{"id":156426,"date":"2021-12-14T12:51:41","date_gmt":"2021-12-14T17:51:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=156426"},"modified":"2021-12-14T16:58:40","modified_gmt":"2021-12-14T21:58:40","slug":"redux-naked-lightbulb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/14\/redux-naked-lightbulb\/","title":{"rendered":"Redux: Naked Lightbulb"},"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><\/em><\/p>\n

In the seventies, Gary Indiana found himself swept up in the experimental film and theater scenes of West Germany and New York City. \u201cWhen I performed I had\u2014and this maybe had something to do with how much I drank\u2014a quality of demonic abandon,\u201d he recalls in his\u00a0Art of Fiction interview<\/a>\u00a0in our Winter issue,\u00a0in which he describes the influence of directors such as Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Werner Schroeter on his novels.\u00a0Of course, the page, the stage, and the screen have always been bedfellows.\u00a0To celebrate these intimate relationships, we\u2019re unlocking August Wilson\u2019s\u00a0Art of Theater interview<\/a>, James Salter\u2019s short story \u201cThe Cinema<\/a>,\u201d Charles Simic\u2019s poem \u201cMystery Theater<\/a>,\u201d an excerpt from Claudia Rankine\u2019s play\u00a0Help<\/a><\/em>, and a\u00a0portfolio of work<\/a>\u00a0by Ken Lum inspired by TV.<\/p>\n

If you enjoy these free interviews, stories, and poems, why not\u00a0subscribe<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0The Paris Review<\/em>? You\u2019ll\u00a0get four new issues of the quarterly delivered straight to your door.<\/p>\n

Interview<\/em>
\nAugust Wilson, The Art of Theater No. 14<\/a>
\nIssue no. 153 (Winter 1999)<\/em><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t write for a production. I write for the page, just as I would with a poem. A play exists on the page even if no one ever reads it aloud. I don\u2019t mean to underestimate a good production with actors embodying the characters, but depending on the readers\u2019 imagination they may get more by reading the play than by seeing a weak production.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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

Fiction<\/em><\/span>
\nThe Cinema<\/a>
\nBy James Salter
\nIssue no. 49 (Summer 1970)<\/em><\/p>\n

A performance was built up in layers, like a painting, that was his method, to start with this, add this, then this, and so forth. It expanded, became rich, developed depths and undercurrents. Then in the end they would cut it back, reduce it to half its size. That was what he meant by good acting.<\/p>\n

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

Poetry<\/em><\/span>
\nMystery Theater<\/a>
\nBy Charles Simic
\nIssue no. 212\u00a0(Spring 2015)<\/em><\/p>\n

Bald man smoking in bed,
\nNaked lightbulb over his head,<\/p>\n

The shadow of his cigar
\nNext to him on the wall,<\/p>\n

Its long ash about to fall
\nInto a pitch-dark fishbowl.<\/p>\n

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

Play<\/em><\/span>
\nAn Excerpt from\u00a0Help<\/em><\/a>
\nBy Claudia Rankine
\nIssue no. 235 (Winter 2020)<\/em><\/p>\n

You\u2019ve joined us here in our liminal space, a space neither here nor there,
\na space full of imaginative possibilities,
\na space we move through on our way to other places,<\/p>\n

and I want to tell you how I came to have
\nbrief conversations
\nwith white men.<\/p>\n

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

Art<\/em><\/span>
\nPortraits<\/a>
\nBy Ken Lum
\nIssue no. 133 (Winter 1994)<\/em><\/p>\n

The catalyst for this work happened to have been a moment in Germany in 1993 when I was watching a program on TV which was the American equivalent of\u00a0Current Affair<\/em>. The program was dubbed, so the voices didn\u2019t always fit. A young boy was seen riding a bicycle but pointing frantically to somewhere outside the camera frame. He was mouthing words but nothing was audible. There was a sense of drama and anxiety which I found really interesting. I\u2019m interested in how the viewer identifies with the problems presented in the picture.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you enjoyed the above, don\u2019t forget to\u00a0subscribe<\/a>! In\u00a0addition to four print issues per year, you\u2019ll also receive complete digital access to our sixty-eight years\u2019 worth of archives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week, we’ve lowered the paywall on August Wilson, James Salter, Charles Simic, Claudia Rankine, and Ken Lum.<\/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-156426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-redux"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nRedux: Naked Lightbulb by The Paris Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"December 14, 2021 \u2013 This week, we've lowered the paywall on August Wilson, James Salter, Charles Simic, Claudia Rankine, and Ken Lum.\" \/>\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\/2021\/12\/14\/redux-naked-lightbulb\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Redux: Naked Lightbulb by The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"December 14, 2021 \u2013 This week, we've lowered the paywall on August Wilson, James Salter, Charles Simic, Claudia Rankine, and Ken Lum.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/14\/redux-naked-lightbulb\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-12-14T17:51:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-12-14T21:58:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/unnamed-1-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/14\/redux-naked-lightbulb\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/14\/redux-naked-lightbulb\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/4a14f739935c82f100675b84e220252e\"},\"headline\":\"Redux: Naked Lightbulb\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-12-14T17:51:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-12-14T21:58:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/14\/redux-naked-lightbulb\/\"},\"wordCount\":591,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/14\/redux-naked-lightbulb\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/unnamed-1-1.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Redux\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/14\/redux-naked-lightbulb\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/14\/redux-naked-lightbulb\/\",\"name\":\"Redux: Naked Lightbulb by The Paris Review\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/14\/redux-naked-lightbulb\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/14\/redux-naked-lightbulb\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/unnamed-1-1.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-12-14T17:51:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-12-14T21:58:40+00:00\",\"description\":\"December 14, 2021 \u2013 This week, we've lowered the paywall on August Wilson, James Salter, Charles Simic, Claudia Rankine, and Ken Lum.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/14\/redux-naked-lightbulb\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/14\/redux-naked-lightbulb\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/14\/redux-naked-lightbulb\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/unnamed-1-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/unnamed-1-1.png\",\"width\":640,\"height\":480},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/14\/redux-naked-lightbulb\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Redux: Naked Lightbulb\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/4a14f739935c82f100675b84e220252e\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c15ccd1e2629bc3b1a8aa1a407e1186742acfaf923abe2addfec0885197794ff?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c15ccd1e2629bc3b1a8aa1a407e1186742acfaf923abe2addfec0885197794ff?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/parisreview\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Redux: Naked Lightbulb by The Paris Review","description":"December 14, 2021 \u2013 This week, we've lowered the paywall on August Wilson, James Salter, Charles Simic, Claudia Rankine, and Ken Lum.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/14\/redux-naked-lightbulb\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Redux: Naked Lightbulb by The Paris Review","og_description":"December 14, 2021 \u2013 This week, we've lowered the paywall on August Wilson, James Salter, Charles Simic, Claudia Rankine, and Ken Lum.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/14\/redux-naked-lightbulb\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2021-12-14T17:51:41+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-12-14T21:58:40+00:00","og_image":[{"width":640,"height":480,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/unnamed-1-1.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"The Paris Review","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"The Paris Review","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/14\/redux-naked-lightbulb\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/14\/redux-naked-lightbulb\/"},"author":{"name":"The Paris Review","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/4a14f739935c82f100675b84e220252e"},"headline":"Redux: Naked Lightbulb","datePublished":"2021-12-14T17:51:41+00:00","dateModified":"2021-12-14T21:58:40+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/14\/redux-naked-lightbulb\/"},"wordCount":591,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/14\/redux-naked-lightbulb\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/unnamed-1-1.png","articleSection":["Redux"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/14\/redux-naked-lightbulb\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/14\/redux-naked-lightbulb\/","name":"Redux: Naked Lightbulb by The Paris Review","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/14\/redux-naked-lightbulb\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/14\/redux-naked-lightbulb\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/unnamed-1-1.png","datePublished":"2021-12-14T17:51:41+00:00","dateModified":"2021-12-14T21:58:40+00:00","description":"December 14, 2021 \u2013 This week, we've lowered the paywall on August Wilson, James Salter, Charles Simic, Claudia Rankine, and Ken Lum.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/14\/redux-naked-lightbulb\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/14\/redux-naked-lightbulb\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/14\/redux-naked-lightbulb\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/unnamed-1-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/unnamed-1-1.png","width":640,"height":480},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/14\/redux-naked-lightbulb\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Redux: Naked Lightbulb"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/4a14f739935c82f100675b84e220252e","name":"The Paris Review","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c15ccd1e2629bc3b1a8aa1a407e1186742acfaf923abe2addfec0885197794ff?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c15ccd1e2629bc3b1a8aa1a407e1186742acfaf923abe2addfec0885197794ff?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"The Paris Review"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/parisreview\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156426"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156426\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":156438,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156426\/revisions\/156438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}