07-20-10:The Agony Column Live, July 10, 2010 : Alan Cheuse and Peter S. Beagle
"There are certain phrases I'm leery of using; one's "the creative process" and the other is "inspiration."
—Peter S. Beagle
"Habit is the best thing for you if you're trying to write prose."
—Alan Cheuse
Listen carefully. You'll hear it, partway through the show. Alan Cheuse tells us something rather important about modern American literature. He admits to reading science fiction, with an interest in the genre as literature. But he laments that few others in his position are. Remember, Cheuse has been a part of the National Book Awards, and more than a few other literary panels. It's nice, if a bit frightening, to know that he reads the genre, writers like Peter S. Beagle, who joins him.
Don't get the idea that the discussion was all that highfalutin' though. There's as much wallowing going on as there is philosophizing. I actually think in the shootout, wallowing wins. Because this is intelligent wallowing, and fun. I won't be broadcasting this one without a lot of beeping.
It's like sculpting an avalanche. Setting up The Agony Column Live Shows is a front-loading process. Read the books, first and foremost, know the material first and foremost. Sure, I've been doing that most of my life, but every show brings specific material and specific challenges. If you're talking to two writers, as I do, that's twice the challenge. Twice the reading. In this case, like six pages of notes, and I use 9-point Time Roman in two columns, to cram the most material into the least number of noise-making pages.
Then there's the scheduling. It's a nightmare. Get one person to some place, that's tough. Back and forth with the writer and/or the publicist, manager, you-name-it. Two writers? You can imagine the complications, the back-and-forths. Since starting on thius endeavor, I have some to understand just how hard both publicists and book store event planners have to work. Together, they take the puzzle pieces out of a box and toss them in the air just so, so that they fall to earth in a perfectly finished piece.
Finally, there's the event itself, moving the chairs (I help the fine people at CBC, getting the audio setup, making sure you press record. All of it, to lead to that moment when the avalanche begins.
And the writers start to talk. I put Alan Cheuse and Peter S. Beagle next to one another, and the effect was electric. They began to talk directly to one another, and to me, and to the audience. The conversation veered between sage observations of the writing process (not the phrase I avoided) and ever-descending observations that tended to involve language I could not broadcast. Now's your chance to hear that entertaining and edifying discussion, unbeeped, by following this link to the MP3 audio file.
07-19-10:A 2010 Interview with Phil Cousineau
"..then I'll look up all those words that were arcane..."
— Phil Cousineau
One of my fondest memories of my college years were the afternoons I spent in the parks with a six pack of beer, a book and a notebook where I used to record every word that I was the least bit unfamiliar with. After I finished reading a chapter of a book, I'd haul out a dictionary, look up the word and actually write down the definition in the notebook. Talking with Phil Cousineau brought back the memories of those afternoons.
My conversation with Phil Cousineau might not have come to pass if I didn't actually put together the Literary Events Calendar for my show on NPR affiliate KUSP. When I read the bit that Gateways Books and Gifts had about his book and who he was, I thought it sounded interesting. He turned out to be yet another writer I felt like I should have known about long ago; he'd worked with Joseph Campbell, had worked in television and made documentaries. He was clearly a substantial guy. Moreover, 'Wordcatcher' seemed to me to be part of a trend of books that celebrate language and reading. And his book was a lot of fun.
01-23-12: Commentary : Sara Paretsky Nails 'Breakdown' : The Machine Stops
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2012 Interview with Sara Paretsky : "Everything in a courtroom is a story; it's not justice, it's combating narratives."
01-18-12: Commentary : Téa Obreht Conjures 'The Tiger's Wife' : The Grammar of Vision
01-13-12: Commentary : Hard Case Subterranean Block : Not from Bob's Basement Tapes
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2012 Phone Interview with Lisa Randall : "...there seems to be some evidence, especially from one of the experiments."
01-10-12: Commentary : Archive Review: Terry D'Auray Catches Lawrence Block and 'The Burglar on the Prowl' : "A show well worth the price of a ticket."
12-29-11: Commentary : My Life in the Bush of Books : Island of Vice by Richard Zacks, Iago by David Snodin, The Coincidence Engine by Sam Leith and The Dipatcher by Ryan David Jahn
12-21-11: Commentary : Cold Hand in Mine by Robert Aickman : From the Seedy to the Sublime
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Three Books with Alan Cheuse : 'Kill Bin Laden' ; Ryu Mitsuse, '10 Billion Days and 100 Billion Nights' ; Michael Crichton and Richard Preston, 'Micro'
12-20-11: Commentary : David Blackbourn Visits 'Marpingen: Apparitions of the Virgin Mary in a Nineteenth-Century German Village' : Externalizing a Culture Clash
12-15-11: Commentary : Ayize Jama-Everett Reveals 'The Liminal People' : The Powers That Be
Agony Column Podcast News Report : The Agony Column Live with Lisa Goldstein and Ayize Jama-Everett, and music by Fenyang Smith, December 10, 2011 : "... let's look at what happens if people have abilities that other people don't have ..."
11-28-11: Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2011 Interview with Scott Wallace : "Within months of first contact, these groups experience a huge die-off."
11-22-11: Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2011 Interview with Charles Frazier, Part Two : "It's not me telling you, there's this storyteller voice."
11-21-11: Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2011 Interview with Charles Frazier : "If we're going in the wrong direction, we could turn around and go back."
11-17-11: Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2011 Interview with Gianni Mola : "The only way you can learn, I told them, is to watch me cook it."
11-11-11: Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2011 Interview with Karl Marlantes : "...the way I "think" about things, with quotes around think, is I tend to write them down..."
10-31-11: Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2011 Interview with Colson Whitehead : "In the Apocalypse, somebody's gonna have to do the grunt work..."
10-17-11: Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2011 Interview with Russell Banks : "They are in a sense, permanently marked and thrown into this darkness..."
