If you are in San Francisco in early April, you may have a chance to see Our Young, Roving Corresponent interviewing an author in person. The Bat Segundo Crew is putting together a “live”* Segundo podcast with a Very Special Author. We’re working out the details as we speak. More details to follow.
* — “live” meaning interviewing in front of an audience and offering this as a podcast later
Author: William T. Vollmann
Condition of Bat Segundo: A bit over his head and not particularly uncentered.
Subjects Discussed: Copernicus, the relationship between religion and science, Dante’s Divine Comedy, Ptolemy, Intelligent Design and contemporary parallels, Iraq, life lived according to the “cash nexus” versus life in other countries, the Bush Administration as muse, politics in fiction, Shostakovich, on writing Rising Up and Rising Down and revealing individual human identities, research and Europe Central‘s historical inventions, how Vollmann creates vernacular, repeating phrases, Madison Smartt Bell, the use of narrators in Vollmann’s fiction, Lautréamont, Vollmann charms his escort, the two narrators of Europe Central, and Vollmann the entrepreneur.
(Special thanks to Ami Greko, Paul Slovak and the fab folks at Norton for helping to make this happen.)
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Author: Jonathan Ames
Condition of Bat Segundo: Too easily complaisant to charlatan announcers.
Subjects Discussed: The controversial cover of I Love You More Than You Know, self-promotional footnotes, rules for writing, writing originating from unexpected requests, “tossed off” essays, depression and writing, essays which involve the penis, the somber and introspective feel of Ames’ latest collection, Ames’ lengthy self-asseessment of his book, George Plimpton, Glenn Gould, honesty, “throwaway pieces,” graphic novels, fiction, making a living as a writer, Graham Greene, Dean Haspiel and The Alcoholic, comic book scripting, Neil Gaiman, The Extra Man screenplay, upcoming pieces in GQ and Spin, on Ames letting down his guard, comedy vs. tragedy, the audience response to “Midlife Assessment,” Tim O’Brien, an odd and paranoid use of coffee, Ames’ place as a writer, the financial realities of being a writer, Moby, on getting distracted, the burden of email, writing discpline, chicken soup, San Francisco restaurants, Anthony Trollope, Jonathan Lethem, writers named Jonathan, Jonathan Franzen, living life to write about it later, on Ames bringing pleasure to himself (not the way you’re thinking), what Ames has been collecting from hotel rooms, and a hairy call.
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Author: Liz Perle
Condition of Mr. Segundo: Vengeful and nostalgic for bad investment decisions.
Subjects Discussed: The quiet contract, what power means, responding to Ariel Levy’s review, the emotional middle class, lying to partners about money, conspicuous consumption, status, the two tiers of women-centric economics, guilt, women not being allowed to talk about money, describing women with aesthetic qualifiers, money and marriages, how younger women view money, gender income disparities, political obstacles, Caitlin Flanagan, value shifts over the past thirty years, on being a Target and IKEA queen, materialism, working class economics, Larry Ellison, David Denby’s American Sucker, and the “exclusivity” of quotes.
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Authors: Dan Wickett and Kirstin Allio
Condition of Mr. Segundo: Snubbed and pining for Beelzebub.
Subjects Discussed: The ideal of the perfect sentence, Faulkner, research, New Hampshire, 1920s vernacular, the controversy of Mrs. Heald, drafting Garner, agents and literary fiction, literary influences, Wallace Stegner, naming names, cemeteries, the difficulties of writing about girlhood, and being skeptical about craft.
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