I thought it might be fun to get Frank on the phone and talk to him about the week's events, which is something that we really can't prepare for, because things are changing so fast, and the outrageous events pile up so quickly that it's hard to keep track of the lies, the truths, the lies about the truths and the truths about the lies. When I scheduled the interview, I must admit, I told him it was conditional on the phones still working. Anyone who remembers the recent outage in northern California when the lines were deliberately cut will know that's no given. (And note that there was never really a satisfactory explantion given for what could well have been an act of terrorism.) You can hear my conversation with Thomas Frank, covering recent events (phone lines permitting) by following the link to the MP3 audio file.
10-01-09: A 2009 Interview With Richard E. Cytowic, M.D. : 'Wednesday is Indigo Blue'
Yes, the second I saw even the title of 1993's 'The Man Who Tasted Shapes' by Richard E. Cytowic, M.D., I knew I had to have the book. The very concept of synesthesia sounded like something out of a science fiction novel. Hearing colors and tasting shapes? It's the very definition of alien.
Cytowic has returned to the subject this year with 'Wednesday is Indigo Blue,' co-written by David Eagleman, author of 'Sum.' When 'The Man Who Tasted Shapes' was released. the idea of synesthesia sounded pretty good to me. Who wouldn’t want to taste shapes or hear colors? But that sort of phenomenon was very hard to document, since it relied on subjective interpretation — until recently. I talked to Cytowic about the ironically changing perception of this perceptual disorder, which, with the advent of brain scanning techniques has become much better understood. We also talked about the cultural perceptions of synesthesia, a disorder that can foster creativity. Is it then truly a disorder? In a science fiction novel, it might be perceived as a precursor to an evolutionary leap; in a comic book, it might be something that one of the X-Men can do. You can hear my conversation with Richard E. Cytowic, M. D., by following this link to the MP3 audio file.
09-30-09: A 2009 Interview with Nick Douglas
"Some of the people in this book are cashiers, college students, homemakers, and they can all be as funny for one sentence as Shakespeare or Dorothy Parker." — Nick Douglas
Nick Douglas will surprise the hell out of you. I frankly did not know what I'd have to say to the editor of 'Twitter Wit,' but it turns out we had quite a bit to talk about and that, as I had hoped, there was quite a bit of very interesting literary thought that can be wrapped around messages of 140 characters or less.
The messages may be 140 characters or less, but the number of characters you can encounter on Twitter, and in print via 'Twitter Wit' are practically endless. Douglas may be young but he's a seasoned Silicon Valley insider who did his time at Valleywag before striking out on his own with 'Twitter Wit.'
I was definitely apprehensive, because while I enjoyed the book, it is, after all, pretty much a book of one-line jokes by writers other than Douglas himself. But as we talked about the process of putting together this book and the implications of the limitations of Twitter, my deliberate ignorance about Twitter (simply put, it's read or tweet, and I go with read) bounced off Douglas' deep knowledge thereof in a most entertaining manner. Instrumental in setting up this interview were the folks over at Booksmith, Christin Evans and Praveen Madan, who went so far as to make their house available for the recording. You can hear our conversation on the future of literature consisting of writing less than 140 characters by following this link to the MP3 audio file.
09-29-09: A 2009 Interview with Jacqueline Winspear : Author of the Maisie Dobbs Series
"It's heartbreaking; you see photographs of this young lad, he's 13 and he's going off to war..." — Jacqueline Winspear
Sometimes, all you need to do is to listen. I met Jackie Winspear at the Book Passage Mystery Conference, and all it took was about a minute of listening to her speak to know, to absolutely know why she was a writer. Her voice was precise and so strong. The stories she told were as well.
I sat down and talked with Winspear about the world of her Maisie Dobbs novels, set in the aftermath of World War One. She evoked not just her research but that world, in the stories she told of combing through archives, of her understanding that she might be the first person to see a particular letter from a soldier in fifty, sixty, eighty years. Like most Americans, I know a bit about WWI; the heroism and the horror, to be sure. But Winspear managed to evoke not just heroes and horrors, but the people in a manner that made them like people I might have met, that turned abstraction in humanity. All in that perfect, powerful voice, which you can hear by following this link to the MP3 audio file.
09-28-09: A 2009 Interview With Karen Armstrong
"At the center of religious life, for all these faiths, was compassion." — Karen Armstrong
As much as I am inclined to distrust organized religion, I still find it a fascination subject to read about. Back in 2006, I read Karen Armstrong's 'The Great Transformation,' an engrossing history of the beginnings of religion. Her latest book, 'The Case for God,' is even more pertinent for these troubled times when religion is such a divisive issue. As I read the book and her elegant, intelligent language unpacked ideas, I could literally feel my ability to think being challenged and changed.
I spoke with Karen Armstrong at KQED studios in San Francisco, on a brilliant autumn afternoon. I had looked a bit into her background and her autobiography 'Up the Spiral Staircase,' and we started at the beginning of her spiritual journey. I wouldn't exactly call her books spiritual, though they explore the ideas of spirituality. Armstrong is a woman with a strong inclination towards logos, which she uses to explore the world of mythos. She's smart and intuitive and utterly compelling. You can hear our conversation by following this link to the MP3 audio file.
New to the Agony Column
03-18-10: Commentary : Stephen Kessler Follows 'The Mental Traveler' : Bad Trips and Good Reading
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Alta Ifland and Stephen Kessler : "I had to do it; it was a way of both coming to terms with the experience, of documenting the experience, of commemorating it..."
03-17-10: Commentary : Ted Chiang Charts 'The Lifecycle of Software Objects' : Joshua Blue, Digital Chimps and Lives in Flux
03-15-10: Commentary : Elif Shafak Reveals 'The Forty Rules of Love' : Intimacy and Centuries
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Elif Shafak : "I know that culture that exists in my country, that is carried on by women, generations of women."
03-12-10: Commentary : Karl Marlantes Scales the 'Matterhorn' : World-Building in the Past
03-09-10: Commentary : Paul McHugh Meets 'Deadlines' : Murdering the California Coast
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Paul McHugh : "..the strengths of good writing go all the way, across all the genres..."
03-08-10: Commentary : Joe Hill Grows 'Horns' : Devil and Detail
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Joe Hill : "Eventually, the wicked and the unworthy will get their just desserts on the business end of the Devil's pitchfork."
03-05-10: Commentary : Henry Porter Calls 'The Bell Ringers' : It Takes The Village
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Four Books With Alan Cheuse : Thrillers! : Henry Porter, The Bell Ringers; Keith Thomson, Once a Spy; Jo Nesbo, The Devil's Star; Hennig Mankel, The Man From Beijing
03-04-10: Commentary : Jo NesbØ Earns 'The Devil's Star' : Rewind
03-01-10: Commentary : Adam Haslett Invests With 'Union Atlantic' : Abstract Power Abstracts Absolutely
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview With Adam Haslett : "With her, and with each character, how does the rhythm create a kind of musical argument?"
02-26-10: Commentary : Dan Simmons Heads for the 'Black Hills' : Unstuck in Life
02-23-10: Commentary : Adam Haslett Knows 'You Are No Stranger Here' : Stories from Strangers' Shoes
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Jedediah Berry Interviewed at SF in SF, February 13, 2010 : "...being at Small Beer has actually introduced whole worlds to me ..."
02-22-10: Commentary : Graeme Gibson's 'The Bedside Book of Birds' and 'The Bedside Book of Beasts' : A Feast for Your Mind, Your Eyes and Your Mind's Eye
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2009 Interview with Graeme Gibson : "Our common humanity, our common culture, will help make the connections."
02-19-10: Commentary : Ralph Waldo Ellison 'Three Days Before the Shooting ...' : One Book, Many Stories
Agony Column Podcast News Report : John Callahan and Adam Bradley and 'Three Days before the Shooting' : "I've moved through the phases of my own life, and I find those phases mirrored in the characters of this novel." — John Callahan "...capable of brilliance, eloquence and power; that's how I understand the second novel, as we see it in Three Days Before the Shooting, and that's certainly how I understand, and I think how Ellison understood, America." — Adam Bradley
02-18-10: Commentary : George Mann Scares Up 'The Ghosts of Manhattan' : Hard Core Pulp Action
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Speaking Frankly With Thomas Frank : From Tea to Shining Tea : "When I think about what I'm saying, it's so depressing..."
02-17-10: Commentary : Thomas More, Clarence Miller and 'Utopia' : Politics, Satire, Fantasy
02-15-10: Commentary : 'Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded' by John Scalzi : A Decade of Whatever
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni : "I have to work through the novel and then it comes to me, how it's going to end."
02-12-10: Commentary : Stephanie Merritt Becomes S. J. Parris : 'Heresy'
02-11-10: Commentary : Max Watman 'Chasing the White Dog' : Home-Made Hooch and Rebellion
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview With Sam Farr : : "The money came from Washington, but the uses for that money came from the local community."
02-10-10: Commentary : Anne Lamott Spots 'Imperfect Birds' : The Ties That Unbind
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Speaking Frankly: Thomas Frank on Re-Populism and Re-Launching The Baffler : "I have never seen 'populist backlash in a headline before."
02-09-10: Commentary : Douglas Clegg Returns to 'Neverland' : Is 1980's Horror Returning from the Grave?
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2009 Interview with David Drake, Part 2 / Complete : "I didn't have governor ... that is ... anything, endgame, was me killing somebody.""
02-08-10: Commentary : David Louis Edelman Completes Jump 225 : 'Geosynchron'
I thought it might be fun to get Frank on the phone and talk to him about the week's events, which is something that we really can't prepare for, because things are changing so fast, and the outrageous events pile up so quickly that it's hard to keep track of the lies, the truths, the lies about the truths and the truths about the lies. When I scheduled the interview, I must admit, I told him it was conditional on the phones still working. Anyone who remembers 
