Tonight Ben Lerner and Lorin Stein (but not Geoff Dyer!) discuss Ben’s new novel, and presumably, the past, present and future, too. Ahead of their conversation, I asked Ben a few questions about his past and present reads, his interests in Whitman and walking, and what he wanted to be when he was a kid.
All kinds of interviewing goodness, after the jump.
I promise not to sound too much like The New York Times Book Review, but to begin, I’m curious to know: what books are on your nightstand right now?
Journey By Moonlight by Antal Szerb; Heteronomy by Chris Nealon; Like Being Killed by Ellen Kennedy
A few poets haunt 10:04, Walt Whitman chief among them. What makes Whitman so essential to your novel? And what is your favorite Whitman poem?
The narrator is both inspired and embarrassed by Whitman’s belief that he could project himself into the future and that his poems could help form a kind of collective subject. Also Whitman sometimes flirts with the boundary between poetry and prose. And he’s a great poet of New York. And “Walt Whitman” is himself a work of fiction—a kind of silly yet messianic figure who is supposed to be able to contain multitudes. I guess my favorite poem is “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry.”
Your narrator has a fondness for movies, especially Back to the Future, one you presumably share. What was the last great movie you saw?
That short film that Joris Ivens and Chris Marker made called …à Valparaiso.
Your narrators tend to walk, a lot. Do you walk a lot, too? Where are your favorite places to walk in the city?
The bridges. Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn. Depends who I’m walking with.
10:04 involves a lot topics that are major childhood fascinations: outer space, dinosaurs, time travel. It makes me wonder: when you were young, what did you want to be when you grew up? And if you weren’t a writer and teacher, what might you be?
There was a brief period when I was five or so that I was afraid people were going to force me to be an astronaut. My parents had mentioned some sort of “space camp” and I had a horrible vision of being impressed into space travel. I didn’t yet understand it was, you know, competitive. I thought some people just got sent to space. I can remember some other professions I was afraid of entering or being forced to enter but I can’t really recall what I wanted to do. I have very few skills. I think it would be a lot of fun to be a psychoanalyst—which is not the same thing as saying I’m a fan of psychoanalysis.
What were your favorite books at age: 7, 17, and 27?
At 7 maybe The Silver Chair? At 17, maybe The Stranger? I can’t remember clearly and I was an idiot at 17 regardless. By 27 I’d given up on the idea of having favorites.
What was the last thing you Googled?
My daughter has a fever so “toddler fever danger” and “toddler Tylenol dosage,” etc.
See you tonight!
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I can’t wait for this tonight.
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