Perhaps George Saunders rolled his eyes at the headline atop his interview with David Marchese; I certainly did. But there’s characteristic Saunders goodness here, a dose of nuance and contemplation that challenges the writer’s widespread portrayal as a “secular saint” while still elevating the reading experience to something “sacramental.” This interview won’t save you, but it will connect you with a writer who is an attentive student of his own mind—a study we would all do well to take up.
For the most part, just looking at my own heart, when I’ve been in sync with truth, I felt better. When I was not in sync with truth, I felt poorly. That might be the only judgment that takes place in this sphere. In the book, in that last 15 or 20 pages, I got a lot of surprises. Things that I was rooting for didn’t happen. That’s the beauty of the writing process. It’s almost like something arises out of me that’s a little smarter, a little more fair, a little more curious, and hovers over the desk for a while. Then the theory is the book urges that spirit out of the reader as well, and the two things merge.
More picks about the art of reading
What Happened When I Tried to Replace Myself with ChatGPT in My English Classroom
“We would look at the evidence, and at the end of the semester, they would decide by vote whether A.I. could replace me.”
‘Here I Gather All the Friends’: Machiavelli and the Emergence of the Private Study
“Reading is a form of necromancy, a way to summon and commune once again with the dead, but in what ersatz temple should such a ritual take place?”
Against Rereading
“For those who do not reread, a book is like a little life. When it ends, it dies—or it lives on, imperfectly and embellished, in your memories.”
