{"id":146109,"date":"2020-07-14T13:00:57","date_gmt":"2020-07-14T17:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=146109"},"modified":"2020-07-14T14:16:37","modified_gmt":"2020-07-14T18:16:37","slug":"redux-thunder-they-told-her","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2020\/07\/14\/redux-thunder-they-told-her\/","title":{"rendered":"Redux: Thunder, They Told Her"},"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>

Kazuo Ishiguro.<\/p><\/div>\n

This week at The Paris Review<\/em>, we\u2019re thinking about summer storms, rain, thunder, lightning, and everything watery. Read on for Kazuo Ishiguro\u2019s Art of Fiction interview<\/a>, Larry Woiwode\u2019s short story \u201cSummer Storms<\/a>,\u201d and Denise Levertov\u2019s poem \u201cSound of the Axe<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you enjoy these free interviews, stories, and poems, why not subscribe<\/a> to The Paris Review<\/em>? Or, better yet, subscribe to our special summer offer<\/a> with The New York Review of Books<\/em> for only $99. And for as long as we\u2019re flattening the curve, The Paris Review<\/em> will be sending out a weekly newsletter, The Art of Distance, featuring unlocked archival selections, dispatches from the Daily<\/em>, and efforts from our peer organizations. Read the latest edition\u00a0here<\/a>, and then\u00a0sign up for more<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Kazuo Ishiguro, The Art of Fiction No. 196<\/a>
\nIssue no. 184 (Spring 2008)<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

INTERVIEWER<\/p>\n

Why did your family move to England?<\/p>\n

ISHIGURO<\/p>\n

Initially it was only going to be a short trip. My father was an oceanographer, and the head of the British National Institute of Oceanography invited him over to pursue an invention of his, to do with storm-surge movements. I never quite discovered what it was. The National Institute of Oceanography was set up during the cold war, and there was an air of secrecy about it. My father went to this place in the middle of the woods. I only went to visit it once.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

Summer Storms<\/a>
\nBy Larry Woiwode
\nIssue no. 114 (Spring 1990)<\/em><\/p>\n

What is so pernicious about summer storms is the resistance in our nature to admit them. We acknowledge the possibility of storms in the spring, yes, when rain on the roof can assume the sound of a waterfall; or in the winter, with a howling wind accompanying drifting snow; or even in the fall, when heavy bodied rain tears off the last of the leaves and pastes them over spearing stubble. But summer is the season we\u2019re to be let off, to be free of this, as we expect, after the ingrained conditioning of years in school, to be freed from all our onerous chores. So summer storms set us outside our expectations, and often isolate us physically, since we don\u2019t take the precautions we do during other seasons; we expect to bask in stillness, taking summer off as recklessly as\u2014well, that storm on its way.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

Sound of the Axe<\/a>
\nBy Denise Levertov
\nIssue no. 79 (Spring 1981)<\/em><\/p>\n

Once a woman went into the woods.
\nThe birds were silent. Why? she said.
\nThunder, they told her,
\nthunder is coming.
\nShe walked on, and the trees were dark
\nand rustled their leaves. Why? she said.
\nThe great storm, they told her,
\nthe great storm is coming \u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(And if you\u2019d like, you can listen to this poem be read aloud<\/a> on Season One of <\/em>The Paris Review Podcast.)<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

To read more from the <\/em>Paris Review archives, make sure to subscribe<\/a>! In addition to four print issues per year, you\u2019ll also receive complete digital access to our sixty-seven years\u2019 worth of archives<\/em>. <\/em>And for a limited time, you can subscribe<\/a>\u00a0to both\u00a0<\/em>The Paris Review\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>The New York Review of Books\u00a0for just $99.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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