Peeking at great writers from an interviewer's point of view: "Paris Review, Writer's Interview"

Sorry, another article about the Paris Review, originally published on Mplus

" The Paris Review" is an American literary magazine founded in 1953, in which " Interviews with Writers " is their most enduring and most famous column, from Simon Bova, Shagang, Hemingway, Milan Kundera , Henry Miller, to the recent Stephen King, Kazuo Ishiguro, Haruki Murakami—the contemporary writers most literary lovers can name have been interviewed by The Paris Review.

As readers of this era, we are fortunate that we do not need to understand multiple languages, and we can still read literary works of various countries. After reading the "Paris Review and Writer's Interview", we feel that as a writer even if we do not As a profession, it is also lucky to peek into the reading and writing preferences of writers, and even their interpretation of literature.

I have never believed in the "author training courses" and "writing crash courses" in the market. How can people who have no reading habit or who do not write often enough learn to write quickly? I once saw someone recommending "The Writer's Interview" on the Internet, stating that this is the "writer's Bible", and I was a little disgusted. Rather than saying that reading "Interviews with Writers" can increase your writing ability, it is more appropriate to understand the writer's understanding of art through the perspective of interviewing editors.

Early writers were less emotional about interviewers' questions than recent writers. Truman Capote (author of "Breakfast at Tiffany") said directly, "If you've read my novel, you should understand." ; Nabokov is not very patient to repeatedly explain the Russian Poshlot - there is no English equivalent, but it can be translated as "vulgar"; and Milan Kundera, who speaks "kitsch", is reluctant to talk about himself although he is interviewed. Just wanting to talk about the work, he said: "Refuse to talk about yourself is a way to put literature and form at the center of attention, to focus on the novel itself." I guess such a "decision" has something to do with his origin, but also because of Kundera The interview was in Paris in 1983, the year his work really became a bestseller, should keeping a sense of mystery be a necessary PR tactic?

Regarding writing style, Truman Capote said: "Unless the translator and the author are artistic twins, it is possible to copy the author's 'style' in translation." In his view, style is as inexorable as eye color. It is impossible to change it deliberately; and Hemingway, who was agreed by other American writers as the most writing style, believed that the writer should not be too aware of his own style, and if he did, he might not be able to continue writing.

The recent writers may be particularly friendly and humble because they are worried about the media's evaluation. Kazuo Ishiguro talks about his youthful years. The novels written by Kazuo Ishiguro are very successful. Written in the early teens, it won the British Booker Prize for fiction and was remade into a film. But his first contribution was a half-hour radio play script, which was returned by the BBC, and even spelled the plural of potatoes as potatoes (a typo of course). According to him, he started writing when he found that his dream of being a musician could not be achieved, so it seemed that becoming a writer was his secondary choice. In the interview, he repeatedly mentioned that writing is an easy task. At that time, he had not won the Nobel Prize, but he was already regarded as one of the top fifty great British writers. Just as Hemingway, Capote and Kundera also mentioned in the interview that they also have a high interest in music or other arts, Kazuo Ishiguro loves rock music, because the preferences for other art forms also inspire these writers to create inspiration .

Reading "Writer's Interviews" found that interview editors especially like to ask American writers about their experiences of living in Europe and ask them to share their relationship with writing. It is conceivable that the public has a longing for life abroad, and also believes that leaving the original living environment will inspire writing. Henry Miller admits that he likes being elsewhere, that the freedom he experienced in France helped him create, that he found a way to express and liberate himself in Greece, and that he might not have been a writer if he had never been there, or even Saying "In America, I'd probably be driven mad or kill myself". Also, Hemingway's narration of Paris also brought a lot of tourists to Paris!

I started reading "Interviews with Writers" two months ago, and at the same time I was wondering who is qualified to interview these writers who are great writers from the current point of view? Interestingly, if writers are reluctant to share too much, the interviewer will narrate their home environment in more space. For example, Hemingway is a person who is reluctant to talk about his creative ideas, which seems to be his superstition. It is conceivable that the person who wanted to interview Hemingway at that time should have more pressure, and he made a note before the interview record: "During the interview, he repeatedly emphasized that the craft of writing should not be disturbed by excessive inquiry. "First, the readers were vaccinated.

For female writers, the interviewer will put special emphasis on their appearance and dress. Simon Powa has very blue eyes and looks very young, and said that Sagan "If you want to say that she is a girl who loves vanity, you can only see her feet. those fine leather, well-crafted high heels"—could it be a gender bias, or just an explanation for the fact that she bought a JAGUAR sports car after getting paid?