{"id":143393,"date":"2020-03-10T13:00:01","date_gmt":"2020-03-10T17:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=143393"},"modified":"2020-03-10T12:35:10","modified_gmt":"2020-03-10T16:35:10","slug":"redux-the-folded-down-table","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2020\/03\/10\/redux-the-folded-down-table\/","title":{"rendered":"Redux: The Folded-Down Table"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every week, the editors of\u00a0<\/em>The Paris Review\u00a0lift the paywall on a selection of interviews, stories, poems, and more from the magazine\u2019s archive. You can have these unlocked pieces delivered straight to your inbox every Sunday by\u00a0signing up for the Redux newsletter<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Photo: Marcelo Noah, CC by 2.0<\/a> via Wikimedia Commons<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n

This week at The Paris Review<\/em>, we\u2019re highlighting three archive pieces written by authors who appear in the Spring issue<\/a>. Read on for Billy Collins\u2019s Art of Poetry interview<\/a>, an excerpt<\/a> from Rachel Cusk\u2019s novel Outline<\/em>, and Nathaniel Mackey\u2019s poem \u201cSong of the Andoumboulou: 145<\/a>.\u201d And after you finish those, make sure to delve into the new issue with Billy Collins\u2019s poem \u201cOn the Deaths of Friends<\/a>,\u201d Rachel Cusk\u2019s Art of Fiction interview<\/a>, and Nathaniel Mackey\u2019s Art of Poetry interview<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you enjoy these free interviews, stories, and poems, why not\u00a0subscribe<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0The Paris Review<\/em> and read the entire archive? You\u2019ll also get four new issues of the quarterly delivered straight to your door.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Billy Collins, The Art of Poetry No. 83<\/a>
\nIssue no. 159 (Fall 2001)<\/em><\/p>\n

The basis of trust for a reader used to be meter and end-rhyme. Now it\u2019s tone that establishes the poet\u2019s authority. The first few lines keep giving birth to more and more lines. Like most poets, I don\u2019t know where I\u2019m going. The pen is an instrument of discovery rather than just a recording implement. If you write a letter of resignation or something with an agenda, you\u2019re simply using a pen to record what you have thought out. In a poem, the pen is more like a flashlight, a Geiger counter, or one of those metal detectors that people walk around beaches with. You\u2019re trying to discover something that you don\u2019t know exists, maybe something of value.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Outline: Part 1<\/a>
\nBy Rachel Cusk
\nIssue no. 207 (Winter 2013)<\/em><\/p>\n

All this time, the air hostess had been advancing slowly along the aisle, pushing a metal trolley from which she was dispensing plastic trays of food and drink. She had now come to our row: she passed along the white plastic trays, and I offered one to the boy on my left, who lifted up his gaming console with both hands so that I could place it on the folded-down table in front of him. My right-hand neighbor and I lifted the lids of ours, so that tea could be poured into the white plastic cups that came with the trays. He began to ask me questions, as though he had learned to remind himself to do so, and I wondered what or who had taught him that lesson, which many people never learn.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Song of the Andoumboulou: 145<\/a>
\nBy Nathaniel Mackey
\nIssue no. 214 (Fall 2015)<\/em><\/p>\n

The morning\u2019s horn extended a palmful of
\n….<\/span>sand. I felt a dry sprig on my face, frozen
\n..<\/span>moment, moment\u2019s omen, sleep\u2019s curtain
\n…………………………………………………………….<\/span>kicked
\n….<\/span>on top. I\u2019d forgotten more about time than
\n……<\/span>I could know I got up knowing, Cold Duck
\n..<\/span>time the time I knew best, head bad beyond
\n………………………………………………………………..<\/span>all
\n….<\/span>hope. Hand spread, sand uncupped, hand
\nextended \u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

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.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week, we\u2019re lowering the paywall on three archive pieces written by authors who appear in the Spring issue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31006],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-143393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-redux"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nRedux: The Folded-Down Table by The Paris Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This week, we\u2019re lowering the paywall on three archive pieces written by authors who appear in the Spring issue.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2020\/03\/10\/redux-the-folded-down-table\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta 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