Siri Hustvedt is the intellectual author of What I Loved and The Enchantment of Lily Dahl. Her latest book is a collection of essays entitled A Plea for Eros. The book tackles such diverse subjects as the corset, examining the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Charles Dickens, the first anniversary of 9/11 and many more. Hustvedt has lived in Brooklyn for many years and is married to author Paul Auster.
Buy A Plea for Eros
Daniel Robert Epstein: Were the essays in Eros all original?
Siri Hustvedt: Some of them were printed elsewhere some of them were not.
DRE: Why was it time to collect these?
SH: I had a lot of them. Not everything went in, but there were actually two essay collections printed. One on painting and then one on various other subjects.
DRE: Did you feel like it was appropriate right now?
SH: It does seem to be that we definitely have a divided country. But if you think American culture has always had a very strong strain of Puritanism and revivalism. Its pretty old and I think every once in awhile it goes on its upswing. Of course the whole book is not really about sex. Theres a very long essay on Dickens, for example, thats not really about sexuality. But certainly some of the essays certainly touch on that.
DRE: How was wearing the corset?
SH: I think wearing a corset is something that most people dont do anymore. Its not an everyday garment. There has been so much anti-corset feelings even during the period because doctors were very alarmed about the corset, but a lot of women were attached to it. By wearing it for eight days on that movie set, I understood why. Its like a permanent embrace. Theres something very nice about wearing a corset, especially if your stays arent pulled too tight.
DRE: How did it change your view of the people that frequently wear corsets?
SH: I dont know anyone who wears a corset every day. I have no knowledge of any such person. But certainly fashion goes in and out and there are what you call dresses or clothes that use corset-like apparatus.
DRE: What made you write the essay on The Great Gatsby?
SH: The Great Gatsby is a book that I love. That essay was printed first in Conjunctions, a literary magazine for a series called American Writers on American Writers. There were a lot of writers who had already picked their person but it turned out that no one had picked Fitzgerald. So I was absolutely delighted to write about The Great Gatsby because it really is a hugely important American book.
DRE: Did writing the story Yonder, make you reflect on how much youve changed?
SH: Yonder is really a book about memory. Its really a long essay about memory, about making images through the memories of other people. In some way a lot of the essays I wrote are stories of the self, or what does it mean to have a self. I think that Yonder is part of that. Memory is a very important way of building what you think of as a story of the self. For me, there are things that are quite continuous. But some of the things we remember are not entirely accurate. We create narratives or stories for ourselves and edit them in our minds. We dont remember everything either. Its a pretty deep, philosophical question, why do people become who they are? Its a question that Im thinking about all the time. I live with an idea of a certain continuous person with my name who was born where I was born and has a particular story. Obviously that story has influenced who I am now. So there are things that are the same and some things that are different. Obviously if I hadnt moved to New York, my life wouldve been different. If I hadnt married the person I married, etc., etc., if I hadnt had a child. All of these things wouldve made my life different. But at the same time, I feel theres a certain real continuity. I can remember even when I was a child, that I dont feel that Im recalling someone wholly different from myself now.
DRE: Are you working on a new book?
SH: Im deep in one actually. This one also has quite a bit to do with memory and childhood. Ive been doing a lot of research because the narrator is a psychiatrist. I actually went to a brain group, which is where neuroscientists and psychiatrists and psychoanalysts are trying to tease out the questions of what are brains are and what influence it has on psychiatric illness.
I teach a writing class to in-patients at Payne Whitney, which is a New York hospital. So thats one part of my research. Then Ive met people both in the neuroscience and the psychiatric community, some of whom have become friends. Sometimes I attend the conferences.
DRE: What have you discovered about psychiatry?
SH: Theyre finding out a great deal more about how the brain works than they ever have before and that theres a huge amount of questions that they still have no answers to. For example, scientifically nobody knows why we sleep or why we dream. Thats a big mystery and theres a lot of controversy about it and theyre doing a lot of research, but there are no hard and fast answers.
DRE: How come youre going to Portugal this week?
SH: My husbands making a movie in Portugal and Im going to go over there to see him for the end of the shoot.
DRE: I know you and he have collaborated on a screenplay.
SH: Yeah, but we took our names off of that movie. But I think a screenplay is one of the few things that is a very good collaborative form, because its dialogue. Its the bones of something. Thats something I wouldnt mind collaborating with him again just because its fun. Screenplays arent like novels, where I really would never want to collaborate with anyone, somehow its a very solitary form. With a screenplay, you can edit each other and its all dialogue and so having two people working on it together makes a lot of sense.
DRE: I just interviewed an engaged couple, Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie, who just collaborated on a graphic novel. Alan can be a tough character when dealing with the outside world. I asked his fiance, How do you guys deal with each other when you fight? She said, Were very sensitive people. We dont really fight in the way that regular adults do. Were too sensitive to fight. I was wondering if you can relate to that at all.
SH: [laughs] I think thats a very funny and sweet answer. Listen, its always good if you can avoid fights. I think thats something important. Sometimes fighting is good. Sometimes its good to say what you mean and if it creates a conflict, then you have to go from there. But Ive been married for almost 25 years and over time you do learn modes of interaction with your spouse that minimize conflict. That is one of the benefits of being married for a long time.
DRE: When youre in your office or wherever you write, will Paul keep away from you?
SH: We are each others first reader. We always have been. Of course I decide when I want him to look at it. Were absolutely truthful and sometimes even brutal about the work. I think its because we have a sense that I am really writing for him and he is doing the same for me. We want the best for the work so I trust him implicitly. Hes a great and very sensitive reader and I think I am too. So we trust each others commentary and edits.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
Buy A Plea for Eros
Daniel Robert Epstein: Were the essays in Eros all original?
Siri Hustvedt: Some of them were printed elsewhere some of them were not.
DRE: Why was it time to collect these?
SH: I had a lot of them. Not everything went in, but there were actually two essay collections printed. One on painting and then one on various other subjects.
DRE: Did you feel like it was appropriate right now?
SH: It does seem to be that we definitely have a divided country. But if you think American culture has always had a very strong strain of Puritanism and revivalism. Its pretty old and I think every once in awhile it goes on its upswing. Of course the whole book is not really about sex. Theres a very long essay on Dickens, for example, thats not really about sexuality. But certainly some of the essays certainly touch on that.
DRE: How was wearing the corset?
SH: I think wearing a corset is something that most people dont do anymore. Its not an everyday garment. There has been so much anti-corset feelings even during the period because doctors were very alarmed about the corset, but a lot of women were attached to it. By wearing it for eight days on that movie set, I understood why. Its like a permanent embrace. Theres something very nice about wearing a corset, especially if your stays arent pulled too tight.
DRE: How did it change your view of the people that frequently wear corsets?
SH: I dont know anyone who wears a corset every day. I have no knowledge of any such person. But certainly fashion goes in and out and there are what you call dresses or clothes that use corset-like apparatus.
DRE: What made you write the essay on The Great Gatsby?
SH: The Great Gatsby is a book that I love. That essay was printed first in Conjunctions, a literary magazine for a series called American Writers on American Writers. There were a lot of writers who had already picked their person but it turned out that no one had picked Fitzgerald. So I was absolutely delighted to write about The Great Gatsby because it really is a hugely important American book.
DRE: Did writing the story Yonder, make you reflect on how much youve changed?
SH: Yonder is really a book about memory. Its really a long essay about memory, about making images through the memories of other people. In some way a lot of the essays I wrote are stories of the self, or what does it mean to have a self. I think that Yonder is part of that. Memory is a very important way of building what you think of as a story of the self. For me, there are things that are quite continuous. But some of the things we remember are not entirely accurate. We create narratives or stories for ourselves and edit them in our minds. We dont remember everything either. Its a pretty deep, philosophical question, why do people become who they are? Its a question that Im thinking about all the time. I live with an idea of a certain continuous person with my name who was born where I was born and has a particular story. Obviously that story has influenced who I am now. So there are things that are the same and some things that are different. Obviously if I hadnt moved to New York, my life wouldve been different. If I hadnt married the person I married, etc., etc., if I hadnt had a child. All of these things wouldve made my life different. But at the same time, I feel theres a certain real continuity. I can remember even when I was a child, that I dont feel that Im recalling someone wholly different from myself now.
DRE: Are you working on a new book?
SH: Im deep in one actually. This one also has quite a bit to do with memory and childhood. Ive been doing a lot of research because the narrator is a psychiatrist. I actually went to a brain group, which is where neuroscientists and psychiatrists and psychoanalysts are trying to tease out the questions of what are brains are and what influence it has on psychiatric illness.
I teach a writing class to in-patients at Payne Whitney, which is a New York hospital. So thats one part of my research. Then Ive met people both in the neuroscience and the psychiatric community, some of whom have become friends. Sometimes I attend the conferences.
DRE: What have you discovered about psychiatry?
SH: Theyre finding out a great deal more about how the brain works than they ever have before and that theres a huge amount of questions that they still have no answers to. For example, scientifically nobody knows why we sleep or why we dream. Thats a big mystery and theres a lot of controversy about it and theyre doing a lot of research, but there are no hard and fast answers.
DRE: How come youre going to Portugal this week?
SH: My husbands making a movie in Portugal and Im going to go over there to see him for the end of the shoot.
DRE: I know you and he have collaborated on a screenplay.
SH: Yeah, but we took our names off of that movie. But I think a screenplay is one of the few things that is a very good collaborative form, because its dialogue. Its the bones of something. Thats something I wouldnt mind collaborating with him again just because its fun. Screenplays arent like novels, where I really would never want to collaborate with anyone, somehow its a very solitary form. With a screenplay, you can edit each other and its all dialogue and so having two people working on it together makes a lot of sense.
DRE: I just interviewed an engaged couple, Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie, who just collaborated on a graphic novel. Alan can be a tough character when dealing with the outside world. I asked his fiance, How do you guys deal with each other when you fight? She said, Were very sensitive people. We dont really fight in the way that regular adults do. Were too sensitive to fight. I was wondering if you can relate to that at all.
SH: [laughs] I think thats a very funny and sweet answer. Listen, its always good if you can avoid fights. I think thats something important. Sometimes fighting is good. Sometimes its good to say what you mean and if it creates a conflict, then you have to go from there. But Ive been married for almost 25 years and over time you do learn modes of interaction with your spouse that minimize conflict. That is one of the benefits of being married for a long time.
DRE: When youre in your office or wherever you write, will Paul keep away from you?
SH: We are each others first reader. We always have been. Of course I decide when I want him to look at it. Were absolutely truthful and sometimes even brutal about the work. I think its because we have a sense that I am really writing for him and he is doing the same for me. We want the best for the work so I trust him implicitly. Hes a great and very sensitive reader and I think I am too. So we trust each others commentary and edits.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
courtneyriot:
Siri Hustvedt is the intellectual author of What I Loved and The Enchantment of Lily Dahl. Her latest book is a collection of essays entitled A Plea for Eros. The book tackles such diverse subjects as the corset, examining the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Charles Dickens, the first anniversary...