Dirda on Books – Transcript Michael Dirda Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, May 12, 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."

Michael Dirda: Welcome to Dirda on Books. Last week I chatted from the University of Central Florida, in Orlando. Today, I'm back at my usual stand in Book World. I try to answer as many questions as I can in an hour, but can only type--and think--so fast. So if I don't get to your query this time, try me next week. On with the show!

Rockville, MD: What do you think of contemporary writers use of the F word in their novels? I cringe everytime I come upon it and and think it is totally unecessary. Few authors use it effectively and it jumps off the page as "couldn't think of anything else", in my mind. One recent and crude example is King's "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon". There was no need of its use in this book.

Michael Dirda: Alas, I think there's no going back to a world without the "f-word" in fiction. I grew up in a rough OHio steel town and never heard a girl say the word, and only a few teenage boys--now every teenager uses it. So fiction to be realistic must use it as well. In truth, I tend to be prudish about the f-word, though I do like the sound of it--short, punchy Anglo-Saxon. And there are occasions when no other word will do.

Gaithersburg, MD: Will the Book Review ever include author interviews? I enjoy the "Writing Life" feature and appreciate gaining insights to this fascinating field.

Michael Dirda: David Streitfeld's Book Report column--a feature for the past decade--has always offered author interviews. DS is leaving for fresh fields and pastures new--Silicon Valley--but I'm sure we'll continue to have some kind of publishing feature and interviews will be part of it.

Rockville, MD: How did you get your job?

Michael Dirda: A very long story, and one I tell sometimes during talks to various groups. Basically, I have a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Cornell, used to freelance edit, translate and write around DC, contributed reviews to Book World, and when an opening here occurred was lucky to have the right qualifications. But there are lots of neat details to all this. Catch me at a talk.

Potomac, MD: Do your writings appear in any other publications? What reviewers do you most admire?

Michael Dirda: I occasionally review for Smithsonian; over the years pieces by me have appeared in lots of magazines, from Connoisseur to Collier's Encyclopedia (where I've written the year in American literature article for its yearbooks). My main energies are obviously focused on Book World, but I'm willing to write or speak to almost anyone for money (so long as there's no conflict with my Post position).

washington, dc: I have recently read Nabokov's Lolita. I have bought Speak,Memory and the new bio of his wife, Vera. Can you suggest how I might tackle his novels? Also, what do you think of Brian Boyd's bio?

Michael Dirda: The Boyd biography is very long and thorough--I think it's terrific, though one might argue with some of his sections of literary criticism (his view of Lolita is not mine). Most people admire these novels most: Lolita, Pale Fire, Pnin, The REal Life of Sebastian Knight.

Los Angeles, CA: Love your essays! I have a question about "Madame Bovary" that's bugged me for a long time, & I've never found an answer. The book begins in the 1st person -"We were in the classroom"- when we meet the adolescent Charles Bovary; the narrative then moves straightaway to 3rd person omniscient. What's the deal? Who's the narrator? How does the person saying "WE" and "I" on the first few pages know about C.'s parents and upbringing and his career at school and as a doctor, his first marriage and life with Emma? I know it's a picky question, but I'm soooo confused!!! Help!

Michael Dirda: This is a famous crux, and nobody--so far as I'm aware--has fully solved the mystery. I suspect that the first-person narrator is supposed to draw us closer to Charles, but that Flaubert abandoned the technique once he moved his focus to Emma. Why didn't such a sensitive artist change the beginning to third person? As I say, no one really knows, but doubtless some research would turn up sophisticated theories. If I were you, I'd let it go and just enjoy the novel. To this day, I shiver when I remember Emma's erotic frenzy when she visits--is it Rodolphe?--in the railroad hotel room.

Washington, DC: Just wanted to thank you for reminding me to read the classics of mystery-crime fiction. I've been reading Hammett, Chandler, etc. for the first time and loving them! It's amazing the "modern" themes in books 50, 60 years old -- drugs, adultery, homosexuality, etc.
THANKS!

Michael Dirda: Welcome. Don't overlook Cornell Woolrich--try The Bride Wore Black or Night has a THousand Eyes (written under the name George Hopley).

Germantown, MD: We have no bookstores in Germantown, MD. Have you ever heard of anything so obcene?! My question is, do you believe this is a reflection of the population or are the megastores waiting for us to reach a certain mass?

Michael Dirda: There were no bookstores in the town I grew up in. I relied on the library and thrift shops. Doubtless, the megastores require all kinds of population statistics to justify a store. So take a drive into DC or Bethesda. Lots of good shops there, including some wonderful used bookstores.

Ramallah, Palestine: I love to read, and am open to reading any type of book, the problem i seem to be getting into, is that i read half the book, get really bored, but don't go to another book, becasue i know i'll never finish the one i have on my hands, and i end up not reading at all! what can i do to revive my passion for reading??

Michael Dirda: You shouldn't feel such qualms about abandoning a book. Sometimes you need to be in the right mood or at the right age for a book to work its magic. I couldn't "get into" Pride and Prejudice when I was a 14-year-old boy, but came to love the novel when I was older. One reason to buy books is so that you have them around the house when you're ready for them. But, in general, if you read for pleasure and a book isn't giving you pleasure, try another. But don't give up reading.

Washington, DC: You've probably answered this one before, but here goes...what do you think of E-books? Also, do you have an opinion on Project Gutenberg?

Michael Dirda: Haven't read anything in e-book form yet. In general, I suspect that digital technology will replace the book within the next 50 years. I'll be sorry to see books go, but this doesn't mean the end of civilization. Doubtless people complained when we went from scrolls to the codex form we know today. Art will always be necessary to people.

Arlington, Va: Every year, the Nobel Literature Prize goes to someone who even the literate American hasn't heard of. Would you make a guess as to which "unknown" author the Nobel will honor next and which Americans are most worthy of the honor.

Michael Dirda: All my favorite unknown authors are now dead, so I don't really have a good guess. AMericans? THis is a hard call: I think Cormac McCarthy, Don DeLillo, John Updike, Gilbert Sorrentino, Philip Roth, Annie Proulx and a dozen other writers are of Nobel quality, but politics plays such a role in these things, I could hardly imagine their chances. I wish William Gaddis were still alive to win it, though.

Germantown, MD: I couldn't resist plugging a local used bookstore in response to the question about book stores in Germantown. Check out the Book Alcove on Shady Grove RD in Gaithersburg. Speaking of such stores, did you catch the Annie Proulx interview in the NY Times? She made such stores and their treasures seem absolutely fascinating...

Michael Dirda: Annie Proulx, David Streitfeld and I went booking together a couple years back. All three of us are used bookstore people and we had a great time. I'll have to look for the interview.

Washington, D.C.: There have been constant critical reevaluations of artists based on various unpopular political and social stances that seem at some levels to be separated from the work. Can you comment on this process? I am thinking for example of T.S. Eliot -who certainly may have fallen out of favor for reasons other than his social opinions-. Is this legitimate "criticism" in your opinion?

Michael Dirda: In general, one must try to understand a writer in the context of his time--hence one may partially "excuse" writers like Eliot for anti-semitism, a common prejudice among his class. On the other hand, a writer needs to be relevant to the present and if his opinions are so offensive that they interfere with thre appreciation of his work, then one can well understand how he or she would fall from favor. A lot of time these matters depend on the reader. Phillip Lopate, a Jew, loves Celine's writing, even though Celine was notoriously anti-Semitic: He's able to separate the novelist's slangy vigorous prose from his reprehensible opinions. Others may not possess this largeness of spirit.

Washington, DC: I've heard tale of a book written without using the letter "E." Have you ever heard of this?

Michael Dirda: You must be joking. People say I mention Georges Perec's La disparition as often as I do Cyril Connolly's The Unquiet Grave. The Perec novel--indeed written without the letter e, a fact which some reviewers never noticed--has been brillinatly rendered into ENglish by Gilbert Adair as A Void. Long ago, there was also an ENglish novel, with the same constraint, called Gadsby, written by a guy named Wright.

Bethesda MD: I have been intrigued at the list of paperback bestsellers in recent weeks: what accounts for the bestsellerdom of Henry James' Washigton Square. Certainly worth a re-read, but why now, for some 5 weeks?

Michael Dirda: I wonder about such things all the time and in most cases presume that somebody must have remade the relevant book as a movie or tv show.

Arlington, VA: Can you recommend an author along the lines of Haruki Murakami? I've read all his books, and while they are puzzeling, I am unable to put them down. I also like good cyberpunk such as Gibson and Stephenson. Love the chat!

Michael Dirda: Haven't read Murakami yet. Alas. can't read everything. As for cyberpunk, take a look at Bruce Sterling--the great idea man of the subgenre--or Paul Di Filippo. I presume you know the work of the godfathers of cyberpunk--Philip K. Dick and Alfred Bester. Try The Man in the High Castle (PKD) and The Stars My Destination.

Arlington, VA: In reading James Merrill's "Selected Poems," I enjoyed tracing his development, but I felt I missed some of the thematic development that appears in single books of poems -Levine's "What Work Is" for example. So my question is:
when reading the work of an unfamiliar poet, would you rather read a "collected" or "selected" poems, or would you prefer to read an original collection in its entirety?

Michael Dirda: Neat question. And I don't think there's any right or single answer. If the selection is made by the poet, he presumably chooses his best work--so that's a good way to sample a writer. But if you know you like poet X or Y, you'll want the complete poetry, which ideally will represent the individual books in discrete sections. In truth, I don't like any kind of omnibus--hence my unease with the LIbrary of America, as wonderful as it is--and prefer to read individual works in individual volumes. But this is a doctrine of perfection.

Madison WI: What's your assessment of the critic Martin Seymour-Smith, who died last year?

Michael Dirda: The New Guide to Modern World LIterature is one of my favorite reference books--it's brilliant, maddening, opinionated and exciting. SEymour-Smith only wrote about books he'd actually read--usually in the original langauges--and he possessed such vigorous opinions that one always learned a lot from him. Plus he covered so great a territory: he's the man to turn to if you want to learn about Slovak literature. He also wrote a good biogrpahy of Robert Graves (a friend). I spoke with him on the phone a few times and he wrote two or three reviews for Book World, including a fine piece on a biography of Knut Hamsun. Wish he was still alive. But of how many this might be said.

Washington, DC: What did you think of Douglas Hofstader's discussion of Nabokov in Le Ton Beau de Marot? I thought his comments were awfully naive, from a literary perspective--as is the whole book--but they suggested to me the idea that Nabokov should be viewed as a performance artist rather than simply a novelist.

Michael Dirda: I reviewed Le Ton Beau and thought far more highly of it than you. Hofstadter brought to bear the kind of attentiveness to linguistic detail that anybody could learn from--or react against. You know that he's just come out with his own translation of PUshkin's Eugene Onegin, from BAsic. I had some reservations about Le Ton Beau's tone--DH can be rather vainglorious at times--but admire many of the parts immensely. He makes you think about how translation works.

Rockville, MD: Do you read the New Yorker? Is there any magazine today that is publishing good fiction?

Michael Dirda: I glance at the New Yorker. Once I revered the magazine, but now it's run by people I know, like or worked with at the Post, and I don't have quite the same worshipful attitude to it as when Liebling, White, Mitchell, Flanner etc. were its mainstays. I tend to read opinon magazines and intellectual journals, and seldom read fiction in periodical form. I'm a book person.

Arlington, VA: Why do you think short story collections are much less commerically popular and succesful than novels? Short stories are never on bestseller lists and publishers always warn writers against submitting short story collections for their first book publication.

Michael Dirda: Novels suck readers into the story, seem to deliver more bang for your buck. Hence the popularity of really long novels, summer blockbusters etc. You buy the book and you can live with it. Short stories demand a more aesthetic response--you tend to appreciate an author's style or tone; the plot seems less important because there are a dozen of them. People seem to like connectedness rather than disjunction. But we're really only talking best sellers. People who love to read pick up short sotry collections all the time. And of course some writers are at their best only in the shorter forms: Eudora Welty, Hemingway, Katherine Anne Porter, V.S. Pritchett, etc.

Washington, DC: I am going on an extensive road trip soon, straight through to Cali. I dream of tackling some huge fiction, specically a Black author, which will be dog-earred and finished when I step out in LA. What do you suggest?

Michael Dirda: I presume you already know the classics: Ralph Ellison's INvisible Man; Jean Toomer's Cane; Samuel Delany's sf masterwork, Dhalgren, etc. You could decide to read all the novels of Toni Morrison, Chester Himes, Delany or James Baldwin, etc. I'd take two or three novels and see what writer's style most appeals, then focus on his or her work.

Arlington, VA: I just saw "Wilde" and I'm dying to read one of his works. Which would you recommend for a newcomer to Oscar Wilde?

Michael Dirda: The Importance of Being Earnest--a wonderful comedy. Alternately, The Picture of Dorian Gray--the archetypal 1890s decadent novel. Also, there exists a terrific collection of Wilde's bon mots, edited by, I thihk, Alvin Redman.

Potomac, MD: As a fellow bibliophile, do you have several books you're reading at one time or do you only start a new book after you've finished -or abandoned- another? If the former, how do you keep them all straight?

Michael Dirda: I read one book at a time. I do sometimes browse in favorite books, read a poem or two, reread a favorite essay. But I'm not good at multi-tasking: I like to carry projects through before starting new ones. But many people are quite different.

Gaithersburg, MD: Have you ever participated in a book club? How long should it take the average adult to read a novel? We're trying to figure out how often to meet and how long to wait for people to finish the book.

Michael Dirda: Never been in a book club. I don't like to keep to somebody else's schedule of what to read, though I welcome any group that gets more people interested in books. A 350 page novel should take anywhere from 3-8 hours to read, depending on its level of difficulty. Of course, a novel like Fathers and Sons is one you can think about for half a lifetime.

Rockville, MD: What is "intellectual history" as listed in your interests? Is this the same as philosophy or is it a certain type of history writing? What book or author is an example of it?

Michael Dirda: By intellectual history I mean books that discuss the culture and civilization of various periods or nations. Examples? John Hale's The Civlization of Europe in the Renaissance; John Brewer's The Pleasures of the Imagination (18th-century England); Marcia Colish's Medieval Foundations of the Western Intellectual Tradition 400-1400; Peter Conrad's Modern Times, Modern Places (about 20th-cnetury art and ideas); The Oxford History of America since 1945. These are all books I reviewed and would give much to have been able to have written.

Gaithersburg, MD: This will look like a plant, but here goes...I loved your column this week though the topic itself did not interest me -I'd never heard of Pushkin-. Nonetheless, I read it because I always read you and came away with the wonderful "Farewell, friends" anecdote. Such tidbits are why I love your columns and why I think your gift is so rare. Every book lover had to respond in kind to that sentiment. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

Michael Dirda: Well, thank you. I hope I might have inspired you to give PUshkin a chance. Eugene Onegin is a wonderful verse-novel, and some of the stories I talk about are nearly as good. But yes, I am an enthusiast, and my reviews and essays tend to be a fan's notes.
WEll, that's it for this week. Same time next wednesday--2PM. Till then, keep reading!