Dirda on Books – Transcript Michael Dirda Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, October 6, 1999

Michael Dirda The Washington Post

Michael Dirda's name appears weekly in The Post's Book World section. If he's not reviewing a fat literary biography or an ambitious new novel, he's likely to be writing a lighthearted essay about the joys and burdens of living in a house filled with way too many books. Although he holds a PhD in comparative literature from Cornell, Dirda is still smart enough to be an unabashed fan of "The Simpsons," noting that "the show's genius derives from its details." He also loves P.G. Wodehouse, intellectual history, children's books and locked-room mysteries – just the sort of range you'd expect from a Pulitzer Prize winner for distinguished criticism.

These days, Dirda says he spends inordinate amounts of time mourning his lost youth and daydreaming ("my only real pastime"). Otherwise he just reads books and writes about them, with occasional visits to secondhand bookstores in search of treasures. He claims that the happiest hours of his week are spent sitting in front of a computer working on his reviews and Readings columns. "Do not imagine that I regard my taste for literary artifacts as anything but shameless and vulgar," Dirda says, "I have sunk so low as to covet Edward Gorey coffee mugs. I yearn for a bust of Dante to place on a bookcase."

Arlington VA: What do you think of Evelyn Waugh's short fiction? Is is worth reading?

Michael Dirda: Did this message go through? I answered it, but there may hve been a glitch. Sigh. It's been one of those days.

Ottawa, Ontario: Michael,
Have you read any of the books on the Booker shortlist? I've read Michael Frayn's Headlong, and it's just wonderful: lovely writing, funny writing, and so clever. For the novel, Frayn invents a lost Bruegel painting. Andrew O'Hagan's Our Fathers I'm less pleased with: a bleak story, with an almost show-offy amount of poetry in each sentence.
Anne Burgess

Michael Dirda: Reviewed headlong, which didn't work for me--seemed way too artificial,not funny, and predictable. i normally like frayn a lot. But i could well be wrong about his book. Don't know what else is on booker short list. being in florida i'm a bit out of touch with my usual bookish sources.

Arlington: Michael:
Dune vs. Foundation

Which do you think has had the greatest influence?

Michael Dirda: Now, there's a tough question. I think dune is the greater work of art, but foundation is deeply thrilling, in its way, especially to younger readers. so i'd have to vote for asimov, simply because kids read it at a more impressionable age. Maybe some sf readers out there can weigh in on this.

Fairfax, VA: Michael,
Did Jon Yardley manage to change your mind about the merits of Peter Taylor's short fiction?

Michael Dirda: No. I've always thought Peter Taylor was a fine writer, but I've read a half dozen stories, including the old forest, and never found that any have stayed with me. But i believe this is probably a failure on my part, rather than Taylor's. The proper attitude to a work of art is that of a servant to a master: We should stand respectfully before them and wait until they speak to us.

washingtonpost.com: For all you bookish types, Nikki Giovanni will be hosting e-slam, an online poetry slam, tonight and tomorrow night at 7pm. Submit your works now at http://www.washingtonpost.com/e-slam !

Mount Pleasant, DC: Michael,
I'm curious to hear your views on Bulgakov's Master and Margarita. Have you heard any word on when the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation might be coming out?

Michael Dirda: I love Master and margarita--reviewed a biography of Bulgakov a few years back just to be able to write a little about the novel. Didn't the P and V translation already appear? Maybe not--they've been translating up a storm. But there are at least three available English versions of the novel, though Michael Glenny's was for long the standard one. I think the Penguin may be based on a better text. I love the premise of the novel--the devil in revolutionary Russia--and the heroine is one of the most appealing and sexy women in modern ficiton. The section at the time of Christ is provocative too, especially the portrait of pontius pilate.

Silver Spring: Dirda -
What is Dirda's favourite bookstore when Dirda is in Washington? -new and used- And does Dirda have a favorite bookstore-cafe?

Michael Dirda: I have no favorites--and probably shouldn't recommend any particular store if I did. I like to make the rounds of the Wheaton and Silver Spring shops, from time to time, though I must admit that my book-lust has abated in recent months. Not sure why. How many bookstore-cafes are there? The big chains, I suppose. More often than not, I end up reading in bagel shops and fast-food eateries.

Fairfax, VA: Good afternoon, Michael.

Do you have any suggestions for non-fiction works, philosophy or science, for a good discussion? This is a group of science-engineering educated people, so we need something relatively hard-core. James Glieck et al don't cut the mustard here, I'm afraid.

I like Stephen Jay Gould, but most of his latest works are really just repurposed essays from magazines. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Michael Dirda: How about one of martin gardner's books? His collected essays appeared a couple of years back and they combine an interest in science, math, games and literature. The book is called something like The Night is Large (my mind is going--there was a time I could never not remember a title). I presume you know Richard Feynman's various books and posthumous essay collections. And there was a wonderful biography of Ramanujan a few years back: The Man Who Saw Infinity, or something like that.

Alexandria, VA: Re Peter Taylor. Perhaps you are not interested in the decadent South. I love Peter Taylor but can see where his subject matter might not be your cup of tea. If you ever have time, try his book "Summons to Memphis." He does even help Faulkner round out the Southern personality and the racial situation in different places and different times.
Betty

Michael Dirda: WEll, I'm trying to get into the decadent South even as we speak--I'm writing a piece about new orleans, pegged to a southern lit conference I attended there recently. maybe taylor isn't decadent enough. maybe we need to go back to erskine caldwell. But why don't you think Taylor wouldn't appeal to me?

envitro, ak: how much reading do you reccommend of secondary sources, or "books about books" do you recommend? is it simply a function of how many questions are raised by your reading of the primary text, or of your enjoyment thereof?
have you ever read a secondary source that was itself worthy of a secondary source -the only example i can think of is heidegger's book on nietzsche-?

i think that one can easily become exhausted on this kind of critcism without ever augmenting or reinforcing the first reading's impact.

which, if any, of these secondary works do you find to be absolutely indispensible? -and if you mention stuart gilbert pr harold bloom, i'm very likely to plotz-

Michael Dirda: Generally, i think readers should focus on primary texts, and only go to secondary sources if they really want to learn more about the author, book, etc. than they can get on their own initiative.life is too short to read everything written about a major writer. in my case, i like to read the standard biography of writers that matter to me, but generally don't look at academic criticism. Read the best books first, said Thoreau, or you may not have the chance to read them at all.
A.J.A. Symons The Quest for Corvo is as much a masterpiece as Corvo's Hadrian the Seventh. Whenever a major writer comments about his influences or forebears, you should pay attention: e.g. Eliot's essays on the Elizabethans; Ruskin on Turner; Pound on the troubadours. But in general works of theory and criticism can be immensely exciting or enlightening without being any way comparable to an original work of the imagination. I love Frye's Anatomy of Criticism, Empson's Seven Types of AMbiguity and several other such books, but they remain second-order texts.

Richmond, Virginia: A compliment. Loved your June 27 column of advice to this year's graduates. It's hanging on the kitchen bulletin board and a copy went to college with my daughter. I always enjoy your writing.

Michael Dirda: Thanks. Lots of people seem to have found that column particularly appealing.

washington, d.c.: Michael,
Many thanks for the chat, it is one of the highlights of my day!
I always think of October as the month for spooky stories. I'm currently reading Bram Stoker's Dracula, but I would like to take this opportunity to spend some time reading H.P. Lovecraft.

Unfortunately, I know very little about his body of work but I recall that you have mentioned being a fan of his work. So I'd like to ask how you would recommend approaching Lovecraft? Is there one particular story or novel that you would consider a good starting point? Could you recommend a few titles that would give this novice a good introduction to this author? Do you have any other particular favorites in the horror genre?

Michael Dirda: There are two recent collections of Lovecraft's stories--one edited by Joyce Carol Oates and the other by S.T. Joshi, a leading authority on the writer. For stories I'd start with The Rats in the Walls or The Call of Cthulu or The Color out of Space or The Dunwich Horror. There are only three novels; of these I'd probably go for The Case of Charles Dexter Ward.
I'm fond of English ghost stories. Try the work of M.R. James, Robert Aickman (highly allusive--the recent film The Sixth Sense is very Aickmanesque), Sheridan Le Fanu, and Vernon Lee. All these are cozy, spooky and occasionally deeply unsettling. For a treat, try Robertson Davies light-hearted ghost stories, collected in High Spirits. He would read these to massey college assemblies around halloween, just as M.r. James did at Eton earlier in the century.

Mltv.,NJ: What do you think of "Dutch"

Michael Dirda: There've been several questions about Dutch, and let this stand for my answer to all of them: I haven't read it and probably won't. In general, I don't cotton to mixing genres and was greatly chagrined when I learned that Bruce Chatwin made up stuff for The Songlines.

fairfax,va: My favorite reading these days is books that deal with rural New England from say 1850 -1940. Donald Hall's String Too Short To be Saved and Life Work and Sara Orne Jewett's novels, for example. I recently discovered Gladys Carrol - recently deceased - and enjoy her work very much. Do you have any opinion about Carroll's novels and can you think of any other writers along these lines? Thanks

Michael Dirda: Don't know her work at all. Tell me about it.

Kilkenny, Ireland: I forgot to attribute the "Tigger! Tigger!" parody last week; should anyone be interested, it is by David Langford, and available on his site, www.ansible.demon.co.uk, in the most recent issue of "Ansible"

Michael Dirda: Langford is a wonderful critic/fan/editor/scourge of science fiction.

Alexandria, Va: Continuation. I thought perhaps you might not enjoy Peter Taylor's writing as much as some others because I see you as loving more romantic or classical or higher-minded goals. I am not used to writing off the top of my head and will give this more thought. You and I usually agree on all writers. I know you are in Florida and so proud of you going the professor route.
Thank you so much for just doing what your're doing.Betty

Michael Dirda: Thanks. Let me know your more considered thoughts.

Bethesda, Maryland: I enjoyed your latest essay -3Oct- and felt the following to be a highlight: "Superannuated. Who, these days, will even perceive that word as a feather-light allusion to Charles Lamb and Ivan Turgenev? Doesn't matter. That's just Dirda showing off again." Interestingly, I appreciate the sentiment - and moreover the phrasing - but I do not understand the allusive thought. Could you please complete the matter for me?

Michael Dirda: Lamb wrote an essay about the superannuated man; Turgenev a novella about a superfluous or superannuated man.

Cincinnati, OH: Michael,

Back in my kidhood -jr. high age or so-, I remember reading the book "Life with Father" by Clarence Day and finding it incredibly funny. I know I enjoyed it enough to read it two or three times. I see now that it's out of print. Have you read this book? Comments?

Thanks,
Liz

Michael Dirda: I read parts of it years ago too, and though it quite funny. As it happens, I have a copy of the book--back in maryland--and keep meaning to reread it. It's easy enough to find in second-hand shops if you want a copy. Let me know if you reread it again and still find it a hoot.

Washington, D.C.: I know that you don't watch much TV, but did you see the recent TNT production of "Animal Farm"? I didn't, but it DID spur me on to read the fable-fairy story.

If you saw the production, what did you think of it? And what is the critical thinking about Orwell's tale? I'm finding it a brilliant satire.

Michael Dirda: Didn't see ANimal Farm. I bow to no one in my admiration for George Orwell (though he did seem abnormally sensitive to dirt), and thought/think his satire a brilliant piece of work. It's not easy to write a phrase that passes into the language, but he managed it: All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.

Baltimore, MD: What's your opinion of Mario Vargas Llosa. I just read "Death in the Andes" and found it quite compelling. But I travel frequently to Peru, so I have a bias. I wonder if he appeals to a broader audience.

Michael Dirda: I met the man once and got him to sign my copy of A Perpetual Orgy, his study of Flaubert. I've read around that book, but never actually read any of V L's novels. The one I've meant to try, Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, is supposed to be autobiographical as well as funny, but I was put off a bit by the small type in the hardcover edition I own. Still, I should read Vargas Llosa--but of how many other writers might this be said as well.

Fairfax, Va.: What did you think of Guenter Grass's winning the Nobel prize for literature? Have you read "The Tin Drum"? If you have, what is your opinion of it?

Michael Dirda: Thought it was a great choice--Grass has been the great writer of Germany since the Second World War, with the possible exception of the highly Joycean Arno Schmidt (Dalkey Archive has reprinted much of his fiction in a four volume set). I only wish that Thomas Berhard--Austria's greatest and most defiant writer--could have had the chance to refuse the award.

Rockville, MD: With the flap over the Reagan biography, what is your take on the whole affair? I must admit that I have been laughing at the way the Fates conspire to reflect Reagan's imaginary life even in his biography, as if living in the movies became a communicable disease.

Michael Dirda: See my previous comment on this. I think being in Florida may have dulled my interest in Ronald Reagan, never what you'd call compelling in the first place. I like the fact that Edmund Morris writes with a fountain pen.

Michael Dirda: Ah, so I've written faster than the questions can come in. I knew this day would come. Alas, in one hour and ten minutes I must go teach my honors class here, though I'd much rather sit back and read John Kennedy Toole's hilarious Confederacy of Dunces or the recent reissue of Iris Origo's biogrpahy of the italian poet Leopardi. let me send this off and see if more questions have miraculously appeared.

Alexandria, VA: Hi Michael - Mikael, as we say in Ethiopia-.I believe I have an interesting story to write about, and it will be about me and close friends. I know it will be difficult, but I want to live and write this story as a fiction, and not as nonfiction. Is it unethical, or illegal to do so? Are there other problems in this venture? Thank you so much for your time and for this forum.

Michael Dirda: If you disguise it enough,you'll probably be ok, but it's possible that you could be open to a suit should any of your friends feel that you have portrayed them in a way they don't like. If you have real doubts, I'd talk with a lawyer about this.

Dunn Loring, VA: Got burned so bad last year trying Nobel winner Saramaga's "Balthazar and Blimunda" that now I'm a little gun-shy to try the latest winner, Guenter Grass. Please tell me Grass is better. Also, can you recommend a good novel by Grass to begin my familiarity with him?

Michael Dirda: The Tin Drum is the early masterpiece, and the one to read if you're only reading one. But there's a lot of Grass out there, and you might want to look at his books in the bookshops, see which one appeals to you most.

Arlington, Virginia: I loved "Good Scent from a Strange Mountain" by Robert Owen Butler. Can you recommend any other books by him that I might enjoy?

Michael Dirda: Olen Butler. That book won Butler the Pulitzer, and is the only title that comes to mind right now. But he has a new collection and there are three or four other books. Try the bookshops or libraries. I'm a great believer in picking up a book and dipping into it to see if the style or tone appeal.

Bethesda MD: On a whim, I picked up Michael Hardwick's "The Revenge of the Hound" yesterday at the library. Do you have any thougts on Hardwick or other writers -aside from Conan Doyle- who have used Sherlock Holmes as a character in their works?

Michael Dirda: There are several authors who've written further adventures of the great detective. The most highly regarded include the novels by H.F. Heard (A Taste of Honey), Nicholas Meyer's The Seven Percent Solution, Michael Dibdin's novel about Holmes and Jack the Ripper, and John Gardner's The Return of Moriarty and The Revenge of Moriarty. There are several collections of short tales, by various hands, that pastiche or parody the Conan Doyle style. One of the best is the sf writer Poul Anderson's The martian crown jewels. I also love Robert Fish's hilarious proaides, The Incredible Schlock Homes.

Manteca, CA: Mr. Dirda:

Keeping in mind your earlier answers on the issue of Edmund Morris's "Dutch" -- and knowing that being in Florida you surely don't have much of a hand in the day to day operations of the Book World or the Post On-line, I wanted to call your attention to the fact that the review of "Dutch" online by Joseph Ellis and his review that appeared in last Sunday's Post differ. Specifically, the last, damning paragraph, which Ellis begins "What Morris has done, in my judgment, is a scandal and a travesty, and its endorsement by a flagship American publisher is a sorrowful sign that editorial integrity has lost another battle to the proverbial bottom line" does not appear on the web version, only in the print edition. This final paragraph dramatically altered the tone of what, until then seemed like a luke-warm review. Any idea what happened?

Michael Dirda: None, but perhaps my online colleagues can look into this.I can'timagine it's anything but a glitch.

Washington, DC: Well, if nobody else will ask anything, and since you're in Florida -- are you familiar with the Travis McGee seriess by John MdDonald? Although the series is uneven -and I haven't read all of them-, I have always found them highly entertaining and thought-provoking -- much better than anything written by that pretender, Carl Hiaasen.

Michael Dirda: I read a couple McGees as a teenager, but nothing in years. At the time I wasn't enchanted with the series, though I've long meant to read a couple of Macdonald's more serious efforts, the Executioners and The End of the Night. The mystery macdonalds i liked were Philip, Ross and Gregory.

Mount Pleasant, DC: For the sake of a friend in Omaha, NE, I couldn't let the week pass without a Nabokov question. After racing through Lolita, Pale Fire, Strong Opinions, and Pnin, I found myself struggling not to put Ada down. Is Sebastian Knight worthy of a return to VN?

Michael Dirda: Yes, SK is quite wonderful--a biogrpher's quest for the truth about his novelist brother. Ada goes overboard in almost every way--though in the right mood it can be bewitching.

Cincinnati, OH: Robert Owen Butler's Tabloid Dreams -short stories- is also good.

Michael Dirda: there you are. thanks

Silver Spring, MD: Mr. Dirda,
In your column of Sunday last, when you were mentioning Florida writers, I was expecting to see Zora Neal Hurston's name, whose hometown, by the way, is right next to Orlando. Another wonderful writer ...

Michael Dirda: Hurston looms large down here, but I planned on buying some of her work in situ. I once wrote a headline for a biography of hers: The Mark of Zora. Can't believe I did it or they let me.
Well, that's it for this week. Must prep for my class. Until next wednesday at 2--keep reading!

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