Thursday, September 30, 2010

An Interview with Lydia Davis


I am delighted to get to pass on this link to my interview with Lydia Davis for the Writers at Cornell podcast. Davis is in town for a reading, but she was kind enough to talk with me about the complexities of translating Proust and Flaubert, using economic language to convey strong emotion, the evolution of her literary style, and the value of self-limitation.

Davis's Collected Stories has just come out in paperback, and her new translation of Madame Bovary in hardcover; snap them up after you've had a listen. (And thanks to Gallagher for the question about constraints.)

5 comments:

Hugo Minor said...

Awesome! Listening now. It was raining in Ithaca? We had rain yesterday too. For the FIRST TIME in about 6 months!

Hugo Minor said...

I love your explanation of "I got a jones."

Hugo Minor said...

Okay, I got a question for Michael S. for your next one. "Why do you project your emotions onto the writers you interview?"

Anonymous said...

I am not actually certain that Michael is going to agree to be interviewed. I will probably beg him, though. He is probably the most openly emotional human being I've ever met...

I couldn't believe LD hadn't heard the term "jones"! That was definitely a good moment.

Dylan Hicks said...

Great interview with one of my favorites. Now I'm jonesin' for the Silverblatt chat.