Writing as the pursuit of enigmas

January 4, 2015 8:24 PM

Andre Aciman, professor of comparative literature at CUNY, on writing, his work, and inspirations (SLYT).
posted by shivohum (3 comments total)

Thank you! Aciman's Call Me By Your Name is one of my favourite novels.
posted by Gin and Broadband at 12:05 AM on January 5, 2015 [1 favorite]

Thanks, it was fun to see and hear him after knowing his writing for many years. I haven't read his novels, but I highly recommend his memoir Out of Egypt and his essay collection False Papers: Essays on Exile and Memory. From the talk, I thought the most important message he conveyed to young writers was that if you only read the contemporary writers, you'll be just like them and won't have anything interesting to say. Most insightful remark: "Human beings are filled with things that don't go together." And most surprising: "Thucydides, who's my favorite writer..." Thucydides? Really? I find him cold and repellent, but maybe I should give him another shot. Herodotus has always been my man in the ancient-historian category.
posted by languagehat at 7:14 AM on January 5, 2015 [1 favorite]

if you only read the contemporary writers, you'll be just like them and won't have anything interesting to say

Exactly, exactly, exactly. That's crucial.
posted by tangerine at 12:03 PM on January 5, 2015