{"id":127347,"date":"2018-07-10T13:00:38","date_gmt":"2018-07-10T17:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=127347"},"modified":"2018-07-10T13:58:58","modified_gmt":"2018-07-10T17:58:58","slug":"redux-a-state-of-hyperconsciousness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/07\/10\/redux-a-state-of-hyperconsciousness\/","title":{"rendered":"Redux: A State of Hyperconsciousness"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every week, the editors of<\/em>\u00a0The Paris Review\u00a0lift the paywall on a selection of interviews, stories, poems, and more from the magazine\u2019s archive. You can have these unlocked\u00a0pieces delivered straight to your inbox every\u00a0Sunday by\u00a0signing up for the Redux newsletter<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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This week, we bring you\u00a0Jane Smiley\u2019s\u00a02015 Writers at Work interview<\/a>, where she describes writing in a fugue state;\u00a0Raymond Pettibon\u2019s portfolio \u201cReal Dogs in Space<\/a>\u201d; and\u00a0May Sarton\u2019s poem \u201cA Farewell<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Jane Smiley, The Art of Fiction No. 229<\/a>
\nIssue no. 214\u00a0(Fall 2015)<\/em><\/p>\n

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INTERVIEWER<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve described writing as a source of relaxation.<\/p>\n

SMILEY<\/p>\n

Do you know the writer Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi? He\u2019s a Hungarian psychologist who writes about the state of flow. If you\u2019re in a creative state, then essentially things sort of coagulate and you enter a state of hyper\u00adconsciousness\u2014you can write for an hour or so, but it only seems like a few minutes because you\u2019re so concentrated on it. I\u2019ve experienced that a lot, which doesn\u2019t mean there\u2019s no frustration, but I don\u2019t really remember the frustration very well. I remember more when the writing comes together. And I\u2019m willing to seek out that coming together. If I get frustrated, I\u2019ll go eat something, I\u2019ll go open another Diet Coke, I\u2019ll go to the barn, I\u2019ll distract myself, and then the parts in my brain that were working click and I get an idea. I read an article about how to learn to play a musical instrument. You practice, practice, practice\u00a0on Friday<\/span><\/span>, then you walk away. And then when you sit down\u00a0on Saturday<\/span><\/span>, you\u2019re better. Not only because of all the practice, but also because of the walking away. I\u2019m a firm believer in walking away.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Real Dogs in Space<\/a>
\nBy Raymond Pettibon
\nIssue no. 209 (Summer\u00a02014)<\/em><\/p>\n

A 1999 work gathers several dogs from Pettibon\u2019s past. The animals drift weightlessly in the bottom half of the drawing, which reads\u00a0REAL DOGS IN SPACE. PROFILES IN COURAGE<\/small>. It\u2019s a tribute to those canines who were first in spaceflight. \u201cReal dogs in space,\u201d Pettibon exclaims, \u201cthose were heroes.\u201d One of the dogs is Bick-a-bo, a cocker spaniel who once escaped, Pettibon says, out the window of his father\u2019s turquoise \u201964 Chevy Malibu at the post office; Pettibon found him about a month later, living comfortably with a new family. The dog\u2019s name comes from the song \u201cSwingin\u2019 the Alphabet,\u201d from the 1938 Three Stooges film\u00a0Violent Is the Word for Curly<\/em>, in which the trio masquerades as professors at a women\u2019s college. Pettibon sings me the line from memory: \u201cB-A-bay, B-E-bee, B-I-bicky-bi, B-O-bo, bicky-bi-bo, B-U-bu, bicky-bi-bo-bu.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014Nicole Rudick<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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A Farewell<\/a>
\nBy May Sarton
\nIssue no. 89 (Fall 1983)<\/em><\/p>\n

For a while I shall still be leaving.
\nLooking back at you as you slip away
\nInto the magic islands of the mind.
\nBut for a while now all alive, believing
\nThat in a single poignant hour
\nWe did say all that we could ever say
\nIn a great flowing out of radiant power.
\nIt was like seeing and then going blind \u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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If you like what you read,\u00a0get a year of<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>The Paris Review\u2014four new issues, plus instant access to everything we\u2019ve ever published.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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