Michael Silverblatt, host of KCRW’s Bookworm, interviewed in Bomb.
“But I think everything has its place, there should be many voices. Saying that there shouldn’t be experimental novels—what is it, eugenics? We want to breed a certain novel and have only it? No, we want as many things as possible! To expect a writer to write a book that doesn’t come naturally to them is foolish. And I think our great American novels tend to be in a strange and original mode. My favorite American novel is Moby-Dick, and I think—if people are being honest—in addition to its extraordinary poetry, its philosophy, its originality of form, there are all sorts of places where the voice in Moby-Dick becomes orotund and kind of howling. The constant intensity of Ahab’s tone—I think that’s probably a mistake, but certainly Melville invented a voice to rival the voice of a hurricane.”
If you don’t listen to Bookworm already, you should.
