{"id":151091,"date":"2021-02-23T13:00:35","date_gmt":"2021-02-23T18:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=151091"},"modified":"2021-02-23T12:21:11","modified_gmt":"2021-02-23T17:21:11","slug":"redux-idlers-of-my-kind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/02\/23\/redux-idlers-of-my-kind\/","title":{"rendered":"Redux: Idlers of My Kind"},"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

\n
\"\"<\/a>

George Saunders. Photo: Chloe Aftel. Courtesy of George Saunders.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

This week, we\u2019re looking at some of the writers whom both The Paris Review<\/em> and BOMB Magazine<\/em> have published in the past. Read on for George Saunders\u2019s Art of Fiction interview<\/a>, Renee Gladman\u2019s essay \u201cFive Things<\/a>,\u201d and Cathy Park Hong\u2019s poem \u201cHappy Days<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you enjoy these free interviews, stories, and poems, why not take advantage of our current subscription offer<\/a> with BOMB Magazine<\/em>? Until the end of February, subscribe and save on both of these New York magazines, bringing you the best in literary and visual arts, for only $62.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

George Saunders, The Art of Fiction No. 245<\/a>
\nIssue no. 231 (Winter 2019)<\/em><\/p>\n

My view of myself is that I came in through the basement window of literature. I\u2019m not well educated or well read enough to do things correctly, and when I write what seems to me a \u201ccorrect\u201d story, it\u2019s got low energy and isn\u2019t true to my experience. Somehow the story and the language have to be a little messy or low. I love the idea of pushing an idea through a too-small linguistic opening\u2014that feeling of overflow. I love the idea that the passion contained in a story is so great that it fucks up the form and makes it unseemly and impolite.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Photo: Wellcome Library. CC BY 4.0 (https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0), via Wikimedia Commons.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Five Things<\/a>
\nBy Renee Gladman
\nIssue no. 217 (Summer 2016)<\/em><\/p>\n

I began the day standing at a threshold of time\u2014the beginning of something, the end of something. I had a method for standing that was called art, then writing. The way I stood allowed me to see how things could begin and end this way\u2014simultaneously. It was hard to follow these opposing tendencies, especially when you were writing and couldn\u2019t see anyway, see anything other than these words appearing on the laptop screen. You were writing about something you weren\u2019t looking at. There had been a break. I was saying this on paper. I am not ready for school.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Jean B\u00e9raud, La lettre<\/em> (detail), 1908, oil on canvas, 18 x 14 1\/2″. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Happy Days<\/a>
\nBy Cathy Park Hong
\nIssue no. 211 (Winter 2014)<\/em><\/p>\n

Gar\u00e7on, you snore so rhapsodically but hup hup,
\npeach schnapps & Coke Zero
\nwith a gumball-green mermaid swizzle stick\u2014
\nI need me a diabetic shock.<\/p>\n

I yearned so long to be ensorcelling,
\nyet I\u2019m always a meter maid, never a mermaid.
\nI\u2019d populate this world w\u2019 idlers of my kind,
\nbut pistil-less, I\u2019m pissily only one \u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you enjoyed the above, don\u2019t forget 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. Or take advantage of our current subscription offer<\/a> with <\/em>BOMB Magazine. Until the end of February, subscribe and save on both of these New York magazines, bringing you the best in literary and visual arts, for only $62.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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