{"id":982,"date":"2010-02-26T13:14:11","date_gmt":"2010-02-26T18:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/segundo\/?p=982"},"modified":"2012-02-25T13:02:51","modified_gmt":"2012-02-25T18:02:51","slug":"justin-taylor-bss-323","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/segundo\/justin-taylor-bss-323\/","title":{"rendered":"Justin Taylor (BSS #323)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Justin Taylor is most recently the author of <i>Everything Here is the Best Thing Ever<\/i>. <\/p>\n<p><img src=\"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/justintaylor.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"justintaylor\" align=\"center\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_7011\"><!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-982-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/_mp3\/segundo323.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/_mp3\/segundo323.mp3\">http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/_mp3\/segundo323.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\">Listen: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/_mp3\/segundo323.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/segundo\/?powerpress_pinw=982-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/_mp3\/segundo323.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"segundo323.mp3\">Download<\/a> (Running Time: 48:32 &#8212; 44.4MB)<\/p>\n<p><b>Condition of Mr. Segundo:<\/b> Fearful of sanguine book titles.<\/p>\n<p><b>Guest:<\/b> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.justindtaylor.net\/\">Justin Taylor<\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>Subjects Discussed:<\/b> Not naming protagonists until well into the stories, dissatisfaction with formality, how characters reveal themselves, gender confusion within &#8220;Weekend Away,&#8221; Taylor&#8217;s aversion to &#8220;bright neon signs&#8221; within narrative, the dangers of being too specific, similes, concluding lines and addressing the reader, the final line of &#8220;Jewels Flashing in the Night of Time,&#8221; Donald Barthelme and Taylor&#8217;s veer from the phantasmagorical, <i>Sleeping Fish<\/i> and <a href=\"http:\/\/webdelsol.com\/5_trope\/\">5_Trope<\/a>, Shelley Jackson, the Gordon Lish school of writers, Gary Lutz&#8217;s &#8220;experimental&#8221; nature, Taylor&#8217;s concern for hair, describing Florida primarily through the weather, the helpfulness of knowing a place before writing a story, boundaries and possibilities within limitations, age declarations at the beginnings of stories, the difficulties of getting all the numbers worked out within &#8220;The New Life,&#8221; the important of precise age, research that comes after writing a story, eliding the coordinates of a Planned Parenthood, 1960s counterculture, the Grateful Dead, distrust of pithy maxims and prescriptive text, and believing in aspects of a story.<\/p>\n<p><b>EXCERPT FROM SHOW:<\/B> <\/p>\n<p><b>Correspondent:<\/b> I wanted to go back to the hair.  I had alluded to that earlier.  It could just be me, but you do have a concern for hair.  It&#8217;s often quite specific, as I suggested.  You begin &#8220;Amber at the Window in Hurricane Season\u201d by describing her pushing \u201ca blond lock behind her ear, stray hairs glancing off a steel row of studs.\u201d In \u201cIn My Heart I Am Already Gone,\u201d you describe how Vicky \u201ccuts her own bangs, a ragged diagonal like the torn hem of a nightgown.\u201d  In \u201cWeekend Away,\u201d the hitchhiker has \u201cblack, messy hair mostly covering his ears.\u201d  In \u201cWhat Was Once All Yours,\u201d Cass has hairy forearms.  I&#8217;m curious about this hair.  And also we haven&#8217;t alluded to the cat as well.  Is it more of a protective element?  You know, these characters are often barren against the elements, so to speak.  And I&#8217;m curious about this.  You are a hair man, I have to say.<\/p>\n<p><b>Taylor:<\/b> (<i>laughs<\/i>)<\/p>\n<p><b>Correspondent:<\/b> Or are you the President of the Hair Club for Men?  I don&#8217;t know.<\/p>\n<p><b>Taylor:<\/b> I can&#8217;t really answer for that.  I mean, every writer has certain concerns or tics that they might not even be aware of.  I asked a similar question to David Berman once.  I got <a href=\"http:\/\/www.brooklynrail.org\/2005\/10\/music\/a-limited-edition-of-one\">to interview him for <i>The Brooklyn Rail<\/i><\/a>.  And I was asking him this question about water.  I said, &#8220;You know, <i>American Water<\/i>.&#8221;  And there&#8217;s this line in <i>Actual Air<\/i>.  &#8220;All water is classic water.&#8221; I had, I don&#8217;t know, two or three other examples.  And I finally just asked myself, &#8220;So what&#8217;s the deal with all the water?&#8221;  And he said, &#8220;You know, nobody&#8217;s ever asked me that before.&#8221;  And he really didn&#8217;t have an answer.  And then he told this story about mowing his lawn on a hot day. Which I think was supposed to exemplify that water is &#8212; water&#8217;s nice.  And, you know, I don&#8217;t know.  Hair is nice, I guess.  I don&#8217;t know why.  Because it&#8217;s mostly haircuts, hairstyles.  I don&#8217;t know why I notice.  Those are like what I&#8217;m visualizing with a character that appears or seems to be worth mentioning rather than eye color or height or anything else.  I don&#8217;t know.  <\/p>\n<p>When I was a kid, I never liked getting haircuts.  I still don&#8217;t like getting haircuts actually.  I always feel like I don&#8217;t have a good haircut.  Like everybody else has the style that they&#8217;re supposed to have.  And mine always feels a little off.  I feel like I&#8217;m impersonating.<\/p>\n<p><b>Correspondent:<\/b> Not one satisfactory haircut in your life?<\/p>\n<p><b>Taylor:<\/b> I&#8217;ve had some decent haircuts.  But it was like a very early &#8212; it was when I was a really little kid.  It would get long and I would be worried that I would look like a girl.  And they would take me to get my hair cut.  And then after it was cut, I would see myself in the mirror and I wouldn&#8217;t even recognize myself.  And I would really lose it. And that doesn&#8217;t happen so much anymore.  I&#8217;ve learned to recognize myself.<\/p>\n<p><b>Correspondent:<\/b> With more confidence, more confidence in hair and haircuts.<\/p>\n<p><b>Taylor:<\/b> There&#8217;s only so old you can be crying at a barbershop. <\/p>\n<p><b>Correspondent:<\/b> I&#8217;ve seen very older men cry at barbershops.<\/p>\n<p><b>Taylor:<\/b> (<i>laughs<\/i>) In any case, the answer is &#8220;I don&#8217;t know.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_7012\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-982-2\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/_mp3\/segundo323.mp3?_=2\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/_mp3\/segundo323.mp3\">http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/_mp3\/segundo323.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\">Listen: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/_mp3\/segundo323.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/segundo\/?powerpress_pinw=982-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/_mp3\/segundo323.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"segundo323.mp3\">Download<\/a> (Running Time: 48:32 &#8212; 44.4MB)<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Justin Taylor is most recently the author of Everything Here is the Best Thing Ever. Condition of Mr. Segundo: Fearful of sanguine book titles. Guest: Justin Taylor Subjects Discussed: Not naming protagonists until well into the stories, dissatisfaction with formality, how characters reveal themselves, gender confusion within &#8220;Weekend Away,&#8221; Taylor&#8217;s aversion to &#8220;bright neon signs&#8221; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_7013\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-982-3\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/_mp3\/segundo323.mp3?_=3\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/_mp3\/segundo323.mp3\">http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/_mp3\/segundo323.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\">Listen: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/_mp3\/segundo323.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/segundo\/?powerpress_pinw=982-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/_mp3\/segundo323.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"segundo323.mp3\">Download<\/a> (Running Time: 48:32 &#8212; 44.4MB)<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1084],"tags":[16,12,578,907,9,906,677,143],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/segundo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982"}],"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=982"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/segundo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2136,"href":"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/segundo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982\/revisions\/2136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/segundo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/segundo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.edrants.com\/segundo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}