My friend sent me this interview with Phillip Roth. I've never read any of his books, but the interview is pretty intense. He sounds like a bastard. I think I'd like him.
I sometimes agree with him that we need to put an end to all this literary talk. Of course, I'd be out of a job. But if you get people to read books and write creatively, do you really need all of those terms?
On the other hand, those terms make reading more interesting. I think. The raw aesthetic experience he is talking about sometimes comes all at once and sometimes comes after a lot of hard work. I don't think one is better than the other.
I don't by his anti-identity line if he is going to keep talking about being an American. How is that different than being Jewish?
Posted by pjaussen at December 16, 2005 01:24 PM | TrackBack