Lydia
asked
Ben Marcus:
In a buzzing world of noisy entertainment material scripted and unscripted, and with people flipping rapidly through screens of messages and news and "content," what would you say that fiction is for?
Ben Marcus
In the New York Times today (Nov. 7, 2014), the inestimably great writer Joy Williams, reviewing Denis Johnson's new novel, has this to say:
"A writer should write in such a way that nobody can be ignorant of the world and that nobody may say that he is innocent of what it is all about. ...Life is ludicrous and full of cruel and selfish distractions. Honor is elusive and many find the copious ingestion of drugs necessary. Our ignorance is infinite and our sorrows fearful. We have made an unutterable waste of this world, and our passage through it is bitter and unheroic. Still, the horror can at times be illuminating, and it is necessary that the impossible be addressed."
I don't have much to add beyond that.
"A writer should write in such a way that nobody can be ignorant of the world and that nobody may say that he is innocent of what it is all about. ...Life is ludicrous and full of cruel and selfish distractions. Honor is elusive and many find the copious ingestion of drugs necessary. Our ignorance is infinite and our sorrows fearful. We have made an unutterable waste of this world, and our passage through it is bitter and unheroic. Still, the horror can at times be illuminating, and it is necessary that the impossible be addressed."
I don't have much to add beyond that.
More Answered Questions
Effie
asked
Ben Marcus:
How do you convince yourself that what you experience is good enough to be wrestled down into words? Your characters in Leaving the Sea seem like they would have a problem with saying "listen to me." How do you respond to the polar demands of writing: to keep humbly honest (laughing with everything like Saunders), and stay fearlessly self-important (laughing at everything like Joyce)? What happens to your boast/doubt?
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