There is a gender imbalance in the valuation of literature: Jonathan Franzen February the 2nd, 2014 Source: Times of India In 2010, Jonathan Franzen became the first novelist in over a decade to make the cover of Time magazine, which designated him this generations Great American Novelist . He is reputed for his insight, deep contrarian intelligence and powerfully charged writing style, all of which shine through his greatest novel, The Corrections (2001), and Freedom (2010). Despite his formidable reputation, he dislikes pretentious questions — when he says, Thats deep , he definitely doesnt mean it as a compliment. Abhimanyu Arni treads lightly Did the Time magazine cover declaring you The Great American Novelist affect your writing in any way? I live in New York, I know how its done. I did feel I had something to prove after The Corrections. I wanted to show it wasnt a fluke. Im proud of The Corrections — I felt some pressure to say Im still here guys . None of the outside consideration adds up to one per cent of getting a novel out. You just do the best with what you have left. What anyone else might think is a million miles away from you at your desk. You said once that you were afraid that you were doomed to write about Midwestern families, is that still true? Im halfway through a new novel with no Midwestern family in it. It was not a permanent doom. Im not interested in novels about children but it is true that we are shaped by our first 18 years. In my books, families are important but at a distance. Nobody would feel cold within a family. Its a kind of love you can trust. You can hate your father while still loving him. If youre trying to push into dark territory, something every novelist must do, anything with love in it is a useful counterbalance. I am not unfamiliar with family struggles, but thats not where the drama is. The point is trying to find drama in a freely chosen relationship and family is there to give a world that those relationships inhabit. You comment quite frequently about the power of bankers and the theme of financial corruption is present in your writing. Are you angry with the state of democracy in the West? You have elected representatives saying, Lets do this and the bankers come in and say This is what were going to do and thats what happens. What the bankers want is what we get. It goes against the very notion of national sovereignty, especially in Western Europe. In your debut novel, The Twenty-Seventh City you write powerfully about the decline of St Louis. Do you think cities have personalities? All cities are ideas. What transcends the individual is the idea of that city and the idea of that city in the minds of its citizens. Its related to geography and history though global monoculture is doing its best to destroy it. Do you think our self is under siege by mass culture and technology? Its attractive to be stimul at e d by social media but one o f the lies being sold there is that it is a community , its not. Its also a lie that community is always better than solitude. Its like junior high school, is it better to be part of the cool kids and be in or the nerdy kids with their own interests? I know which one I was. Should novels be commercial and should they try to compete with television? I do see the novel in competition with television but it is important to see what television does well. New American television shows are actually doing what 19th century social novels were doing, which is giving people an insight into very different lives. If novels need to compete they need to concentrate on things they do well, things that television doesnt : the manipulation of time, irony and above all, changing points of view, something television does badly. You claimed that an endorsement from Oprah would discourage men from reading your books. Do men and women read different things? It has always been the case that women read more than men, theres always been more female readers. Real male readers, hardcore readers, they dont care about the authors identity. As for the casual reader, fewer women are interested in books about violence and technology. Men are not interested in books about a mother caring for a sick daughter. There is a gender imbalance in the valuation of literature. Women are underrepresented in the literary canon and women are touchy about mens disinterest in their books. These are legitimate gripes. Which novel would you take to a desert island? I would take Independent People by Halldor Laxness. (The novel won this Icelandic writer the Nobel Prize in 1955) And finally, do novelists ever run out of things to write? They run out all the time. timesofindia.indiatimes/home/stoi/all-that-matters/There-is-a-gender-imbalance-in-the-valuation-of-literature-Jonathan-Franzen/articleshow/29745046.cms
Posted on: Sun, 02 Feb 2014 09:28:11 +0000
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