with the “Pat McGrath liquid liner, which is my favorite in a pen,” she says. The lids got dusted in a new shade of the ChromaLuxe Artistry Pigment (arriving December 15): a creamy, foil-finish product first created last year as part of a particularly<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>cinematic Pat McGrath Labs collaboration. “I wanted to use the pearl highlight because it was the perfect complement to the dress,” Goodwin adds. Ditto the pearl-studded Victoriana brooch on the ribbon necklace. </span></p><figure class="AssetEmbedWrapper-eVDQiB byBkf asset-embed" style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px auto 40px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto; width: 641.969px;"><div class="AssetEmbedAssetContainer-eJxoAx dBHGoQ asset-embed__asset-container" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW jvZaPI responsive-asset AssetEmbedResponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__responsive-asset" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; opacity: 1; overflow: hidden; transition: opacity 1s ease 0s;"><picture class="ResponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa AssetEmbedResponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__responsive-asset responsive-image" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: auto; position: relative; width: 641.969px;"><img alt="Stone in full splendor." class="ResponsiveImageContainer-eybHBd fptoWY responsive-image__image" sizes="100vw" src="https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/657381383a91fc0cc62cf1df/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/vf1223-emma-stone-004.png" srcset="https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/657381383a91fc0cc62cf1df/master/w_120,c_limit/vf1223-emma-stone-004.png 120w, https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/657381383a91fc0cc62cf1df/master/w_240,c_limit/vf1223-emma-stone-004.png 240w, https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/657381383a91fc0cc62cf1df/master/w_320,c_limit/vf1223-emma-stone-004.png 320w, https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/657381383a91fc0cc62cf1df/master/w_640,c_limit/vf1223-emma-stone-004.png 640w, https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/657381383a91fc0cc62cf1df/master/w_960,c_limit/vf1223-emma-stone-004.png 960w, https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/657381383a91fc0cc62cf1df/master/w_1280,c_limit/vf1223-emma-stone-004.png 1280w, https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/657381383a91fc0cc62cf1df/master/w_1600,c_limit/vf1223-emma-stone-004.png 1600w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: bottom; width: 641.969px;" /></picture></span></div><div class="CaptionWrapper-jSZdqE kIXbGQ caption AssetEmbedCaption-fNQBPI fmQnYP asset-embed__caption" data-event-boundary="click" data-event-click="{"pattern":"Caption"}" data-in-view="{"pattern":"Caption"}" data-include-experiments="true" style="--type-token: globalEditorial.context-secondary; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: VFSans, helvetica, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: normal; font-size: 14px; line-break: auto; line-height: 1.14286em; margin-top: 0.5rem; overflow-wrap: normal;"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptionText-bHjzlu iUEiRd hBkROF iXWezO caption__text" style="--color__token-name: colors.consumption.body.standard.body; --type-token: globalEditorial.context-secondary; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: normal; line-break: auto; line-height: 1.14286em; margin: 0px 0.5rem 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: normal;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; display: contents; margin: 0px;">Stone, in full splendor.</p><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptionCredit-ejegDm iUEiRd hCJFDV fNaHcW caption__credit" style="--type-token: globalEditorial.context-tertiary; box-sizing: border-box; color: #757575; font-feature-settings: normal; font-size: 11px; letter-spacing: 0.181818em; line-break: auto; line-height: 1.45455em; margin: 8px 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: normal; text-transform: uppercase;">BY BEN ROSSER/BFA.COM FOR LOUIS VUITTON.</span></div></figure><p class="paywall" style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-align: justify; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">There was one recognizable nod to the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">Poor Things</em><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>makeup. “The brows were very much a big piece of Bella’s character,” says Goodwin, who adapted that bold-stroke gesture to suit Stone’s now-red hair. Her technique involves back-and-forth penciling and combing to fully integrate the pigment; a slick of brow gel anchors the arches in place. “They’re a softer version, a bit more groomed of course—but they’re definitely present.” </span></p><div class="Container-bkChBi byNLHx" data-event-boundary="click" data-event-click="{"pattern":"CNEInterludeEmbed"}" data-in-view="{"pattern":"CNEInterludeEmbed"}" data-include-experiments="true" style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-size-adjust: auto;"></div><p class="paywall" style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-align: justify; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">A tinted lip courtesy of Pat McGrath Labs was the finishing touch—another shared link between screen and carpet. In the movie poster, Stone wears the brand’s MatteTrance lipstick in<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Forbidden Love; at the premiere, the orchid-colored lip was created with a blotted-down lip pencil in<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Cosmic Vibes, topped with Lust Gloss in<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Secret Lover. It was a color-wheel play, the yellow dress and violet mouth, and a jolt of fun to suit a celebration that, post-strike, had finally arrived. “The mood,” says Goodwin, “was just jubilant.”</span></p><p class="paywall" style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/style/emma-stone-new-york-premiere-poor-things">VANITY FAIR</a></p><p class="paywall" style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitcv7VHOBw4i5AL2c5VirV0cICFbjUQ3at5SfnKJcxFocVXDMviY79uMfHmaVLIuTJFcq4COhLCzceSWMaj9HyVeBPG0ZtNbZ2h2rSJm1IWWO_HXOzLKSBIqyjGhwdvohPRQswvJd7CXxx5kYXhVmyaFnChjRsjH1SesKBAc9Wb06GPuVJ8MYSVE_wSL4/s117/0000%20dragon_circle_un%20cuarto.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="115" data-original-width="117" height="115" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitcv7VHOBw4i5AL2c5VirV0cICFbjUQ3at5SfnKJcxFocVXDMviY79uMfHmaVLIuTJFcq4COhLCzceSWMaj9HyVeBPG0ZtNbZ2h2rSJm1IWWO_HXOzLKSBIqyjGhwdvohPRQswvJd7CXxx5kYXhVmyaFnChjRsjH1SesKBAc9Wb06GPuVJ8MYSVE_wSL4/s1600/0000%20dragon_circle_un%20cuarto.gif" width="117" /></a></div><br /><p class="paywall" style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><br /></p><p class="paywall" style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><br /></p></div>Ficcioneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11113302074119512881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131170244545446682.post-58964290865200116332024-02-28T09:19:00.000-05:002024-02-29T15:57:05.613-05:00A Shining by Jon Fosse review / A spiritual journey<p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguHSiEK8Rl9rx9uvaP-GP4orJEChqJz3LmutIqmmPc-VUrNyw-J3EeZ4pqWGize2Tvk-geRi8b09VdL7aPKGWOxCIsilMfcgvldpJPolsH8HdsHVhj6rq0DKwpDuqprb5UaxQsS3Ar5REwq0uzgstihZp41WT6f4ElkiaP8V10uym8vHNduHLj5E3HAnY/s719/Jon%20Fosse%20020.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="719" data-original-width="612" height="617" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguHSiEK8Rl9rx9uvaP-GP4orJEChqJz3LmutIqmmPc-VUrNyw-J3EeZ4pqWGize2Tvk-geRi8b09VdL7aPKGWOxCIsilMfcgvldpJPolsH8HdsHVhj6rq0DKwpDuqprb5UaxQsS3Ar5REwq0uzgstihZp41WT6f4ElkiaP8V10uym8vHNduHLj5E3HAnY/w524-h617/Jon%20Fosse%20020.jpeg" width="524" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jon Fosse</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><p style="text-align: left;">A BOOK OF THE DAY</p><div class="dcr-1djovmt" data-gu-name="headline" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-area: headline / headline / headline / headline; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-14emo0l" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 620px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-1msbrj1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 36px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-wwluea" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 5px 0px 0px 6px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-n35fox" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 3px; -webkit-box-decoration-break: clone; background-color: #6b5840; border: 0px; box-shadow: rgb(107, 88, 64) 6px 0px 0px, rgb(107, 88, 64) -6px 0px 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: white; display: inline-block; font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: 23px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="dcr-hosx8y" href="https://www.theguardian.com/tone/reviews" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; -webkit-box-align: center; -webkit-box-pack: justify; align-items: center; background: transparent; border-radius: 0px; border: none; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-flex; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; height: initial; justify-content: space-between; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-height: initial; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-underline-offset: inherit; text-wrap: nowrap; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s; vertical-align: baseline;">Review</a></div></div><h1 class="dcr-186f9ox" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 4px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #6b5840; font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 2.125rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px; padding: 4px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">A Shining by Jon Fosse review – a spiritual journey</h1></div></div></div><div class="dcr-1yi1cnj" data-gu-name="standfirst" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; grid-area: standfirst / standfirst / standfirst / standfirst; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-xq41iu" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 12px; max-width: 540px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--standfirst-text); font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: large;">The new Nobel laureate’s latest novella is a shimmering fable about a man lost in a dark forest</span></p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--standfirst-text); font: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--standfirst-text); font: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Lauren Groff</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--standfirst-text); font: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Saturday 18 November 2023</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--standfirst-text); font: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--standfirst-text); font: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></p><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><span class="dcr-11l45yn" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #6b5840; float: left; font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 111px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: 92px; margin: 0px 8px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: text-top;">O</span><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">ne day in late autumn, a man goes for a drive so far into the countryside that he begins to pass no more dwellings of the living, only abandoned farmhouses and cabins. At last, he pulls into a forest and goes down a road so deeply rutted that the car finally becomes stuck. Night is falling. It has begun to snow. The man decides to leave his car and walk alone into the dark woods to try to find someone to help him.<span><a name='more'></a></span></span></div><p></p><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-size: large;">This could be the beginning of a horror story; it is, instead, the opening of A Shining, a slim new novella by the Norwegian writer Jon Fosse, our 2023 Nobel laureate in literature, whose fiction rather astonishingly dissolves the border between the material and the spiritual worlds. Readers of English who knew Fosse before his Nobel perhaps had seen one of his plays, which are among the most performed in Europe, or read his seven-book suite of novels called Septology, a three-volume single sentence monologue that is simultaneously a radiant liturgy, a doppelganger story, an ars poetica, and a profoundly moving meditation on love and ageing and death. After I finished the last book of Septology, I walked around in a haze for a long while, simply grateful to be alive. The work is so breathtakingly strange and unclassifiable that it seemed to me as though Fosse had created a new form of fiction, something that has a deep kinship to Samuel Beckett’s work, but is infinitely more gentle and God-soaked. And though a thick, monologuing, metaphysical novel may seem daunting to a casual reader, one of Fosse’s peculiarities is how accessible his work is to nearly anyone who’ll allow themselves to simply succumb and let the gentle waves of his prose break over them.</span></p><div id="sign-in-gate" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: large;"><gu-island clientonly="" config="{"renderingTarget":"Web","darkModeAvailable":false}" data-island-status="rendered" deferuntil="visible" name="SignInGateSelector" priority="feature" 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style="box-sizing: border-box;"></gu-island></span></div><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-size: large;">Some of this accessibility is surely due to Fosse’s translator into English, the great Damion Searls, whose intelligence, subtlety and attention to rhythm are again evident in A Shining. After the protagonist has walked for a while through the dark and snowy forest, reality begins to waver. He becomes aware of something walking toward him, human-shaped but not human, a presence “luminous in its whiteness, shining from within”. It touches him, warms him, speaks to him; he says, “I hear a voice say: I’m here, I’m here always, I’m always here – which startles me, because this time there was no doubt that I’d heard a voice and it was a thin and weak voice, and yet it’s like the voice had a kind of deep warm fullness in it, yes, it was almost, yes, as if there was something you might call love in the voice.”</span></p><aside class="dcr-q9zy3m" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 3px; background-color: #f6f6f6; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #6b5840; font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: 25px; margin: 0px 0px 1.75rem -38px; padding: 6px 10px 12px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><svg class="dcr-rj2jmf" viewbox="4 4 24 16"><path d="M9.2776 8H14.0473C13.4732 12.5489 12.9653 17.0095 12.7445 22H4C4.79495 17.142 6.4511 12.5489 9.2776 8ZM20.3852 8H25.0887C24.5808 12.5489 24.0067 17.0095 23.7859 22H15.0635C15.9688 17.142 17.5587 12.5489 20.3852 8Z"></path></svg><blockquote class="dcr-928886" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; quotes: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The great splendour of Fosse’s fiction is that it so deeply rejects any singular interpretation</blockquote><footer style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><cite class="dcr-gu2lh8" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #866d50; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></cite></footer></aside><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: inherit; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdDJZpTgfBuQE8aYHdE9aLVtORpZGrd5vmIoz-Rx9wX6uFQzLD4-pYeMqI1_IyfKXUVBf1UYEA5FOw5_OAGQyHq76JV-2xdyk-prRC_MOMejmggFWQRUHb_K9qqrg4yAPKxFQJ-oK8j2xJ603oGR9vRUBzfV3pGB8sF5BDNZ8SWMXvp41Yh-zZd_zD4mk/s762/Jon%20Fosse_A%20Shining.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="762" data-original-width="500" height="683" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdDJZpTgfBuQE8aYHdE9aLVtORpZGrd5vmIoz-Rx9wX6uFQzLD4-pYeMqI1_IyfKXUVBf1UYEA5FOw5_OAGQyHq76JV-2xdyk-prRC_MOMejmggFWQRUHb_K9qqrg4yAPKxFQJ-oK8j2xJ603oGR9vRUBzfV3pGB8sF5BDNZ8SWMXvp41Yh-zZd_zD4mk/w448-h683/Jon%20Fosse_A%20Shining.jpg" width="448" /></a></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: inherit; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">After the presence leaves him, the man encounters his own parents in the woods; though he is always walking toward them, they never grow closer. When his parents leave him, he sees a man in a suit with his feet bare in the snow. The man leads him toward a great blooming of the radiant white presence he’d seen earlier. Though the novella begins in extremely short sentences and in the past tense, through the narrative it flowers into the present tense, and the end is a glory of an extremely long sentence, whi</span><span style="font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif;">ch gives to the prose itself a kind of gorgeous shimmer.</span></span><p></p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--standfirst-text); font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;"></span></p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--standfirst-text); font: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;"><br /></span></p><span style="font-size: large;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">A Shining can be read in many ways: as a realistic monologue; as a fable; as a Christian-inflected allegory; as a nightmare painstakingly recounted the next morning, the horror of the experience still pulsing under the words, though somewhat mitigated by the small daily miracle of daylight. I think the great splendour of Fosse’s fiction is that it so deeply rejects any singular interpretation; as one reads, the story does not sound a clear singular note, but rather becomes a chord with all the many possible interpretations ringing out at once. This refusal to succumb to the solitary, the stark, the simple, the binary – to insist that complicated things like death and God retain their immense mysteries and contradictions – seems, in this increasingly partisan world of ours, a quietly powerful moral stance.</span></div></span><p></p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--standfirst-text); font: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;"><br /></span></p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--standfirst-text); font: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;">A Shining by Jon Fosse, translated by Damion Searls, is published by Fitzcarraldo Editions (£9.99). </span></p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--standfirst-text); font: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;"><br /></span></p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #121212; font-family: GH Guardian Headline, Guardian Egyptian Web, Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: 20px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/nov/18/a-shining-by-jon-fosse-review-a-spiritual-journey">THE GUARDIAN</a></span></span></p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #121212; font-family: GH Guardian Headline, Guardian Egyptian Web, Georgia, serif;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #121212; font-family: GH Guardian Headline, Guardian Egyptian Web, Georgia, serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8wR75Q9aQOmafgZH-hapZeJWfkjd6cnGtsXbEVOSgk_vJm6PPje5sRZ-tGn5gsIYhCRuYaLgoW9ikbGfK2Cf90HMTwNhkMYBzsTR90ioow3p4Hb-IuMOZDgcjxqCOvWZjVXblC46IL2KA8FjQlWkgzhxeLz6Py4RKTe7MlMO32aYF8Bd3-ctLBFK6AdQ/s117/0000%20dragon_circle_un%20cuarto.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="115" data-original-width="117" height="115" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8wR75Q9aQOmafgZH-hapZeJWfkjd6cnGtsXbEVOSgk_vJm6PPje5sRZ-tGn5gsIYhCRuYaLgoW9ikbGfK2Cf90HMTwNhkMYBzsTR90ioow3p4Hb-IuMOZDgcjxqCOvWZjVXblC46IL2KA8FjQlWkgzhxeLz6Py4RKTe7MlMO32aYF8Bd3-ctLBFK6AdQ/s1600/0000%20dragon_circle_un%20cuarto.gif" width="117" /></a></span></div><span style="color: #121212; font-family: GH Guardian Headline, Guardian Egyptian Web, Georgia, serif;"><br /><span style="font-size: 20px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;"><br /></span></span><p></p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #121212; font-family: GH Guardian Headline, Guardian Egyptian Web, Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: 20px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--standfirst-text); font: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></p></div></div>Ficcioneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11113302074119512881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131170244545446682.post-12301794093428312922024-02-27T09:15:00.000-05:002024-02-29T15:56:52.552-05:00Simon Armitage / Making poetry pay<div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /><br /></div><div><img height="395" src="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432553651240/7d132771-2116-4b5d-a6b8-1be8b9d0b214-2060x1236.jpeg?width=465&dpr=1&s=none" width="658" /></div><div><span class="dcr-1qvd3m6" color="var(--caption-text)" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Simon Armitage.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" color="var(--caption-text)" face="GuardianTextSans, "Guardian Text Sans Web", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif" style="caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); font-size: 0.875rem; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit;"> </span><span color="var(--caption-text)" face="GuardianTextSans, "Guardian Text Sans Web", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif" style="caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); font-size: 0.875rem; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit;">Photograph: Gareth Phillips for the Guardian</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px; text-size-adjust: auto;">THE LONG READ</span></div><div><h1 class="dcr-1p51jo0" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 4px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--headline-colour); font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 2.125rem; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px; padding: 4px 0px 0px; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;">Simon Armitage: Making poetry pay</h1></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px; text-size-adjust: auto;">In a culture that has consigned poetry to the margins, Armitage has become something very rare: a genuinely popular British poet.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><strong style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;">Aida Edemariam</strong><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>hits the road with the busiest man in verse</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px; text-size-adjust: auto;">Aida Edemarian</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px; text-size-adjust: auto;">Tuesday 26 May 2015</span></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><span class="dcr-11l45yn" color="var(--drop-cap)" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 111px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: 92px; margin: 0px 8px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: text-top;">O</span>ne Indian summer evening last September, off a busy slip road not far from the Tower of London, Simon Armitage took to the stage of the world’s oldest surviving music hall and, after a short introduction from the broadcaster Melvyn Bragg, started to read. “It begins with a house, an end terrace / in this case …” The hall was full, generous with silence and later with laughter: young couples in careful retro outfits, men in suits dropping by after work, students, and older women; audience and performers held beneath a glowing tent of wobbly fairy lights that rose from the balconies to a bright apex in the roof. “But it will not stop there. Soon it is / an avenue / which cambers arrogantly past the Mechanics’ Institute …” Armitage’s reading voice is light; not exactly monotonal, but strung on a more delicate, questioning skein than his conversational voice. The poem, Zoom!, the title piece in his very first collection, in 1989, turns left at the main road, leads to a town, “city, nation, hemisphere, universe, … [is] bulleted into a neighbouring galaxy”, before finally coming to rest in the checkout queue at the local supermarket.<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">How did the poem come about, Bragg asked. Daydreaming, answered Armitage: “I’d been bunking off school – which was a bit of a worthless pastime in those days because it was before daytime TV.” The audience laughed. He spoke of the challenge, these days, of building thinking time into a day. “‘What have you been doing?’ ‘Thinking’” – another murmur of laughter – “It sounds like an excuse, but actually, it’s vital.” It was a deft, confident performance, an unstrained mixture of taking himself and his work seriously while making sure to puncture anything that might come across as pretension; playing with anti-intellectualism while depending on the fact that no one would be here if they were not intellectually engaged. Did he plan his poems? “I know other poets who work on poems as exploration, but I’ve usually got a destination in mind. I knew in that poem I wanted to end up in Sainsbury’s supermarket” – a slight pause, as the audience guffawed – “it was just a question of getting back from the outer periphery of the universe.”</p><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-size: 1.0625rem;">The laughter was prolonged, and it came from a core of true respect: Armitage is not only a gifted performer, he is also spoken of as the next poet laureate and the most popular British poet since Philip Larkin; this month he threw his hat into the ring as a candidate to become Oxford professor of poetry (sole requirement: “that candidates be of sufficient distinction to be able to fulfil the duties of the post”). Most of all, from the beginning of his career, Armitage has been a leading example of how a poet might impose him or herself on a culture that is increasingly disinclined to reward poetry – and earn a living from doing so.</span></p><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-size: 1.0625rem;">For while poetry might sometimes seem to be everywhere – on underground trains, buildings, Facebook, at spoken-word events; as a piece in Newsweek noted last year, “everything from Chester Zoo to the Great North Run” seems to have its poet-in-residence – this doesn’t tend to translate into actual financial viability. Most first-time collections sell a few hundred copies if their authors are lucky. For most poets, self-promotion and performance these days are imperative in order to gain any readership at all, and Armitage – arguably the consummate poet-professional – has come round to making a virtue of that, even a kind of manifesto: “I used to have a purist view of poetry, that the page was all there was,” he said at the Oxford Union in May. “I don’t think that any more. A poet is the entire package. </span><a data-component="auto-linked-tag" data-link-name="in body link" href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/poetry" style="border-bottom: 1px solid var(--article-link-border); border-image: initial; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Poetry</a><span style="font-size: 1.0625rem;"> </span><span style="font-size: 1.0625rem;">goes back to the campfire, the theatre, and the temple.”</span></p><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">So, in one typical two-week period last September, Armitage did the following, and more: worked on a dramatised version of the Raft of the Medusa for Radio 4 (broadcast in April and now in development at the National Theatre); worked on a translation of the medieval poem Pearl (now finished); went to an exhibition by someone who is painting his portrait; met musicians with whom he may collaborate on a spoken-word project; appeared on Radio 3; led a poetry writing workshop at the Wakefield literary festival; had meetings at the Liverpool Everyman theatre to discuss a dramatisation of The Odyssey (it will transfer to Shakespeare’s Globe in London in November); did interviews about a film he had made for the Culture Show; met his new students (he is professor of creative writing at Sheffield); wrote notes for one poem, began another, finished yet another; and did a reading, with the poet Jamie McKendrick, in Modena, Italy. Poetry has taken him to the Amazon and to Iceland, to the US and to New Zealand, on to helicopters, trawlers, trains; to prisons and to residencies at Eton, to conference halls filled with up to 2,500 GCSE students (his poems are on the syllabus). Armitage now has an agent who manages the performing side of his life; he estimates he says yes to about 50% of requests.</p><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><br /></p><aside class="dcr-1jdqcld" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 3px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--pullquote-text); font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.5rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.15; margin: 14px 0px; max-width: 80%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><svg class="dcr-scql1j" style="fill: var(--pullquote-icon);" viewbox="0 0 22 14"><path d="M5.255 0h4.75c-.572 4.53-1.077 8.972-1.297 13.941H0C.792 9.104 2.44 4.53 5.255 0Zm11.061 0H21c-.506 4.53-1.077 8.972-1.297 13.941h-8.686c.902-4.837 2.485-9.411 5.3-13.941Z"></path></svg><blockquote class="dcr-zzndwp" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: italic; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; quotes: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Poetry has taken Armitage to the Amazon and Iceland, to the US and New Zealand, to prisons and to Eton</blockquote></aside><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">Over nine months, I accompanied him to some of these events, and began to see exactly how such a significant presence has to be shaped and managed – and to realise that, in this regard, Armitage has a mastery developed over decades of give and take between what has been demanded of him and what he chooses to offer. In West Yorkshire, where he grew up, I did not suggest an itinerary – he did. When we climbed to the top of Pule Hill, I knew he had been there with journalists before, also tracing the lineaments of his poems and life: “We are making a film,” he wrote in <a data-link-name="in body link" href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/apr/13/biography.simonarmitage" style="border-bottom: 1px solid var(--article-link-border); border-image: initial; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Gig, his engaging memoir</a> of a lifelong relationship with popular music, about taking a BBC camera crew up there. “Each region has been asked to profile one of its artists. I am THE NORTH.” Production HQ for the film, he wrote, was his parents’ house; they re-enacted one of his poems, setting a tyre in freefall down the hill. His description of the process was as gentle and blokey, self-mocking and sincere as he often is in person.</p><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">But it also smuggled in a very controlled picture of how he wants to be seen. “I am THE NORTH” laughs at the reductiveness of the media – but does not deny it, in part because it is true; he is from the north and proud to be so. Indeed, being “the north” is an aspect of an artistic modus operandi that has over the years proved quite useful – as differentiation from other poets, as a grounding, authenticating narrative of class and language. During our walks, and before and after various events to which I accompanied him, Armitage almost always gave generous and direct answers to my many questions. But I was also – unintentionally, I think – given a masterclass in brand management, all the more skilful because, while not necessarily always reflective of the distance he has travelled from his roots, it does not feel fake. Nor does it obscure Armitage’s unapologetic belief in the importance of poetry, his willingness to advocate for it, and his adamantine sense of vocation.</p><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">Along the way, I met many critics who thought none of this could replace high seriousness: popularity (in a post-Pound, post-Eliot era full of prickly moralising about the virtues of being ignored) was simply assumed to be incommensurate with quality or greatness. There was an overriding sense, as Ian Gregson, a poet and author of a book-length study of Armitage put it, that “I can understand it, so it must be crap”. Back on stage in London, Bragg took the issue head on. Was Armitage aware of the criticism? “I became more and more aware as people pointed it out to me in reviews.” A general laugh. “I suppose what I’ve come to think is, it’s fine. It’s a broad church. I’ve got a lot of respect for people who write obscure avant-garde poetry, but it’s not the poetry I want to write.”</p><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">“He’s not at all simplistic,” said Gregson. “He’s actually trying – and this to me is the ideal – to take on the most difficult, complex things possible but to deal with them as accessibly as he can.” The poet Glyn Maxwell, who travelled with Armitage through Iceland, retracing the route taken by WH Auden in 1936 for their book <a data-link-name="in body link" href="http://www.lrb.co.uk/v19/n06/ian-sansom/all-the-cultural-bases" style="border-bottom: 1px solid var(--article-link-border); border-image: initial; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Moon Country</a> (1996), put the criticism down to simple envy. “It’s the cheapest way to treat someone who’s flown quite high.”</p></div><div><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">So high, in fact, that when I asked if he could actually make a living from poetry, Armitage answered, “everything I do stems from the fact that I am a poet. But if I sheared away the prose and teaching and drama? Yeah, I would still get by.” According to figures published late last year by the magazine Mslexia, Simon Armitage was the tenth best-selling poet in the UK in 2013. Those 10 poets, however, included Dante, Homer, Seamus Heaney and Philip Larkin; among living poets, Armitage came third, behind the current poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, and Pam Ayres.</p><hr class="dcr-z9ge1j" style="background-color: gainsboro; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; height: 1px; margin-bottom: 3px; margin-left: -10px; margin-top: 48px; width: 150px;" /><figure class="dcr-5h0uf4" data-spacefinder-role="showcase" data-spacefinder-type="model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.ImageBlockElement" id="528657b0-fd11-4c17-83a4-7e17d0f72163" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 12px 0px 12px -240px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-1t8m8f2" id="img-2" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><picture class="dcr-evn1e9" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block;"><source media="(min-width: 1300px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 1300px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432554840512/f29f43db-280f-4c86-b8f3-c39614101ba5-2060x1373.jpeg?width=880&dpr=2&s=none" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 1300px)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432554840512/f29f43db-280f-4c86-b8f3-c39614101ba5-2060x1373.jpeg?width=880&dpr=1&s=none" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 1140px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 1140px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432554840512/f29f43db-280f-4c86-b8f3-c39614101ba5-2060x1373.jpeg?width=800&dpr=2&s=none" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 1140px)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432554840512/f29f43db-280f-4c86-b8f3-c39614101ba5-2060x1373.jpeg?width=800&dpr=1&s=none" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 980px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 980px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432554840512/f29f43db-280f-4c86-b8f3-c39614101ba5-2060x1373.jpeg?width=640&dpr=2&s=none" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 980px)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432554840512/f29f43db-280f-4c86-b8f3-c39614101ba5-2060x1373.jpeg?width=640&dpr=1&s=none" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 660px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 660px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432554840512/f29f43db-280f-4c86-b8f3-c39614101ba5-2060x1373.jpeg?width=620&dpr=2&s=none" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 660px)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432554840512/f29f43db-280f-4c86-b8f3-c39614101ba5-2060x1373.jpeg?width=620&dpr=1&s=none" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 480px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 480px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432554840512/f29f43db-280f-4c86-b8f3-c39614101ba5-2060x1373.jpeg?width=605&dpr=2&s=none" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 480px)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432554840512/f29f43db-280f-4c86-b8f3-c39614101ba5-2060x1373.jpeg?width=605&dpr=1&s=none" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 320px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 320px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432554840512/f29f43db-280f-4c86-b8f3-c39614101ba5-2060x1373.jpeg?width=445&dpr=2&s=none" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 320px)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432554840512/f29f43db-280f-4c86-b8f3-c39614101ba5-2060x1373.jpeg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><img alt="The poetry seat and the Snow Stone." class="dcr-evn1e9" height="296.59466019417476" loading="lazy" src="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432554840512/f29f43db-280f-4c86-b8f3-c39614101ba5-2060x1373.jpeg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font: inherit; height: 573.656px; margin: 0px; object-fit: cover; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 860px;" width="445" /></picture></div><figcaption class="dcr-1csa5qs" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--caption-text); font-family: GuardianTextSans, "Guardian Text Sans Web", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 0.875rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 18.9px; margin: 0px 0px 6px; padding: 6px 0px 0px; position: absolute; vertical-align: baseline; width: 220px;"><span class="dcr-1inf02i" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; fill: var(--caption-text); font: inherit; margin: 0px 4px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1em;"><svg height="13" viewbox="0 0 18 13" width="18"><path d="M18 3.5v8l-1.5 1.5h-15l-1.5-1.5v-8l1.5-1.5h3.5l2-2h4l2 2h3.5l1.5 1.5zm-9 7.5c1.9 0 3.5-1.6 3.5-3.5s-1.6-3.5-3.5-3.5-3.5 1.6-3.5 3.5 1.6 3.5 3.5 3.5z"></path></svg></span><span class="dcr-1qvd3m6" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Part of the 47-mile Stanza Stone trail in the south Pennines, which features poems by Simon Armitage carved into the rock by Pip Hall.</span> Photograph: Christopher Thomond for The Guardian</figcaption></figure><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><strong style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">A week before the east London gig</strong>, we had met at Marsden station, a small stop tucked into the foothills of the Pennines, and drove through the village and out, round bend after bend, via Slaithwaite and Greetland, up to the top of the Pennine watershed. Armitage parked the car, and we stepped into a day of muted silvers: Blackstone Edge reservoir, pylons, a whited-out sky. Armitage, a tall man, walks as he speaks – unhurried, purposeful, with an unselfconscious physical confidence undented (or maybe underscored) by a period in his 20s when, diagnosed with an arthritic condition called ankylosing spondilitis, he thought he might soon not be able to walk at all. But it went into remission and these days he can walk for miles. In 2012, he published Writing Home, an account of an attempt to walk the Pennine Way backwards, from Kirk Yetholm to Marsden, where he was born, paying his way by reading poetry every night; Walking Away, in which he does the same, but from Minehead in Somerset to Land’s End, will be published on 4 June. It is the fourth, and, he says, the last in a series of wry memoirs (the others are Gig and <a data-link-name="in body link" href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/201703.All_Points_North" style="border-bottom: 1px solid var(--article-link-border); border-image: initial; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">All Points North</a>) that achieve a distillation of what he ventures in his between‑poem patter at readings: open-seeming self-revelation, meditations on music and landscape and writing, about the meaning of various kinds of home.</p></div><div><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">In Gig, he described the tightrope walked by the touring poet: “A single human voice speaking a considered thought can feel like the high point of human achievement, or ... an object lesson in embarrassment.” Fame and achievement alter the balance, but not entirely; every move towards the mic still holds – as it should – an element of risk. “We’re all doing that, aren’t we?” Armitage said. “Every poet who ever stepped on to a stage or made some mark on a piece of paper is testing their reputation in some way. I have got to a point in my life and my career where I’ve stopped having to feel apologetic about what I do and why I do it. And actually I hear those noises coming from a lot of younger writers now. They don’t want to apologise. They want to get it out there and they want to be recognised and they want [poetry] to have a place in people’s lives and on their bookshelves and in their ears.”</p><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">From up here, on a good day, it is possible to see the Welsh mountains and Jodrell Bank telescope; Bolton and the beginnings of the Lake District; Littleborough, and Rochdale, where Armitage once worked as a probation officer. It would be glib to say this period is the reason for the undertow of darkness in his work, but it must have made its mark. Accidental death, affectless murder, suicide and loss stalk his early poems. He is drawn, in an increasingly prominent sideline of reimagined Greek dramas and medieval translations, to stories that face male violence head on. So Mister Heracles (After Euripides) features a viscerally detailed account of Heracles killing his family for the supposed greater good of the “mother state”; in Homer’s Odyssey, Armitage lingers over Cyclops’s bursting eyeball; <a data-link-name="in body link" href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2014/may/14/the-last-days-of-troy-simon-armitage-review" style="border-bottom: 1px solid var(--article-link-border); border-image: initial; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Last Days of Troy</a> (produced at the Globe with supermodel Lily Cole as Helen last June) ends in an orgy of violence all the more shocking because it is so deliberately emptied of heroic justification. Armitage left the probation service after he had published four poetry collections and began to think he just might be able to make it as a poet. A surprisingly enlightened Home Office kept his job open for a year in case he foundered and wanted to come back. He never needed to, doing immediately as well, and better, than most poets could dream of – but the freelancer’s fear is not easily shaken. “I’ve only just got used to saying ‘No’,” said Armitage, “and I still don’t say it with much confidence. I don’t think people believe me, anyway.”</p><aside class="dcr-1jdqcld" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 3px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--pullquote-text); font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.5rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.15; margin: 14px 0px; max-width: 80%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><svg class="dcr-scql1j" style="fill: var(--pullquote-icon);" viewbox="0 0 22 14"><path d="M5.255 0h4.75c-.572 4.53-1.077 8.972-1.297 13.941H0C.792 9.104 2.44 4.53 5.255 0Zm11.061 0H21c-.506 4.53-1.077 8.972-1.297 13.941h-8.686c.902-4.837 2.485-9.411 5.3-13.941Z"></path></svg><blockquote class="dcr-zzndwp" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: italic; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; quotes: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I have got to a point in my life career where I’ve stopped having to feel apologetic about what I do and why I do it</blockquote><footer style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><cite style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Simon Armitage</cite></footer></aside><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">Last autumn, Faber published Paper Aeroplane: Selected Poems 1989-2014, a record of a 25-year career as a poet. “Normally when books come out I hardly take any notice of them,” he said. “I flick through to make sure they haven’t been printed upside down. But I always feel I want to move on or I have moved on and that’s been an issue for me – I haven’t really had time to enjoy a lot of things I’ve done.” But when this relatively slim volume arrived, he sat down with it on the end of the bed and stared at it for half an hour, reflecting, he said, on how the early poems in particular seemed “vivid and young, free and easygoing. Most of those original poems were written out of a desire to write rather than any notion they’d find their way into a book. I don’t think you can ever get that back.” They reminded him of an early life – as probation officer, as a homesick Portsmouth geography student who fled back to Marsden as soon as he was able – “that seems unrecognisable to me now”. As for the whole thing: “I think I felt pride, I don’t know if you are allowed to feel those things any more about your own work, but I did, I felt it was an accomplishment. So, yeah, I had a little moment” – he gave the phrase a camp, self-deflating turn, then laughed slightly. “But I’ve moved on now.”</p></div><div><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">Up ahead, on a bend in the path, our destination appeared – an outcrop of Yorkshire gritstone so exposed to wind and rain whipping in off the Irish Sea that it has been chiselled into receding striations. At the base there is a flat section, with his rust-red words cut directly into the rock: “Be glad of these freshwater tears / each pearled droplet some salty old sea-bullet / air-lifted out of the waves.” The underlying colour of the rock was a surprise. “The first day I came up here after they carved it,” said Armitage, “it was really pissing it down. It was still quite raw, and it looked as if it was dripping fire.” There are six of these Stanza Stones along 40-odd miles of the Pennines, commissioned by the Ilkley literature festival as part of the Cultural Olympiad in 2012: an Armitage poem about manifestations of water (Snow, Rain, Mist, Dew, Puddle, Beck) is carved into each one. This stone, Rain, is the only one it is possible to happen upon accidentally; the presence of the poet is an occasional bonus. Two cyclists approached, swept past. “There you go. Oblivious. I think they actually accelerated.” Then a scraggle of chattering ramblers. We both waited – he, it seemed to me (although I could have been wrong) nonchalantly pretending he wasn’t – for at least one of them to stop, to recognise him, even. A couple glanced over, but they all kept walking. A short silence. “I’m sure they know it word for word.”</p><figure class="dcr-5h0uf4" data-spacefinder-role="showcase" data-spacefinder-type="model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.ImageBlockElement" id="bacb0ea9-3055-4540-aefa-3ef81034b9ac" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 12px 0px 12px -240px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-1t8m8f2" id="img-3" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><picture class="dcr-evn1e9" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block;"><source media="(min-width: 1300px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 1300px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432554275151/548ff198-7b85-454c-b979-f783631851f3-2060x1373.jpeg?width=880&dpr=2&s=none" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 1300px)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432554275151/548ff198-7b85-454c-b979-f783631851f3-2060x1373.jpeg?width=880&dpr=1&s=none" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 1140px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 1140px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432554275151/548ff198-7b85-454c-b979-f783631851f3-2060x1373.jpeg?width=800&dpr=2&s=none" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 1140px)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432554275151/548ff198-7b85-454c-b979-f783631851f3-2060x1373.jpeg?width=800&dpr=1&s=none" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 980px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 980px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432554275151/548ff198-7b85-454c-b979-f783631851f3-2060x1373.jpeg?width=640&dpr=2&s=none" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 980px)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432554275151/548ff198-7b85-454c-b979-f783631851f3-2060x1373.jpeg?width=640&dpr=1&s=none" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 660px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 660px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432554275151/548ff198-7b85-454c-b979-f783631851f3-2060x1373.jpeg?width=620&dpr=2&s=none" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 660px)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432554275151/548ff198-7b85-454c-b979-f783631851f3-2060x1373.jpeg?width=620&dpr=1&s=none" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 480px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 480px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432554275151/548ff198-7b85-454c-b979-f783631851f3-2060x1373.jpeg?width=605&dpr=2&s=none" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 480px)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432554275151/548ff198-7b85-454c-b979-f783631851f3-2060x1373.jpeg?width=605&dpr=1&s=none" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 320px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 320px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432554275151/548ff198-7b85-454c-b979-f783631851f3-2060x1373.jpeg?width=445&dpr=2&s=none" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 320px)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432554275151/548ff198-7b85-454c-b979-f783631851f3-2060x1373.jpeg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><img alt="The Rain Stone at Cow's Mouth Quarry" class="dcr-evn1e9" height="296.59466019417476" loading="lazy" src="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432554275151/548ff198-7b85-454c-b979-f783631851f3-2060x1373.jpeg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font: inherit; height: 573.656px; margin: 0px; object-fit: cover; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 860px;" width="445" /></picture></div><figcaption class="dcr-1csa5qs" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--caption-text); font-family: GuardianTextSans, "Guardian Text Sans Web", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 0.875rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 18.9px; margin: 0px 0px 6px; padding: 6px 0px 0px; position: absolute; vertical-align: baseline; width: 220px;"><span class="dcr-1inf02i" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; fill: var(--caption-text); font: inherit; margin: 0px 4px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1em;"><svg height="13" viewbox="0 0 18 13" width="18"><path d="M18 3.5v8l-1.5 1.5h-15l-1.5-1.5v-8l1.5-1.5h3.5l2-2h4l2 2h3.5l1.5 1.5zm-9 7.5c1.9 0 3.5-1.6 3.5-3.5s-1.6-3.5-3.5-3.5-3.5 1.6-3.5 3.5 1.6 3.5 3.5 3.5z"></path></svg></span><span class="dcr-1qvd3m6" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Rain Stone at Cow’s Mouth Quarry on the Pennine Way.</span> Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian</figcaption></figure><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">The second stone he took me to was quite different. Armitage parked along an exposed section of the A62 and we struck immediately, steeply upwards, on to the lower slopes of Pule Hill and a grassy track that led to an abandoned quarry. Many of the rocks here are shaped by man rather than the elements, into flat, near-black expanses, and, when we turned a corner at the top, into standing stones. It’s a chill place, a reminder of an old England of magic and tribal rites, the England Armitage accesses in poems such as Five Eleven Ninety Nine, where a present-day group of men feed and feed and feed a night-time bonfire until there is almost nothing left in the village. “It does feel like there is something malevolent and almost occult about it,” said Armitage, who used to come up here as a boy, even though it terrified him. His poem Snow is tucked into a crevice, lichen already reclaiming the letters.</p></div><div><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">Far below us the traffic roared; beyond the road the moors climbed into the sky. In All Points North, Armitage is clear about the importance of this landscape to his imagination. “I think I was aware you always had a choice,” he said. “You can get in the car and turn left into Huddersfield or Leeds or Sheffield, but you can turn the other way and you are not going to meet anybody all day and you can invent what those places mean. They are a kind of canvas or a blank page. Space beyond space and space after that as well, right up to the Cheviots and through Scotland.” All Points North was also his attempt to characterise – rather than define – the north, “where England tucks its shirt into its underpants”. When Armitage published it, in 1998, “there was a new confidence. A real sea change that had taken [the north] from the Roy Hattersley flat cap and whippets version to whatever it was I was describing, which is normality for me.” By the time he wrote Walking Home, 14 years later, it was “the height of the recession and so that was against the backdrop of communities really struggling to keep it together”. Perhaps the only constant, he said, is the growing economic gap between there and London.</p><figure class="dcr-5h0uf4" data-spacefinder-role="showcase" data-spacefinder-type="model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.ImageBlockElement" id="ec4fb922-70d7-48f3-acfc-5b691b5e0f17" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 12px 0px 12px -240px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-1t8m8f2" id="img-4" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><picture class="dcr-evn1e9" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block;"><source media="(min-width: 1300px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 1300px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432577102715/18907c89-f140-416d-841b-b7a506201404-2060x1236.jpeg?width=880&dpr=2&s=none" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 1300px)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432577102715/18907c89-f140-416d-841b-b7a506201404-2060x1236.jpeg?width=880&dpr=1&s=none" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 1140px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 1140px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432577102715/18907c89-f140-416d-841b-b7a506201404-2060x1236.jpeg?width=800&dpr=2&s=none" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 1140px)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432577102715/18907c89-f140-416d-841b-b7a506201404-2060x1236.jpeg?width=800&dpr=1&s=none" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 980px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 980px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432577102715/18907c89-f140-416d-841b-b7a506201404-2060x1236.jpeg?width=640&dpr=2&s=none" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 980px)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432577102715/18907c89-f140-416d-841b-b7a506201404-2060x1236.jpeg?width=640&dpr=1&s=none" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 660px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 660px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432577102715/18907c89-f140-416d-841b-b7a506201404-2060x1236.jpeg?width=620&dpr=2&s=none" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 660px)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432577102715/18907c89-f140-416d-841b-b7a506201404-2060x1236.jpeg?width=620&dpr=1&s=none" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 480px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 480px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432577102715/18907c89-f140-416d-841b-b7a506201404-2060x1236.jpeg?width=605&dpr=2&s=none" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 480px)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432577102715/18907c89-f140-416d-841b-b7a506201404-2060x1236.jpeg?width=605&dpr=1&s=none" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 320px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 320px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432577102715/18907c89-f140-416d-841b-b7a506201404-2060x1236.jpeg?width=445&dpr=2&s=none" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 320px)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432577102715/18907c89-f140-416d-841b-b7a506201404-2060x1236.jpeg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><img alt="The Snow Stone" class="dcr-evn1e9" height="267" loading="lazy" src="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432577102715/18907c89-f140-416d-841b-b7a506201404-2060x1236.jpeg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font: inherit; height: 516px; margin: 0px; object-fit: cover; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 860px;" width="445" /></picture></div><figcaption class="dcr-1csa5qs" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--caption-text); font-family: GuardianTextSans, "Guardian Text Sans Web", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 0.875rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 18.9px; margin: 0px 0px 6px; padding: 6px 0px 0px; position: absolute; vertical-align: baseline; width: 220px;"><span class="dcr-1inf02i" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; fill: var(--caption-text); font: inherit; margin: 0px 4px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1em;"><svg height="13" viewbox="0 0 18 13" width="18"><path d="M18 3.5v8l-1.5 1.5h-15l-1.5-1.5v-8l1.5-1.5h3.5l2-2h4l2 2h3.5l1.5 1.5zm-9 7.5c1.9 0 3.5-1.6 3.5-3.5s-1.6-3.5-3.5-3.5-3.5 1.6-3.5 3.5 1.6 3.5 3.5 3.5z"></path></svg></span><span class="dcr-1qvd3m6" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Snow Stone is tucked into a crevice, lichen already reclaiming the letters.</span> Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian</figcaption></figure><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">And, for him, the cultural backdrop. In Gig he describes standing on West Nab, a point on the Pennine watershed six miles from Pule Hill, and looking out “across a huge circumference of inspiration and influence. Starting westwards it’s Manchester and Lancashire, so it’s Joy Division and the Fall, it’s the Smiths and Elbow, it’s Magazine and the Buzzcocks and Happy Mondays … Sheffield, which for me will always be the Comsat Angels, and maybe Pulp ... the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, which is Barbara Hepworth as a young girl in Wakefield, watching the dark horizon from her father’s car. Keep revolving further and it’s Larkin and Marvell, then Ayckbourn … Leeds is Bennett and Harrison and Henry Moore – and Bradford is Hockney and Priestley … further still there’s a line of wind turbines on the escarpment above Haworth, which is Brontë country. And a few more degrees brings Mytholmroyd and Hebden Bridge and Heptonstall … which is Hughes” – whose work, encountered at school, “lit me up” and made him a poet – “And which is Plath. Then I’m back where I started from, full circle, looking north. Wordsworth, maybe, on a clear day, if the eyes could see that far.”</p><hr class="dcr-z9ge1j" style="background-color: gainsboro; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; height: 1px; margin-bottom: 3px; margin-left: -10px; margin-top: 48px; width: 150px;" /><h2 id="1e468517-affb-45ea-ab00-7935eed49584" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 3px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></h2><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><strong style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Armitage did not want to be interviewed</strong> at his own house, apparently because a journalist warned him against allowing this particular intimacy years ago. The stricture didn’t apply to his parents’ house, however, and so we climbed down the hill and drove round to theirs (that “end of terrace” in Zoom!), for a cup of tea. Rather in the way that Armitage’s tight local focus has delivered an international audience, so the house he grew up in, tiny in front, tiny inside, opened on to a tiny patio with a vast view. Below us the land dropped away, into Marsden – terraced cottages, relics of the wool and textile industry, all loured over by a huge derelict mill – and then climbed up again, back into the moors. His tiny bedroom, on the first floor, had a window that looked out on all this. “That window,” he wrote recently in Poetry Review, “became the template for all my future poetry, an almost literal frame, which mimicked the shape of the page and provided a perspective through which I continue to see not just the village but life and the world.”</p><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">Armitage’s father is “a born exaggerator”, a barbershop singer and amateur actor once described by his son as “leaning forward into the applause as if it were sunlight on his face”. He was already a probation officer when Armitage went into the trade, and reportedly rather put out when his son retired before he did. Armitage gets a fair amount of prose mileage out of his father’s witty reactions – to the first appearance of the earring he still wears, to the announcement that he was a poet – but the knockabout is moderated by obvious care and respect, and as we settled on to the patio, in bright sunshine, Armitage leaned back and simply let his father perform. When he did speak, it was as his father does, in a Yorkshire accent far broader than is evident the rest of the time.</p><aside class="dcr-1jdqcld" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 3px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--pullquote-text); font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.5rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.15; margin: 14px 0px; max-width: 80%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><svg class="dcr-scql1j" style="fill: var(--pullquote-icon);" viewbox="0 0 22 14"><path d="M5.255 0h4.75c-.572 4.53-1.077 8.972-1.297 13.941H0C.792 9.104 2.44 4.53 5.255 0Zm11.061 0H21c-.506 4.53-1.077 8.972-1.297 13.941h-8.686c.902-4.837 2.485-9.411 5.3-13.941Z"></path></svg><blockquote class="dcr-zzndwp" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: italic; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; quotes: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Armitage’s father is 'a born exaggerator', a barbershop singer and amateur actor</blockquote></aside><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">Dialect and deliberately northern inflections are central to both the music and the politics of Armitage’s poetry. “Poems are all about signalling,” he often says in question and answer sessions after readings. “We live in a world where as soon as you open your mouth you are pretty much nailed. [People] know you not just horizontally and cartographically, they know you vertically as well, where you stand in the class structure, what your parents did, where you went to school. And I think writers are very aware of that and play with it” – as he does, by sticking the word “mush”, meaning face, into a formal sonnet, for instance. One of the many reasons he chose to translate the medieval poem Gawain and the Green Knight (2007) was that the anonymous poet obviously came from the same part of the world, and Armitage felt an affinity with the words he used, the landscape and rhythms. The translation did well, selling 35,000 copies so far, despite earning Armitage a rap on the knuckles from the eminent critic Frank Kermode, for the “naughtiness” of his frequent modernisms and anachronisms (“I kid you not”; “bum-fluffed bairns”) and occasional ad-libbing.</p><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">His mother arrived, and stood looking over the scene. Both parents are 80 now, and while his father claims to be perfectly happy where he is, his mother obviously has a hankering to travel – “Lake Como,” she said, pointedly, looking at her extremely well-travelled son. When Armitage did his walk down the Pennine Way, he was psychologically hampered, as one critic put it, by the fact that she had done it before him, at about 50. His mother worked as a non-teaching assistant at a couple of infant schools; his father, trained as a plumber, worked as a tyre salesman and, as his son once said, as “a bit of a free agent and wheeler-dealer” before fetching up in the probation service. Often there wasn’t much money; sometimes, Armitage suspects, none at all, though “I don’t remember that anxiety being passed on to us.”</p><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">“I remember when something new came into the house,” he had said to me earlier that morning. “It was astonishing. Like a vase. Or god forbid a settee. We’d sort of stand round it and gawp at it.” In Armitage’s poetry, objects are described with surprising exactness, partly for their own sake, partly for their roles in (often male) ceremonies and processes – and partly as instant metaphors. “Most objects speak volumes about their social value.” In his work the language of objects allows, at its best, complex, unspelled-out layers of social commentary, and shows, at its least, a sophisticated knack for lists.</p><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">John Updike once suggested that he was prolific because he treated writing like a nine-to-five job, rather than a fitful process of waiting for a muse; that he and others like him, such as Joyce Carol Oates, were “blue-collar writers”. Armitage, whose bibliography now includes 21 books of poetry, five of non-fiction, two novels, 21 films, many radio plays, and five works for theatre (not to mention the fact that, with his wife Sue Roberts, he performs in an eight-person band called the Scaremongers), is undeniably prolific, to an extent that seems to provoke suspicion in the literary world: if you produce that much, with such fluidity, it cannot possibly be good. “I definitely don’t think of it as a job,” said Armitage. “I had a job once and I got rid of it. But I completely understand that idea of coming from a working-class background and wanting to get on with something. There is a sort of satisfaction in being self-employed or self-made, homemade.” The Armitage household is one of enthusiasms: music, cricket, astronomy, birdwatching, art, walking, and acting – lots of acting. Armitage Senior’s all-male pantomime (he is writer and director) is so popular that it is always sold out way ahead of Christmas; in Marsden, he is the undisputed star, not his son. Back in his home town, Armitage Junior’s success, anywhere in the world, is still measured in terms of the capacity of the local Parochial hall – “2.5 Parochial halls? Not bad.” Hence, perhaps, his gregariousness, his tendency to hang poems on a story or a fragment of story, his ease with performance: tell a tale, a yarn, grab your audience by the collar and drag them along with you – a disposition that achieves a kind of zenith in the brilliant, moving prose poems of his 2010 book <a data-link-name="in body link" href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/may/09/seeing-stars-simon-armitage-review" style="border-bottom: 1px solid var(--article-link-border); border-image: initial; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Seeing Stars</a>.</p><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">But gregariousness, humour and ease, while alluring, are not the same as emotional availability. An attempt to ask about his first marriage – the subject of unusually personal poems in his fourth collection, <a data-link-name="in body link" href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/dec/27/featuresreviews.guardianreview11" style="border-bottom: 1px solid var(--article-link-border); border-image: initial; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Book of Matches</a> – was swiftly shut down. “You were married before,” I begin. “Was I?” There are distancing devices everywhere in the work: the emphasis on stories and concrete things can push the focus outward rather than inward, and a performer doesn’t have to display feelings he doesn’t choose to. “He’s guarded,” said Maxwell, who has fond memories of often quite silent walks through Iceland. “Everyone should be. His public person is certainly not fake. It’s an authentic public persona. He knows the difference and he guards the border.”</p><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">After we left his parents, Armitage gave me a tour of Marsden: the Parochial, the school, the bust of Samuel Laycock (the village’s other famous poet) overlooking the playground. When we stopped for lunch, sloppy sandwiches on a bench in the main square, family acquaintance after family acquaintance walked past, saying hello. Suddenly it all became too much. “It feels like being in the Truman Show,” said Armitage. “Let’s go.” But not before a middle-aged man came up to him. “Mr Armitage?” Yes. “Great reading you.” Thank you. “Now, I’ve been trying to get tickets to your father’s pantomime …”</p><hr class="dcr-z9ge1j" style="background-color: gainsboro; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; height: 1px; margin-bottom: 3px; margin-left: -10px; margin-top: 48px; width: 150px;" /><figure class="dcr-5h0uf4" data-spacefinder-role="showcase" data-spacefinder-type="model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.ImageBlockElement" id="d6ee8f98-cc94-4d76-b8b5-a1c44bb80c2a" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 12px 0px 12px -240px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-1t8m8f2" id="img-5" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><picture class="dcr-evn1e9" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block;"><source media="(min-width: 1300px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 1300px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432555455282/a49055ca-3204-447f-9a1a-b4920183ae61-2060x1400.jpeg?width=880&dpr=2&s=none" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 1300px)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432555455282/a49055ca-3204-447f-9a1a-b4920183ae61-2060x1400.jpeg?width=880&dpr=1&s=none" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 1140px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 1140px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432555455282/a49055ca-3204-447f-9a1a-b4920183ae61-2060x1400.jpeg?width=800&dpr=2&s=none" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 1140px)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432555455282/a49055ca-3204-447f-9a1a-b4920183ae61-2060x1400.jpeg?width=800&dpr=1&s=none" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 980px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 980px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432555455282/a49055ca-3204-447f-9a1a-b4920183ae61-2060x1400.jpeg?width=640&dpr=2&s=none" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 980px)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432555455282/a49055ca-3204-447f-9a1a-b4920183ae61-2060x1400.jpeg?width=640&dpr=1&s=none" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 660px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 660px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432555455282/a49055ca-3204-447f-9a1a-b4920183ae61-2060x1400.jpeg?width=620&dpr=2&s=none" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 660px)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432555455282/a49055ca-3204-447f-9a1a-b4920183ae61-2060x1400.jpeg?width=620&dpr=1&s=none" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 480px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 480px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432555455282/a49055ca-3204-447f-9a1a-b4920183ae61-2060x1400.jpeg?width=605&dpr=2&s=none" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 480px)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432555455282/a49055ca-3204-447f-9a1a-b4920183ae61-2060x1400.jpeg?width=605&dpr=1&s=none" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 320px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 320px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432555455282/a49055ca-3204-447f-9a1a-b4920183ae61-2060x1400.jpeg?width=445&dpr=2&s=none" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><source media="(min-width: 320px)" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432555455282/a49055ca-3204-447f-9a1a-b4920183ae61-2060x1400.jpeg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></source><img alt="Simon Armitage talks about his poetry anthology, Paper Aeroplane, at a London bookshop." class="dcr-evn1e9" height="302.4271844660194" loading="lazy" src="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/5/25/1432555455282/a49055ca-3204-447f-9a1a-b4920183ae61-2060x1400.jpeg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font: inherit; height: 584.406px; margin: 0px; object-fit: cover; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 860px;" width="445" /></picture></div><figcaption class="dcr-1csa5qs" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--caption-text); font-family: GuardianTextSans, "Guardian Text Sans Web", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 0.875rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 18.9px; margin: 0px 0px 6px; padding: 6px 0px 0px; position: absolute; vertical-align: baseline; width: 220px;"><span class="dcr-1inf02i" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; fill: var(--caption-text); font: inherit; margin: 0px 4px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1em;"><svg height="13" viewbox="0 0 18 13" width="18"><path d="M18 3.5v8l-1.5 1.5h-15l-1.5-1.5v-8l1.5-1.5h3.5l2-2h4l2 2h3.5l1.5 1.5zm-9 7.5c1.9 0 3.5-1.6 3.5-3.5s-1.6-3.5-3.5-3.5-3.5 1.6-3.5 3.5 1.6 3.5 3.5 3.5z"></path></svg></span><span class="dcr-1qvd3m6" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Simon Armitage talks about his latest collection of poetry, Paper Aeroplane, at a London bookshop.</span> Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian</figcaption></figure><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><strong style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">On stage in London,</strong> Armitage introduced another poem. “I think every poet at some stage in their writing life should try and write the definitive home-town poem. With Huddersfield, that was difficult. I didn’t really know what to lock on to as a coordinate. I eventually felt that the one thing that was most authentic were these synthetic – sort of Tudor – coffeehouses.” Laughter. “They’ve even proliferated into Halifax.” The laughter built. “There’s a drive-in! Ye olde drive-in coffee-house.” The poem is addressed to the “women of the Merrie England Coffee Houses”, in a tone that is insistently physical, both sexual and respectful of them as mothers, from the remembered point of view of a young Armitage and his friend, “the boy Smith”, who spent afternoons in those coffeehouses, grateful to be allowed to eke out “one toasted teacake between us” as they tried to write. “O women of the Merrie England, under those scarlet aprons, are you naked?” “He’s writing about a world he loves,” says Jeremy Noel-Tod, a poet and academic who has followed Armitage’s work for 20 years. And while Armitage is never going to express emotions in a high-blown way, that does not mean they are not there: that gratefulness; the fact – delivered in an aside – that the Boy Smith’s mother fell asleep at the wheel. “There’s a grief that’s not being talked about here – I think that’s really part of the Englishness of his work. He’s very good at talking about how things are not talked about.” It’s a tricky thing to pull off, and while the poem veers close to objectification, it works, in the end. The audience sighed, appreciative.</p><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">When we had finished in Marsden, Armitage drove me into Huddersfield to take the train, and, while we were waiting, to a Merrie England Coffee House (via a building topped by a fibreglass lion about which he has also written a poem) for a cup of tea. I could see how it was, once, how much it meant, the permission given and the start made; but also just how much has changed since. In his statement of candidacy for professor at Oxford, Armitage wrote that he would use the post “to discuss the situation of poetry and poets in the 21st century, to address the obstacles and opportunities brought about by changes in education, changes in reading habits, the internet, poetry’s decreasing ‘market share’, poetry’s relationship with the civilian world and the (alleged) long, lingering death of the book.” When he walked the Pennine Way, doing a gig a night, for Walking Home, he made much of the fact that he was testing the health of poetry in general – was it even alive? Would people come? All it really tested, I suggested, is how well Armitage, specifically, is doing. He bristled. “No, I disagree. In some of those places people didn’t know who I was but they came along to listen to a poetry reading. And anyway, even if they did know it was me, it’s still poetry.” <span data-dcr-style="bullet" style="background-color: #866d50; border-radius: 50%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; content: ""; display: inline-block; font: inherit; height: 13px; margin: 0px 0.2px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 13px;"></span></p><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/26/simon-armitage-making-poetry-pay">THE GUARDIAN</a></p><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFp4j5tBknM8koE-hSyamgcZ7pMDuhB8srT2-1cahAmD7rmbLhW6hmymyN04n2hPhqZTlBl9cG2bdce6WIeRzrG0bqlIUZroWvJSkINOGxwkuqnltN_ESvGA_Lvpy0-RRzQGSAZgjTf7geLw18lPLfnBhB0p3WLViGAXnJXmafnSTYlYU3N3WPv-ueUuE/s117/0000%20dragon_circle_un%20cuarto.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="115" data-original-width="117" height="115" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFp4j5tBknM8koE-hSyamgcZ7pMDuhB8srT2-1cahAmD7rmbLhW6hmymyN04n2hPhqZTlBl9cG2bdce6WIeRzrG0bqlIUZroWvJSkINOGxwkuqnltN_ESvGA_Lvpy0-RRzQGSAZgjTf7geLw18lPLfnBhB0p3WLViGAXnJXmafnSTYlYU3N3WPv-ueUuE/s1600/0000%20dragon_circle_un%20cuarto.gif" width="117" /></a></div></div>Ficcioneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11113302074119512881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131170244545446682.post-40587993784175083052024-02-26T01:09:00.001-05:002024-02-26T01:10:48.978-05:00Emma Beddington / I have been forced into a month of minimalism – and I hate it<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhtWsg2Lo-flCdh2g-nHDcPApcm_oSZkkHSTUw0GA0xD5OyG9sSofm8adjUH5z0jGjGV5JttWX1R1s3-Un2SK3WaiB2jQRTt3VBEEfbj__aVCg0qV3LHLiZ0MpaqylmJD3r0amJh_x_VcyCag-JOX1HAZeRUHyzz99ngdU7P5QmW92boPpTmXE3h3cZCI/s930/D532F48D-050F-4913-B7DD-F1E11F234D48.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="558" data-original-width="930" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhtWsg2Lo-flCdh2g-nHDcPApcm_oSZkkHSTUw0GA0xD5OyG9sSofm8adjUH5z0jGjGV5JttWX1R1s3-Un2SK3WaiB2jQRTt3VBEEfbj__aVCg0qV3LHLiZ0MpaqylmJD3r0amJh_x_VcyCag-JOX1HAZeRUHyzz99ngdU7P5QmW92boPpTmXE3h3cZCI/w400-h240/D532F48D-050F-4913-B7DD-F1E11F234D48.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><div><br /></div><h1 class="dcr-111x3j2" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 4px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 2.125rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: 300; line-height: 2.375rem; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I have been forced into a month of minimalism – and I hate it</h1><div class="dcr-1uv1bpy" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; display: inline-block; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 241.390625px;"><div class="dcr-2py16t" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 4px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--byline); display: inline; font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 2.125rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: italic; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: 38px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a data-link-name="auto tag link" href="https://www.theguardian.com/profile/emma-beddington" rel="author" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Emma Beddington</a></div></div><div><span style="color: #121212; font-family: GH Guardian Headline, Guardian Egyptian Web, Georgia, serif;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); font-size: 34px;"><i><br /></i></span></span><div class="dcr-1yi1cnj" data-gu-name="standfirst" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; grid-column-end: standfirst; grid-column-start: standfirst; grid-row-end: standfirst; grid-row-start: standfirst; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-1qp23oo" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--standfirst-text); font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.25rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 12px; max-width: 540px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Far from home, in a rental apartment, the scarcity of my own stuff is making me strange. Where is the focus, calm and happiness I was promised?</p></div></div><aside class="dcr-1rbr3jc" data-gu-name="meta" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; grid-column-end: meta; grid-column-start: meta; grid-row-end: meta; grid-row-start: meta; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-14emo0l" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-1v9sla6" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px -10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-5oiine" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 10px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-1kpcv08" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-direction: row; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><details class="dcr-1d52k2r" style="--mobile-color: inherit; --source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--mobile-color); font-family: GuardianTextSans, "Guardian Text Sans Web", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-size: 0.75rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: 1.3; margin: 0px 0px 6px; padding: 2px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><summary class="dcr-1ybxn6r" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="dcr-u0h1qy" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Sun 25 Feb 2024 15.00 </span></summary></details></div></div></div></div></div></aside><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><p><img alt="Emma Beddington" class="dcr-1ycxi04" height="333" src="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2020/03/20/Emma_Beddington,_R.png?width=180&dpr=1&s=none" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; display: block; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; height: 150px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px -1.85rem 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 180px;" width="400" /></p><p><br /></p><p><span class="dcr-1ipjagz" color="var(--drop-cap)" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 111px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 92px; margin: 0px 8px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: text-top;">I</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: #fef9f5; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">am living minimally for February – not a Veganuary sequel, just poor planning for my month in the US. Our last-minute Airbnb is exceptionally spartan: I suspect Scandinavia has better-equipped prison cells. There are three forks, two pans, a single teaspoon; there is barely any furniture and no decoration, except a handful of pastel canvas squares with “live, laugh, love”-style slogans and the largest TV I have ever seen. I’m using a breadboard as a desk (there is a table, but the breadboard office proved more comfortable). I also packed barely any clothes, because I knew </span><a data-link-name="in body link" href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/may/29/yes-i-do-take-my-pillow-with-me-on-holiday-and-im-very-happy-with-my-life-choices-thank-you-very-much" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; border-bottom: 1px solid var(--article-link-border); border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--article-link-text); font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">my pillow</a><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: #fef9f5; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"> would bring me more happiness than any outfit. My capsule wardrobe is three pairs of trousers, three jumpers and five tops. I’m Steve Jobs, basically.</span></p><p class="dcr-vmkf2w" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">There is a lot of hypocrisy about stuff. What I really mean is: <span class="dcr-vmkf2w" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: italic; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">I’m</span> hypocritical about stuff. I find it easy (and, I fear, deep in my awful little soul, slightly pleasurable) to get judgmental about conspicuous consumption, deploring with a righteous shiver the depressing, destructive churn of fast fashion, towers of ultra-processed protein snacks in the supermarket, or influencers gloating about having spent enough money in Hermès to be “offered” the “opportunity” to buy a Birkin.</p><div id="sign-in-gate" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><gu-island config="{"renderingTarget":"Web","darkModeAvailable":false}" data-island-status="hydrated" deferuntil="visible" name="SignInGateSelector" priority="feature" 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style="box-sizing: border-box;"></gu-island></div><p class="dcr-vmkf2w" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">But it’s bogus. The reason you don’t want stuff, bozo, I remind myself, is that you bought everything in your 20s. The minute I had any disposable income, my main leisure activity became shopping, and that didn’t change until well into my 30s. Having been there, done that and bought all the T-shirts, I don’t want too much now. If I really want something, though, I’ll deploy whatever mental gymnastics are required to convince myself that this purchase is different – ethical, reasonable, a necessity.</p><p class="dcr-vmkf2w" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">Prominent, proselytising minimalists aren’t generally people who had nothing and made a virtue of necessity, either. They consumed, then had a stuff-epiphany. “There was this gaping void in my life … I was filling the void with stuff”; “I had a lot of stuff … closets full of expensive clothes”, the gurus from <a data-link-name="in body link" href="https://www.netflix.com/title/81074662" style="border-bottom: 1px solid var(--article-link-border); border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--article-link-text); font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Minimalists confess in their Netflix film</a> (though, in fairness to those chaps, they were both distancing themselves from childhoods of extreme poverty during their acquisitive phases).</p><p class="dcr-vmkf2w" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">However much I would like to think I’m enlightened or committed to treading lightly, the truth is, I wanted stuff, got stuff and only then examined my conscience.</p><p class="dcr-vmkf2w" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">So, how is this temporarily monastic existence working out for me, Mrs “My needs are few, I live a simple life”? <a data-link-name="in body link" href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/jan/03/empty-promises-marie-kondo-craze-for-minimalism" style="border-bottom: 1px solid var(--article-link-border); border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--article-link-text); font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Guess what: I hate it.</a> Despite being a middle-aged woman and thus functionally invisible, I feel grubbily self-conscious going to cafes wearing the same outfit I wore on my last visit. Given my habitual disregard for hygiene and style, I’m also surprised how glum it makes me to repeatedly sniff-check which of my boring black tops is cleanest. Scarcity has made me strange. I have created an emotional hierarchy of clothes and started thinking magically: a bottom-ranking black bobbly jumper day is inauspicious; stripy jumper means good things will happen. Last night, I foolishly washed everything in a fit of pique and had to sit under a blanket until bedtime. Also, I hate my socks – yes, all of them.</p><p class="dcr-vmkf2w" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">I hate cooking, too, so the lack of kitchen kit is no issue: I’d trade both pans and the teaspoon in a heartbeat for a comfier sofa. But staring at a pastel square that reads “travel awaits” from my breadboard office every day makes me feel as if I’m part of a bleak psychology experiment. I’m hardly William Morris, but I want to look at nice things.</p><p class="dcr-vmkf2w" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">There is none of the monastic calm and focus minimalism is supposed to bring, no lightness or happiness. I feel glum, dispirited and diminished. I want my big spotty mug and my Welsh blanket; my Infant of Prague candle and my weird painting of a dog in a tent. I love my stuff; it makes me feel like myself. If I didn’t have it, I would want and get it again, I realise. No more <a data-link-name="in body link" href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/jan/12/stanley-cups-tumblers-water-bottle-trend" style="border-bottom: 1px solid var(--article-link-border); border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--article-link-text); font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">sneering at Stanley cups</a> – I’m the problem, it’s me.</p><p class="dcr-vmkf2w" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><span data-dcr-style="bullet" style="background-color: #c74600; border-radius: 50%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; content: ""; display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; height: 13px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0.2px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 13px;"></span> Emma Beddington is a Guardian columnist</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/feb/25/i-have-been-forced-into-a-month-of-minimalism-and-i-hate-it">THE GUARDIAN</a></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8yp6wY-aWpeAO82iH6A0AWBLSMTvggpnKkTW6VMe0KWmUkzo_dYR3mRsasR3Kfwlxq5S_eL-_CcOQK2pmChMnAu6JYy66i2lmNucASs8Ddli5rFye6HubRtkRUosFUrkZ90onu5mgMnpsgVy3gblPLHLB96y-5A8z7BQcldptL0PqOqaXpacBeD4JSk0/s117/06CB73C1-D6DB-48AD-9B96-DD9AF3E1A807.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="115" data-original-width="117" height="115" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8yp6wY-aWpeAO82iH6A0AWBLSMTvggpnKkTW6VMe0KWmUkzo_dYR3mRsasR3Kfwlxq5S_eL-_CcOQK2pmChMnAu6JYy66i2lmNucASs8Ddli5rFye6HubRtkRUosFUrkZ90onu5mgMnpsgVy3gblPLHLB96y-5A8z7BQcldptL0PqOqaXpacBeD4JSk0/s1600/06CB73C1-D6DB-48AD-9B96-DD9AF3E1A807.gif" width="117" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p></div>Ficcioneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11113302074119512881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131170244545446682.post-25714509436487501792024-02-25T09:17:00.000-05:002024-02-29T15:56:17.370-05:00Ottessa Moshfegh’s Year Has Been Neither Restful Nor Relaxing<div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_168873" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Caslon Ionic", "Lucida Console", Courier, monospace; font-size: 20px; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; text-align: center; width: 739px;"><img alt="" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-168873" class="wp-image-168873 size-large" decoding="async" height="1000" src="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/OTESS1-729x1000.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;" width="729" /><p class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-168873" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #838282; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16.5px; margin: 4px 0px 12px;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Ottessa Moshfegh</em></p><p class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-168873" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #838282; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16.5px; margin: 4px 0px 12px;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Shirt by</em> Gucci.</p></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Caslon Ionic", "Lucida Console", Courier, monospace; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><br /></p><h1 class="balance-text" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 52px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 62.4px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Ottessa Moshfegh’s Year Has Been<br aria-hidden="true" data-owner="balance-text" style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Neither Restful Nor Relaxing</span></h1><div class="story-metadata" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="author-date-block" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 16px 0px; text-align: center;"><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 400; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">By</em> Alex Israel</span></h3><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 400; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Photographed by</em> Keith Oshiro</span></h3><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 400; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Styled by</em> Bin X. Nguyen</span></h3><h6 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 400; line-height: 16.8px; margin: 16px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">April 21, 2020</span></h6></div></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">In our fractured, discordant, don’t-speak-for-me present, there stands little chance that any one author could represent the spirit of the age. But Ottessa Moshfegh would be a strong nominee for those in search of a young literary polestar. A daughter of musicians, the 38- year-old novelist attained cult-writer status in the mid 2010s, publishing a novella, a novel, and a short-story collection. But cult interest turned out to be a mere pit stop. After releasing her dark and hilarious emotional barbwire of a novel, 2018’s <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">My Year of Rest and Relaxation</em>, about a privileged 20-something Manhattanite drowning in prescription pills, Moshfegh became a star. The novel was so smart and daring that it was passed among friends with the promise that it contained essential, unkind wisdoms.<span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">This month, Moshfegh’s third novel, <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Death in Her Hands</em> (written, in fact, when her first was still getting ready to come out), arrives on bookshelves. It’s a sort of murder mystery, but in Moshfegh’s weird and wonderful hands, it does not unravel like a typical genre story. Rule one of a mystery: Start with a dead body. Moshfegh starts instead with a note found in the grass announcing that there has been a murder (the body of the young victim, named Magda, is nowhere in sight). It is the fate of an elderly widow, Vesta, to come across this ominous revelation on her daily walk with her dog, and from there her already shaky life turns upside down as she searches for answers. It’s as if the postmodernist writer John Barth wandered into an Agatha Christie whodunit. Moshfegh herself is a wanderer, having lived multiple times on both American coasts. Now settled in Los Angeles, she stopped by the Mid City studio of her friend, the artist <a href="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/art/alex-israel" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">Alex Israel,</a> to talk about strange animal visitations and writing about the dead.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">———</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">ALEX ISRAEL: Have you had any recent, noteworthy L.A. adventures?</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">OTTESSA MOSHFEGH: My friend Matthew Lessner and I were out at coffee and we decided to go for a hike, because I had my dog with me. Matthew is a filmmaker, and his imagination is, like mine, on the creepy side. We drove to this place in Highland Park to hike and, pulling up, I saw these women in exercise clothes looking through a chainlink fence. They left as we parked, and we walked over to where they had been standing. Then I saw something. I was like, “Oh god, please don’t let that be a dead dog.” Instead it was a headless goat.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">ISRAEL: A real one?</span></p><div class="htlad-Mobile_Article_MedRec_2" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="htl-ad htlunit-Mobile_Article_MedRec_2" data-lazy-pixels="350" data-prebid="0x0:|768x0:" data-refresh-max="20" data-refresh-secs="15" data-refresh="viewable" data-sizes="0x0:1x1,300x250,325x204,325x508|768x0:" data-unit="Mobile_Article_MedRec_2" id="htlad-3" name="htlunit-Mobile_Article_MedRec_2" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 32px 0px;"></div></div><div class="htlad-Desktop_Article_Leaderboard_2" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="htl-ad htlunit-Desktop_Article_Leaderboard_2" data-lazy-pixels="350" data-prebid="0x0:|768x0:|970x0:" data-refresh-max="20" data-refresh-secs="15" data-refresh="viewable" data-sizes="0x0:|768x0:1x1,728x90|970x0:1x1,728x90,970x250,970x600,620x336,1030x590" data-unit="Desktop_Article_Leaderboard_2" id="htlad-4" name="htlunit-Desktop_Article_Leaderboard_2" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 32px 0px;"></div></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">MOSHFEGH: Yeah.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">ISRAEL: Are you making this up?</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">MOSHFEGH: No! I have a photo.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">ISRAEL: I don’t want to see it. Do you think there had been some kind of ritualistic sacrifice?</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">MOSHFEGH: I think it was exactly that. A couple of yards away there was a cardboard box with a chicken in it that was also dead. I went online to notify animal control, but a report had already been filed. Someone had beaten me to it. This happens quite often, apparently, people finding headless goats. And there are a lot of articles about why we shouldn’t be prejudiced about it. Like, it doesn’t mean it’s satanic.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">ISRAEL: Were there flies?</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">MOSHFEGH: No, it was brand new.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">ISRAEL: What did your friend think?</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">MOSHFEGH: He took a picture of me inspecting the headless goat through the fence. And then we went on our hike.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">ISRAEL: Okay, maybe now I want to see the picture.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">MOSHFEGH: It was right after New Year’s Eve, so maybe it was part of a cleansing ritual. It also happened to be right around my wedding anniversary.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">ISRAEL: Didn’t you meet your husband [the writer <a href="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/culture/luke-b-goebel-fourteen-stories-none-of-them-are-yours" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">Luke Goebel</a>] when he came to interview you for a magazine? You guys fell in love that day, and he has the whole thing captured in a recording of the interview.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">MOSHFEGH: Yeah. It was for <a href="https://lareviewofbooks.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Los Angeles Review of Books</em></a>, but they didn’t end up publishing it. We got engaged almost immediately—like six weeks in. Then we got married two years later.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">ISRAEL: How many dates did you have before you got engaged?</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">MOSHFEGH: We didn’t have a date. He came over and we were just together forever. I don’t know if I would have had the patience and strength to “date,” if it had come about another way.</span></p><div class="htlad-Mobile_Article_MedRec_3" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="htl-ad htlunit-Mobile_Article_MedRec_3" data-lazy-pixels="350" data-prebid="0x0:|768x0:" data-refresh-max="20" data-refresh-secs="15" data-refresh="viewable" data-sizes="0x0:1x1,300x250|768x0:" data-unit="Mobile_Article_MedRec_3" id="htlad-5" name="htlunit-Mobile_Article_MedRec_3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 32px 0px;"></div></div><div class="htlad-Desktop_Article_Leaderboard_3" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="htl-ad htlunit-Desktop_Article_Leaderboard_3" data-lazy-pixels="350" data-prebid="0x0:|768x0:|970x0:" data-refresh-max="20" data-refresh-secs="15" data-refresh="viewable" data-sizes="0x0:|768x0:1x1,728x90|970x0:1x1,728x90,970x250,970x600" data-unit="Desktop_Article_Leaderboard_3" id="htlad-6" name="htlunit-Desktop_Article_Leaderboard_3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 32px 0px;"></div></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">ISRAEL: So, your wedding anniversary lands around the same time as this ritual sacrifice. And it’s also the Year of the Rat.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">MOSHFEGH: I will tell you a weird anecdote. Luke and I went on a hike on this really big mountain near Pasadena last December. Luke went up ahead and I was alone on these hairpin curves, when suddenly I heard this chirping. It was really, really loud. I looked down and there was this newborn mouse about an inch-and-a-half long, completely pink, totally hairless. Its eyes and ears were sealed. It had little feet and a very cute face, and it was screaming and all alone. It was like someone had put it there for me. So I picked it up and called for Luke. It had zero chance of survival. I don’t know how it got there. I guess it fell out of a nest or got abandoned. It was just so weird.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">ISRAEL: Maybe it was the runt of the litter.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">MOSHFEGH: Who knows. It was my first encounter with something that new and needy and vulnerable. Luke was a bit hesitant, but we ended up taking it home and we tried to feed it kitten formula with an eyedropper, which is what you’re supposed to do. We weren’t even sure that it was a mouse.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">ISRAEL: It could have been a rat.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">MOSHFEGH: Or a squirrel—any kind of rodent. And then I was on the phone with my dad the next day and Luke was trying to feed it and it died. We were so sad. I still miss it. Then on Chinese New Year’s Eve, I found another mouse, but that one was full-grown and I think it had eaten rat poison, so Luke had to kill it, which felt like both a sacrifice and an act of kindness.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">ISRAEL: Do you see a lot of wild animals out where you live in Pasadena?</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">MOSHFEGH: There are a lot of birds and squirrels. When we first moved, people were telling us that there were a lot of coyotes. Sometimes we hear them.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">ISRAEL: I see coyotes all the time. The main character in your new novel also takes interesting walks in nature. How did Death in Her Hands come about?</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">MOSHFEGH: I started writing this book when I was waiting for [Moshfegh’s first novel] <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Eileen</em> to come out in 2015. I was living in Oakland, California, by myself. I was about 32 or 33, so I was having a Jesus-year crisis, like nothing made sense. I was in a constant state of extreme anxiety.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">ISRAEL: What were you doing in Oakland?</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">MOSHFEGH: I’d moved there to be close to Stanford because I had this fellowship. But at that point I had stopped going and was just focusing on self-care. I was in really intense therapy. And I knew I didn’t have the wherewithal to start a new project that was going to be something that I would have to plan out or would become a reflection of my life over a number of years, which novels tend to be. But I still wanted to write something. So I decided to write a book. I didn’t know what it was going to be, but I was going to write at least 1,000 words every day until it was over. That’s how it started. I never planned any part of it. I never knew where I was going. I wrote it in the present moment.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">ISRAEL: How much did it change after you finished the first draft?</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">MOSHFEGH: It didn’t change that significantly, but it did need a lot of editing. I didn’t look back—that was another rule I had. I could never read what I had written on any day prior. The protagonist, Vesta, narrates in the present moment according to what she’s experiencing and thinking. And that’s exactly how I wrote it.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">ISRAEL: There’s a surreal quality to the book. In the past, surrealist writers and painters used tools such as stream of consciousness. In painting, it’s called automatism. But your book is surreal in that the reader is never sure what is real and what is not, or when you can rely on the narrator and when you can’t. Were you thinking about surrealism?</span></p><div class="htlad-Mobile_Article_MedRec_4" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="htl-ad htlunit-Mobile_Article_MedRec_4" data-lazy-pixels="350" data-prebid="0x0:|768x0:" data-refresh-max="20" data-refresh-secs="15" data-refresh="viewable" data-sizes="0x0:1x1,300x250|768x0:" data-unit="Mobile_Article_MedRec_4" id="htlad-7" name="htlunit-Mobile_Article_MedRec_4" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 32px 0px;"></div></div><div class="htlad-Desktop_Article_Leaderboard_4" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="htl-ad htlunit-Desktop_Article_Leaderboard_4" data-lazy-pixels="350" data-prebid="0x0:|768x0:|970x0:" data-refresh-max="20" data-refresh-secs="15" data-refresh="viewable" data-sizes="0x0:|768x0:1x1,728x90|970x0:1x1,728x90,970x250,970x600" data-unit="Desktop_Article_Leaderboard_3" id="htlad-8" name="htlunit-Desktop_Article_Leaderboard_4" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 32px 0px;"></div></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">MOSHFEGH: I don’t know. I like surrealism as a concept but I’m not so sure it’s distinguishable from everything else anymore. Does surrealism still exist?</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">ISRAEL: I guess we live in a world that’s so surreal now there’s not such a clear distinction. But artists still use some of the tools of surrealism, like the juxtaposition of objects that aren’t meant to be together. Or leaving things up to chance in their work. Maybe they aren’t as radical as they were in the early 20th century, but the tools can still be useful.</span></p><div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_169374" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; text-align: center; width: 1510px;"><a href="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Interview_Digital_Web_2020_Spring_Ottessa-Moshfegh-2.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><img alt="" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-169374" class="wp-image-169374 size-full" decoding="async" height="2033" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" src="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Interview_Digital_Web_2020_Spring_Ottessa-Moshfegh-2.jpg" srcset="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Interview_Digital_Web_2020_Spring_Ottessa-Moshfegh-2.jpg 1500w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Interview_Digital_Web_2020_Spring_Ottessa-Moshfegh-2-443x600.jpg 443w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Interview_Digital_Web_2020_Spring_Ottessa-Moshfegh-2-738x1000.jpg 738w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Interview_Digital_Web_2020_Spring_Ottessa-Moshfegh-2-1133x1536.jpg 1133w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Interview_Digital_Web_2020_Spring_Ottessa-Moshfegh-2-37x50.jpg 37w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Interview_Digital_Web_2020_Spring_Ottessa-Moshfegh-2-133x180.jpg 133w" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;" width="1500" /></span></a><p class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-169374" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #838282; line-height: 16.5px; margin: 4px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Jacket and Pants by</em> Gucci. <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Shoes by</em> Prada.</span></p></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">MOSHFEGH: Isn’t all digital media surreal?</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">ISRAEL: All of it? Do you think every picture on social media or every video on YouTube is inherently surreal?</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">MOSHFEGH: Yeah.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">ISRAEL: I don’t know if I agree. So much of that content is really direct, whereas there’s something indirect about surreal content.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">MOSHFEGH: To me, YouTube in general is so surreal.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">ISRAEL: It feels like a dream from the future. And, of course, dreams area big part of surrealism where you don’t really know where reality stops and fantasy begins. That’s part of the culture of the internet. Do you have vivid dreams?</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">MOSHFEGH: The other night I had a dream that America was occupied by a foreign military force. They went into people’s houses, so every home had a soldier, or an employee or whatever, who was keeping track of what we were doing. What does that mean? That I feel invaded?</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">ISRAEL: Maybe that you feel as if you are being watched or observed. I think a lot of people feel that way.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">MOSHFEGH: My sister once told me something that gave me major panic attacks. She was talking about how things began to exist. She said that there was once a particle and it wanted to experience itself so it split in two. The idea is we have to create something else in order to be observed in order to exist. It’s like existence is a kind of self-observation or an observation of ourselves by others. I think that might be why we have pets. I mean, it’s a huge part of my relationship with my dog. It’s like he does something and I’ll observe it and describe it to him. And then he’s looking at me and observing me.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">ISRAEL: My dog is getting old. He’s 14. I had to get those little steps so that he can walk up to get onto the bed. But something else I want to mention about your writing is how you mine cultural touchstones and bring them to the fore in uncanny ways. For example, I hadn’t thought about AskJeeves.com in a long time before it popped up in this novel. I hadn’t pondered Whoopi Goldberg’s iconicity until reading <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">My Year of Rest and Relaxation</em>. I’m wondering where these references come from.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">MOSHFEGH: If my mainframe is a box, those ideas come from the bottom right-hand corner. It’s where I put things that have a certain resonance and weirdness that I have a particular relationship with, even if it’s just aesthetic. For Ask- Jeeves.com, I was thinking about the way we started to ask questions on the internet, as though the questions went through an old British butler. Like, “Let me go fetch that for you.” It’s a very pointed thing.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">ISRAEL: That was before Google became ubiquitous. And it would make an elderly person connect with a website more, thinking a fellow elder was doing the work. The scenes where Vesta is using the computer in the library are really hilarious. Your book goes back and forth between being funny and scary and sad. It also skips around in terms of genre. Did you think about genres such as mystery or horror when you were writing?</span></p><div class="htlad-Mobile_Article_MedRec_5" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="htl-ad htlunit-Mobile_Article_MedRec_5" data-lazy-pixels="350" data-prebid="0x0:|768x0:" data-refresh-max="20" data-refresh-secs="15" data-refresh="viewable" data-sizes="0x0:1x1,300x250|768x0:" data-unit="Mobile_Article_MedRec_5" id="htlad-9" name="htlunit-Mobile_Article_MedRec_5" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 32px 0px;"></div></div><div class="htlad-Desktop_Article_Leaderboard_5" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="htl-ad htlunit-Desktop_Article_Leaderboard_5" data-lazy-pixels="350" data-prebid="0x0:|768x0:|970x0:" data-refresh-max="20" data-refresh-secs="15" data-refresh="viewable" data-sizes="0x0:|768x0:1x1,728x90|970x0:1x1,728x90,970x250,970x600" data-unit="Desktop_Article_Leaderboard_5" id="htlad-10" name="htlunit-Desktop_Article_Leaderboard_5" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 32px 0px;"></div></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">MOSHFEGH: I really didn’t. Even when I was editing it, I wasn’t all that concerned about genre. The way I experienced writing the book is so similar to the experience of reading it, which is: “This is so close to falling apart.” Then somehow it saves itself. The book is always adapting and there isn’t some superimposed expectation of what you hope the book will accomplish, if that makes sense.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">ISRAEL: Yeah. It doesn’t commit to any one archetype, so you don’t really know what to expect. I guess if you’re using some sort of formula, you can’t ever really escape yourself.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">MOSHFEGH: And then you might never find yourself again. It’s like that documentary [Tell Me Who I Am] about the two grown twins, and one of them suffers a brain injury that erases his memory and the other brother doesn’t tell him the horrible abuse he suffered as a kid.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">ISRAEL: Would you want to escape from yourself and never come back?</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">MOSHFEGH:I think I would take the risk, maybe when I’m really old. That’s part of why I like elderly characters. There’s nothing to lose. Or at least our vanity gets worn down to this very fine point that becomes pure personality rather than giving a shit what people think of us in a broad sense.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">ISRAEL: People say the older you get, the less you give a shit. And maybe there comes a point where there are no shits given, no matter what. I care less what people think now than I did when I was 30.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">MOSHFEGH: But how much is that a function of your success?</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">ISRAEL: I don’t know. I think that the more you put yourself out there, the more feedback you get. And the more different kinds of feedback you get, the more immune you get to what that feedback might say or how it makes you feel. You stop letting it have power over you. I do care about the people I love and I don’t want to disappoint them. That really hasn’t changed much. But when it comes to people I don’t know, I care remarkably less than I did ten years ago.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">MOSHFEGH: Do you feel that the more you put of yourself into your work, the less of you there is left outside of the work?</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">ISRAEL: I think so. What about you?</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">MOSHFEGH: Totally. I feel so emptied out a lot. But you can replenish. You can also dig deeper. That’s what I want to do, start digging.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">ISRAEL: Culture itself is a mine, and you can always keep mining culture.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">MOSHFEGH: I think we have almost opposite relationships to culture. I’m kind of a control freak about what I pay attention to. Part of the reason I love hanging out with you is that my control freakishness gets suspended. I’m curious with you about things in popular culture I might not normally look at, partially because I trust you as a filter.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">ISRAEL: Do you feel like your relationship to popular culture has changed since you moved to L.A.?</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">MOSHFEGH: I feel like I’ve seen behind the curtain. I’m working a bit in film, too, so I’m seeing the process of how something gets made and the different roles that people play. I think I appreciate an amazing movie more, knowing it took so much work and coordination. But now when I watch something stupid, I think of how many hours and human bodies went into making it.</span></p><div class="htlad-Mobile_Article_MedRec_6" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="htl-ad htlunit-Mobile_Article_MedRec_6" data-lazy-pixels="350" data-prebid="0x0:|768x0:" data-refresh-max="20" data-refresh-secs="15" data-refresh="viewable" data-sizes="0x0:1x1,300x250|768x0:" data-unit="Mobile_Article_MedRec_6" id="htlad-11" name="htlunit-Mobile_Article_MedRec_6" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 32px 0px;"></div></div><div class="htlad-Desktop_Article_Leaderboard_6" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="htl-ad htlunit-Desktop_Article_Leaderboard_6" data-lazy-pixels="350" data-prebid="0x0:|768x0:|970x0:" data-refresh-max="20" data-refresh-secs="15" data-refresh="viewable" data-sizes="0x0:|768x0:1x1,728x90|970x0:1x1,728x90,970x250,970x600" data-unit="Desktop_Article_Leaderboard_6" id="htlad-12" name="htlunit-Desktop_Article_Leaderboard_6" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 32px 0px;"></div></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">ISRAEL: You’ve met the real people and have seen the real passion that goes into these things. That changes your relationship.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">MOSHFEGH: The people who are actually behind these movies are making huge decisions about what we’re supposed to be paying attention to. I used to pooh-pooh the Oscars and I still do a bit, because it’s not so much a celebration of the value of great work but a consensus on what in the culture this Academy believes we should be paying attention to. I didn’t, for example, see <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Green Book</em>.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">ISRAEL: You should see it. <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Green Book</em> didn’t change my life, but it’s a feel-good movie. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">MOSHFEGH: No, there’s nothing wrong with that. As an artist, I guess I get a little upset about awards. I feel the same about awards in literature.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">ISRAEL: It’s true of all awards, because they’re reflections of a consensus. And the consensus isn’t always where we as artists are focusing our attention. It’s in our nature to do things against consensus. That’s why we’re artists</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">———</span></p><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Hair and Makeup:</em> Muamera Public <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">at</em> Opus Beauty <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">using</em> Charlotte Tilbury <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">and</em> ORIBE.</span></p><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Photography Assistant: Eric Hersey</span></p><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/art/ottessa-moshfegh-alex-israel-spring-2020-issue">INTERVIEW</a></span></p><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjixejbbq5fk2Cy__6DMIR4oV1aOxHuuNxR4dI0n6Qlo2Rjx1tqarKHDucQ65xZv4P5OtUUltSJnEdAWsvTazk30_8LIxYDJ03bm9WH2ML-lAOph-Kc8NeRel-HlL9_Q720ssW7rrKZhJepMlrVBKTZD-tFRW0a9OxCjTv2RazzvsiKvb5YryhyphenhyphenUaP92lU/s117/0000%20dragon_circle_un%20cuarto.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="115" data-original-width="117" height="115" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjixejbbq5fk2Cy__6DMIR4oV1aOxHuuNxR4dI0n6Qlo2Rjx1tqarKHDucQ65xZv4P5OtUUltSJnEdAWsvTazk30_8LIxYDJ03bm9WH2ML-lAOph-Kc8NeRel-HlL9_Q720ssW7rrKZhJepMlrVBKTZD-tFRW0a9OxCjTv2RazzvsiKvb5YryhyphenhyphenUaP92lU/s1600/0000%20dragon_circle_un%20cuarto.gif" width="117" /></a></div>Ficcioneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11113302074119512881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131170244545446682.post-25646547028418535442024-02-24T09:16:00.000-05:002024-02-29T15:56:29.775-05:00Of Money and Men / Emily Ratajkowski in Conversation With Amia Srinivasan<div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_193680" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Caslon Ionic", "Lucida Console", Courier, monospace; font-size: 20px; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; text-align: center; width: 2570px;"><a href="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/01da-110321-75-scaled.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;"><img alt="" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-193680" class="wp-image-193680 size-full" decoding="async" height="1711" sizes="(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px" src="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/01da-110321-75-scaled.jpg" srcset="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/01da-110321-75-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/01da-110321-75-500x334.jpg 500w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/01da-110321-75-1000x668.jpg 1000w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/01da-110321-75-768x513.jpg 768w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/01da-110321-75-1536x1027.jpg 1536w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/01da-110321-75-2048x1369.jpg 2048w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/01da-110321-75-218x146.jpg 218w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/01da-110321-75-50x33.jpg 50w" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;" width="2560" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-193680" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #838282; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16.5px; margin: 4px 0px 12px;">Emily Ratajkowski and her son.</p></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Caslon Ionic", "Lucida Console", Courier, monospace; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"> </p><h1 class="balance-text" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 52px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 62.4px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Of Money and Men: Emily Ratajkowski<br aria-hidden="true" data-owner="balance-text" style="box-sizing: border-box;" />in Conversation With Amia Srinivasan</span></h1><div class="story-metadata" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px;"><div class="author-date-block" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 16px 0px; text-align: center;"><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">By</em> Amia Srinivasan</span></h3><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Photographed by</em> Daniel Arnold</span></h3><h6 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 16.8px; margin: 16px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">November 16, 2021</span></h6></div></div><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">“I have so much anxiety about this,” says Emily Ratajkowski from the floor of her Manhattan apartment. “Even my body has responded to the desire to know how this book will be received.” Ratajkowski has long since come to terms with relinquishing control over her image, but for the 30-year-old San Diego native, the project of removing her body from the conversation has been a challenging one. After more than a decade spent embodying what many—Ratajkowski included—would say is an impossible beauty standard, the model and businesswoman has endeavored in recent years to shine light on the toxic aspects of an industry that long held her up as the epitome of female sexuality. Last fall, she published an essay about her experiences with on-the-job assault and exploitation, naming a prominent photographer in the process. The essay sparked seismic reactions—both positive and negative—in the fashion and art worlds. But instead of dwelling on the public’s reaction, Ratajkowski, a new mother, has done her best to focus on the process of creation.<span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">My Body, </i>Ratajkowski’s recently released book of essays, is the latest step in this process. Over 12 essays—concerned less with her body itself than with its status as an object of fetishization—Ratajkowski confronts with unflinching frankness topics like shame, solidarity, and the search for male validation in a culture that often confuses exploitation with empowerment. The result is a book that, in the opinion of the philosopher Amia Srinivasan, opens itself up to just about anyone—teenage boys and feminist scholars alike. “I’ve always been drawn to sparse, unpretentious writing,” Ratajkowski says. “The purpose of an essay is to get to the root of something, to investigate it.”<span class="Apple-converted-space" style="box-sizing: border-box;"> </span>To mark the release of <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">My Body</i>, Ratajkowski joined Srinivasan over Zoom for a discussion about money, the myth of being a muse, and what it means to raise a son in today’s world. – <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">MARA VEITCH</em></span></p><p class="p2" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="box-sizing: border-box;"> </span>———</span></p><p class="p5" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">EMILY RATAJKOWSKI: It’s so nice to meet you!</span></p><p class="p5" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">AMIA SRINIVASAN: It’s really nice to meet you too, congratulations on the book!</span></p><div class="htlad-Mobile_Article_MedRec_2" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px;"><div class="htl-ad htlunit-Mobile_Article_MedRec_2" data-lazy-pixels="350" data-prebid="0x0:|768x0:" data-refresh-max="20" data-refresh-secs="15" data-refresh="viewable" data-sizes="0x0:1x1,300x250,325x204,325x508|768x0:" data-unit="Mobile_Article_MedRec_2" id="htlad-3" name="htlunit-Mobile_Article_MedRec_2" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 32px 0px;"></div></div><div class="htlad-Desktop_Article_Leaderboard_2" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px;"><div class="htl-ad htlunit-Desktop_Article_Leaderboard_2" data-lazy-pixels="350" data-prebid="0x0:|768x0:|970x0:" data-refresh-max="20" data-refresh-secs="15" data-refresh="viewable" data-sizes="0x0:|768x0:1x1,728x90|970x0:1x1,728x90,970x250,970x600,620x336,1030x590" data-unit="Desktop_Article_Leaderboard_2" id="htlad-4" name="htlunit-Desktop_Article_Leaderboard_2" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 32px 0px;"></div></div><p class="p5" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">RATAJKOWSKI: Thank you. I’m such a huge fan. I love <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Right to Sex</i>.<span class="Apple-converted-space" style="box-sizing: border-box;"> </span></span></p><p class="p5" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">SRINIVASAN: I read your book in one sitting and it reminded me of something Marilyn Monroe said in her final interview. She said, “Like any creative human being, I would like a bit more control.” It seems to me that this theme of power and control is maybe the central theme of the book? It runs through all 12 essays. When you choose to take off your clothes or post an Instagram photo of your ass, is this an act of control? Is being able, so successfully, to make men want you, to understand what men want and play on that desire, a form of power? Or are all of these things just simulacra of power and control? My sense is that you give a pretty ambivalent answer to these questions. On one hand, you rightly condemn those who criticize you and other women for capitalizing on their beauty. And you acknowledge that the way you look has given you a certain form of power. But in the book, you tell these stories again and again of realizing that the real power lies with men. The men who direct, film, and manage you, who own the companies and production houses, and who so often treat you as fungible and stupid, simply a body to be sold, consumed, and unfortunately occasionally assaulted. Again and again, you express contempt for the control that these men exercise, and a longing for more creative power. Someone, as you say, who might make a movie one day, rather than get naked in one. Do you think that this is a fair assessment, and to what extent was power and control at the forefront of your mind as you set out to write the book?</span></p><p class="p5" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">RATAJKOWSKI: I didn’t know that Marilyn Monroe quote but it’s interesting that she was talking about control, because even when I believed in choice feminism in my early twenties, and believed in the power that I had as somebody who had worked the system, I definitely didn’t feel in control very often. Instagram was one of the places where I first experienced feeling some kind of control, because I was the one who was able to choose the images and put them out. I could go into a whole thing about my relationship to the internet and women and control. I think it’s something that is at the forefront of our cultural conversation right now, around Only Fans and revenge porn and maybe even related to crypto and NFTs and the free internet, but that’s a separate conversation. When I was writing the book, I knew that power and control were huge topics for me, but it wasn’t, “This is a story about power and control.” It was more like, “This is a story where I have a lot of shame, and a lot of complicated feelings about how I acted.” But, maybe there’s something there that is related to these ideas. I experienced what the double-edged sword was like—wearing something tight to school and then realizing that the popular girls weren’t paying attention to me because the boys were paying attention to me, while also feeling my vice principal snapping my bra strap. So much of what women experience is this feeling of, “I’m the one seducing, I’m the one who’s getting this attention, so I have the power.” But it wasn’t until I got older that I was able to look at these experiences that have stuck with me and think about control, and through thinking about control, think about power.</span></p><p class="p5" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">SRINIVASAN: What was so fascinating about the second essay, which is about “Blurred Lines,” was the way you focus on the means of production of it. It was a production run by a woman, mostly staffed by women, and you were with two other women models. You felt playful and in control; that no one was asking you to do things you didn’t want to do. And you were working, and as a work experience, it felt pretty positive. What I like about that so much is that you make a move here that a lot of women who work in sex work make, which is actually a fundamentally Marxist move. It’s to say, “Don’t just fixate on the representation, the thing that comes out and that you see, and ask about the gendered meaning of that. Also think about what goes into the production of it and the making of it.” But then of course there’s a shift, and you talk about this really awful moment when a mediocre pop star feels entitled to put his hands on you, and everyone freezes and no one can really say anything. It’s one of these moments of puncturing, where it turns out that he’s fundamentally in control.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><a href="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/02da-103021-06-scaled.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter wp-image-193681 size-full" decoding="async" height="1965" sizes="(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px" src="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/02da-103021-06-scaled.jpg" srcset="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/02da-103021-06-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/02da-103021-06-500x384.jpg 500w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/02da-103021-06-1000x768.jpg 1000w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/02da-103021-06-768x590.jpg 768w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/02da-103021-06-1536x1179.jpg 1536w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/02da-103021-06-2048x1572.jpg 2048w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/02da-103021-06-190x146.jpg 190w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/02da-103021-06-50x38.jpg 50w" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: auto; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; text-align: center; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;" width="2560" /></span></a></p><p class="p5" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">RATAJKOWSKI: Absolutely, especially in relation to sex work, I relate to it a little bit in the way that all of these women are using their bodies and compromising and also finding power, potentially. That essay in particular is really about industry, capitalism, and commodification, because I had approached modeling as a job. I was only interested in the money that I could make. I knew that there was potentially other power with becoming famous or becoming an image of a beautiful woman and what that represented. I grew up in the early aughts, and I’d seen what powerful women looked like. To me they were Britney Spears, and then there were powerful men who were presidents. That was sort of my understanding. So of course I wanted that, but I’d really hardened myself and thought, “I’m never going to have that kind of power, so I’m just going to make as much money as I can.” That meant often, as I write in the book, feeling like a mannequin, working with men who were maybe twice my age and stripping down and turning into their fantasy. “Blurred Lines” was this experience where a bunch of women asked me how I felt. Did I like makeup? Did I like my hair? I let myself relax and enjoy myself on that set. I think it’s one of the reasons that the music video had the success it did, because it isn’t just girls pouting. There’s a silliness to it and that’s a reflection of how I felt on set. The part where the power dynamics became clear was one that I had buried. I found it humiliating and incongruent with what I wanted to believe and feel about my position in the world. Ultimately, when I first wrote an early draft of this, the experience was buried inside of another essay, because I didn’t want it to be “the ‘Blurred Lines’ essay.” Then I realized that it needed to be its own.</span></p><p class="p5" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">SRINIVASAN: You were in an impossible position. You either hide it or bring it up. No matter what, the revelation, which is handled with such subtlety and care, would generate the kind of headlines it has. Like in <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Sunday Times</i>, which is a terrible right-wing newspaper. You’ve seen the headline.</span></p><p class="p5" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">RATAJKOWSKI: Not only the headline, but the images have been pictures where my breasts are exposed, and it says, “Emily Eroticakowski Accuses Robin Thicke of Sexual Assault.” It’s such a diminishing of what I actually wanted to say. Even having people approach me and say very kindly, “It’s so wonderful you spoke out,” is kind of missing the point of the essay. I’m looking forward to people being able to read and, I hope, understand why I decided to write it and what the point is of sharing that experience.</span></p><p class="p5" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">SRINIVASAN: If it’s any consolation, another terrible right-wing British newspaper described my book with the headline “‘The Right to Sex’ by Amia Srinivasan: Soviet-Style of Sex Reeducation.”</span></p><p class="p5" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">RATAJKOWSKI: Wow, that actually does make me feel better. [Laughs]</span></p><p class="p5" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">SRINIVASAN: A lot of people experience that kind of mistreatment, especially women who want to think about questions with nuance and ambivalence. A lot of the mainstream press can’t handle that. You expressed a hope that people will actually read the book as you wrote it: a set of complex, ambivalent, sometimes funny, very sharp, and also cold and dark meditations on representation and sex, embodiment, and capitalism. But you also expressed anxiety in the book that you won’t be taken seriously, because women who look like you in particular, and who also capitalize on how they look, are especially not taken seriously. I wonder how confident you are that you are going to be read properly, or are you going to still be read through a lens of male sexual fantasy?</span></p><p class="p5" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">RATAJKOWSKI: I have so much anxiety about this. I’ve lost a bunch of weight in the past month because I’m concerned and scared. My body has actually responded to the desire to how this book will be received and it’s a continuation of the metaphor. But something that I think the book could be criticized for and I totally understand is that I don’t give a lot of solutions, and I can often be cynical. What I’m about to say is not cynical and kind of positive, which is that ultimately, I write about being a muse versus an artist. I didn’t even realize that it was such a large part of the book. In some ways I wish that I had written more about it, but also I have realized that the book is a relic that is about creation and about the muse taking back power and becoming the artist. The act of writing the book has been an attempt at control, but ultimately, you have to release control in order to be happy and just to survive and exist in a meaningful way. I think, with publishing it and knowing that there’s this huge risk of people not reading it at all, and only looking at the headlines, I have to focus on the act of creating the book and the fulfillment that it’s given me, which is really all I ever wanted.<span class="Apple-converted-space" style="box-sizing: border-box;"> </span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><a href="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/03da-110321-34-scaled.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter wp-image-193682 size-full" decoding="async" height="1706" loading="lazy" sizes="(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px" src="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/03da-110321-34-scaled.jpg" srcset="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/03da-110321-34-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/03da-110321-34-500x333.jpg 500w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/03da-110321-34-1000x667.jpg 1000w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/03da-110321-34-768x512.jpg 768w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/03da-110321-34-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/03da-110321-34-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/03da-110321-34-219x146.jpg 219w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/03da-110321-34-50x33.jpg 50w" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: auto; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; text-align: center; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;" width="2560" /></span></a></p><p class="p5" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">SRINIVASAN: Let’s talk about the shift from being the muse to the artist. I’m interested in the process that went into the actual writing of this book. It’s a very finely honed and controlled literary object. Your prose is spare, often cold, especially when you’re describing moments of male creepiness and assault. It reminds me of early Bret Easton Ellis, that same cold description of a certain toxic superficial culture. But in its places of coldness, it’s very affecting. You also do this very intricate interweaving of different temporal moments and different narratives. In the essay called “Toxic,” you’re interweaving this discussion of Britney Spears with the account of this high school almost-friendship. Then in “Beauty Lessons,” which opens the book, you’ve got this series of numbered vignettes about your childhood formation, your relationship with your mother, beauty, loveability. Can we talk about the craft of essay writing and what it’s about for you?</span></p><p class="p5" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">RATAJKOWSKI: I’ve been an avid reader my whole life, and it was one of the reasons I didn’t write more, because I had so much respect for wonderful writing that I felt like, “Why attempt, why not just appreciate?” I’ve always been drawn to sparse, unpretentious writing. Flowery language doesn’t really interest me. It covers it up. It’s often difficult to be very direct and not flowery because you really have to figure out what the fuck you’re saying. I have so much respect for people who are good at that, especially in essays, because the idea of an essay is to get to the root of something, to investigate it. That was what started the writing. It was not just, “I’m going to write a book,” but more feeling like I wanted to explore experiences and ideas that I couldn’t verbally lay out or organize. I would start on a note in my phone and that was really helpful, because once you start writing inside of essays, you can lose the stream of consciousness that you want to have. You do that particularly well. I think Leslie Jamison also does that really well, where you feel her mind working in the writing, which is very difficult because anyone who’s written knows that once you edit, you’re completely lost in the sentences and you lose the larger shape. So the notes thing allowed me to jump from one idea to the next. And as somebody who has grown up in the age of the internet and enjoys reading long books but can have a short attention span, I appreciate the way you can pick up and put down a book of essays.<span class="Apple-converted-space" style="box-sizing: border-box;"> </span></span></p><div class="htlad-Mobile_Article_MedRec_3" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px;"><div class="htl-ad htlunit-Mobile_Article_MedRec_3" data-lazy-pixels="350" data-prebid="0x0:|768x0:" data-refresh-max="20" data-refresh-secs="15" data-refresh="viewable" data-sizes="0x0:1x1,300x250|768x0:" data-unit="Mobile_Article_MedRec_3" id="htlad-5" name="htlunit-Mobile_Article_MedRec_3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 32px 0px;"></div></div><div class="htlad-Desktop_Article_Leaderboard_3" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px;"><div class="htl-ad htlunit-Desktop_Article_Leaderboard_3" data-lazy-pixels="350" data-prebid="0x0:|768x0:|970x0:" data-refresh-max="20" data-refresh-secs="15" data-refresh="viewable" data-sizes="0x0:|768x0:1x1,728x90|970x0:1x1,728x90,970x250,970x600" data-unit="Desktop_Article_Leaderboard_3" id="htlad-6" name="htlunit-Desktop_Article_Leaderboard_3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 32px 0px;"></div></div><p class="p5" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">SRINIVASAN: Can we talk about money?</span></p><p class="p5" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">RATAJKOWSKI: Yes. I love talking about money.</span></p><p class="p5" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">SRINIVASAN: You describe why you first got into modeling, and it’s because of money. You immediately contextualize it within the 2008 financial crash, which was so formative for people in our generation. You were watching peers moving back home and picking up the service jobs they had in high school, but you didn’t want to do that. Modeling was something you were already doing, but then you went full gung-ho into it. It reminds me of a move that, again, a lot of sex workers make, which is that whenever they write about sex work, they remind people that it’s something they do for money. And the reason you have to remind people is it stops the pathologization of a certain form of activity, because otherwise, people ask, “Why are you taking your clothes off, why are you uploading so many selfies?” Well, it’s a way of making money. It’s only when you forget about money and the broader capitalist system in which we operate that things start to appear pathological.<span class="Apple-converted-space" style="box-sizing: border-box;"> </span></span></p><p class="p5" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">RATAJKOWSKI: Yes, and that was so important to me because there’s shame around, or at least I felt shame around, being money hungry. Autonomy and freedom and control come with money, and I knew that at a very young age. Nothing terrified me more than watching my friends who went out into the world have to return and give that up. My parents come from the generation where you go to college and get a decent job. Student debt wasn’t really on their mind. When I was a senior and I was deciding to go to UCLA, I took a job at a store. I thought, “I’m going to stop modeling now, and I need to get used to making this kind of money and have some experience in a real situation that I can bring to a place in L.A. and say I’ve actually worked. And I hated it. So even though modeling has all these things about it, I’d rather do it. Everybody also always reminded me that modeling has a very specific window and that if you don’t do it when you’re young and beautiful, it goes away. So I made the decision to jump on that, directly into an industry that when I got sick with the flu and lost some weight, I watched the number on the scale go down and the number of my paychecks go up. So all of a sudden I became hyper aware of how to have more. It’s kind of another conversation for a different book, but when do we start saying, “I have enough financial security, so I’m not going to compromise myself in certain ways because I feel safe and secure?”<span class="Apple-converted-space" style="box-sizing: border-box;"> </span></span></p><p class="p5" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">SRINIVASAN: You said it’s a topic for another book, but that was actually the question I was going to ask you. When is it enough money?</span></p><p class="p5" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">RATAJKOWSKI: I’m wrestling with that. I write about the experience of being around really rich men. I’ve seen what real money looks like and what kind of lifestyle that guarantees. But I have noticed, and since writing this book, that I feel much more comfortable saying no to things. The money is, to me, still shocking.I kind of can’t believe what I’m offered for my actual time.<span class="Apple-converted-space" style="box-sizing: border-box;"> </span></span></p><p class="p5" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">SRINIVASAN: One of the suggestions that comes through in “Beauty Lessons” is that there’s money and there’s the very real material drive for money, but there’s also for you and for many women, the internalized misogyny that results in a constant drive for male validation. You talk about how that’s inflected through social media, like the actual oxytocin hit, and I was amazed to find that you get an oxytocin hit off of an Instagram like. People who get like 10 Instagram likes definitely do, too, but it seems like the particular relationship that you were brought up to have with your beauty where you think that you’re lovable insofar as you’re beautiful, is expressed writ large by social media. So there is a sense in which that is what love is now.<span class="Apple-converted-space" style="box-sizing: border-box;"> </span>Love is how many likes you can have. How easy would it be for you to separate yourself from that economy of validation?</span></p><div class="gallery galleryid-193678 gallery-columns-2 gallery-size-full" id="gallery-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; margin: auto;"><dl class="gallery-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 472px;"><dt class="gallery-icon landscape" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/05da-103021-28-scaled.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><img alt="" class="attachment-full size-full" decoding="async" height="1711" loading="lazy" sizes="(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px" src="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/05da-103021-28-scaled.jpg" srcset="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/05da-103021-28-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/05da-103021-28-500x334.jpg 500w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/05da-103021-28-1000x668.jpg 1000w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/05da-103021-28-768x513.jpg 768w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/05da-103021-28-1536x1027.jpg 1536w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/05da-103021-28-2048x1369.jpg 2048w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/05da-103021-28-218x146.jpg 218w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/05da-103021-28-50x33.jpg 50w" style="border: 2px solid rgb(207, 207, 207); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;" width="2560" /></span></a></dt></dl><dl class="gallery-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 472px;"><dt class="gallery-icon landscape" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/04da-103021-18-scaled.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><img alt="" class="attachment-full size-full" decoding="async" height="1711" loading="lazy" sizes="(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px" src="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/04da-103021-18-scaled.jpg" srcset="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/04da-103021-18-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/04da-103021-18-500x334.jpg 500w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/04da-103021-18-1000x668.jpg 1000w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/04da-103021-18-768x513.jpg 768w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/04da-103021-18-1536x1027.jpg 1536w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/04da-103021-18-2048x1369.jpg 2048w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/04da-103021-18-218x146.jpg 218w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/04da-103021-18-50x33.jpg 50w" style="border: 2px solid rgb(207, 207, 207); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;" width="2560" /></span></a></dt></dl><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: both;" /></span></div><p class="p5" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">RATAJKOWSKI: I’ve started to, and it’s strange unlearning the ways that I understood love and specialness. I lost the distinction between the two, as a young person. That was true of my upbringing, and then I became a famous model with this instant feedback loop of specialness of lovability. It was spooky when I figured out that parallel. What I’ve learned, even just writing this book and why I dedicate the book to my son, is that the way that I’m actively trying to relearn what love and lovability can be is my attempt to be the best person I can be and, ultimately, the best mother. But it’s an ongoing process, because validation like that is really powerful.<span class="Apple-converted-space" style="box-sizing: border-box;"> </span></span></p><p class="p5" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">SRINIVASAN: What do you think about the economy of validation and desirability in the literary world?</span></p><p class="p5" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">RATAJKOWSKI: I’m terrified. I think it’s going to be really interesting, too. I’ve already sort of dipped my toe in it and it’s a whole other thing.</span></p><p class="p5" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">SRINIVASAN: One thing that’s really bracing about the book is that it’s filled with creepy, shitty, abusive men. Not all of them, you do have good men in your life. But you have this extraordinarily intimate knowledge of male shittiness, of patriarchal sexuality and masculinity. The book ends with an essay on giving birth to a son. What does the project of raising a male child look like to you?</span></p><p class="p5" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">RATAJKOWSKI: When you said “good men in your life,” and you write about this as well, I think there just aren’t good and bad men. Yes, it’s not all men, and at the same time, it’s all men. In the same way that women are existing in the world that we exist in, there’s moments where any man can, always with ignorance, but whether knowingly or not, take advantage of the power dynamics that we so often ignore. My son, babies, have this genderless quality to them, and so I love affording that to him right now. I’ve just been<span class="Apple-converted-space" style="box-sizing: border-box;"> </span>treating him as this wonderful little human who’s being introduced to the world. Actually, I noticed that as soon as people know that he’s a boy, the way that they interact with him is different than they would have with a baby girl. Sometimes I feel frustrated by that because I think there’s even a tendency to throw a little boy in the air, be a little bit rougher with them than you would a little girl. That stuff already bothers me because I can see where it’s leading. I don’t have the answers, but the second that I knew I was having a son it came to mind. The best I can do is teach him compassion, and about these power dynamics that men don’t have to inspect in the way that women do, and make him aware of them and make him care about them. How’s that going to happen? I’m not entirely sure. I also think that this culture that I’m writing about in the book, is very bad for men. There are books about how bad it is for men. I see it in my life, the ways that it limits men, and how depressing their existence and their lives can be when they have to adopt this toxic masculinity. So I also feel incredibly protective of him in the same way I would with a daughter, from this culture.</span></p><p class="p5" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">SRINIVASAN: So many of the men you described in the book have a profoundly desperate quality to them. So while they might be exercising a huge amount of power, usually decision-making power backed by money, there’s also clear anxiety about their own masculinity, their place in the world, their desirability. They feel female desirability as this profound threat to their supposed mastery. And I totally agree with you, I think feminism that isn’t interested in the complexities of the distorting effects of patriarchy on the male psyche is not really feminism worth having. I want to recommend a book to you, which is usually the book I give to my friends when they get pregnant. It’s Adrienne Rich’s <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">Of Woman Born</i>.</span></p><div class="htlad-Mobile_Article_MedRec_4" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px;"><div class="htl-ad htlunit-Mobile_Article_MedRec_4" data-lazy-pixels="350" data-prebid="0x0:|768x0:" data-refresh-max="20" data-refresh-secs="15" data-refresh="viewable" data-sizes="0x0:1x1,300x250|768x0:" data-unit="Mobile_Article_MedRec_4" id="htlad-7" name="htlunit-Mobile_Article_MedRec_4" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 32px 0px;"></div></div><div class="htlad-Desktop_Article_Leaderboard_4" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px;"><div class="htl-ad htlunit-Desktop_Article_Leaderboard_4" data-lazy-pixels="350" data-prebid="0x0:|768x0:|970x0:" data-refresh-max="20" data-refresh-secs="15" data-refresh="viewable" data-sizes="0x0:|768x0:1x1,728x90|970x0:1x1,728x90,970x250,970x600" data-unit="Desktop_Article_Leaderboard_3" id="htlad-8" name="htlunit-Desktop_Article_Leaderboard_4" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 32px 0px;"></div></div><p class="p5" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">RATAJKOWSKI: I know Adrienne Rich but I haven’t read that book.</span></p><p class="p5" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">SRINIVASAN: It’s my favorite of her books. She was the mother of two sons and it’s pretty much a meditation on that question, but in a profound and poetic way. It ends with this extraordinary image of what it means to set your son down on the shore of a river and cross that river and leave him there having the confidence that he’ll be able to follow. And how that possibility really is the most politically emancipatory thing we basically need to do: allow men to learn how to accept both that they have been radically dependent on women, but also to grow up.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">RATAJKOWSKI: I’m crying because it’s so difficult and scary and sad to watch. Actually, one of the early reviews somebody wrote about the book was that these men had jealousy, there was a sort of jealousy of power, a threat of the validation I could give them or that a beautiful young woman could give them. I feel like that is the source of that, and it’s something bell hooks writes about so well. I thought the book you were going to recommend is <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">Men, Masculinity, and the Will to Change</i>. That book is wonderful in being compassionate towards men but I do think that so many of these things that I’ve experienced have come out of real fear and a need to prove something. I do feel incredibly empathetic towards that and am aware of it.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><a href="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/06da-103121-07-scaled.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter wp-image-193685 size-full" decoding="async" height="1711" loading="lazy" sizes="(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px" src="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/06da-103121-07-scaled.jpg" srcset="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/06da-103121-07-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/06da-103121-07-500x334.jpg 500w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/06da-103121-07-1000x668.jpg 1000w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/06da-103121-07-768x513.jpg 768w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/06da-103121-07-1536x1027.jpg 1536w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/06da-103121-07-2048x1369.jpg 2048w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/06da-103121-07-218x146.jpg 218w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/06da-103121-07-50x33.jpg 50w" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: auto; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; text-align: center; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;" width="2560" /></span></a></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><a href="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/08da-102821-16-scaled.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter wp-image-193687 size-full" decoding="async" height="2560" loading="lazy" sizes="(max-width: 2049px) 100vw, 2049px" src="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/08da-102821-16-scaled.jpg" srcset="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/08da-102821-16-scaled.jpg 2049w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/08da-102821-16-480x600.jpg 480w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/08da-102821-16-801x1000.jpg 801w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/08da-102821-16-768x959.jpg 768w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/08da-102821-16-1230x1536.jpg 1230w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/08da-102821-16-1640x2048.jpg 1640w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/08da-102821-16-117x146.jpg 117w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/08da-102821-16-40x50.jpg 40w" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: auto; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; text-align: center; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;" width="2049" /></span></a></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><a href="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/07da-102821-03-scaled.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter wp-image-193686 size-full" decoding="async" height="1965" loading="lazy" sizes="(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px" src="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/07da-102821-03-scaled.jpg" srcset="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/07da-102821-03-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/07da-102821-03-500x384.jpg 500w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/07da-102821-03-1000x768.jpg 1000w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/07da-102821-03-768x589.jpg 768w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/07da-102821-03-1536x1179.jpg 1536w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/07da-102821-03-2048x1572.jpg 2048w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/07da-102821-03-190x146.jpg 190w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/07da-102821-03-50x38.jpg 50w" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: auto; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; text-align: center; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;" width="2560" /></span></a></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><a href="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/09da-103021-48-scaled.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter wp-image-193688 size-full" decoding="async" height="1711" loading="lazy" sizes="(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px" src="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/09da-103021-48-scaled.jpg" srcset="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/09da-103021-48-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/09da-103021-48-500x334.jpg 500w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/09da-103021-48-1000x668.jpg 1000w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/09da-103021-48-768x513.jpg 768w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/09da-103021-48-1536x1027.jpg 1536w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/09da-103021-48-2048x1369.jpg 2048w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/09da-103021-48-218x146.jpg 218w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/09da-103021-48-50x33.jpg 50w" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: auto; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; text-align: center; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;" width="2560" /></span></a></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><a href="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/10da-103021-39-scaled.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter wp-image-193689 size-full" decoding="async" height="1711" loading="lazy" sizes="(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px" src="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/10da-103021-39-scaled.jpg" srcset="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/10da-103021-39-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/10da-103021-39-500x334.jpg 500w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/10da-103021-39-1000x668.jpg 1000w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/10da-103021-39-768x513.jpg 768w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/10da-103021-39-1536x1027.jpg 1536w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/10da-103021-39-2048x1369.jpg 2048w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/10da-103021-39-218x146.jpg 218w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/10da-103021-39-50x33.jpg 50w" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: auto; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; text-align: center; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;" width="2560" /></span></a></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">———</span></p><a href="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/culture/of-money-and-men-emily-ratajkowski-in-conversation-with-amia-srinivasan"><span style="font-family: georgia;">INTERVIEW</span></a><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7YW1SBj4D9PAJnxs2NqH2CWSx_bjFROf_zq7kBrfgQkYPhj7KX_bxe5UjbySXh6EfYxNGkAwpGYK9fGM5d1CI2OFSI3QEp4243wkHJcYNDkewlYhQ1S15Pj3jzKT0tJp4zXpXath2ru5Et4F8sJFRrZ6Lnoq5HCrauCr8_Ulh16bHL9Q13cgiPFgedrE/s117/0000%20dragon_circle_un%20cuarto.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="115" data-original-width="117" height="115" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7YW1SBj4D9PAJnxs2NqH2CWSx_bjFROf_zq7kBrfgQkYPhj7KX_bxe5UjbySXh6EfYxNGkAwpGYK9fGM5d1CI2OFSI3QEp4243wkHJcYNDkewlYhQ1S15Pj3jzKT0tJp4zXpXath2ru5Et4F8sJFRrZ6Lnoq5HCrauCr8_Ulh16bHL9Q13cgiPFgedrE/s1600/0000%20dragon_circle_un%20cuarto.gif" width="117" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div>Ficcioneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11113302074119512881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131170244545446682.post-45872031549218817392024-02-23T08:04:00.002-05:002024-02-23T08:04:18.465-05:00Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami / Review by Kate Kellaway<p><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXRY2lo7niMmkKwaZZOKQaAwrt2QSngq8PBtNHgmaeYWX5B-fM19W09zwoRM4OsyqgAwPsY4hmQGZmgBxmJuZJDPL7dM3zS5EzNT4sqqbhJpvSO3aFEPhcBrsN30xfJCVQffOe5Evo7A3QUxg-JVXNsBJhfoyEM-BQ3zrAOl7ZxPYmBhkWxqsXd_BPOyA/s1800/haruki%20murakami%20001aaa.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="1200" height="804" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXRY2lo7niMmkKwaZZOKQaAwrt2QSngq8PBtNHgmaeYWX5B-fM19W09zwoRM4OsyqgAwPsY4hmQGZmgBxmJuZJDPL7dM3zS5EzNT4sqqbhJpvSO3aFEPhcBrsN30xfJCVQffOe5Evo7A3QUxg-JVXNsBJhfoyEM-BQ3zrAOl7ZxPYmBhkWxqsXd_BPOyA/w535-h804/haruki%20murakami%20001aaa.jpeg" width="535" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Haruki Murakami</td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><div class="dcr-1djovmt" data-gu-name="headline" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; grid-area: headline / headline / headline / headline; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-14emo0l" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 620px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-1msbrj1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 36px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-wwluea" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 5px 0px 0px 6px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-n35fox" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 3px; -webkit-box-decoration-break: clone; background-color: #6b5840; border: 0px; box-shadow: rgb(107, 88, 64) 6px 0px 0px, rgb(107, 88, 64) -6px 0px 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.25rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: 23px; margin: 0px; padding: 2px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="dcr-hosx8y" href="https://www.theguardian.com/tone/reviews" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; -webkit-box-align: center; -webkit-box-pack: justify; align-items: center; background-color: transparent; border-radius: 0px; border: none; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-flex; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; justify-content: space-between; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-underline-offset: inherit; text-wrap: nowrap; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: white;">Review</span></a></div></div><h1 class="dcr-1p51jo0" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 4px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 2.125rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px; padding: 4px 0px 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;">Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami – review</h1></div></div></div><div class="dcr-1yi1cnj" data-gu-name="standfirst" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: -webkit-standard; font-stretch: inherit; grid-area: standfirst / standfirst / standfirst / standfirst; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dcr-xq41iu" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--standfirst-text); font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 12px; max-width: 540px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: large;">Haruki Murakami’s long-awaited return to the short story is a masterclass in pacing and the tragicomic revelation</span></div><div class="dcr-xq41iu" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--standfirst-text); font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 12px; max-width: 540px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-size: large;">Kate Kellaway</span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-size: large;">Sunday 14 May 2017</span></div></div></div><span class="dcr-11l45yn" color="var(--drop-cap)" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 111px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: 92px; margin: 0px 8px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: text-top;">C</span><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; text-size-adjust: auto;">uriosity, in Murakami’s supremely enjoyable, philosophical and pitch-perfect new collection of short stories – his first for more than a decade – is what motivates many of his characters. Their curiosity becomes ours and propels each narrative onwards. But curiosity is shown to be complicated. Is it healthy, necessary, wise? Or does it kill the cat? In the first story, Drive My Car (Murakami’s Beatlemania has outlasted the success of his bestselling novel<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><em class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">Norwegian Wood</em><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; text-size-adjust: auto;">), curiosity is in every sense a driving force. A veteran actor and widower is obliged to hire a chauffeur for his ancient yellow Saab 900 convertible (Murakami always supplies manufacturing details of his characters’ cars). Kafuku has been banned from driving after a scrape in which he was found to have been drinking, and his theatre company is now paying for his transport during a run of<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><em class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;">Uncle Vanya</em><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; text-size-adjust: auto;">. He is compelled therefore to put himself in the competent hands of a plain chauffeur, a woman with ears “like satellite dishes placed in some remote landscape” (the glee with which Murakami alights on such similes is infectious).</span> <span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg8MJzWAd49FresjbI0lci78YAWvErODZAnhhBLvgjULJ1Pz6uW_bpmwmKYOXwA2qSAOSe6vgANx_0NyWI0CLHobHJ5SlZL2o4WSRGRu5k53patA5bCMLRBpJu4AtQKqTGcTIGrtagTVFISCblpkv5bk8ZTTI8rX-bTXMxR_OcnQNelkH3Vb3H_xZzBbQ/s960/Haruki%20Murakami_Men%20Without%20Women.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="621" height="744" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg8MJzWAd49FresjbI0lci78YAWvErODZAnhhBLvgjULJ1Pz6uW_bpmwmKYOXwA2qSAOSe6vgANx_0NyWI0CLHobHJ5SlZL2o4WSRGRu5k53patA5bCMLRBpJu4AtQKqTGcTIGrtagTVFISCblpkv5bk8ZTTI8rX-bTXMxR_OcnQNelkH3Vb3H_xZzBbQ/w481-h744/Haruki%20Murakami_Men%20Without%20Women.jpg" width="481" /></a></div><p></p><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-size: large;">Kafuku uses his time in the car to run through his lines en route to the theatre until his almost wordless chauffeur starts, in due course, to be curious. She wants to know why he appears to have no friends. He confesses to her that he manufactured a friendship with one of his late wife’s lovers – a pleasant, fortysomething actor. They became drinking buddies. He and his wife never discussed her infidelities and Murakami shows how the widower’s curiosity becomes at once a torment, a way of posthumously attempting to gain power over his rival and an illicit bid to acquire pointless new knowledge. He brilliantly conveys Kafuku’s dignity, vulnerability and the futility of this overdue attempt to rebalance his life. Kafuku will also turn out to have a double blindspot as a driver and as a spouse – a nice piece of engineering on Murakami’s part. The story is a masterpiece of pacing and steadily revelatory: a sad, amusing, stately portrait of a marriage that the reader can enjoy unwrapping as if it were a gift. Not long before the end, the chauffeur offers her passenger a line of potentially consoling truth, speculating – in answer to his questioning – about the reason his wife might have been unfaithful. She raises the possibility that it was never about love at all. In each of the stories, there are key lines of this sort – casual pearls.</span></p><div id="sign-in-gate" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><gu-island config="{"renderingTarget":"Web","darkModeAvailable":false}" data-island-status="hydrated" deferuntil="visible" name="SignInGateSelector" priority="feature" props="{"contentType":"Article","sectionId":"books","tags":[{"id":"books/harukimurakami","type":"Keyword","title":"Haruki Murakami"},{"id":"books/books","type":"Keyword","title":"Books"},{"id":"books/short-stories","type":"Keyword","title":"Short stories"},{"id":"books/fiction","type":"Keyword","title":"Fiction"},{"id":"books/fiction-in-translation","type":"Keyword","title":"Fiction in translation"},{"id":"culture/culture","type":"Keyword","title":"Culture"},{"id":"tone/reviews","type":"Tone","title":"Reviews"},{"id":"type/article","type":"Type","title":"Article"},{"id":"profile/katekellaway","type":"Contributor","title":"Kate Kellaway","bylineImageUrl":"https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2019/05/16/Kate_Kellaway.jpg?width=300&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=b985cb212126a993566838e576adf646","bylineLargeImageUrl":"https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2019/05/16/Kate_Kellaway1.png?width=300&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=fc85cd3046377071b7fc33d82c908624"},{"id":"publication/theobserver","type":"Publication","title":"The Observer"},{"id":"theobserver/new-review","type":"NewspaperBook","title":"The New Review"},{"id":"theobserver/new-review/books","type":"NewspaperBookSection","title":"Books"},{"id":"tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-new-review","type":"Tracking","title":"Observer New Review"}],"isPaidContent":false,"isPreview":false,"host":"https://www.theguardian.com","pageId":"books/2017/may/14/men-without-women-haruki-murakami-short-stories-review","idUrl":"https://profile.theguardian.com","switches":{"lightbox":false,"prebidAppnexusUkRow":true,"abSignInGateMainVariant":true,"commercialMetrics":true,"prebidTrustx":true,"scAdFreeBanner":false,"adaptiveSite":true,"prebidPermutiveAudience":true,"compareVariantDecision":false,"enableSentryReporting":true,"lazyLoadContainers":true,"ampArticleSwitch":true,"remarketing":true,"articleEndSlot":true,"keyEventsCarousel":true,"registerWithPhone":false,"targeting":true,"remoteHeader":true,"slotBodyEnd":true,"prebidImproveDigitalSkins":true,"ampPrebidOzone":true,"extendedMostPopularFronts":true,"emailInlineInFooter":true,"showNewPrivacyWordingOnEmailSignupEmbeds":true,"deeplyRead":false,"prebidAnalytics":true,"extendedMostPopular":true,"ampContentAbTesting":false,"prebidCriteo":true,"okta":false,"puzzlesBanner":false,"imrWorldwide":true,"acast":true,"automaticFilters":true,"twitterUwt":true,"prebidAppnexusInvcode":true,"ampPrebidPubmatic":true,"a9HeaderBidding":true,"prebidAppnexus":true,"enableDiscussionSwitch":true,"prebidXaxis":true,"stickyVideos":true,"interactiveFullHeaderSwitch":true,"discussionAllPageSize":true,"prebidUserSync":true,"audioOnwardJourneySwitch":true,"brazeTaylorReport":false,"abConsentlessAds":true,"externalVideoEmbeds":true,"abIntegrateIma":true,"callouts":true,"sentinelLogger":true,"geoMostPopular":true,"weAreHiring":false,"relatedContent":true,"thirdPartyEmbedTracking":true,"prebidOzone":true,"ampLiveblogSwitch":true,"ampAmazon":true,"prebidAdYouLike":true,"mostViewedFronts":true,"discussionInApps":false,"optOutAdvertising":true,"abSignInGateMainControl":true,"headerTopNav":true,"googleSearch":true,"brazeSwitch":true,"darkModeInApps":true,"prebidKargo":true,"consentManagement":true,"personaliseSignInGateAfterCheckout":true,"redplanetForAus":true,"prebidSonobi":true,"idProfileNavigation":true,"confiantAdVerification":true,"discussionAllowAnonymousRecommendsSwitch":false,"permutive":true,"comscore":true,"ampPrebidCriteo":true,"abMpuWhenNoEpic":false,"newsletterOnwards":false,"webFonts":true,"prebidImproveDigital":true,"offerHttp3":true,"ophan":true,"crosswordSvgThumbnails":true,"prebidTriplelift":true,"weather":true,"disableAmpTest":true,"prebidPubmatic":true,"serverShareCounts":false,"autoRefresh":true,"enhanceTweets":true,"prebidIndexExchange":true,"prebidOpenx":true,"prebidHeaderBidding":true,"idCookieRefresh":true,"discussionPageSize":true,"smartAppBanner":false,"abPrebidKargo":true,"boostGaUserTimingFidelity":false,"historyTags":true,"brazeContentCards":true,"surveys":true,"remoteBanner":true,"emailSignupRecaptcha":true,"prebidSmart":true,"shouldLoadGoogletag":true,"inizio":true}}" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></gu-island></div><aside class="dcr-1fr3a8s" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 3px; border: 1px solid var(--pullquote-border); box-sizing: border-box; clear: left; color: var(--pullquote-text); float: left; font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.25rem; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.15; margin: 5px 10px 14px -100px; padding: 2px 10px 16px; position: relative; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline; width: 240px;"><svg class="dcr-scql1j" style="fill: var(--pullquote-icon);" viewbox="0 0 22 14"><path d="M5.255 0h4.75c-.572 4.53-1.077 8.972-1.297 13.941H0C.792 9.104 2.44 4.53 5.255 0Zm11.061 0H21c-.506 4.53-1.077 8.972-1.297 13.941h-8.686c.902-4.837 2.485-9.411 5.3-13.941Z"></path></svg><blockquote class="dcr-zzndwp" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: italic; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; quotes: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The mix of humour and melancholy in Murakami’s writing is extraordinary. One never wrong-foots the other</blockquote></aside><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-size: large;">“If you don’t know what you’re looking for, it’s not easy to look for it,” says a young man to a friend in another wonderful moment of across-a-restaurant-table philosophising. An apparently simple thought but complicated in the living. Yesterday (a second salute to the Beatles) is also about the need to know and the attempt to achieve intimacy through a third party. Kitaru, a student who keeps failing his college entrance exams, feels he is not yet worthy to be the boyfriend of his smart childhood sweetheart, Erika. He urges a new acquaintance (the story’s narrator) to go out with her, reasoning: “I figure, if she’s gonna go out with other guys, it’s better if it’s you. ’Cause I know you. And you can gimme, like, updates and stuff.” Kitaru, like Kafuku, wants to satisfy his curiosity vicariously. The implied question here and in other stories: is sexual knowledge, no matter how it is acquired, power? Murakami explores not voyeurism exactly, more a bodiless sexuality, a filtered passion.</span></p><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-size: large;">The mix of humour and melancholy in Murakami’s writing is extraordinary. One never wrong-foots the other and the stories have been outstandingly translated by Philip Gabriel and Ted Goossen with fluent, colloquial grace. Murakami has a marvellous understanding of youth and age – and the failings of each. Youthful Kitaru is a cartoon presence in some ways. He has a refined appearance but, as soon as he starts to speak, his perceived delicacy collapses “like a sand castle under an exuberant labrador retriever”. These images are delightful (like the earlier satellite dish ears) but sparingly used: there is no surplus flesh on Murakami’s narrative bones.</span></p><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-size: large;">Not all the stories are about “men without women”. Scheherazade – a powerful, eccentric tale – centres on a middle-aged woman, who has earned the titular nickname. A superb storyteller, she tells tales to Habara, the man for whom she is housekeeping and also sleeping with. Many of Murakami’s stories hinge on a relationship in which one person is curious about another, and here Scheherazade tells a tale in which a clandestine bid for intimacy is again the subject. She recalls herself, as a teenager, breaking into the house of a schoolboy (a boy with no interest in her) and infatuatedly accumulating information about him. The comedy of the story is in the contrast between his dull, unrevealing teenager’s bedroom and the heady, adrenaline-fuelled eroticism of her breaking and entering.</span></p><div class="ad-slot-container ad-slot-container-2 offset-right ad-slot--offset-right ad-slot-container--offset-right" style="-webkit-box-pack: center; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; display: flex; float: right; font-family: -webkit-standard; font-stretch: inherit; justify-content: center; line-height: inherit; margin: 12px -380px 12px auto; max-width: 300px; min-height: 480px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><div ad-label-text="Advertisement" aria-hidden="true" class="js-ad-slot ad-slot ad-slot--inline ad-slot--inline2 ad-slot--rendered" data-google-query-id="CLLf5uW2w4MDFWq2ywEd2d8L2Q" data-label-show="true" data-link-name="ad slot inline2" data-name="inline2" id="dfp-ad--inline2" style="align-self: flex-start; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; flex: 1 1 0%; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-height: 250px; padding: 0px; position: sticky; top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="ad-slot__content" id="google_ads_iframe_/59666047/theguardian.com/books/article/ng_9__container__" style="border: 0pt none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: large;"><iframe aria-label="Advertisement" data-google-container-id="6" data-load-complete="true" frameborder="0" height="250" id="google_ads_iframe_/59666047/theguardian.com/books/article/ng_9" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" name="google_ads_iframe_/59666047/theguardian.com/books/article/ng_9" role="region" scrolling="no" style="border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" tabindex="0" title="3rd party ad content" width="300"></iframe></span></div></div></div><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-size: large;">As the collection progresses, the stories become darker and more existential. In An Independent Organ, we meet Dr Tokai – confirmed bachelor, nifty cook and cosmetic plastic surgeon who runs the Tokai beauty clinic. This story is at once a quiet entertainment and a tragedy. Dr Tokai never married but is in the habit of having affairs and is usually willing to overlook physical imperfections in his lovers: “As long as there wasn’t some major flaw that aroused his professional interest.” Murakami writes about the doctor with an undeceived twinkle in the eye – an approach that is, perhaps, a Japanese first cousin to cynicism.</span></p><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-size: large;">When Dr Tokai falls unexpectedly in love it is a nuisance that turns into a calamity. Murakami is measured in describing love as beyond us and as the making and unmaking of us. There are double-takes in his stories – he relishes the tragicomic. He at once feels for Dr Tokai and mocks his plight. He is dispassionate, unsentimental and amused. Dr Tokai loses it completely and starts slinging chairs, a television, books, dishes and framed pictures out of his flat, exclaiming: “I don’t care if they hit a pedestrian on the head and kill him.” The doctor’s violence is absurd and he asks desperately: “Who in the world am I?” The need to answer this question takes hold of him like a fever. And we have to consider the possibility that curiosity – even with magnificent and merciful Murakami behind the wheel – might prove fatal.</span></p><footer class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><em class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><span data-dcr-style="bullet" style="background-color: #866d50; border-bottom-left-radius: 50%; border-bottom-right-radius: 50%; border-radius: 50%; border-top-left-radius: 50%; border-top-right-radius: 50%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; content: ""; display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 13px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0.2px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 13px;"></span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Men Without Women<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></em>by Haruki Murakami is published by Harvill Secker (£16.99).<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/may/14/men-without-women-haruki-murakami-short-stories-review">THE GUARDIAN</a><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><br /></span></p><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioWL9GmUHZDlyrrKFPvwU3AP6Mlmj7sqO0Jdn3BA4ZmnbGIZLPv8zLP-257DGc08b1noG20uuVh_TYLveMNlFvxAQ7ZSdWD-CkIbCiu0WUTRvjUZpCcV02dZqc4497h4Hg5At0q9Qt2MdxqUNxqP_L8U_QgWA1o2RWQdgDiCHOxxaI02XaHN5_BQjwFow/s117/0000%20dragon_circle_un%20cuarto.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="115" data-original-width="117" height="115" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioWL9GmUHZDlyrrKFPvwU3AP6Mlmj7sqO0Jdn3BA4ZmnbGIZLPv8zLP-257DGc08b1noG20uuVh_TYLveMNlFvxAQ7ZSdWD-CkIbCiu0WUTRvjUZpCcV02dZqc4497h4Hg5At0q9Qt2MdxqUNxqP_L8U_QgWA1o2RWQdgDiCHOxxaI02XaHN5_BQjwFow/s1600/0000%20dragon_circle_un%20cuarto.gif" width="117" /></a></div><p></p></footer>Ficcioneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11113302074119512881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131170244545446682.post-57021605244652325212024-02-23T08:03:00.003-05:002024-02-23T08:03:54.043-05:00Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami / review<p> </p><img height="400" src="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Observer/Pix/pictures/2011/3/10/1299759521184/nowegian-wood-007.jpg?width=465&dpr=1&s=none" width="666" /><span color="var(--caption-text)" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">Norwegian Wood: 'languorous, visually striking movie about love and loss'.</span><figcaption class="dcr-14i6lp8" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--caption-text); display: block; font-family: GuardianTextSans, "Guardian Text Sans Web", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: 400; line-height: 18.9px; margin: 0px 0px 6px; padding: 6px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="dcr-1qvd3m6" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></figcaption><figcaption class="dcr-14i6lp8" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--caption-text); display: block; font-family: GuardianTextSans, "Guardian Text Sans Web", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: 400; line-height: 18.9px; margin: 0px 0px 6px; padding: 6px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><h1 class="dcr-1p51jo0" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 4px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--headline-colour); font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 2.125rem; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px; padding: 4px 0px 0px; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;">Norwegian Wood – review</h1><div style="font-size: 0.875rem;"><br /></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">Philip French</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">Sunday 13 March 2011</span></div><div style="font-size: 0.875rem;"><br /></div></figcaption><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><span class="dcr-11l45yn" color="var(--drop-cap)" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 111px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: 92px; margin: 0px 8px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: text-top;">I</span><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">n Haruki Murakami's bestselling novel of 1987, the 37-year-old narrator, Toru Watanabe, is transported back to his student days in late 1960s Tokyo by hearing the Beatles' "Norwegian Wood" on the loudspeaker system of an airliner as he flies into Hamburg. It is a time of student unrest and strident demonstrations, but in the lengthy novel and the film carved out of it, this is merely the background to a delicate love story, or series of love stories. The central tale concerns the reserved Watanabe's devotion to the mentally disturbed Naoko, the former girlfriend of Watanabe's only close friend, Kizuki, who committed suicide at the age of 17. It is a doomed affair that after a single night of love is conducted during visits to an asylum outside Kobe where Naoko is being cared for by an older woman, Reiko, a musician who's also recovering from a breakdown. It is Reiko who sings, in English, a rather beautiful version of "Norwegian Wood" which is later sung by Lennon and McCartney over the final credits. Meanwhile, Watanabe is given a dubious sentimental education at the hands of Nagasawa, a suave, promiscuous fellow student bound for the diplomatic corps, and a more beneficial one from the pretty, witty, intelligent Midori, who attempts to draw him out of his solipsistic shell.<span><a name='more'></a></span></span></div><p></p><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-size: large;">Norwegian Wood is a languorous, visually striking movie about love and loss, infused with the earnestness of young people struggling with powerful emotions and with evolving ideas about life, death, art, freedom and responsibility. A constant voiceover commentary and long tracking shots are broken up by lengthy dialogues, and its gifted writer-director Tran Anh Hung, born in Laos and educated in France, is neither embarrassed by the narrator's frequent callowness and solemnity nor afraid to risk boring his audience.</span></p><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><br /></p><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/mar/13/norwegian-wood-review">THE GUARDIAN</a></p><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpk_MKpQ9bqm8-6n35CEzvIIcpUgQ9rdscpfYmdAJ38DN4bJ6azop7nvJauB9VhVYteoqcQeRGATl7LjqABWdOCFbQca5F6DDzvM8-HOcyIqWvOe7tkNj1ie9MZTGwDnDn4yqQVPGYgQy1bxuNqu_-qBkin56_igruZKeEJMWZMpckfzR-93AFZB9Z95g/s117/0000%20dragon_circle_un%20cuarto.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="115" data-original-width="117" height="115" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpk_MKpQ9bqm8-6n35CEzvIIcpUgQ9rdscpfYmdAJ38DN4bJ6azop7nvJauB9VhVYteoqcQeRGATl7LjqABWdOCFbQca5F6DDzvM8-HOcyIqWvOe7tkNj1ie9MZTGwDnDn4yqQVPGYgQy1bxuNqu_-qBkin56_igruZKeEJMWZMpckfzR-93AFZB9Z95g/s1600/0000%20dragon_circle_un%20cuarto.gif" width="117" /></a></div><br /><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><br /></p><p class="dcr-19m3vvb" style="--source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"><br /></p>Ficcioneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11113302074119512881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131170244545446682.post-25659668701615284532024-02-22T08:07:00.000-05:002024-02-23T08:07:07.415-05:00Six actors on what it’s like to work with Daniel Day-Lewis<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-144059" decoding="async" height="517" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" src="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Phantom-Thread-1000x517.png" srcset="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Phantom-Thread-1000x517.png 1000w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Phantom-Thread-500x258.png 500w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Phantom-Thread-165x85.png 165w, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Phantom-Thread.png 1287w" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%; text-align: center; transition: all 0.2s ease 0s;" width="1000" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Daniel Day-Lewis</td></tr></tbody></table><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Caslon Ionic", "Lucida Console", Courier, monospace; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><br /></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Caslon Ionic", "Lucida Console", Courier, monospace; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"> </p><h1 class="balance-text" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 52px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 62.4px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Six actors on what it’s like to<br aria-hidden="true" data-owner="balance-text" style="box-sizing: border-box;" />work with Daniel Day-Lewis</span></h1><div class="story-metadata" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px;"><div class="author-date-block" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 16px 0px; text-align: center;"><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">By</em> Scout Sabo</span></h3><h6 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 16.8px; margin: 16px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">December 22, 2017</span></h6></div></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">This month, formidable talent Daniel Day-Lewis takes his final bow in Paul Thomas Anderson’s <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Phantom Thread </em>before retirement. He shines in the role of a 1950s, London-based fashion designer who starts a tumultuous employer-employee relationship with his fit model, played wonderfully by newcomer Vicky Krieps. December marks the 10th anniversary of Day-Lewis’s other Anderson collab, <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">There Will Be Blood</em>, and the 20th anniversary of <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Boxer</em>.<span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">With these three events occurring simultaneously, it’s the perfect time to reflect on his legacy. The breadth of his inspiration is endless and ageless: affecting older, younger, and perhaps even future generations of actors and directors. Whether he is seamlessly slipping into the guise of an artist with cerebral palsy or the 16th president of the United States, Day-Lewis disappears and only his character is left. It is this authenticity and believability that he brings to the roles that keep people asking, “What’s your method?” And yet, his approach to acting remains an enigma.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">In <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Interview</em>’s April 1988 issue, Daniel Day-Lewis made a statement that appropriately fits his upcoming retirement from acting: “When you finish making a film, someone tells you that it’s over; but, you know, what does that mean? It never is.” While Day-Lewis famously shies away from interviews and cherishes his privacy, he still manages to inspire a plethora of artists who have shared their admiration for his acting and provided insight into the legend that is Daniel Day-Lewis.</span></p><div class="ytcontainer" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" class="ytvideo" frameborder="0" height="150" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xNsiQMeSvMk?rel=0&showinfo=0" style="box-sizing: border-box;" width="300"></iframe></span></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">WHEN ASKED ABOUT HIS FAVORITE ACTORS…</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">SHIA LABEOUF: My favorite actors come with a myth. I don’t know much about Daniel Day-Lewis. I don’t know much about Joaquin Phoenix. But there’s a mythos that they’ve created, and it’s part of their work.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">WHEN ASKED WHO HIS ROLE MODEL IS…</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">LUKE ARMITAGE: I have a lot of respect for guys who are so committed and so good at what they do and are mysterious, like Daniel Day-Lewis.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">WHEN DISCUSSING DAY-LEWIS’S PERSONALITY…</span></p><div class="htlad-Mobile_Article_MedRec_2" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px;"><div class="htl-ad htlunit-Mobile_Article_MedRec_2" data-lazy-pixels="350" data-prebid="0x0:|768x0:" data-refresh-max="20" data-refresh-secs="15" data-refresh="viewable" data-sizes="0x0:1x1,300x250,325x204,325x508|768x0:" data-unit="Mobile_Article_MedRec_2" id="htlad-3" name="htlunit-Mobile_Article_MedRec_2" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 32px 0px;"></div></div><div class="htlad-Desktop_Article_Leaderboard_2" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px;"><div class="htl-ad htlunit-Desktop_Article_Leaderboard_2" data-lazy-pixels="350" data-prebid="0x0:|768x0:|970x0:" data-refresh-max="20" data-refresh-secs="15" data-refresh="viewable" data-sizes="0x0:|768x0:1x1,728x90|970x0:1x1,728x90,970x250,970x600,620x336,1030x590" data-unit="Desktop_Article_Leaderboard_2" id="htlad-4" name="htlunit-Desktop_Article_Leaderboard_2" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 32px 0px;"></div></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">FIONA APPLE: I hate this feeling like I’m name-dropping, but Paul Thomas Anderson [Apple’s ex-boyfriend] told me that two of the funniest people he knows are me and Daniel Day-Lewis. He was like, “You’re both hilarious, but everybody thinks you’re awful.”</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">WHEN ASKED WHOSE CAREERS SHE ADMIRES…</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">ISABEL LUCAS: Daniel Day-Lewis and Cate Blanchett, definitely.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">WHEN TALKING ABOUT WORKING WITH DAY-LEWIS ON <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">THE BALLAD OF JACK AND ROSE </em>[2005]…</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">CAMILLA BELLE: It was more inspiring than anything. By watching him and his preparation, I kind of got into that world as well, trying to be the character instead of just acting like her. Daniel even knew how the character would roll a cigarette. He knew how the character sat down, walked, and everything.</span></p><div class="htlad-Mobile_Article_MedRec_3" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px;"><div class="htl-ad htlunit-Mobile_Article_MedRec_3" data-lazy-pixels="350" data-prebid="0x0:|768x0:" data-refresh-max="20" data-refresh-secs="15" data-refresh="viewable" data-sizes="0x0:1x1,300x250|768x0:" data-unit="Mobile_Article_MedRec_3" id="htlad-5" name="htlunit-Mobile_Article_MedRec_3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 32px 0px;"></div></div><div class="htlad-Desktop_Article_Leaderboard_3" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px;"><div class="htl-ad htlunit-Desktop_Article_Leaderboard_3" data-lazy-pixels="350" data-prebid="0x0:|768x0:|970x0:" data-refresh-max="20" data-refresh-secs="15" data-refresh="viewable" data-sizes="0x0:|768x0:1x1,728x90|970x0:1x1,728x90,970x250,970x600" data-unit="Desktop_Article_Leaderboard_3" id="htlad-6" name="htlunit-Desktop_Article_Leaderboard_3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 32px 0px;"></div></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">WHEN SPEAKING ABOUT A SCENE FROM <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">THE AGE OF INNOCENCE</em> [1993]…</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">MARTIN SCORSESE: Bottom line is, I was just entranced by Daniel’s face.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">PHANTOM THREAD <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">IS OUT IN THEATERS DECEMBER 25, 2017.</em></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/film/six-actors-like-work-daniel-day-lewis"><span style="font-family: georgia;">INTERVIEW</span></a></em></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Caslon Ionic", "Lucida Console", Courier, monospace; font-size: 20px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaiJ4YUDuzuoxx6PIAXhy8jxcdceFN5GidStxHBoHrrAfwnQyBOfoOC_bOiUmZyU-WZJt22ZyVZFJWL1KNZ_0zvavg_tGjpWmGyk5m3vZGd_VFmXM3TMj47-ywaRuI5Nbv7nu9AHqMQRSNG260ZxzsCzQzypDiRrdtZzDifiJzIjiIcucWKsTRhI4fE8g/s117/0000%20dragon_circle_un%20cuarto.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="115" data-original-width="117" height="115" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaiJ4YUDuzuoxx6PIAXhy8jxcdceFN5GidStxHBoHrrAfwnQyBOfoOC_bOiUmZyU-WZJt22ZyVZFJWL1KNZ_0zvavg_tGjpWmGyk5m3vZGd_VFmXM3TMj47-ywaRuI5Nbv7nu9AHqMQRSNG260ZxzsCzQzypDiRrdtZzDifiJzIjiIcucWKsTRhI4fE8g/s1600/0000%20dragon_circle_un%20cuarto.gif" width="117" /></a></div>Ficcioneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11113302074119512881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131170244545446682.post-19246215432950754882024-02-21T07:49:00.001-05:002024-02-23T08:05:03.710-05:0010 Best Stephen King Books, Ranked By Horror Readers<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS_W8cpCdc3jk3fNWLzcxk3PNQZQFNkbBSQWzN9DT_8FtVwWax1BmslFwz8eV-VlUAVeWe_YnhG9Xt7cF9N1j3qI_VcATI0nTHqLAI5YZrm69GFtXlcKh6WVqi324w0sjVDr0yUMrDqNb674zdnMofrNq5kL2XkMtqRvMnFMFRdVHpb4V0FPUa3W5rOWA/s514/stephen%20king%203.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="514" data-original-width="400" height="621" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS_W8cpCdc3jk3fNWLzcxk3PNQZQFNkbBSQWzN9DT_8FtVwWax1BmslFwz8eV-VlUAVeWe_YnhG9Xt7cF9N1j3qI_VcATI0nTHqLAI5YZrm69GFtXlcKh6WVqi324w0sjVDr0yUMrDqNb674zdnMofrNq5kL2XkMtqRvMnFMFRdVHpb4V0FPUa3W5rOWA/w483-h621/stephen%20king%203.jpg" width="483" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><br /></p><h1 class="space-top-2em" style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 44px; line-height: 1.272; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 16px !important; margin: 16px 0px 8px;">10 Best Stephen King Books, Ranked By Horror Readers</h1><div><br /></div><div><h2 style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 28px; line-height: 1.425; margin: 0px 0px 8px;">10. <em>Doctor Sleep (The Shining Book 2)</em> (2013) </h2></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div class="book-blot" contenteditable="false" data-book-info="{'title':'Doctor Sleep: A Novel (The Shining Book 2)','slug':'doctor-sleep-a-novel-the-shining-book-2-stephen-king','synopsis':'','url':'https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A6CCF0K?tag=reedwebs-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1','covers':{'large':'https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41biWTWGx+L.jpg','small':'https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41biWTWGx+L._SL160_.jpg'},'provider':'amazon','authors':['Stephen King']}" data-url="https://www.amazon.com/Doctor-Sleep-Novel-Shining-Book-ebook/dp/B00A6CCF0K/" draggable="false" style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 18px; margin-top: 8px; position: relative;"><div class="blurb"><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><em>Warning: Contains spoilers for The Shining.</em></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><br /></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 1em;">Danny Torrance has been trying hard to shake his childhood memories of the Overlook Hotel. And in the beginning of<span> </span><em>Doctor Sleep,<span> </span></em>it seems like he might be able to do just that when he settles down in New Hampshire, joins an AA group, and gets a job at a nursing home where he becomes known as “Doctor Sleep.” But his past isn’t ready to let go of him yet, because Dan is about to meet Abra Stone — who has the gift of “the shining,” just like Dan, and is being hunted by a group of quasi-immortal travelers called the True Knot.<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p></div></div><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"></p><div class="book-blot" contenteditable="false" data-book-info="{'title':''Salem's Lot','slug':'salem-s-lot-stephen-king','synopsis':'','url':'https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0019LV31E?tag=reedwebs-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1','covers':{'large':'https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51u-rJeGeXL.jpg','small':'https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51u-rJeGeXL._SL160_.jpg'},'provider':'amazon','authors':['Stephen King']}" data-url="https://www.amazon.com/Salems-Lot-Stephen-King-ebook/dp/B0019LV31E/" draggable="false" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-top: 8px; orphans: 2; position: relative; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><picture><source class="entered" data-ll-status="entered" data-srcset="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51u-rJeGeXL.jpg" height="326" media="(min-width: 480px)" srcset="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51u-rJeGeXL.jpg" width="198"></source><img alt="'Salem's Lot" class="entered loaded" data-ll-status="loaded" data-srcset="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51u-rJeGeXL._SL160_.jpg" draggable="false" height="198" srcset="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51u-rJeGeXL._SL160_.jpg" style="border-radius: 8px; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 0px 8px 16px; display: block; float: right; height: auto; margin: 0px 0px 0px 16px; max-width: 100%; object-fit: cover; width: 198px;" width="120" /></picture><div class="title"><h2 style="font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 28px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1.425; margin: 0px 0px 8px;">9.<span> </span><em>'Salem's Lot</em><span> </span>(1975) - 4.6 stars</h2></div></div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div class="book-blot" contenteditable="false" data-book-info="{'title':''Salem's Lot','slug':'salem-s-lot-stephen-king','synopsis':'','url':'https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0019LV31E?tag=reedwebs-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1','covers':{'large':'https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51u-rJeGeXL.jpg','small':'https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51u-rJeGeXL._SL160_.jpg'},'provider':'amazon','authors':['Stephen King']}" data-url="https://www.amazon.com/Salems-Lot-Stephen-King-ebook/dp/B0019LV31E/" draggable="false" style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 18px; margin-top: 8px; position: relative;"><div class="blurb"><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 1em;">An old mansion in the town of Jerusalem’s Lot (hence the book's title) is steeped in local lore. Author Ben Mears hopes that this creaky building will prove to be something of a tonic for his writer’s block. But distraction from his new novel arrives quickly in the form of two young boys who have ventured into the woods - only for one to come back out alive. What happens when lore mingles with reality… and turns deadly?</p></div></div><p style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"></p><div class="book-blot" contenteditable="false" data-book-info="{'title':'Carrie','slug':'carrie-stephen-king','synopsis':'','url':'https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001BANK2I?tag=reedwebs-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1','covers':{'large':'https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51eYJY7IRFL.jpg','small':'https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51eYJY7IRFL._SL160_.jpg'},'provider':'amazon','authors':['Stephen King']}" data-url="https://www.amazon.com/Carrie-Stephen-King-ebook/dp/B001BANK2I/" draggable="false" style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 18px; margin-top: 8px; position: relative;"><picture><source class="entered" data-ll-status="entered" data-srcset="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51eYJY7IRFL.jpg" height="305" media="(min-width: 480px)" srcset="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51eYJY7IRFL.jpg" width="198"></source><img alt="Carrie" class="entered loaded" data-ll-status="loaded" data-srcset="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51eYJY7IRFL._SL160_.jpg" draggable="false" height="185" srcset="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51eYJY7IRFL._SL160_.jpg" style="border-radius: 8px; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 0px 8px 16px; display: block; float: right; height: auto; margin: 0px 0px 0px 16px; max-width: 100%; object-fit: cover; width: 198px;" width="120" /></picture><div class="title"><h2 style="font-size: 28px; line-height: 1.425; margin: 0px 0px 8px;">8.<span> </span><em>Carrie</em><span> </span>(1974)<span> </span></h2></div></div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div class="book-blot" contenteditable="false" data-book-info="{'title':'Carrie','slug':'carrie-stephen-king','synopsis':'','url':'https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001BANK2I?tag=reedwebs-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1','covers':{'large':'https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51eYJY7IRFL.jpg','small':'https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51eYJY7IRFL._SL160_.jpg'},'provider':'amazon','authors':['Stephen King']}" data-url="https://www.amazon.com/Carrie-Stephen-King-ebook/dp/B001BANK2I/" draggable="false" style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 18px; margin-top: 8px; position: relative;"><div class="blurb"><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 1em;">Certainly one of the best-received debut novels ever published,<span> </span><em>Carrie</em><span> </span>is the story of a struggling and unhappy high school girl with telekinetic powers and an abusive mother. Her name is Carrie White, and she’s about to go on a violent rampage of revenge against the peers who have bullied her for the past few years. Put down your bucket of pig’s blood, and pick up this book (stat!) to better acquaint yourself with a groundbreaking addition to the horror genre</p></div></div><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"></p><div class="book-blot" contenteditable="false" data-book-info="{'title':'It: A Novel','slug':'it-a-novel-stephen-king','synopsis':'','url':'https://www.amazon.com/dp/B018ER7K5I?tag=reedwebs-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1','covers':{'large':'https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41nngxCNKxL.jpg','small':'https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41nngxCNKxL._SL160_.jpg'},'provider':'amazon','authors':['Stephen King']}" data-url="https://www.amazon.com/Stephen-King-ebook/dp/B018ER7K5I/" draggable="false" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-top: 8px; orphans: 2; position: relative; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><picture><source class="entered" data-ll-status="entered" data-srcset="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41nngxCNKxL.jpg" height="301" media="(min-width: 480px)" srcset="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41nngxCNKxL.jpg" width="198"></source><img alt="It: A Novel" class="entered loaded" data-ll-status="loaded" data-srcset="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41nngxCNKxL._SL160_.jpg" draggable="false" height="182" srcset="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41nngxCNKxL._SL160_.jpg" style="border-radius: 8px; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 0px 8px 16px; display: block; float: right; height: auto; margin: 0px 0px 0px 16px; max-width: 100%; object-fit: cover; width: 198px;" width="120" /></picture><div class="title"><h2 style="font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 28px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1.425; margin: 0px 0px 8px;">7.<span> </span><em>IT</em><span> </span>(1986)<span> </span></h2></div></div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div class="book-blot" contenteditable="false" data-book-info="{'title':'It: A Novel','slug':'it-a-novel-stephen-king','synopsis':'','url':'https://www.amazon.com/dp/B018ER7K5I?tag=reedwebs-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1','covers':{'large':'https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41nngxCNKxL.jpg','small':'https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41nngxCNKxL._SL160_.jpg'},'provider':'amazon','authors':['Stephen King']}" data-url="https://www.amazon.com/Stephen-King-ebook/dp/B018ER7K5I/" draggable="false" style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 18px; margin-top: 8px; position: relative;"><div class="blurb"><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 1em;">It should be no surprise that<span> </span><em>IT</em><span> </span>is this high up in our list, controversial as it is.<span> </span><em>IT</em><span> </span>is one of his most complex and lengthiest novels to date. It follows two parallel narratives: one set in 1958, when a group of seven children meet and battle a monster in the sewer; and the other in 1985, when the survivors return to their childhood town to face old demons. Outside of a divisive scene between the children,<span> </span><em>IT</em><span> </span>is a brilliant example of an author writing at his peak. And, once you reach the last page, you can safely say that you, too, survived<span> </span><em>IT</em>.</p></div></div><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"></p><div class="book-blot" contenteditable="false" data-book-info="{'title':'The Dark Tower Boxed Set','slug':'the-dark-tower-boxed-set-stephen-king','synopsis':'','url':'https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0756L1ZWV?tag=reedwebs-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1','covers':{'large':'https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51NnS69kzsL.jpg','small':'https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51NnS69kzsL._SL160_.jpg'},'provider':'amazon','authors':['Stephen King']}" data-url="https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Tower-Boxed-Set-ebook/dp/B0756L1ZWV/" draggable="false" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-top: 8px; orphans: 2; position: relative; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><picture><source class="entered" data-ll-status="entered" data-srcset="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51NnS69kzsL.jpg" height="297" media="(min-width: 480px)" srcset="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51NnS69kzsL.jpg" width="198"></source><img alt="The Dark Tower Boxed Set" class="entered loaded" data-ll-status="loaded" data-srcset="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51NnS69kzsL._SL160_.jpg" draggable="false" height="180" srcset="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51NnS69kzsL._SL160_.jpg" style="border-radius: 8px; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 0px 8px 16px; display: block; float: right; height: auto; margin: 0px 0px 0px 16px; max-width: 100%; object-fit: cover; width: 198px;" width="120" /></picture><div class="title"><h2 style="font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 28px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1.425; margin: 0px 0px 8px;">6.<span> </span><em>The Dark Tower</em><span> </span>series (1982 - 2012)<span> </span></h2></div></div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div class="book-blot" contenteditable="false" data-book-info="{'title':'The Dark Tower Boxed Set','slug':'the-dark-tower-boxed-set-stephen-king','synopsis':'','url':'https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0756L1ZWV?tag=reedwebs-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1','covers':{'large':'https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51NnS69kzsL.jpg','small':'https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51NnS69kzsL._SL160_.jpg'},'provider':'amazon','authors':['Stephen King']}" data-url="https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Tower-Boxed-Set-ebook/dp/B0756L1ZWV/" draggable="false" style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 18px; margin-top: 8px; position: relative;"><div class="blurb"><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><em>The Dark Tower</em><span> </span>series consists of eight Stephen King books, all of which feature a “gunslinger” and his supernatural journey towards a tower — a quest which is both physical and metaphorical. The series spans multiple genres, incorporating elements of horror, science fantasy, dark fantasy, and Western (hence the gunslinger). If you’re wondering which Stephen King book to read first,<span> </span><em>The Dark Tower</em><span> </span>is a great place to start, as the books link to many of his other novels — which, in turn, also relate back to this series.</p></div></div><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"></p><div class="book-blot" contenteditable="false" data-book-info="{'title':'Misery: A Novel','slug':'misery-a-novel-stephen-king','synopsis':'','url':'https://www.amazon.com/dp/B018ER7K76?tag=reedwebs-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1','covers':{'large':'https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51SSlC2WctL.jpg','small':'https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51SSlC2WctL._SL160_.jpg'},'provider':'amazon','authors':['Stephen King']}" data-url="https://www.amazon.com/Misery-Stephen-King-ebook/dp/B018ER7K76/" draggable="false" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-top: 8px; orphans: 2; position: relative; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><picture><source class="entered" data-ll-status="entered" data-srcset="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51SSlC2WctL.jpg" height="301" media="(min-width: 480px)" srcset="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51SSlC2WctL.jpg" width="198"></source><img alt="Misery: A Novel" class="entered loaded" data-ll-status="loaded" data-srcset="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51SSlC2WctL._SL160_.jpg" draggable="false" height="182" srcset="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51SSlC2WctL._SL160_.jpg" style="border-radius: 8px; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 0px 8px 16px; display: block; float: right; height: auto; margin: 0px 0px 0px 16px; max-width: 100%; object-fit: cover; width: 198px;" width="120" /></picture><div class="title"><h2 style="font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 28px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1.425; margin: 0px 0px 8px;">5.<span> </span><em>Misery</em><span> </span>(1987)<span> </span></h2></div></div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div class="book-blot" contenteditable="false" data-book-info="{'title':'Misery: A Novel','slug':'misery-a-novel-stephen-king','synopsis':'','url':'https://www.amazon.com/dp/B018ER7K76?tag=reedwebs-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1','covers':{'large':'https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51SSlC2WctL.jpg','small':'https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51SSlC2WctL._SL160_.jpg'},'provider':'amazon','authors':['Stephen King']}" data-url="https://www.amazon.com/Misery-Stephen-King-ebook/dp/B018ER7K76/" draggable="false" style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 18px; margin-top: 8px; position: relative;"><div class="blurb"><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 1em;">Warning: aspiring authors, stay away from<span> </span><em>Misery</em>. Once you read it, you may never want to become a famous novelist. Everyone else — come on in, because this is an A+ tale of psychopathy, insanity, and blood. It tells the story of author Paul Sheldon, who has met his biggest fan, the morbidly delusional Annie Wilkes. Holding Sheldon hostage after he’s involved in a car wreck, her goal is to get him to write another novel in which his protagonist is brought back to life. Her method? Torture, torture, and more torture.</p></div></div><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"></p><div class="book-blot" contenteditable="false" data-book-info="{'title':'The Stand','slug':'the-stand-stephen-king-1667263b-66f4-4dd2-8ec8-130a54f515e9','synopsis':'','url':'https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001C4NXKM?tag=reedwebs-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1','covers':{'large':'https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41ISGxpFzmL.jpg','small':'https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41ISGxpFzmL._SL160_.jpg'},'provider':'amazon','authors':['Stephen King']}" data-url="https://www.amazon.com/Stand-Stephen-King-ebook/dp/B001C4NXKM/" draggable="false" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-top: 8px; orphans: 2; position: relative; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><picture><source class="entered" data-ll-status="entered" data-srcset="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41ISGxpFzmL.jpg" height="307" media="(min-width: 480px)" srcset="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41ISGxpFzmL.jpg" width="198"></source><img alt="The Stand" class="entered loaded" data-ll-status="loaded" data-srcset="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41ISGxpFzmL._SL160_.jpg" draggable="false" height="186" srcset="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41ISGxpFzmL._SL160_.jpg" style="border-radius: 8px; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 0px 8px 16px; display: block; float: right; height: auto; margin: 0px 0px 0px 16px; max-width: 100%; object-fit: cover; width: 198px;" width="120" /></picture><div class="title"><h2 style="font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 28px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1.425; margin: 0px 0px 8px;">4.<span> </span><em>The Stand</em><span> </span>(1990) - 4.7 stars</h2></div></div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div class="book-blot" contenteditable="false" data-book-info="{'title':'The Stand','slug':'the-stand-stephen-king-1667263b-66f4-4dd2-8ec8-130a54f515e9','synopsis':'','url':'https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001C4NXKM?tag=reedwebs-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1','covers':{'large':'https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41ISGxpFzmL.jpg','small':'https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41ISGxpFzmL._SL160_.jpg'},'provider':'amazon','authors':['Stephen King']}" data-url="https://www.amazon.com/Stand-Stephen-King-ebook/dp/B001C4NXKM/" draggable="false" style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 18px; margin-top: 8px; position: relative;"><div class="blurb"><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 1em;">One of King’s most accomplished books ever published,<span> </span><em>The Stand</em><span> </span>is a multi-genre work that sets up a plague story within a cautionary tale about technology. Throw in the supernatural, religion, and an apocalyptic battle between good and evil and you’ve got the makings of a masterpiece. It all begins when a mistake at a government lab releases a super-flu upon the continent. Don’t get sick while reading this book, kids!</p></div></div><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"></p><div class="book-blot" contenteditable="false" data-book-info="{'title':'Pet Sematary: A Novel','slug':'pet-sematary-a-novel-stephen-king','synopsis':'','url':'https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00K3NEE56?tag=reedwebs-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1','covers':{'large':'https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/515vihg3ytL.jpg','small':'https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/515vihg3ytL._SL160_.jpg'},'provider':'amazon','authors':['Stephen King']}" data-url="https://www.amazon.com/Pet-Sematary-Stephen-King-ebook/dp/B00K3NEE56/" draggable="false" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-top: 8px; orphans: 2; position: relative; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><picture><source class="entered" data-ll-status="entered" data-srcset="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/515vihg3ytL.jpg" height="307" media="(min-width: 480px)" srcset="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/515vihg3ytL.jpg" width="198"></source><img alt="Pet Sematary: A Novel" class="entered loaded" data-ll-status="loaded" data-srcset="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/515vihg3ytL._SL160_.jpg" draggable="false" height="186" srcset="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/515vihg3ytL._SL160_.jpg" style="border-radius: 8px; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 0px 8px 16px; display: block; float: right; height: auto; margin: 0px 0px 0px 16px; max-width: 100%; object-fit: cover; width: 198px;" width="120" /></picture><div class="title"><h2 style="font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 28px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1.425; margin: 0px 0px 8px;">3.<span> </span><em>Pet Sematary</em><span> </span>(1983) - 4.7 stars<span> </span></h2></div></div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div class="book-blot" contenteditable="false" data-book-info="{'title':'Pet Sematary: A Novel','slug':'pet-sematary-a-novel-stephen-king','synopsis':'','url':'https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00K3NEE56?tag=reedwebs-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1','covers':{'large':'https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/515vihg3ytL.jpg','small':'https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/515vihg3ytL._SL160_.jpg'},'provider':'amazon','authors':['Stephen King']}" data-url="https://www.amazon.com/Pet-Sematary-Stephen-King-ebook/dp/B00K3NEE56/" draggable="false" style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 18px; margin-top: 8px; position: relative;"><div class="blurb"><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 1em;">Many call<span> </span><em>Pet Semetary</em><span> </span>Stephen King’s scariest book. King has confirmed that he thought it was too dark to publish, and only did so to settle a contract.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><br /></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 1em;">Needless to say,<span> </span><em>Pet Sematary</em><span> </span>is not for the faint of heart. If you’re up for it, get ready for a rollercoaster of suspense and gore. The story opens innocently enough, as Louis Creed and his family move to a town in Maine. Near their house is a cemetery for children’s pet… and a bit further down in the woods lies an ancient Native burial ground, which will be the cause of all the chilling events in this grisly beast of a novel.</p></div></div><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"></p><div class="book-blot" contenteditable="false" data-book-info="{'title':'The Green Mile: The Complete Serial Novel','slug':'the-green-mile-the-complete-serial-novel-stephen-king','synopsis':'','url':'https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003L786TQ?tag=reedwebs-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1','covers':{'large':'https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61Ds826BlCL.jpg','small':'https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61Ds826BlCL._SL160_.jpg'},'provider':'amazon','authors':['Stephen King']}" data-url="https://www.amazon.com/Green-Mile-Complete-Serial-Novel-ebook/dp/B003L786TQ/" draggable="false" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-top: 8px; orphans: 2; position: relative; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><picture><source class="entered" data-ll-status="entered" data-srcset="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61Ds826BlCL.jpg" height="307" media="(min-width: 480px)" srcset="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61Ds826BlCL.jpg" width="198"></source><img alt="The Green Mile: The Complete Serial Novel" class="entered loaded" data-ll-status="loaded" data-srcset="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61Ds826BlCL._SL160_.jpg" draggable="false" height="186" srcset="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61Ds826BlCL._SL160_.jpg" style="border-radius: 8px; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 0px 8px 16px; display: block; float: right; height: auto; margin: 0px 0px 0px 16px; max-width: 100%; object-fit: cover; width: 198px;" width="120" /></picture><div class="title"><h2 style="font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 28px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1.425; margin: 0px 0px 8px;">2.<span> </span><em>The Green Mile</em><span> </span>(1996) - 4.8 stars</h2></div></div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div class="book-blot" contenteditable="false" data-book-info="{'title':'The Green Mile: The Complete Serial Novel','slug':'the-green-mile-the-complete-serial-novel-stephen-king','synopsis':'','url':'https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003L786TQ?tag=reedwebs-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1','covers':{'large':'https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61Ds826BlCL.jpg','small':'https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61Ds826BlCL._SL160_.jpg'},'provider':'amazon','authors':['Stephen King']}" data-url="https://www.amazon.com/Green-Mile-Complete-Serial-Novel-ebook/dp/B003L786TQ/" draggable="false" style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 18px; margin-top: 8px; position: relative;"><div class="blurb"><p style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 1em;">In<span> </span><em>The Green Mile</em>, King plunges readers straight into the murky horrors of death row. Prison supervisor Paul Edgecombe is on duty when he meets John Coffey: a gentle giant who has been sentenced to the death for raping and murdering twin girls. As events at the prison go on to spiral out of control, Paul realizes that Coffey might not be all he appears to be. With memorable characters and suspense that ratchets up with a flip of every page,<span> </span><em>The Green Mile</em><span> </span>became — and remains — an instant classic.</p></div></div><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"></p><div class="book-blot" contenteditable="false" data-book-info="{'title':'The Shining','slug':'the-shining-stephen-king-bd63f559-43ad-4ada-ba62-8b3d42277f23','synopsis':'','url':'https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001BANK32?tag=reedwebs-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1','covers':{'large':'https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41gcbw-zBoL.jpg','small':'https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41gcbw-zBoL._SL160_.jpg'},'provider':'amazon','authors':['Stephen King']}" data-url="https://www.amazon.com/Shining-Stephen-King-ebook/dp/B001BANK32/" draggable="false" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-top: 8px; orphans: 2; position: relative; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><picture><source class="entered" data-ll-status="entered" data-srcset="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41gcbw-zBoL.jpg" height="305" media="(min-width: 480px)" srcset="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41gcbw-zBoL.jpg" width="198"></source><img alt="The Shining" class="entered loaded" data-ll-status="loaded" data-srcset="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41gcbw-zBoL._SL160_.jpg" draggable="false" height="185" srcset="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41gcbw-zBoL._SL160_.jpg" style="border-radius: 8px; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 0px 8px 16px; display: block; float: right; height: auto; margin: 0px 0px 0px 16px; max-width: 100%; object-fit: cover; width: 198px;" width="120" /></picture><div class="title"><h2 style="font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 28px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1.425; margin: 0px 0px 8px;">1.<span> </span><em>The Shining</em><span> </span>(1977) - 4.8 stars</h2></div></div></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 18px;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 18px;">Easily acclaimed as one of </span><em style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 18px;">the </em><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 18px;">best Stephen King books, </span><em style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 18px;">The Shining</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 18px;"> has been discussed, debated, and parodied so often that it is a cornerstone today in popular culture. Jack Torrance, a recovering alcoholic, is the new caretaker at an old hotel. To no one but Jack’s surprise, the hotel has a dark past, which soon comes out to play… and the key to it all might lie in Danny Torrance, a young boy who possesses “the shining”: a psychic ability to mind-read and see things others cannot. This was the book that vaulted King to superstardom, and for good reason — </span><em style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 18px;">The Shining</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 18px;"> is peak King from first page to last.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 18px;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 18px;"><a href="https://reedsy.com/discovery/blog/best-stephen-king-books">READSY</a></span></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilDiSELOqGo-RSh4t6jXPXaHUz9Qo48o3IeUu2A5o8y9jnedXSjlRel6xQwrE0bGMtXYKMW7M_KTJOVhTeF7E-wZ7PbLkDWozWQBQ3n9xQuKVEtuN9-SGycKpiZuuH6s1fV5wxFwQjJ-NNQjJn9i67DsHhBEfkS665SYOh5SPMNFJ_xM4gVcpP5BhcQAY/s117/0000%20dragon_circle_un%20cuarto.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="115" data-original-width="117" height="115" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilDiSELOqGo-RSh4t6jXPXaHUz9Qo48o3IeUu2A5o8y9jnedXSjlRel6xQwrE0bGMtXYKMW7M_KTJOVhTeF7E-wZ7PbLkDWozWQBQ3n9xQuKVEtuN9-SGycKpiZuuH6s1fV5wxFwQjJ-NNQjJn9i67DsHhBEfkS665SYOh5SPMNFJ_xM4gVcpP5BhcQAY/s1600/0000%20dragon_circle_un%20cuarto.gif" width="117" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 18px;"><br /></span></div>Ficcioneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11113302074119512881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131170244545446682.post-40173878433328817832024-02-20T07:46:00.000-05:002024-02-23T07:46:31.627-05:00They Toss Bodies at You / On Mariana Enríquez’s “Our Share of Night”<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcMSjgBZ3NR9JuXvPwcLvsyARhuZ3pNsRaBCXMpikwqk47mlXoS0RCWJ5i3uJ1oNYSHgJU-ejm4gXxJiUBBZHY3XnwS9ZdE4TUK1TP1eFSqnMXWL5e52OBJzeZgWig8Oa6y2GLvSXZXymwvLw2_vGzcyqXXCeBZKjhkccY5X1JIXqeez3cRf-a9PLfSqWZ/s900/Mariana%20Enri%CC%81quez%20001s.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="605" data-original-width="900" height="403" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcMSjgBZ3NR9JuXvPwcLvsyARhuZ3pNsRaBCXMpikwqk47mlXoS0RCWJ5i3uJ1oNYSHgJU-ejm4gXxJiUBBZHY3XnwS9ZdE4TUK1TP1eFSqnMXWL5e52OBJzeZgWig8Oa6y2GLvSXZXymwvLw2_vGzcyqXXCeBZKjhkccY5X1JIXqeez3cRf-a9PLfSqWZ/w600-h403/Mariana%20Enri%CC%81quez%20001s.jpeg" width="600" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mariana Enriquez</td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p></p><h1 class="styles_text__piq_Q text styles_headingMedium__frocm styles_headingSmall__9JgeN" style="--text-color: var(--color-text); --tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px solid; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--text-color); font-family: var(--font-heading); font-weight: inherit; line-height: 42px; margin: 0px 0px var(--size-30); overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">They Toss Bodies at You: On Mariana Enríquez’s “Our Share of Night”</span></h1><div style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px solid; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: adobe-caslon-pro, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; margin-bottom: var(--size-30); text-size-adjust: auto;"><h3 class="styles_text__piq_Q text styles_body__eu8Se styles_dek__YcX6U" style="--text-color: var(--color-text); --tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px solid; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--color-deep-waters); font-family: var(--font-sans); font-weight: inherit; line-height: var(--line-height-150); margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px solid; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-size: large;">By<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Elizabeth Gonzalez James</span></span></h3><h3 class="styles_text__piq_Q text styles_body__eu8Se styles_dek__YcX6U" style="--text-color: var(--color-text); --tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px solid; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--color-deep-waters); font-family: var(--font-sans); font-weight: inherit; line-height: var(--line-height-150); margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: justify;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px solid; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-size: large;">February 6, 2023</span></span></h3></div><p></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span face="stix-two, "Times New Roman", serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-size-adjust: auto;">“</span><em style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px solid; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: stix-two, "Times New Roman", serif; text-size-adjust: auto;">TE TIRAN MUERTOS</em><span face="stix-two, "Times New Roman", serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-size-adjust: auto;">,” Mariana Enríquez writes in<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><em style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px solid; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: stix-two, "Times New Roman", serif; text-size-adjust: auto;">Our Share of Night</em><span face="stix-two, "Times New Roman", serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-size-adjust: auto;">, the hotly anticipated English translation of her 2019 Spanish-language novel. “In Argentina, they toss bodies at you.” This arresting line comes near the end of the almost 600-page novel, as a character grapples with having discovered that a loved one was kidnapped and tortured, their chest split open and a child’s severed arm sewn up inside. I begin my review with this image not to shock, but rather to prepare you for the world we are about to enter, not unlike the sign hung above Dante’s gates of Hell: “Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.”<span><a name='more'></a></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span face="stix-two, "Times New Roman", serif" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><em style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px solid; box-sizing: border-box; text-size-adjust: auto;">Our Share of Night</em><span style="background-color: white; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>is an ambitious horror epic that begins in 1981 with Juan Peterson, a recent widower, and his six-year-old son Gaspar, traveling to visit his late wife Rosario’s family at their mansion in the Misiones province of Argentina near the border with Paraguay. Juan is a deeply troubled and contradictory man — he is at once utterly devoted to his grief-stricken son, and yet is gruff, secretive, and physically abusive to him. Juan suffers from an incurable heart condition that could kill him at any minute, and he bears this as well as a darker burden: he works as a medium for Rosario’s family’s cult, the Order, a millionaire class of worshippers devoted to a supernatural evil presence called the Darkness. Though young, Gaspar has seemingly inherited much from his father: he is, like Juan, able to see ghosts; he is morose and withdrawn; and Juan intuits that his child is a natural medium as well. Juan’s in-laws intuit this too, and they are desperate to get hold of the boy. The Darkness has allegedly promised to tell them the secret to eternal life by transferring their consciousnesses into host bodies, and they want Juan to transfer himself into his son, at the cost of destroying Gaspar’s soul. And all this occurs under the shadow of Argentina’s ongoing Dirty War, a seven-year campaign of torture and murder waged by a brutal military dictatorship, resulting in the disappearance of up to 30,000 people. Father and son are hunted and haunted, figuratively and literally, and the book chronicles Juan’s race to protect his child from his in-laws, as well as exploring the history of Juan and Rosario and the colossal destruction wrought by her family and their ilk upon the people of Argentina.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: large; text-size-adjust: auto;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: large; text-size-adjust: auto;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy2piMTiugFibA7Q98MU58bsiGMWpt_C7ojR5NK31kKMsFqlXzul4XB05xjLSAxOGFptF2koN2sL-JVSoe5mrFweCjSC-0pnzmVXF8gosHH2psxb9ecyKVOi2jZFJr8xVVEV-aVfe-IiuNTq-Ms_-iQuLbDHFfT_3uSF9vbexiljUDGedy0adnFQ9s2gES/s1383/mariana%20enriquez_our%20share%20of%20night_cover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1383" data-original-width="916" height="876" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy2piMTiugFibA7Q98MU58bsiGMWpt_C7ojR5NK31kKMsFqlXzul4XB05xjLSAxOGFptF2koN2sL-JVSoe5mrFweCjSC-0pnzmVXF8gosHH2psxb9ecyKVOi2jZFJr8xVVEV-aVfe-IiuNTq-Ms_-iQuLbDHFfT_3uSF9vbexiljUDGedy0adnFQ9s2gES/w580-h876/mariana%20enriquez_our%20share%20of%20night_cover.jpg" width="580" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: large;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><span style="background-color: white; text-size-adjust: auto;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span face="stix-two, "Times New Roman", serif" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Rosario’s family, the English-born Bradfords, came to Argentina in the 1800s looking for cheap land and opportunity. How did they get rich? “The usual,” Rosario says in a section that narrates her personal history, “looting, partnerships with other powerful people, understanding what side to take during the civil war.” The family owns vast yerba plantations and luxury properties around the country, which keep them well heeled and give them the freedom to pursue their occult practices. Wealth, power, and evil are inextricably linked in Enríquez’s world, and it is only fitting that the Bradfords would pursue the favors of an evil god, an entity that appears when summoned, like a black mist or gel that severs fingers and limbs if anyone tries to touch it, and which hungers for human flesh and then lovingly arranges the body parts and bones of its victims in a mysterious Other Place like a collector posing figurines on a shelf. The concept of a rich and powerful demonic cult has been well trod in books and films, and yet the breadth of the world Enríquez creates through a perversity of detail is astounding.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span face="stix-two, "Times New Roman", serif" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Beneath the luxurious homes owned by the Bradfords lies a system of secret tunnels, and under the dictatorship, they are only too happy to allow the government to use the tunnels for prisons and torture chambers in exchange for the right to sacrifice the prisoners (and their families) to the Darkness. Torture and dismemberment are overseen by Rosario’s mother, Mercedes, a balding, lipless villain — her lips and teeth were taken by Juan in an unforgettable scene — whose sadism knows no bounds. Mercedes claims that the Darkness demands sacrifices, though Juan, as the only member of the Order who can communicate with it, refutes this, and readers are left to see the randomness of her violence. Many of her victims are young children.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span face="stix-two, "Times New Roman", serif" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">When the Darkness is summoned, scribes are present to take down anything it dictates, though Juan repeatedly throws doubt on whether it is actually speaking, or whether the scribes are only frenzied by the experience and are imagining what it says. “Sometimes it speaks and there’s no way to find meaning in what it says,” Rosario explains. “There is no arguing with faith, though. And it’s impossible to disbelieve when the Darkness comes. So, we trust, and we go on.” The Darkness doesn’t offer a system of faith so much as it offers a justification for cruelty, and an open mouth into which enemies may be thrown.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span face="stix-two, "Times New Roman", serif" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;">Complicity is a recurring theme in the novel, and though there are characters who have a clearer sense of right and wrong, there are no heroes. Just about everyone is guilty, whether by abetting cruelty or ignoring it.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><em style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px solid; box-sizing: border-box; text-size-adjust: auto;">Our Share of Night</em><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>is ambitious because it is not only an immersive horror story but also an expansive family history that works to illustrate years of actual exploitation and repression in Argentina.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span face="stix-two, "Times New Roman", serif" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;">As a journalist, Enríquez has covered the aftermath of the dictatorship, the cover-ups and betrayals, the ongoing search for answers and closure, so it is no surprise that her fictional work is grounded in this reality. In<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a href="https://lithub.com/creating-a-new-tradition-of-latin-american-horror/" style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px solid; box-sizing: border-box; text-size-adjust: auto;">an essay for<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px solid; box-sizing: border-box;">Freeman’s</em><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>that was reprinted in<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px solid; box-sizing: border-box;">Literary Hub</em></a><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;">, Enríquez says there was no tradition of horror in Latin American literature when she was growing up, that horror was entertainment, and thus low-class. And so, when she began writing horror, she had to find inspiration in history, in fact. As Enríquez recalls, “I asked myself: what were the first written texts, the first horror texts that I had ever read? They were the testimonies of the dictatorship. Bodies disappeared.”</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span face="stix-two, "Times New Roman", serif" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;">Disappeared bodies litter the narrative, and some of Enríquez’s most chilling and surreal moments come from her descriptions of the Other Place, the world where we assume the Darkness lives and which may be accessed through doors that are imperceptible to all but a few. The Other Place is vast and tidy, a realm where human torsos are collected and arranged in a field like felled trees, where severed hands grasp tree trunks like some strange fungus. Gaspar comes home one evening to find his father sitting on the couch holding a box, presumably something he brought back from the Other Place. When Juan insists that Gaspar put his hand in the box, Gaspar is hesitant, knowing it will be nothing good. “[H]is fingers touched what at first he thought were dried bugs: they had a fragile texture and made that pearly sound; hundreds of small things that had once been alive,” Gaspar initially thinks. “Then he realized that what at first touch he’d thought were legs were actually hairs. […] Eyelashes. […] The whole box was filled with eyelids.” This discovery brings to mind Carolyn Forché’s brutal poem “</span><a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49862/the-colonel" style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px solid; box-sizing: border-box; text-size-adjust: auto;">The Colonel</a><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;">,” and the ease with which the poem’s subject tosses a grocery bag filled with human ears onto a table: “They were like / dried peach halves. There is no other way to say this.”</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span face="stix-two, "Times New Roman", serif" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;">The horror of Forché’s poem comes from the way that one image of the dried peach halves sticks with you long after you read her words. When a book returns again and again to rape, torture, and dismemberment, to teeth filed into sharp points, the horror of it begins to blur, the images losing their impact upon the repetition. Don’t get me wrong —<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><em style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px solid; box-sizing: border-box; text-size-adjust: auto;">Our Share of Night</em><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>is a remarkable book and one that I hope will influence Latin American literature for a long time, as it shows the heights an author can reach marrying horror to horrifying reality. But I felt that the impact of the bodies, the mutilation, was occasionally lost on me. After putting the book down, I felt like I needed to go look at pictures of flowers or quaint country cottages, anything to get myself out of the depersonalized hell of Enríquez’s world, where human bodies are so many grains of sand. Perhaps there are only so many horrors I can consume at once. Perhaps I am sheltered. Perhaps I am complicit in my urge to turn away.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span face="stix-two, "Times New Roman", serif" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The novel is told from the perspective of a select few viewpoint characters, one of whom, Olga Gallardo, is given about 20 pages to narrate her important piece of the story. Gallardo is a journalist in 1993 covering a newly discovered mass grave not far from the Bradfords’ estate. The Zañartú Pit, as it is called, has only been partially excavated, and already the remains of 30 people have been discovered. The government is slow to clean and identify the bones; meanwhile, the relatives of the disappeared gather in a nearby town to wait, always to wait, and hope for an answer. There are obvious parallels between the Pit and the Other Place, both collections of dismembered pieces, where human lives are reduced to a femur, a mandible. Paragraphs of this section could have been lifted from a newspaper; Enríquez has to ask little of her readers’ imaginations here. “In Argentina, they toss bodies at you.”</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span face="stix-two, "Times New Roman", serif" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Gallardo interviews the people who wait for a positive identification of the remains. A descendent of one of the native peoples of Argentina, a Guaraní woman who has endured the murder of her husband for participating in a strike, says to Gallardo, “This country disrespects its victims,” a phrase that made me pause and reconsider Enríquez’s intent with this novel. Perhaps in meditating over the torsos, the eyelids, the filed teeth, the bottomless pit of cruelty that lives inside some people, and the bodies, bodies, bodies that lie at their feet, Enríquez is shining a light on each femur, each mandible, bringing it out of the place where it was tossed and forgotten, bestowing dignity on the disregarded.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span face="stix-two, "Times New Roman", serif" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;">Unsettling and tragic, poignant and true,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><em style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px solid; box-sizing: border-box; text-size-adjust: auto;">Our Share of Night</em><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>is a masterwork from a writer with an unflinching gaze. If you can manage to hold that gaze with her, you will be richly rewarded.</span></span></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh1lzRvJ8IH7-P-KL05ixYEB-OHux9CU5RhFfj2N4r8sAp-lAqY9xDjPIUCZ6pAU9ZaA7hLxzs1zHmE4FvVbZNHN95jj5F16If47hEnclf5oXJ2fvIES2X9iJ4NaqyljM-A4UEtYPPAY7zHzUVXM1sBuKdnzXjHsdaudd2voqljr3uF03QK64-ddzVWE92/s149/_000%20CONEJO_VIN%CC%83ETA.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="57" data-original-width="149" height="57" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh1lzRvJ8IH7-P-KL05ixYEB-OHux9CU5RhFfj2N4r8sAp-lAqY9xDjPIUCZ6pAU9ZaA7hLxzs1zHmE4FvVbZNHN95jj5F16If47hEnclf5oXJ2fvIES2X9iJ4NaqyljM-A4UEtYPPAY7zHzUVXM1sBuKdnzXjHsdaudd2voqljr3uF03QK64-ddzVWE92/s1600/_000%20CONEJO_VIN%CC%83ETA.png" width="149" /></span></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span><em style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px solid; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: stix-two, "Times New Roman", serif; text-size-adjust: auto;"></em><span face="stix-two, "Times New Roman", serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-size-adjust: auto;"></span><span face="stix-two, "Times New Roman", serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-size-adjust: auto;"></span><span face="stix-two, "Times New Roman", serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-size-adjust: auto;"></span><span face="stix-two, "Times New Roman", serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-size-adjust: auto;"></span><span face="stix-two, "Times New Roman", serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-size-adjust: auto;"></span><span face="stix-two, "Times New Roman", serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-size-adjust: auto;"></span><span face="stix-two, "Times New Roman", serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-size-adjust: auto;"></span><span face="stix-two, "Times New Roman", serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-size-adjust: auto;"></span><span face="stix-two, "Times New Roman", serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-size-adjust: auto;"></span><span face="stix-two, "Times New Roman", serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-size-adjust: auto;"></span></span><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span face="stix-two, "Times New Roman", serif" style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px solid; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 36, 39); color: #212427; font-size: large; font-style: italic; text-size-adjust: auto;">Elizabeth Gonzalez James is the author of the novels<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px solid; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal;">Mona at Sea</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(SFWP, 2021) and<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px solid; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal;">The Bullet Swallower</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(forthcoming, Simon & Schuster, 2024), as well as the chapbook<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px solid; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal;">Five Conversations About Peter Sellers</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Texas Review Press, 2023). She is the interviews editor at<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px solid; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal;">The Rumpus</span>. Originally from South Texas, she now lives with her family in Massachusetts.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span face="stix-two, "Times New Roman", serif" style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px solid; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(33, 36, 39); color: #212427; font-size: 18px; font-style: italic; text-size-adjust: auto;"><br /></span></p><p><a href="https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/they-toss-bodies-at-you-on-mariana-enriquezs-our-share-of-night/">LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS</a></p><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi642HeiGYPrjjWqsCYA6LVjdyNN6Ko_nry2mRjZ7FEO0FIKwsPFcYyGCnKr9e7V7UGLXMkngPIee4t7t9vy-LvUoYpBeAZy6P0gzD3F3FiLonfzLWB9kOrvFukh0SgVoxwkQ59bkjOGtFChNQERkifZp24_XaB2pndI7O4hqw1mg5nZ-N5lqbJz1niLvKe/s74/0000%20%20cuervo%20mitad_DE%20OTROS%20MUNDOS.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="74" data-original-width="54" height="74" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi642HeiGYPrjjWqsCYA6LVjdyNN6Ko_nry2mRjZ7FEO0FIKwsPFcYyGCnKr9e7V7UGLXMkngPIee4t7t9vy-LvUoYpBeAZy6P0gzD3F3FiLonfzLWB9kOrvFukh0SgVoxwkQ59bkjOGtFChNQERkifZp24_XaB2pndI7O4hqw1mg5nZ-N5lqbJz1niLvKe/s1600/0000%20%20cuervo%20mitad_DE%20OTROS%20MUNDOS.jpg" width="54" /></a></div>Ficcioneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11113302074119512881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131170244545446682.post-59816165139911277852024-02-19T08:20:00.001-05:002024-02-23T08:24:58.842-05:00The Smallest Woman in the World by Clarice Lispector<p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-FVCmYZJ65Rml6RrT6evZa7pziwL6HrB-RJS-L6lsoQQNWkAwfr-IbD8ONHnz_B7p13jtvdA6iOEmX9qSJdk7CGunduslSFixN_axYDL8Inv40Ccdjvq3HWWLvhJrkcgNYdyU_RTG9EFU-E2HxD8yvobMbZEf6AZ1N8N7MY8S3DpPc8Z0PClwX2njSFA/s242/Picasso_mujer%20con%20sombrero%20azul%20001.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="242" data-original-width="208" height="539" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-FVCmYZJ65Rml6RrT6evZa7pziwL6HrB-RJS-L6lsoQQNWkAwfr-IbD8ONHnz_B7p13jtvdA6iOEmX9qSJdk7CGunduslSFixN_axYDL8Inv40Ccdjvq3HWWLvhJrkcgNYdyU_RTG9EFU-E2HxD8yvobMbZEf6AZ1N8N7MY8S3DpPc8Z0PClwX2njSFA/w463-h539/Picasso_mujer%20con%20sombrero%20azul%20001.jpeg" width="463" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pablo Picasso</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: x-large; font-weight: 700;"><br /></span><p></p><h1 class="font-headings font-bold text-5xl leading-tight mb-2" style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / .5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: #f8fafc; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Verlag A", "Verlag B", Raleway, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto; font-size: 3rem; line-height: 1.25; margin: 0px 0px 0.5rem; position: relative; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The Smallest Woman </span></h1><h1 class="font-headings font-bold text-5xl leading-tight mb-2" style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / .5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: #f8fafc; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Verlag A", "Verlag B", Raleway, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto; font-size: 3rem; line-height: 1.25; margin: 0px 0px 0.5rem; position: relative; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">in the World</span></h1><div style="font-size: xx-large; text-align: center;"><h1 class="font-headings font-bold text-5xl leading-tight mb-2" style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / .5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: #f8fafc; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Verlag A", "Verlag B", Raleway, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto; font-size: 3rem; line-height: 1.25; margin: 0px 0px 0.5rem; position: relative;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">by Clarice Lispector</span></h1></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Translated by Elizabeth Bishop</span></div><br /><p></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">In the depths of Equatorial Africa the French explorer, Marcel Pretre, hunter and man of the world, came across a tribe of surprisingly small pygmies. Therefore he was even more surprised when he was informed that a still smaller people existed, beyond forests and distances. So he plunged farther on.<span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">In the Eastern Congo, near Lake Kivu, he really did discover the smallest pygmies in the world. And—like a box within a box within a box—obedient, perhaps, to the necessity nature sometimes feels of outdoing herself—among the smallest pygmies in the world there was the smallest of the smallest pygmies in the world.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Among mosquitoes and lukewarm trees, among leaves of the most rich and lazy green, Marcel Pretre found himself facing a woman seventeen and three-quarter inches high, full-grown, black, silent— “Black as a monkey,” he informed the press—who lived in a treetop with her little spouse. In the tepid miasma of the jungle, that swells the fruits so early and gives them an almost intolerable sweetness, she was pregnant.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">So there she stood, the smallest woman in the world. For an instant, in the buzzing heat, it seemed as if the Frenchman had unexpectedly reached his final destination. Probably only because he was not insane, his soul neither wavered nor broke its bounds. Feeling an immediate necessity for order and for giving names to what exists, he called her Little Flower. And in order to be able to classify her among the recognizable realities, he immediately began to collect facts about her.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Her race will soon be exterminated. Few examples are left of this species, which, if it were not for the sly dangers of Africa, might have multiplied. Besides disease, the deadly effluvium of the water, insufficient food, and ranging beasts, the great threat to the Likoualas are the savage Bahundes, a threat that surrounds them in the silent air, like the dawn of battle. The Bahundes hunt them with nets, like monkeys. And eat them. Like that: they catch them in nets and eat them. The tiny race, retreating, always retreating, has finished hiding away in the heart of Africa, where the lucky explorer discovered it. For strategic defense, they live in the highest trees. The women descend to grind and cook corn and to gather greens; the men, to hunt. When a child is born, it is left free almost immediately. It is true that, what with the beasts, the child frequently cannot enjoy this freedom for very long. But then it is true that it cannot be lamented that for such a short life there had been any long, hard work. And even the language that the child learns is short and simple, merely the essentials. The Likoualas use few names; they name things by gestures and animal noises. As for things of the spirit, they have a drum. While they dance to the sound of the drum, a little male stands guard against the Bahundes, who come from no one knows where.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">That was the way, then, that the explorer discovered, standing at his very feet, the smallest existing human thing. His heart beat, because no emerald in the world is so rare. The teachings of the wise men of India are not so rare. The richest man in the world has never set eyes on such a strange grace. Right there was a woman that the greed of the most exquisite dream could never have imagined. It was then that the explorer said timidly, and with a delicacy of feeling of which his wife would never have thought him capable: “You are Little Flower.”</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">At that moment, Little Flower scratched herself where no one scratches. The explorer—as if he were receiving the highest prize for chastity to which an idealistic man dares aspire—the explorer, experienced as he was, looked the other way.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">A photograph of Little Flower was published in the colored supplement of the Sunday Papers, life-size. She was wrapped in cloth, her belly already very big. The flat nose, the black face, the splay feet. She looked like a dog.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">On that Sunday, in an apartment, a woman seeing the picture of Little Flower in the paper didn’t want to look a second time because “It gives me the creeps.”</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">In another apartment, a lady felt such perverse tenderness for the smallest of the African women that—an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure—Little Flower could never be left alone to the tenderness of that lady. Who knows to what murkiness of love tenderness can lead? The woman was upset all day, almost as if she were missing something. Besides, it was spring and there was a dangerous leniency in the air.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">In another house, a little girl of five, seeing the picture and hearing the comments, was extremely surprised. In a houseful of adults, this little girl had been the smallest human being up until now. And, if this was the source of all caresses, it was also the source of the first fear of the tyranny of love. The existence of Little Flower made the little girl feel—with a deep uneasiness that only years and years later, and for very different reasons, would turn into thought—made her feel, in her first wisdom, that “sorrow is endless.”</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">In another house, in the consecration of spring, a girl about to be married felt an ecstasy of pity: “Mama, look at her little picture, poor little thing! Just look how sad she is!”</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">In another house, a clever little boy had a clever idea. “Mummy, if I could put this little woman from Africa in little Paul’s bed when he’s asleep? When he woke up wouldn’t he be frightened? Wouldn’t he howl? When he saw her sitting on his bed? And then we’d play with her! She would be our toy!”</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">His mother was setting her hair in front of the bathroom mirror at the moment, and she remembered what a cook had told her about life in an orphanage. The orphans had no dolls, and, with terrible maternity already throbbing in their hearts, the little girls had hidden the death of one of the children from the nun. They kept the body in a cupboard and when the nun went out they played with the dead child, giving her baths and things to eat, punishing her only to be able to kiss and console her. In the bathroom, the mother remembered this, and let fall her thoughtful hands, full of curlers. She considered the cruel necessity of loving. And she considered the malignity of our desire for happiness. She considered how ferociously we need to play. How many times we will kill for love. Then she looked at her clever child as if she were looking at a dangerous stranger. And she had a horror of her own soul that, more than her body, had engendered that being, adept at life and happiness. She looked at him atentively and with uncomfortable pride, that child who had already lost two front teeth, evolution evolving itself, teeth falling out to give place to those that could bite better. “I’m going to buy him a new suit,” she decided, looking at him, absorbed. Obstinately, she adorned her gap-toothed son with fine clothes; obstinately, she wanted him very clean, as if his cleanliness could emphasize a soothing superficiality, obstinately perfecting the polite side of beauty. Obstinately drawing away from, and drawing him away from, something that ought to be “black as a monkey.” Then, looking in the bathroom mirror, the mother gave a deliberately refined and social smile, placing a distance of insuperable milleniums between the abstract lines of her features and the crude face of Little Flower. But, with years of practice, she knew that this was going to be a Sunday on which she would have to hide from herself anxiety, dreams, and lost millenniums.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">In another house, they gave themselves up to the enthralling task of measuring the seventeen and three-quarter inches of Little Flower against the wall. And, really, it was a delightful surprise: she was even smaller than the sharpest imagination could have pictured. In the heart of each member of the family was born, nostalgic, the desire to have that tiny and indomitable thing for itself, that thing spared having been eaten, that permanent source of charity. The avid family soul wanted to devote itself. To tell the truth, who hasn’t wanted to own a human being just for himself? Which, it is true, wouldn’t always be convenient; there are times when one doesn’t want to have feelings.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">“I bet if she lived here it would end in a fight,” said the father, sitting in the armchair and definitely turning the page of the newspaper. “In this house everything ends in a fight.”</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">“Oh, you, José—always a pessimist,” said the mother.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">“But, Mama, have you thought of the size her baby’s going to be?” said the oldest little girl, aged thirteen, eagerly.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">The father stirred uneasily behind his paper.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">“It should be the smallest black baby in the world,” the mother answered, melting with pleasure. “Imagine her serving our table, with her big little belly!”</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">“That’s enough!” growled father.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">“But you have to admit,” said the mother, unexpectedly offended, “that it is something very rare. You’re the insensitive one.”</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">And the rare thing itself?</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">In the meanwhile, in Africa, the rare thing herself, in her heart—and who knows if the heart wasn’t black, too, since once nature has erred she can no longer be trusted—the rare thing herself had something even rarer in her heart, like the secret of her own secret: a minimal child. Methodically, the explorer studied that little belly of the smallest mature human being. It was at this moment that the explorer, for the first time since he had known her, instead of feeling curiousity, or exaltation, or victory, or the scientific spirit, felt sick.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">The smallest woman in the world was laughing.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">She was laughing, warm, warm—Little Flower was enjoying life. The rare thing herself was experiencing the ineffable sensation of not having been eaten yet. Not having been eaten yet was something that at any other time would have given her the agile impulse to jump from branch to branch. But, in this moment of tranquility, amid the thick leaves of the Eastern Congo, she was not putting this impulse into action—it was entirely concentrated in the smallness of the rare thing itself. So she was laughing. It was a laugh such as only one who does not speak laughs. It was a laugh that the explorer, constrained, couldn’t classify. And she kept on enjoying her own soft laugh, she who wasn’t being devoured. Not to be devoured is the most perfect feeling. Not to be devoured is the secret goal of a whole life. While she was not being eaten, her bestial laughter was as delicate as joy is delicate. The explorer was baffled.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">In the second place, if the rare thing herself was laughing, it was because, within her smallness, a great darkness had begun to move.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">The rare thing herself felt in her breast a warmth that might be called love. She loved that sallow explorer. If she could have talked and had told him that she loved him, he would have been puffed up with vanity. Vanity that would have collapsed when she added that she also loved the explorer’s ring very much, and the explorer’s boots. And when that collapse had taken place, Little Flower would not have understood why. Because her love for the explorer—one might even say “profound love,” since, having no other resources, she was reduced to a profundity—her profound love for the explorer would not have been at all diminished by the fact that she also loved his boots. There is an old misunderstanding about the word love, and, if many children are born from this misunderstanding, many others have lost the unique chance of being born, only because of the susceptibility that demands that it be me! me! that is loved, and not my money. But in the humidity of the forest, these cruel refinements do not exist, and love is not to be eaten, love is to find a boot pretty, love is to like the strange color of a man who isn’t black, is to laugh for love of a shiny ring. Little Flower blinked with love, and laughed warmly, small, gravid, warm.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">The explorer tried to smile back, without knowing exactly to what abyss his smile responded, and then he was embarrassed as only a very big man can be embarrassed. He pretended to adjust his explorer’s hat better; he colored, prudishly. He turned a lovely color, a greenish-pink, like a lime at sunrise. He was undoubtedly sour.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Perhaps adjusting the symbolic helmet helped the explorer to get control of himself, severely recapture the discipline of his work, and go on with his note-taking. He had learned how to understand some of the tribe’s few articulate words, and to interpret their signs. By now, he could ask questions.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Little Flower answered “Yes.” That it was very nice to have a tree of her own to live in. Because—she didn’t say this but her eyes became so dark that they said it—because it is good to own, good to own, good to own. The explorer winked several times.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Marcel Pretre had some difficult moments with himself. But at least he kept busy taking notes. Those who didn’t take notes had to manage as best they could.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">“Well,” suddenly declared one old lady, folding up the newspaper decisively, “Well, as I always say: God knows what He’s doing.”</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">(Originally published in the 1960 book of short stories, <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Family Ties)</em></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;"><br /></em></span></p><h1 class="font-headings font-bold text-5xl leading-tight mb-2" style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / .5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: #f8fafc; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Verlag A", "Verlag B", Raleway, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto; font-size: 3rem; line-height: 1.25; margin: 0px 0px 0.5rem;">Clarice Lispector</h1><div class="prose lg:prose-lg" style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-prose-body: #374151; --tw-prose-bold: #111827; --tw-prose-bullets: #d1d5db; --tw-prose-captions: #6b7280; --tw-prose-code: #111827; --tw-prose-counters: #6b7280; --tw-prose-headings: #111827; --tw-prose-hr: #e5e7eb; --tw-prose-invert-body: #d1d5db; --tw-prose-invert-bold: #fff; --tw-prose-invert-bullets: #4b5563; --tw-prose-invert-captions: #9ca3af; --tw-prose-invert-code: #fff; --tw-prose-invert-counters: #9ca3af; --tw-prose-invert-headings: #fff; --tw-prose-invert-hr: #374151; --tw-prose-invert-lead: #9ca3af; --tw-prose-invert-links: #fff; --tw-prose-invert-pre-bg: rgb(0 0 0 / 50%); --tw-prose-invert-pre-code: #d1d5db; --tw-prose-invert-quote-borders: #374151; --tw-prose-invert-quotes: #f3f4f6; --tw-prose-invert-td-borders: #374151; --tw-prose-invert-th-borders: #4b5563; --tw-prose-lead: #4b5563; --tw-prose-links: #111827; --tw-prose-pre-bg: #1f2937; --tw-prose-pre-code: #e5e7eb; --tw-prose-quote-borders: #e5e7eb; --tw-prose-quotes: #111827; --tw-prose-td-borders: #e5e7eb; --tw-prose-th-borders: #d1d5db; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / .5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: #f8fafc; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--tw-prose-body); font-family: Raleway, system-ui, "system-ui", -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Fira Sans", "Droid Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.77778; max-width: 65ch;"><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / .5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;">Clarice Lispector was born in 1920 to a Jewish family in western Ukraine. As a result of the anti-Semitic violence they endured, the family fled to Brazil in 1922, and Clarice Lispector grew up in Recife. Following the death of her mother when Clarice was nine, she moved to Rio de Janeiro with her father and two sisters, and she went on to study law. With her husband, who worked for the foreign service, she lived in Italy, Switzerland, England, and the United States, until they separated and she returned to Rio in 1959; she died there in 1977. Since her death, Clarice Lispector has earned universal recognition as Brazil’s greatest modern writer.</p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / .5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;"><br /></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLp5L6RJjEBOKkk7migral_abdEzI75paamd7sbFDvdVJinoIiyg1do3eyn7JfOTi5I3fW6P_vIWPJ0TNl8eFMjMU714mMWUduP0U-yLH8ngsFRqP3eZrP3WSqi3s1Zbih-D28RXMORx2IgFYPS90PBJl6Dj7FJQ6CQ-siMYf9RS1NJy0do4rc-xy-j9o/s117/0000%20dragon_circle_un%20cuarto.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="115" data-original-width="117" height="115" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLp5L6RJjEBOKkk7migral_abdEzI75paamd7sbFDvdVJinoIiyg1do3eyn7JfOTi5I3fW6P_vIWPJ0TNl8eFMjMU714mMWUduP0U-yLH8ngsFRqP3eZrP3WSqi3s1Zbih-D28RXMORx2IgFYPS90PBJl6Dj7FJQ6CQ-siMYf9RS1NJy0do4rc-xy-j9o/s1600/0000%20dragon_circle_un%20cuarto.gif" width="117" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><br /></p>Ficcioneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11113302074119512881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131170244545446682.post-63347368905066374172024-02-19T07:55:00.001-05:002024-02-23T08:23:13.981-05:00The Hen by Clarice Lispector<p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /></span></p><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhabkeq9Sbingaf9EJFK2HePsubdD-_HskOzcuVDyCN3We8vsgh3h-pkBVgmjaf9_vlsKtpobL7z5WlArebxT88weDXGBKgjdTrJ-QB7XR0fbv8C_5DDfHLoXN6W8Yc2VP2MhYfCCz-I2tMR7ZxqaC8dV2vN9-ZO8c0C3olW9r1HHuZoBhfZqTJ7p6MqVc/s1452/gallina%20003w.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1422" data-original-width="1452" height="469" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhabkeq9Sbingaf9EJFK2HePsubdD-_HskOzcuVDyCN3We8vsgh3h-pkBVgmjaf9_vlsKtpobL7z5WlArebxT88weDXGBKgjdTrJ-QB7XR0fbv8C_5DDfHLoXN6W8Yc2VP2MhYfCCz-I2tMR7ZxqaC8dV2vN9-ZO8c0C3olW9r1HHuZoBhfZqTJ7p6MqVc/w480-h469/gallina%20003w.jpg" width="480" /></a></span></div><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"><span style="font-size: xx-large;"><br /></span></span></div><h1 class="font-headings font-bold text-5xl leading-tight mb-2" style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / .5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: #f8fafc; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Verlag A", "Verlag B", Raleway, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto; font-size: 3rem; line-height: 1.25; margin: 0px 0px 0.5rem; position: relative; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Hen</span></h1><div style="font-size: xx-large; text-align: center;"><h1 class="font-headings font-bold text-5xl leading-tight mb-2" style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / .5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: #f8fafc; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Verlag A", "Verlag B", Raleway, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto; font-size: 3rem; line-height: 1.25; margin: 0px 0px 0.5rem; position: relative; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">by Clarice Lispector</span></h1></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Translated by Elizabeth Bishop</span></div><p></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">She was a Sunday hen. She was still alive only because it was not yet 9:00 o’clock.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">She seemed calm. Since Saturday she had cowered in a corner of the kitchen. She didn’t look at anyone, no one looked at her. Even when they had selected her, fingering her intimately and indifferently, they couldn’t have said whether she was fat or thin. No one would ever have guessed that she had a desire.<span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">So it was a surprise when she opened her little wings, puffed out her breast, and, after two or three tries, reached the wall of the terrace. For an instant she vacillated – long enough for the cook to scream – and then she was on the neighbor’s terrace, and from there, by means of another awkward flight, she reached a tile roof. There she remained like a misplaced weather vane, hesitating, first on one foot, then on the other. The family was urgently called and, in consternation, saw their lunch standing beside a chimney. The father of the family, reminding himself of the double obligation of eating and of occasionally taking exercise, happily got into his bathing trunks and resolved to follow the itinerary of the hen. By cautious jumps he reached the roof, and the hen, trembling and hesitating, quickly picked another direction. The pursuit became more intense. From roof to roof, more than a block of the street was traversed. Unprepared for a more savage struggle for life, the hen had to decide for herself which routes to take, without any help from her race. In the young man, however, the sleeping hunter woke up. Lowly as was the prey, he gave a hunting cry.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Alone in the world, without father or mother, she ran, out of breath, concentrated, mute. Sometimes in her flight she would stand at bay on the edge of a roof, gasping; while the young man leaped over others with difficulty, she had a moment in which to collect herself. The she looked so free.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Stupid, timid, and free. Not victorious, the way a rooster in flight would have looked. What was there in her entrails that made a being of her? The hen is a being. It’s true, she couldn’t be counted on for anything. She herself couldn’t count on herself – the way a rooster believes in his comb. Her only advantage was that there are so many hens that if one died another would appear at the same moment, exactly like her, as if it were the same hen.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Finally, at one of the moments when she stopped to enjoy her escape, the young man caught her. Amid feathers and cries, she was taken prisoner. Then she was carried in triumph, by one wing, across the roofs and deposited on the kitchen floor with a certain violence. Still dazed, she shook herself a little, cackling hoarsely and uncertainly.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">It was then that it happened. Completely overwhelmed, the hen laid an egg. Surprised, exhausted. Perhaps it was premature. But immediately afterward, as if she had been born for maternity, she looked like an old, habitual mother. She sat down on the egg and remained that way, breathing, buttoning and unbuttoning her eyes. Her heart, so small on a plate, made the feathers rise and fall, and filled that which would never be more than an egg with warmth. Only the little girl was near-by and witnessed everything, terrified. As soon as she could tear herself away, she got up off the floor and shrieked: “Mama! Mama! Don’t kill the hen any more! She laid an egg! She likes us!”</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Everyone ran to the kitchen again and, silent, stood in a circle around the new mother. Warming her child, she was neither gentle nor harsh, neither happy nor sad; she was nothing; she was a hen. Which suggests no special sentiment. The father, the mother, and the daughter looked at her for some time, without any thought whatever to speak of. No one had ever patted the head of a hen. Finally, with a certain brusqueness, the father decided: “If you have this hen killed, I’ll never eat chicken again in my life!”</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">“Me too!” the little girl vowed ardently.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">The mother shrugged, tired.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Unconscious of the life that had been granted her, the hen began to live with the family. The little girl, coming home from school, threw down her school-bag and ran to the kitchen without stopping. Once in a while the father would still remember: “And to think I made her run in that state!” The hen became the queen of the house. Everyone knew it except the hen. She lived between the kitchen and the kitchen terrace, making use of her two capacities: apathy and fear.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">But when everyone in the house was quiet and seemed to have forgotten her, she plucked up a little of the courage left over from her great escape and perambulated the tile floor, her body moving behind her head, deliberate as in a field, while the little head betrayed her: moving, rapid and vibrant, with the ancient and by now mechanical terror of her species.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Occasionally, and always more rarely, the hen resembled the one that had once stood plain against the air on the edge of the roof, ready to make an announcement. At such moments she filled her lungs with the impure air of the kitchen and, if females had been able to sing, she would not have sung, but she would have been much more contented. Though not even at these moments did the expression of her empty head change. In flight, at rest, giving birth, or pecking corn – it was the head of a hen, the same that was designed at the beginning of the centuries.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Until one day they killed her and ate her and the years went by.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;">(First published in the Summer 1964 issue of<em style="box-sizing: inherit;"> The Kenyon Review</em>)</p><div><br /></div><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><h1 class="font-headings font-bold text-5xl leading-tight mb-2" style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / .5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: #f8fafc; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: "Verlag A", "Verlag B", Raleway, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto; font-size: 3rem; line-height: 1.25; margin: 0px 0px 0.5rem; position: relative;">Clarice Lispector</h1><div class="prose lg:prose-lg" style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-prose-body: #374151; --tw-prose-bold: #111827; --tw-prose-bullets: #d1d5db; --tw-prose-captions: #6b7280; --tw-prose-code: #111827; --tw-prose-counters: #6b7280; --tw-prose-headings: #111827; --tw-prose-hr: #e5e7eb; --tw-prose-invert-body: #d1d5db; --tw-prose-invert-bold: #fff; --tw-prose-invert-bullets: #4b5563; --tw-prose-invert-captions: #9ca3af; --tw-prose-invert-code: #fff; --tw-prose-invert-counters: #9ca3af; --tw-prose-invert-headings: #fff; --tw-prose-invert-hr: #374151; --tw-prose-invert-lead: #9ca3af; --tw-prose-invert-links: #fff; --tw-prose-invert-pre-bg: rgb(0 0 0 / 50%); --tw-prose-invert-pre-code: #d1d5db; --tw-prose-invert-quote-borders: #374151; --tw-prose-invert-quotes: #f3f4f6; --tw-prose-invert-td-borders: #374151; --tw-prose-invert-th-borders: #4b5563; --tw-prose-lead: #4b5563; --tw-prose-links: #111827; --tw-prose-pre-bg: #1f2937; --tw-prose-pre-code: #e5e7eb; --tw-prose-quote-borders: #e5e7eb; --tw-prose-quotes: #111827; --tw-prose-td-borders: #e5e7eb; --tw-prose-th-borders: #d1d5db; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / .5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: #f8fafc; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--tw-prose-body); font-family: Raleway, system-ui, "system-ui", -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Fira Sans", "Droid Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.77778; max-width: 65ch;"><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / .5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-color: rgb(229, 231, 235); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;">Clarice Lispector was born in 1920 to a Jewish family in western Ukraine. As a result of the anti-Semitic violence they endured, the family fled to Brazil in 1922, and Clarice Lispector grew up in Recife. Following the death of her mother when Clarice was nine, she moved to Rio de Janeiro with her father and two sisters, and she went on to study law. With her husband, who worked for the foreign service, she lived in Italy, Switzerland, England, and the United States, until they separated and she returned to Rio in 1959; she died there in 1977. Since her death, Clarice Lispector has earned universal recognition as Brazil’s greatest modern writer.</p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtKXiYArSU1pwHZRtNKouhXTGiikok3juTT-67H7KAQdmPICAg9UgfFCtQf9FGFS4WvTEv0ivds4NWQjpGT6Go2iY3gsGAD3LxzGiHxX0GEnvDqeqYH67OwQ9NAb1fKn2Xj9hlJqwJTjaEBdr20q4ESWrKAO19ezidoIIY2MH31MU9OuCK4SZx_MTnpq0/s117/0000%20dragon_circle_un%20cuarto.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="115" data-original-width="117" height="115" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtKXiYArSU1pwHZRtNKouhXTGiikok3juTT-67H7KAQdmPICAg9UgfFCtQf9FGFS4WvTEv0ivds4NWQjpGT6Go2iY3gsGAD3LxzGiHxX0GEnvDqeqYH67OwQ9NAb1fKn2Xj9hlJqwJTjaEBdr20q4ESWrKAO19ezidoIIY2MH31MU9OuCK4SZx_MTnpq0/s1600/0000%20dragon_circle_un%20cuarto.gif" width="117" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><br /></p>Ficcioneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11113302074119512881noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131170244545446682.post-48767022768839423682024-02-18T11:20:00.010-05:002024-02-18T11:45:22.367-05:00Bob Marley by Dennis Morris<p><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfalmuHJ4qQUdsfgEuZQKljJg4HOwk7ei5aSu64Zs3Zy5n9ejlFI-tXv-W6RIDWTH6K6XOhBcB8IsXzT06E4ksyB3ARMGs7rzq2RGZjeYLiHQVh2jt0vNqiYWVKXM60URKmcKr_HUGrcHms3mv5ZSxcyH-3CmpcdaZZ3qf3riW1Q5HuRE65bs9ZMUd9Yk/s1500/5F6CC792-4BBF-493F-BC30-30BDA15120B8.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1003" data-original-width="1500" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfalmuHJ4qQUdsfgEuZQKljJg4HOwk7ei5aSu64Zs3Zy5n9ejlFI-tXv-W6RIDWTH6K6XOhBcB8IsXzT06E4ksyB3ARMGs7rzq2RGZjeYLiHQVh2jt0vNqiYWVKXM60URKmcKr_HUGrcHms3mv5ZSxcyH-3CmpcdaZZ3qf3riW1Q5HuRE65bs9ZMUd9Yk/w400-h268/5F6CC792-4BBF-493F-BC30-30BDA15120B8.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><h2 class="gallery__caption__title" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; caret-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); color: gainsboro; font-family: "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.25rem; margin: 0px 0px 0.75rem; text-align: left;">Babylon by van, 1973</h2><span face=""Guardian Text Sans Web", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: #121212; caret-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); color: gainsboro; font-size: 12px; text-align: left;">‘They asked me if I wanted to come on tour. “Yes!” I said. I met the band at their hotel, the following day after the Speakeasy gig. There was no tour bus as such, just a transit van and a driver cum roadie cum manager Benji Foot (Michael Foot’s son) and a woman named Hazel Charik. They were a little surprised to see me. “Who is this?” they asked. “It’s my photographer, Dennis,” said Bob. “You ready, Dennis?”. “Yeah, I am ready!” I replied’</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Bob Marley </span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">by Dennis Morris</span></p><div class="gallery__main-content" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: #121212; caret-color: rgb(18, 18, 18); color: #121212; font-family: "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif;"><article class="content content--gallery content--immersive content--media content--pillar-arts tonal tonal--tone-media" id="article" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageGallery" role="main" style="padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><header class="tonal__head tonal__head--tone-media tonal__head--tone-media" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 0.0625rem;"><div class="gs-container" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0.625rem; padding-right: 0.625rem; position: relative;"><div class="content__main-column content__main-column--gallery" style="display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; margin: auto; max-width: none; padding-bottom: 1.5rem; position: relative;"><div class="content__meta-container js-content-meta u-cf" style="background-image: none; background-position: center top; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 0.0625rem 0.8125rem; flex-basis: 100%; margin: 0px; max-width: 38.75rem; min-height: 0px; order: 4; padding-top: 0px; position: relative;"><div class="meta__extras" style="border-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 0.0625rem; clear: both; display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; justify-content: space-between; margin-bottom: 0.375rem; margin-top: 0.75rem; order: 5; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><div class="meta__numbers" style="border-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); display: inline-block; float: right; padding-top: 0.375rem;"><div class="u-h meta__number" data-commentcount-format="content" data-discussion-closed="true" data-discussion-id="/p/qxtmy" style="border-bottom-width: 0px !important; border-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 0.0625rem; border-right-width: 0px !important; border-top-width: 0px !important; border-width: 0px 0px 0px 0.0625rem; clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); float: left; height: 0.0625rem; margin-bottom: -0.0625rem !important; margin-left: 0.3125rem; margin-right: -0.0625rem !important; margin-top: -0.0625rem !important; margin: -0.0625rem -0.0625rem -0.0625rem 0.3125rem; min-width: 0.9375rem; overflow: hidden; padding-bottom: 0px !important; padding-left: 0.3125rem; padding-right: 0px !important; padding-top: 0.375rem; padding: 0.375rem 0px 0px 0.3125rem; position: absolute; text-align: right; width: 0.0625rem;"></div></div></div></div><div class="tonal__standfirst" style="flex-basis: 100%; margin: 0px; max-width: 18.125rem; position: relative;"><div class="content__standfirst content__standfirst--gallery" data-component="standfirst" data-link-name="standfirst" style="color: gainsboro; font-family: "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1.25rem; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; max-width: 100%; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; z-index: 1;"><p style="margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;">Photographer Dennis Morris worked extensively with Bob Marley between 1973 and 1980, charting his rise from small crowds to global superstardom. After greeting the reggae star at a London club in May 1973, Morris was invited to join the tour – the start of a strong friendship and unrivalled photographic access. We hear from Morris about his memories of photographing Marley</p><ul style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.375rem; padding-left: 1.25rem; position: relative;">An exhibition, Portraits of the King: Bob Marley by Dennis Morris,<br style="margin-bottom: 0.375rem;" />runs at 28 Old Burlington Street in London until 7 March</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.375rem; padding-left: 1.25rem; position: relative;">Morris’s book Portraits of the King is published by Tang Deng</li></ul></div></div><div class="content__meta-container gallery__meta-container" style="background-image: none; background-position: center top; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 0.0625rem 0.8125rem; flex-basis: 100%; margin: 0px; max-width: 38.75rem; min-height: 0px; order: 3; padding-top: 0px; position: relative;"><p class="byline" data-component="meta-byline" data-link-name="byline" style="background-image: none; border: 0px; color: gainsboro; font-family: "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.25rem; margin-bottom: 0.25rem; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 355px; word-break: break-word;">Photographs by Dennis Morris</p><figcaption class="caption caption--gallery hide-from-desktop" style="color: gainsboro; font-family: "Guardian Text Sans Web", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-size: 0.75rem; line-height: 1rem; margin: 0.75rem 0px 0.375rem; z-index: 1;">Main image: Bob Marley in his tour van, London 1973. Photograph: Dennis Morris</figcaption><p class="content__dateline" style="background-image: none; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: gainsboro; font-family: "Guardian Text Sans Web", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-size: 0.75rem; line-height: 1rem; margin-bottom: 0.375rem; margin-top: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><time class="content__dateline-wpd js-wpd" data-timestamp="1708082579000" datetime="2024-02-16T11:22:59+0000" itemprop="datePublished" style="display: inline-block;">Fri 16 Feb 2024 <span class="content__dateline-time">11.22 GMT</span></time></p></div></div></div></header></article></div><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUsJPlO5h-IuO9Fmud5GzkeD9o8qJj8ugZ5cyTcme9rW_rxwhptAN74T6qkFYQc6cmGKINBidtaQs1cYx1r9FGdtUjJB7CnVnYjy1K3Li3p98vREnRMOBjsnOY3UK38-FYu5Uu7AW9SyOGtZZkicjjzy0vDuvGcDo6JWvFIXAX6BLPYcry7kraO18xbT4/s1418/5DF85646-8813-4040-99C6-A19F18F2C73E.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1418" data-original-width="960" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUsJPlO5h-IuO9Fmud5GzkeD9o8qJj8ugZ5cyTcme9rW_rxwhptAN74T6qkFYQc6cmGKINBidtaQs1cYx1r9FGdtUjJB7CnVnYjy1K3Li3p98vREnRMOBjsnOY3UK38-FYu5Uu7AW9SyOGtZZkicjjzy0vDuvGcDo6JWvFIXAX6BLPYcry7kraO18xbT4/w434-h640/5DF85646-8813-4040-99C6-A19F18F2C73E.jpeg" width="434" /></a></div><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; caret-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); color: gainsboro; font-family: "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem;">Hand on Heart, on tour, UK, 1973</span></p><p><span face=""Guardian Text Sans Web", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: #121212; caret-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); color: gainsboro; font-size: 12px;">‘I first met Bob in 1973 outside the Speakeasy club in London on the first date of the Wailers UK Catch a Fire tour to promote the Catch a Fire album, his first for Island Records. Bob invited me into the club.’ During a break, he says Marley asked him: ‘So, you wanna be a photographer? Well, they will tell you you can’t do it. You have to believe, Dennis’</span></p><p><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj88KmQH8guAj0mAeDqhLOvhyLuJxYkwvzZFVB_5t71-rBGTP8M2Qf3IKqT5VJE1v5DsDjQRyhKPIlDeCQPTZcitPOPs-g4kVQ-gkn5cGHZTqHaRFaSt3KbLM_iXAHwRkiXUmrwxhEYkAf7K-mXuOoEubaz1J29tMJcpQtWd4tR5L4T9tR9SaK19cekOJY/s1414/F2F87E42-5338-459A-858A-0784CC311C87.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1414" data-original-width="960" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj88KmQH8guAj0mAeDqhLOvhyLuJxYkwvzZFVB_5t71-rBGTP8M2Qf3IKqT5VJE1v5DsDjQRyhKPIlDeCQPTZcitPOPs-g4kVQ-gkn5cGHZTqHaRFaSt3KbLM_iXAHwRkiXUmrwxhEYkAf7K-mXuOoEubaz1J29tMJcpQtWd4tR5L4T9tR9SaK19cekOJY/w434-h640/F2F87E42-5338-459A-858A-0784CC311C87.jpeg" width="434" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><h2 class="gallery__caption__title" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; caret-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); color: gainsboro; font-family: "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.25rem; margin: 0px 0px 0.75rem; text-align: left;">Fist, 1973</h2><span face=""Guardian Text Sans Web", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: #121212; caret-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); color: gainsboro; font-size: 12px; text-align: left;">Marley was a deep thinker. As Morris notes: ‘It was after each gig that Bob and I were able to have a one-to-one sitting. It was more than just taking photos. It was a teaching, a learning, a growing. It was like he was the missing link. He spoke of many things but everything was positive. It seemed like whatever Babylon had in store for him – for us, he had a plan, a way of being, a way of living free. The knowledge of our history leads to freedom of mind’<br /><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS-nvOs1H0BUhLewvVuuTYTNuF93Kzhac8VS4K3C46apWJULqU0sUOWWJouH9FRSAQ83U1qw5ewIZVjtuAMr3Enkm-xIILsnOFih7zxld7AjuJ_vORouVVMGEIYsaVZt9rIlqdy6DzAy8YLpiobjASTXIhgUhTNtxrR522oTeLrw-cG24a8JIi7w4ZHbM/s960/3AB5DA27-B67E-4C23-A63C-CB69051864C1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="638" data-original-width="960" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS-nvOs1H0BUhLewvVuuTYTNuF93Kzhac8VS4K3C46apWJULqU0sUOWWJouH9FRSAQ83U1qw5ewIZVjtuAMr3Enkm-xIILsnOFih7zxld7AjuJ_vORouVVMGEIYsaVZt9rIlqdy6DzAy8YLpiobjASTXIhgUhTNtxrR522oTeLrw-cG24a8JIi7w4ZHbM/w400-h266/3AB5DA27-B67E-4C23-A63C-CB69051864C1.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkNiQa-M1cPamAh0B_Tf9T9ufHB6xZm7J-EVDLSuyZ1j4SsyiohhoC7BeHKabk5YnAa1QoDGJRP7BVTnkFCu3rBD4gnYvTeEU__-bwXVuVtIY-C1ETwtN1-4M4T6VX5brt24OdB720aOSuCGYmVqpciEjzRA6tUaXpYFpbZzrtKRqtOt9qdkWZW7KQGxU/s1426/8EB46FD6-32E7-4302-BFD1-B022CDACB6D1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1426" data-original-width="960" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkNiQa-M1cPamAh0B_Tf9T9ufHB6xZm7J-EVDLSuyZ1j4SsyiohhoC7BeHKabk5YnAa1QoDGJRP7BVTnkFCu3rBD4gnYvTeEU__-bwXVuVtIY-C1ETwtN1-4M4T6VX5brt24OdB720aOSuCGYmVqpciEjzRA6tUaXpYFpbZzrtKRqtOt9qdkWZW7KQGxU/w430-h640/8EB46FD6-32E7-4302-BFD1-B022CDACB6D1.jpeg" width="430" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCB7361YMrkmiwlRNRTvkHo_VCSk92Ud1dXwhkicH4W6dTvQflQpXCSlht8U36b6hJkRhkhIj2RbWanq1KIbSMO6-jsjIfIEqZpSlaspJAQWUyKQPoj7FOofRaR3C9DxDFFuSpBIPoapuoGM-Z9bCN1sNhtbLzK-Fm6Bc50e8a2GhPmWLs9O2kcm6wP2Q/s1426/60E147D0-BDBB-44DA-BF4E-88E87D00E5BD.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1426" data-original-width="960" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCB7361YMrkmiwlRNRTvkHo_VCSk92Ud1dXwhkicH4W6dTvQflQpXCSlht8U36b6hJkRhkhIj2RbWanq1KIbSMO6-jsjIfIEqZpSlaspJAQWUyKQPoj7FOofRaR3C9DxDFFuSpBIPoapuoGM-Z9bCN1sNhtbLzK-Fm6Bc50e8a2GhPmWLs9O2kcm6wP2Q/w430-h640/60E147D0-BDBB-44DA-BF4E-88E87D00E5BD.jpeg" width="430" /></a></div><h2 class="gallery__caption__title" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; caret-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); color: gainsboro; font-family: "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.25rem; margin: 0px 0px 0.75rem;"><br /></h2><h2 class="gallery__caption__title" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; caret-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); font-family: "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.25rem; margin: 0px 0px 0.75rem;">Backstage in Bournemouth, 1973</h2><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: #121212; caret-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); color: gainsboro; font-family: "Guardian Text Sans Web", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">There’s always a lot waiting around any tour. Marley and Morris wasted no time, instead talking and taking portraits. Morris says: ‘I call them sittings because this was when we would sit and reason (a Rasta term for discussion). During this reasoning was when I took my shots’</span></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/gallery/2024/feb/16/bob-marley-by-dennis-morris-in-pictures">THE GUARDIAN </a></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQpDFTpmFX-yTmYl2Er5Jhdm3xrMmy_d4KG2XVORaqJEYHiWmMeyPVzdEwGdTbAwkMyozghmgPqXeiyklftSIFduxC6nUHNPAqV-bDzLz-BmexMS7HIPorCbaASzuigz-2fL_J5i-uCh2j7NzraV5xG3ALgwkwbd5MZc3wtnwXnNLmtZ9-h44fIhnEpac/s117/9CA7762B-55FC-433F-A05D-B3B8D24B1FCA.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="115" data-original-width="117" height="115" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQpDFTpmFX-yTmYl2Er5Jhdm3xrMmy_d4KG2XVORaqJEYHiWmMeyPVzdEwGdTbAwkMyozghmgPqXeiyklftSIFduxC6nUHNPAqV-bDzLz-BmexMS7HIPorCbaASzuigz-2fL_J5i-uCh2j7NzraV5xG3ALgwkwbd5MZc3wtnwXnNLmtZ9-h44fIhnEpac/s1600/9CA7762B-55FC-433F-A05D-B3B8D24B1FCA.gif" width="117" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p><br /></p>Ficcioneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11113302074119512881noreply@blogger.com0