{"id":177,"date":"2007-10-05T13:42:11","date_gmt":"2007-10-05T18:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/segundo\/?p=177"},"modified":"2012-02-25T22:17:04","modified_gmt":"2012-02-26T03:17:04","slug":"bss-143-katha-pollitt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/segundo\/bss-143-katha-pollitt\/","title":{"rendered":"Katha Pollitt (BSS #143)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Katha Pollitt is most recently the author of <i>Learning to Drive<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/segundo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/10\/kathapolliltt.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"kathapolliltt\" width=\"448\" height=\"293\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2424\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/segundo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/10\/kathapolliltt.jpg 448w, http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/segundo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/10\/kathapolliltt-300x196.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 91vw, (max-width: 900px) 600px, (max-width: 1060px) 50vw, (max-width: 1200px) 520px, (max-width: 1400px) 43vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_6688\"><!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-177-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/_mp3\/segundo143.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/_mp3\/segundo143.mp3\">http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/_mp3\/segundo143.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\">Listen: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/_mp3\/segundo143.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/segundo\/?powerpress_pinw=177-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/_mp3\/segundo143.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"segundo143.mp3\">Download<\/a> (Running Time: 39:17 &#8212; 36.0MB)<\/p>\n<p><b>Condition of Mr. Segundo:<\/b> Dwelling on legal inconsistencies.<\/p>\n<p><b>Author:<\/b> <a href=\"http:\/\/kathapollitt.blogspot.com\/\">Katha Pollitt<\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>Subjects Discussed:<\/b> The pragmatism in learning to drive, being lazy, observation as a strength and weakness, &#8220;webstalking&#8221; vs. Googling, responding to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2007\/09\/23\/books\/review\/Bentley-t.html?ref=books\">Toni Bentley&#8217;s review<\/a>, what a feminist is supposed to be, whether or not <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/features\/printedition\/books\/la-bk-reynolds9sep09,1,4064823.story?coll=la-headlines-bookreview\">Susan Salter Reynolds<\/a> has a sense of humor, on writing life stories, Deborah Solomon, the book vs. the person, the politics of writing, whether or not &#8220;men are rats,&#8221; double entendres, inflammatory reactions, the specifics of sentences, being picked apart in <i>The Nation<\/i>, reader interpretation, meteorological solecisms, humor and sadness, observation, driving with other cars on the road, Saul Bellow&#8217;s &#8220;departure mode,&#8221; the creative destruction of New York, landmarks being torn down, Coney Island, individual writing vs. community, parental secrets, public information, self-analysis, structuring, poetry, women cast under a spell, Anais Nin, dropping romance, &#8220;sperm sisters,&#8221; and writing stories.<\/p>\n<p><b>EXCERPT FROM SHOW:<\/B><\/p>\n<p><B>Pollitt:<\/b> Well, this is the great thing about writing.  You don&#8217;t have to give everybody a vote.  You are not the community board.  You&#8217;re you. I write what I think.  And if somebody else feels differently, they can write their own story.  Now in the real world, the people who didn&#8217;t like Coney Island won.  They won.<\/p>\n<p><b>Correspondent:<\/b> I know.<\/p>\n<p><b>Pollitt:<\/b> And the people who do like Coney Island lost out.  And I think that they tend to lose out.  They tend to lose out.  Because I think kind of a mass and corporate development is really zooming ahead in a way that, I think, is very sad.<\/p>\n<p><b>Correspondent:<\/b> I&#8217;m going to come in here with a raging burst of optimism and say, yes, the Coney Island thing, I find that personally sad.  I find many things about the world extremely sad.  But one must have some sort of optimism, I guess, in order to kind of carry on.  One must believe in something, believe in some sort of good to at least kind of carry on in the face of a lot of terror.<\/p>\n<p><b>Pollitt:<\/b> Oh sure!<\/p>\n<p><b>Correspondent:<\/b> So I guess I&#8217;m wondering why this was not so pronounced.  You actually say in this particular piece, I&#8217;m going to come across as one of those &#8220;Back in my day&#8221; kind of people.  So why not go for this more all-encompassing reality of what it is to be alive?<\/p>\n<p><b>Pollitt:<\/b> Well, I think that&#8217;s in other stories.<\/p>\n<p><b>Correspondent:<\/b> Okay.<\/p>\n<p><b>Pollitt:<\/b> I think that the piece, the book as a whole, does not convey the sense of a world-weary person.<\/p>\n<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_6689\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-177-2\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/_mp3\/segundo143.mp3?_=2\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/_mp3\/segundo143.mp3\">http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/_mp3\/segundo143.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\">Listen: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/_mp3\/segundo143.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/segundo\/?powerpress_pinw=177-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/_mp3\/segundo143.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"segundo143.mp3\">Download<\/a> (Running Time: 39:17 &#8212; 36.0MB)<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Katha Pollitt is most recently the author of Learning to Drive. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Dwelling on legal inconsistencies. Author: Katha Pollitt Subjects Discussed: The pragmatism in learning to drive, being lazy, observation as a strength and weakness, &#8220;webstalking&#8221; vs. Googling, responding to Toni Bentley&#8217;s review, what a feminist is supposed to be, whether or [&hellip;]<\/p>\n<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_6690\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-177-3\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/_mp3\/segundo143.mp3?_=3\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/_mp3\/segundo143.mp3\">http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/_mp3\/segundo143.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\">Listen: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/_mp3\/segundo143.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/segundo\/?powerpress_pinw=177-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/_mp3\/segundo143.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"segundo143.mp3\">Download<\/a> (Running Time: 39:17 &#8212; 36.0MB)<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1086,1087],"tags":[16,47,57,9,55,56,58],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/segundo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/segundo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/segundo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/segundo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/segundo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/segundo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2452,"href":"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/segundo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177\/revisions\/2452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/segundo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/segundo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/segundo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}