{"id":150979,"date":"2021-02-16T15:24:53","date_gmt":"2021-02-16T20:24:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=150979"},"modified":"2021-02-16T15:24:53","modified_gmt":"2021-02-16T20:24:53","slug":"redux-drowning-in-the-word","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/02\/16\/redux-drowning-in-the-word\/","title":{"rendered":"Redux: Drowning in the Word"},"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>

Simone de Beauvoir.<\/p><\/div>\n

This week at The Paris Review<\/em>, we\u2019re celebrating Valentine\u2019s Day and dwelling on both the highs and lows of love. Read on for Simone de Beauvoir\u2019s Art of Fiction interview<\/a>, Akhil Sharma\u2019s short story \u201cThe Well<\/a>,\u201d Frank O\u2019Hara\u2019s poem \u201cLove<\/a>,\u201d and Eric Fischl\u2019s portfolio \u201cCouples<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you enjoy these free interviews, stories, and poems, why not\u00a0subscribe<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0The Paris Review<\/em>? Or take advantage of our\u00a0current subscription offer<\/a>, featuring our stylish new notebook\u2014the perfect place to draft love poems, write your novel, or log your reading list. (And you can always just\u00a0buy the notebook<\/a>, too!)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Simone de Beauvoir, The Art of Fiction No. 35<\/a>
\nIssue no. 34 (Spring\u2013Summer 1965)<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

INTERVIEWER<\/p>\n

None of your female characters are immune from love. You like the romantic element.<\/p>\n

DE BEAUVOIR<\/p>\n

Love is a great privilege. Real love, which is very rare, enriches the lives of the men and women who experience it.<\/p>\n

INTERVIEWER<\/p>\n

In your novels, it seems to be the women\u2014I\u2019m thinking of Fran\u00e7oise in She Came to Stay<\/em> and Anne in The Mandarins<\/em>\u2014who experience it most.<\/p>\n

DE BEAUVOIR<\/p>\n

The reason is that, despite everything, women give more of themselves in love because most of them don\u2019t have much else to absorb them. Perhaps they\u2019re also more capable of deep sympathy, which is the basis of love. Perhaps it\u2019s also because I can project myself more easily into women than into men. My female characters are much richer than my male characters.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Photo: Armstrong Nurseries. Courtesy of the Henry G. Gilbert Nursery and Seed Trade Catalog Collection. No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Well<\/a>
\nBy Akhil Sharma
\nIssue no. 218 (Fall 2016)<\/em><\/p>\n

As I told her I loved her, I felt, as I often did with Betsy, that what I was saying was a lie, a melodrama, a way to capture her, that things would not work out, that I was being foolish, that I was acting as if I didn\u2019t understand the reality of the situation, except that I did and was willing to break things and make things very bad just so I could get her.<\/p>\n

Tears slid down her cheeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy are you this way?\u201d she asked.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Photo courtesy of the John I. Monroe Collection, via Wikimedia Commons.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Love<\/a>
\nBy Frank O\u2019Hara
\nIssue no. 49 (Summer 1970)<\/em><\/p>\n

A whispering far away<\/p>\n

heard by the poet in a bower
\nof flesh his limbs stir<\/p>\n

is it sadness or the perfection
\nof eyes that clutches him?<\/p>\n

And a parade of lamenting
\ndraws near a wave of angels
\nhe is drowning in the word<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Art: Eric Fischl.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Couples<\/a>
\nBy Eric Fischl
\nIssue no. 86 (Winter 1982)<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you enjoyed the above, don\u2019t forget to\u00a0subscribe<\/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>. Or take advantage of our\u00a0current subscription offer<\/a>, featuring our stylish new notebook\u2014the perfect place to draft love poems, write your novel, or log your reading list. (And you can always just\u00a0buy the notebook<\/a>, too!)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019ve lowered the paywall on Simone de Beauvoir\u2019s Art of Fiction interview, a story by Akhil Sharma, a poem by Frank O\u2019Hara, and a portfolio by Eric Fischl.<\/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-150979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-redux"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nRedux: Drowning in the Word by The Paris Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We\u2019ve lowered the paywall on Simone de Beauvoir\u2019s Art of Fiction interview, a story by Akhil Sharma, a poem by Frank O\u2019Hara, and a portfolio by Eric Fischl.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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