{"id":144158,"date":"2020-04-07T13:00:54","date_gmt":"2020-04-07T17:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=144158"},"modified":"2020-04-07T12:36:43","modified_gmt":"2020-04-07T16:36:43","slug":"redux-nothing-to-grind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2020\/04\/07\/redux-nothing-to-grind\/","title":{"rendered":"Redux: Nothing to Grind"},"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>

Fran Lebowitz, ca. 2011. Photo: Christopher Macsurak.<\/p><\/div>\n

This week at The Paris Review<\/em>, we\u2019re getting easily distracted, writing slowly, and leaving our desks. Read on for some literature that shares these same concerns: a 1993 interview<\/a> with Fran Lebowitz, Sigrid Nunez\u2019s short story \u201cThe Blind<\/a>,\u201d and Gevorg Emin\u2019s poem \u201cThe Block<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you enjoy these free interviews, stories, and poems, why not\u00a0subscribe<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0The Paris Review<\/em>\u00a0and read the entire archive? You\u2019ll also get four new issues of the quarterly delivered straight to your door. And for as long as we\u2019re flattening the curve,\u00a0The Paris Review<\/em>\u00a0will be sending out a new weekly newsletter, The Art of Distance, featuring unlocked archival selections, dispatches from the\u00a0Daily<\/em>, and efforts from our peer organizations. Read the latest edition here<\/a>, and then\u00a0sign up for more<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A Humorist at Work: Fran Lebowitz<\/a>
\nIssue no. 127 (Summer 1993)<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

INTERVIEWER<\/p>\n

What did you do during those five years before you started writing the book?<\/p>\n

LEBOWITZ<\/p>\n

I sulked. Sulking is a big effort. So is not writing. I only realized that when I did start writing. When I started getting real work done, I realized how much easier it is to write than not to write. Not writing is probably the most exhausting profession I\u2019ve ever encountered. It takes it out of you. It\u2019s very psychically wearing not to write\u2014I mean if you\u2019re supposed to be writing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

The Blind<\/a>
\nBy Sigrid Nunez
\nIssue no. 222 (Fall 2017)<\/em><\/p>\n

Where were you going? Nowhere in particular. No errand, no appointment. Just strolling along, hands in pockets, savoring the street. It was your thing: If I can\u2019t walk, I can\u2019t write.<\/em> You would work in the morning, and at a certain point, which always came, when it seemed you were incapable of writing a sentence, you would go out and walk for miles. When you came back, you would sit down again to work, trying to hold on to the rhythm that had been established while walking. And the better you succeeded at that, the better the writing.<\/p>\n

Because it\u2019s all about the rhythm, you said. Good sentences start with a beat.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

The Block<\/a>
\nBy Gevorg Emin
\nIssue no. 57 (Spring 1974)<\/em><\/p>\n

For two months
\nI have not written
\na word.<\/p>\n

My voice, a low
\ngrumble, disturbs
\nour quarter<\/p>\n

like the rumble
\nof the millstone
\nwhich having nothing to grind
\ngrinds itself.<\/p>\n

\u2014Translated from the Armenian by Diana Der Hovanessian<\/em><\/p>\n<\/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":"

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