{"id":99036,"date":"2016-06-08T11:32:47","date_gmt":"2016-06-08T15:32:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=99036"},"modified":"2016-06-08T11:32:47","modified_gmt":"2016-06-08T15:32:47","slug":"helen-dewitt-on-the-last-samurai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/08\/helen-dewitt-on-the-last-samurai\/","title":{"rendered":"Helen DeWitt on <i>The Last Samurai<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4g6R1IOSy5k\" width=\"600\" height=\"333\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Inspired by our famous Writers at Work interviews, \u201c<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/myfirsttime\" target=\"_blank\">My First Time<\/a><\/strong>\u201d is a series of short videos about how writers got their start. Created by the filmmakers Tom Bean, Casey Brooks, and Luke Poling, each video is a portrait of the artist as a beginner\u2014and a look at the creative process, in all its joy, abjection, delusion, and euphoria.<\/p>\n<p>This installment\u00a0features\u00a0<strong>Helen DeWitt<\/strong>, who discusses her debut novel, <em>The Last Samurai<\/em>, published in 2000. After seven years of writing\u00a0unfinished novels, DeWitt\u00a0decided to quit her job as a legal secretary and devote herself to finishing one book. \u201cI thought, I just I have to quit until my money runs out \u2026 I\u2019m going just to sit down and do nothing but work on this book, and I\u2019m going to finish it in a month. Then I will have a finished book, and, see, it doesn\u2019t matter what happens then.\u201d <!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Be sure to watch the previous interviews in the series:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/13\/jeffrey-eugenides-on-the-virgin-suicides\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Jeffrey Eugenides<\/strong><\/a> on\u00a0<em>The Virgin Suicides<\/em>, his first novel<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/16\/ben-lerner-on-the-lichtenberg-figures\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Ben Lerner<\/strong><\/a> on <em>The Lichtenberg Figures<\/em>, his first collection<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/18\/katori-hall-on-hoodoo-love\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Katori Hall<\/strong><\/a> on\u00a0<em>Hoodoo Love<\/em>, her first play<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/17\/donald-antrim-on-elect-mr-robinson-for-a-better-world\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Donald Antrim<\/strong><\/a> on <i>Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World<\/i>, his first novel<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/20\/sheila-heti-on-the-middle-stories\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Sheila Heti<\/strong><\/a> on <em>The Middle Stories<\/em>, her first collection<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/18\/tao-lin-on-bed\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Tao Lin<\/strong><\/a> on <em>Bed<\/em>, his first collection<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/29\/christine-schutt-on-nightwork\/\"><strong>Christine Schutt<\/strong><\/a> on <em>Nightwork<\/em>, her first collection<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/tag\/branden-jacobs-jenkins\/\"><strong>Branden Jacobs-Jenkins<\/strong><\/a> on his play <em>Neighbors<\/em><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/27\/gabrielle-bell-on-her-book-of-series\/\"><strong>Gabrielle Bell<\/strong><\/a> on\u00a0<em>The Book of &#8230;<\/em> series, her early cartoons<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/26\/j-robert-lennon-on-the-light-of-the-falling-stars\/\"><strong>J. Robert Lennon<\/strong><\/a> on his debut novel, <em>The Light of Falling Stars<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Inspired by our famous Writers at Work interviews, \u201cMy First Time\u201d is a series of short videos about how writers got their start. Created by the filmmakers Tom Bean, Casey Brooks, and Luke Poling, each video is a portrait of the artist as a beginner\u2014and a look at the creative process, in all its joy, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":973,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18205],"tags":[18209,689,15323,457,19084,1132,7906,18206,747,15044,272,22680,7905,7214,10113,75],"class_list":["post-99036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-my-first-time","tag-casey-brooks","tag-craft","tag-debut-novels","tag-editors","tag-helen-dewitt","tag-interviews","tag-luke-poling","tag-my-first-time","tag-novels","tag-publishers","tag-publishing","tag-the-last-samurai","tag-tom-bean","tag-videos","tag-writers-at-work","tag-writing"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Watch: Helen DeWitt on Writing \u2018The Last Samurai\u2019<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For our My First Time video series, Helen DeWitt recalls writing her first novel \u2018The Last Samurai\u2019\" \/>\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\/2016\/06\/08\/helen-dewitt-on-the-last-samurai\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Helen DeWitt on The Last Samurai by Caitlin Love\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"June 8, 2016 \u2013 Inspired by our famous Writers at Work interviews, \u201cMy First Time\u201d is a series of short videos about how writers got their start. Created by the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/08\/helen-dewitt-on-the-last-samurai\/\" \/>\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=\"2016-06-08T15:32:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Caitlin Love\" \/>\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=\"Caitlin Love\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/08\/helen-dewitt-on-the-last-samurai\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/08\/helen-dewitt-on-the-last-samurai\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Caitlin Love\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/32438e2c4d8c860a60ecaa8ef15e6d43\"},\"headline\":\"Helen DeWitt on The Last Samurai\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-06-08T15:32:47+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/08\/helen-dewitt-on-the-last-samurai\/\"},\"wordCount\":259,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Casey Brooks\",\"craft\",\"debut novels\",\"editors\",\"Helen DeWitt\",\"interviews\",\"Luke Poling\",\"My First Time\",\"novels\",\"publishers\",\"publishing\",\"The Last Samurai\",\"Tom Bean\",\"videos\",\"writers at work\",\"writing\"],\"articleSection\":[\"My First Time\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/08\/helen-dewitt-on-the-last-samurai\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/08\/helen-dewitt-on-the-last-samurai\/\",\"name\":\"Watch: Helen DeWitt on Writing \u2018The Last Samurai\u2019\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-06-08T15:32:47+00:00\",\"description\":\"For our My First Time video series, Helen DeWitt recalls writing her first novel \u2018The Last Samurai\u2019\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/08\/helen-dewitt-on-the-last-samurai\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/08\/helen-dewitt-on-the-last-samurai\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/08\/helen-dewitt-on-the-last-samurai\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Helen DeWitt on The Last Samurai\"}]},{\"@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. 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