{"id":152,"date":"2007-07-26T11:10:33","date_gmt":"2007-07-26T16:10:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/segundo\/?p=152"},"modified":"2012-02-26T10:03:54","modified_gmt":"2012-02-26T15:03:54","slug":"bss-121-gary-shteyngart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/segundo\/bss-121-gary-shteyngart\/","title":{"rendered":"Gary Shteyngart (BSS #121)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gary Shteyngart is most recently the author of Absurdistan<\/i>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Condition of Mr. Segundo:<\/b> Contemplating an ethnic switch to Russian.<\/p>\n

Author Interview:<\/b> Gary Shteyngart<\/a><\/p>\n

Subjects Discussed:<\/b> Prince Myshkin and Misha Vainberg, Doestoevsky as a muse, fat man fiction, getting inside a corpulent character, Biggie Smalls, hip-hop traditions in other countries, technological references in satire, the apocalyptic novel vogue, the paucity of satire in contemporary fiction, the metafictional elements of Absurdistan<\/i>, the 19th century plotting techniques for Absurdistan<\/i>, the importance of notebooks, literary fiction as entertainment, linguistic slumming and lowbrow metaphors, kissing the back of testicles, going up against Cormac McCarthy<\/a> in the Tournament of Books, the suspicions against comic novels, dick jokes, connectivity vs. inhabiting another person’s mind, and not being able to exist without writing.<\/p>\n

EXCERPT FROM SHOW:<\/B> <\/p>\n

Shteyngart:<\/b> I also work in bed and don’t really move very much. I don’t know. My metabolism has been great so far. So I’m not so big. But when I was thirteen or so, I was actually a very husky child. I had to have a special suit made for my bar mitzvah. A special husky suit. So there’s a big fat guy inside this little frame that’s dying to get out. And the other thing is, I guess, was the American novel, A Confederacy of Dunces<\/i>. And I was thinking primarily of Ignatius O’Reilly, one of the — I was asked recently to pick my favorite book in America in the last three decades and that was the book that came to mind. A wonderful rambling historical — a place also very rooted in its locality. New Orleans. And about a guy who loves to consume everything in sight. Those Lucky Hot Dogs, I’m thinking of. So I love to eat myself. And I love everything to do with food. So I wanted to make my guy gigantic, and I wanted to make him a real consumer — in a very American mode, but also in a kind of nouveau riche<\/I> Russian mode.<\/p>\n

\nhttp:\/\/www.edrants.com\/_mp3\/segundo121.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div>

Listen: Play in new window<\/a> | Download<\/a> (Running Time: 39:36 — 36.3MB)<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gary Shteyngart is most recently the author of Absurdistan. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Contemplating an ethnic switch to Russian. Author Interview: Gary Shteyngart Subjects Discussed: Prince Myshkin and Misha Vainberg, Doestoevsky as a muse, fat man fiction, getting inside a corpulent character, Biggie Smalls, hip-hop traditions in other countries, technological references in satire, the apocalyptic […]<\/p>\n