 |
 |
|
Do you travel much? I hate to travel. But I’ve done it. Between 1984 and 1994, God knows how many miles I clocked. From the publication of In the Land of Dreamy Dreams, I visited 150 or 200 colleges in the United States of America. At least that many colleges. Parts of London about 15 times, and Paris seven times. The day after they bombed the Athens airport, I got on an airplane in Los Angeles and flew to Greece. I knew nobody was going to be there, and I wanted to go spend a long time up in Delphi to finish a novel. It took me about 14 years to figure out that traveling on airplanes is the most miserable thing that a control freak like me can ever dream of doing. If you want to make a hell for control freaks, put them on commercial airlines. Who do you read? William Shakespeare, William Faulkner, number one and two. I still love Hemingway. I think he’s a great writer. I loved Fitzgerald when I was young. I love John Fowles. Vonnegut, anybody that’s funny. I love Eudora’s work, Flannery’s work. For learning to write, I recommend Lawrence Durrell’s Alexandria Quartet, but you must begin with Justine, which is the worst one. You can never tell what I’m going to start reading. Someone got me to read Tony Hillerman. His books are full of Indian lore about the Cheyenne, the Navaho, and the Hopi, which fascinates me. I was reading one a day. I was sitting in my house on the bed, eating bread and butter, and reading these books. I haven’t spent the hot middle of summer reading murder-mysteries in years – since I was pregnant. But it was so much fun. Hillerman’s books are filled with the most beautiful Zen spirit, the real Navaho spirit. The women writers I have read all my life, and continue to read, are mostly poets – Edna Millay, Sexton, others. Because I’m a woman and I write fiction, modern American fiction by women doesn’t appeal to me because it’s too close to what I do. I read a lot of nonfiction. I read books about science all the time. It’s just candy to me. It’s the part of my education that I don’t have. I don’t have a degree in biochemistry. And I want one because I’m a hypochondriac. I read about biochemistry all the time. You studied in the MFA program at Arkansas one year. How did you like it? It is a wonderful program. But some student – my story was set in the Delta – started complaining: “Why is there all this water in your stories? Why is there always a river or a bayou?” I said, “Damn it! I was born on the banks of the Mississippi River in the flood plain of three rivers with a bayou in front of my house! And I love rain!” But for months afterwards, every time I would write the word “water” or “river” it would stop me. Now, if someone did that to you enough times, it would make you stop and rethink your natural metaphors. You don’t want to rethink your natural metaphors, and you don’t want your attention to be called to the fact that they are there, which is why I don’t read criticism of my work. I don’t even really read the good parts. If it is someone who is a really good writer like Nancy Pate, who has always written gentle, insightful things about my work, I’ll read it. But I don’t want to know everybody’s opinion because it’ll be like that water thing. PREVIOUS PAGE | PAGE 3 OF 5 | NEXT PAGE |
