Chekhov's Mistress
William H. Gass on the Book
Kate Bolick has a very brief Q&A with William Gass in yesterday’s Boston Globe (Q&A with William H. Gass, Feb 19, 2006).
I’ll probably have more to say about Gass this week as I’m excited about seeing him speak about his forthcoming audiobook version of The Tunnel at Housing Works Used Book Cafe, Wednesday.
Here’s my favorite bit from Bolick’s Q&A:
IDEAS: But you do have a rather unwavering faith in the written word that’s increasingly rare in this hyper-visual age.
GASS: I wouldn’t call it ‘‘faith.“ I have a bad feeling about that word. I think the importance of the book is demonstrable, not only historically, but in the future. The world may be increasingly dominated by auditory suggestions and visual elements, but those are all things that need to be explained. We can experience a picture, for example, but the picture doesn’t explain itself. For that you need language, and for language you need the mind, which I think is basically linguistic in its operations.
In addition to the audiobook, which, by the way, he recorded himself, Gass has a new book of essays called A Temple of Texts, an essay from which was featured in Bookforum last November. It was reviewed last weekend by Michael Dirda in the Washington Post too (via The Reading Experience, who pulls a nice Gaddis Quote).
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About this Post
- Posted by: Bud Parr
- Date: February 20, 2006
- Filed Under:
Wise Men Fish Here: Literature
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- Links to this Post: Technorati
