by Ask The Author Moderator
Member since:
March 27, 2006

Transcript From Today's Live Discussion with Author Jonathan Safran Foer

June 23, 2006 01:58 PM EDT (Updated: June 23, 2006 04:08 PM EDT)
views: 357 | rating: 9.9/10 (9 votes) | comments: 64

Hello Gather,

fileId:3096224743865189;size:inter;I am thrilled to welcome Jonathan Safran Foer to this afternoon's Ask The Author. Jonathan will discuss his novel Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, which was just released in paperback. Thank you all for your comments on his posts and excerpts over the last few weeks. It was great to hear from many of you who have read his books and I look forward to a lively discussion with Jonathan today.

To keep the conversation going, please review a few tips below that will make viewing the discussion easier. For those members who may not be aware of this, you must periodically refresh your screen to view new comments as they are added. This will allow you to keep current with the conversation. You may refresh your view by using the refresh button on your browser, or the F5 key on your keyboard, or through the Ctrl+R key (on Windows) or CMD+R (on Macintosh) key combination. After you have posted a comment to the conversation, refresh your screen (see above comment).

If you need a refresher on Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, check out Jonathan's Gather page to read two excerpts from the book and answers to a few previously asked questions. You can also watch a great video he made with his brother where he spends a day in Oskar's shoes.

I also wanted to let you know that everyone who asks a question during today's discussion will be entered into a drawing to win the hardcover set of Jonathan's two bestsellers Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close and Everything is Illuminated!

Welcome Jonathan. We are all looking forward to speaking with you today.

***********************************************************

Make sure to order your copy of Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close:

Barnes & Noble.com
Amazon.com
Booksense.com

Please join Gather's Ask The Author program to receive updates on upcoming author events!

Gather members:click here to join
New to Gather:click here to join

 

 
link to this page
Bookmark this post:
Facebook
Twitter
Delicious
Buzz
More

Comments: 64

Jonathan Safran Foer Jun 23, 2006, 2:01pm EDT
Hello to all---or to no one, I suppose; we'll find out in a minute. Consider me at your disposal for the next while...
Jonathon D. C. Jun 23, 2006, 2:02pm EDT
Hey, Jonathan. Really loved EL&IC. How did you decide to tackle 9/11 as a subject?
Jonathan Safran Foer Jun 23, 2006, 2:05pm EDT
Writing isn't really cathartic for me. It happens over too long a period of time---at least two years---and involves too much deliberateness. While they're very different books, inspired by events that I experienced in dramatically different ways, I found the experiences of writing EII and EL&IC to be similar: frustrating, draining and ultimately relieving.
Jonathan Safran Foer Jun 23, 2006, 2:07pm EDT
Hi, Gozer.
Dian Parker Jun 23, 2006, 2:07pm EDT
Jonathan, I loved EL&IC. How did you deal with NOT knowing what you were writing about as you wrote the book? I am writing a novel and experiencing this and wonder how to keep the doubt and anxiousness from stopping me from completion, even though I love what I am writing. How did you manage this?
Elisabeth Joyce Jun 23, 2006, 2:08pm EDT
Jonathan-
Thank you for Oskar. He is my favorite person. Who are you inventing now, and when can we meet him/her?
Jonathon D. C. Jun 23, 2006, 2:10pm EDT
Ooooooh, I second Elisabeth's question.
Jonathan Safran Foer Jun 23, 2006, 2:11pm EDT
I would find it much harder to know what I was writing about. It's almost impossibly difficult to sit at a desk for five hours a day, your own thoughts your only company. Better to be surprised every now and then---to find thoughts you didn't know you were having. As for what I'm inventing now, it's hard to say. I'm working on another novel, but it will take some time. As always, life keeps getting in the way.
Jonathan Safran Foer Jun 23, 2006, 2:13pm EDT
Gozer, do you get a healthy amount of sunlight?
Barbara Shelde Jun 23, 2006, 2:13pm EDT
Jonathan -

I'm one of your biggest fans - Thank you so much for allowing us to chat with you.

Barbara
Elisabeth Joyce Jun 23, 2006, 2:14pm EDT
Life, schmife. Save me from chick lit and get back to work!
Dian Parker Jun 23, 2006, 2:17pm EDT
How did you get Ell, your first book, published?
Michael Easton Jun 23, 2006, 2:17pm EDT
I greatly appreciate your comments about the process you go through in writing, but, help us understand where your inspiration comes from..... and then i'm off to buy the book :)
Ask The Author Moderator Jun 23, 2006, 2:18pm EDT
Jonathan, I have a bunch of questions that were emailed to me by Gather members who could not join us today or were a bit too shy to ask themselves so I'll start out with one:
I loved the visual/textual elements in Extremely Loud and honestly felt as if it brought the story to life in a completely different way. Why don't more authors use these elements in their writing? Do you think it is a purist thing? Is it cost?
Jonathan Safran Foer Jun 23, 2006, 2:18pm EDT
I'm not very disciplined, but am always wishing I were. I always write in the mornings. Never after lunch, really. It's not that I don't try. It's that I don't succeed. I get sleepy. Five minutes after finishing a meal I get hungry. I find ways out. As for special places, I never work at home. Again with the sleepiness and hunger, but at home it's at all hours. I usually work in a coffee shop, or in the public library. I can't work without some distractions to resist. It's best to have a conversation not to llisten to, people making you angry, something to push against with your imagination. I never target anything I write at anyone, not even myself.
Elisabeth Joyce Jun 23, 2006, 2:21pm EDT
Who are your writing gods? I mean, besides Gozer.
Jonathon D. C. Jun 23, 2006, 2:23pm EDT
Jonathan, what's your favorite place in Washington, DC? Your author bio says that you grew up there?
Jonathan Safran Foer Jun 23, 2006, 2:23pm EDT
Where does inspiration come from? I don't believe in inspiration. I've never been struck by a great idea. In my experience, ideas have to be exhumed, usually from great depths, usually with bare hands. It's all hard work. No way around that. I've found that most questions I'm asked have to do with looking for some secret way around the hard work, for something magical. I suppose that would be nice, but it would be something other than writing.
Jonathan Safran Foer Jun 23, 2006, 2:25pm EDT
My favorite place in DC is probably Gravely Point, a little public park just short of the runways at National Airport. Families go there and eat in the grass and watch planes coming in less than one hundred feet over their heads.
Dian Parker Jun 23, 2006, 2:27pm EDT
THANK YOU for saying it true, Jonathan, about inspiration. It is, always, damn hard work!
Adam Maffei Jun 23, 2006, 2:29pm EDT
Hi Jonathan,
Your comment about the hard work of creation is excellent. As a musician I drifted toward the biz side becuase I found there were other things I liked to do in life than just play music.

I believe that to be succesful in music most, if not all musicians, can not survive with out playing. Do you feel the same is true for writers?
Ask The Author Moderator Jun 23, 2006, 2:29pm EDT
Hi Jonathan,
Another question that was emailed to me when you have a chance to get to it:
New York is a central character in Extremely Loud... Do you think you could have written this book about any other city?
Jonathan Safran Foer Jun 23, 2006, 2:36pm EDT
Yes, I do think I could have written the book in another city. In fact, I wrote a good bit of it in other cities. I don't think it's necessary to be in the places you write about, or have had the experiences, or even know very much in any kind of journalistic way.
Jonathon D. C. Jun 23, 2006, 2:40pm EDT
Jonathan, what is essential, then, for your writing process?
Jonathan Safran Foer Jun 23, 2006, 2:40pm EDT
I didn't have performance anxiety, because writing isn't a performance. When I wrote my first book, I had absolutely no sense of a future audience. And when I wrote the second book---even with all of the knowledge that came with the publication of the first---again it was just me at the desk, the paper and me. I take for granted that everyone's got an opinion, and that some are useful and some are silly, some are sincere and some confused, some feel good to hear and others sting. It's all a mess. And to try to sort out that mess would create a bigger mess.
Ask The Author Moderator Jun 23, 2006, 2:44pm EDT
Hi Jonathan, another question that I just received via email:
"I read one interview where you said that the survival of a book depends on it being talked about and I wonder if you have any thoughts on how the internet impacts reader buzz. Do you feel the internet gives everyday readers more power than reviewers?"
Jonathan Safran Foer Jun 23, 2006, 2:48pm EDT
What's essential for the writing process? I can't really speak to "the" writing process, only mine. (Faulkner could write drunk, I can't even write tired.) For me, all that's necessary is a clear mind. That is to say, I can't write when I'm in a mood---good or bad. I can't write when I'm tired, or groggy, or nervous or giddy. I don't need a desk. I don't need a laptop. I don't need coffee, or a dictionary, or my dog at my feet---although the last is very nice. Just a clear mind.
Chris Steib Jun 23, 2006, 2:50pm EDT
Jonathan, what about the publishing industry -- or writing in general -- gives you heavy boots?
Dian Parker Jun 23, 2006, 2:52pm EDT
"Just a clear mind." Jonathan, your common sense is refreshing. Dispell all images of being a writer. BRAVO.
Jonathan Safran Foer Jun 23, 2006, 2:53pm EDT
Photographs. Enough people have asked that I should answer. I didn't pick photographs to illustrate the writing any more than I wrote to illustrate the photographs. The work together---as dance and music work together in ballet---and I conceived of the book all at once. Of course sometimes I knew there was a picture I wanted to find, and sometimes---as in the case of the two-page spread of birds---I found an image that demanded writing. It was all very organic. When I write, I work toward realizing the book that it is in my head. I force it out of my head. I made EL&IC to look in my hands as it did in my head.
Charles Lennox Jun 23, 2006, 2:55pm EDT
What advice would you give to aspiring authors?
Jonathan Safran Foer Jun 23, 2006, 2:59pm EDT
No advice to aspiring writers, I'm afraid. Except, maybe, for this: there's no such thing as an aspiring writer. If you write, you're a writer. Everything else---publishing---is incidental to being a writer. That has to do with being a published writer, which is a very different thing. Few people are as lucky as writers in this way. An astronaut cannot be an astronaut simply by trying. A doctor can't be a doctor. But with writing, the second you sit down to write you are as much a write as any Nobelist.
Jonathon D. C. Jun 23, 2006, 3:03pm EDT
Jonathan, I've looked at your web site -- given your talent with stream-of-consciousness and dedication to the craft, have you ever considered blogging?
Jonathan Safran Foer Jun 23, 2006, 3:09pm EDT
Blogging? My hands are too full.
Charles Lennox Jun 23, 2006, 3:13pm EDT
Do you have a scheduled time to write each day? I know you mentioned that you don't need a laptop and so on to write, but how often do you write? Is it always working on your next novel or do you just write random stories and thoughts?
Elisabeth Joyce Jun 23, 2006, 3:13pm EDT
What a great answer to the "aspiring writers" question. I hope it has inspired people here to just get something down and not worry about what anyone else thinks. It's spooky enough wondering if a chat room comment is worthy of posting!
Nick H. Jun 23, 2006, 3:15pm EDT
Jonathan, I watched the video you and your brother made and just wanted to know if and what you learned from physically living as Oskar rather than just being in his head? Also, what was Oxana's reaction after you shook her hand? Was she the only Black in the phonebook you approached?
Dian Parker Jun 23, 2006, 3:21pm EDT
How did you FIRST get the business of be published going? Did you send out your manuscript or meet someone or...? Was your first book rejected by other publishers?
How to get one's first book published???
Did you have an agent?
Jonathan Safran Foer Jun 23, 2006, 3:25pm EDT
The first thing I ever had published was in the Paris Review---a short story I sent on my own, without an agent. I found an agent simply by sending the manuscript---which was completed---to agents I'd read about in the acknowledgements of books I liked. (My agent, Nicole Aragi, was mentioned in Nathan Englander's collection of stories.) She pulled it out of the slush pile, took me on, and I am very lucky for that.
Yen-Hong Tran Jun 23, 2006, 3:26pm EDT
I just wanted to add a comment that I think that Foer's most recent book brings a refreshing poignancy to what even the most well meaning of words usually do to immediate experiences of the senses. That is in and of itself a great accomplishment. I felt enveloped in those words, more immediate, more 'right there' perhaps than if I were feeling these experiences myself.

Congrats,
Yen-Hong Tran
Jonathon D. C. Jun 23, 2006, 3:30pm EDT
Jonathan, in reference to Nick's comment, I also enjoyed the video. Do you collaborate with your brother a lot?
Ask The Author Moderator Jun 23, 2006, 3:31pm EDT
Jonathan,
Another question a few people have emailed (in some variation) over the past few weeks:
"Although we are talking about Extremely Loud people are curious to know what your reaction was to the film version of Everything is Illuminated. Were you happy with the film? Will there be an Extremely Loud movie? What is your overall position on the translation from book to film?"
Adrianne Mathiowetz Jun 23, 2006, 3:34pm EDT
Hi Jonathan! I'm a huge fan. Who are your favorite authors? Who's inspired you?
Jonathan Safran Foer Jun 23, 2006, 3:34pm EDT
Do I collaborate with my brother a lot? I guess that depends on how you define your terms. We certainly never think about what we do together as "collaborating." We do things together that we find interesting. I have two brothers, actually. The older is a journalist and editor. We're actually "collaborating" on somethign right now: a collection of undelivered presidential speeches, like this amazing one: http://watergate.info/nixon/moon-disaster-speech-1969.shtml
Elisabeth Joyce Jun 23, 2006, 3:35pm EDT
The two hours are winding down, and I'd like to be sure to get in one last message.
Thank you again for your novels. There is a lot of, shall we say, "merde" out there these days getting published and ending up on bestseller lists. The world is no better for it. Your work makes me wonder if Philip Roth really is my favorite author!
By the way, do comments comparing you to other writers make you say, "What the..?"
Jonathon D. C. Jun 23, 2006, 3:40pm EDT
Jose!
Jonathan Safran Foer Jun 23, 2006, 3:41pm EDT
Thanks so much. That's very nice of you to say, and it means a lot to me---more than you'd guess. Comparisons to other writers make me chuckle---they're always wrong. Sometimes comparisons insult me, sometimes I know they're way too generous, usually they just don't feel right. And thank goodness for that, because the world doesn't need redundant books. It doesn't even need more books, per se. It needs more good books. More original, necessary books. If you write like someone else, you might as well let them write.
Lisa W. Jun 23, 2006, 3:42pm EDT
I am someone who loves books and am wondering if you think that books will go the way of digital media in our lifetime -- that someday you'll be on the subway and everyone will be reading the newest novel off of their digital e-book reader? Would you still write if there were no books?
Johnny 5000 Jun 23, 2006, 3:42pm EDT
"If you write like someone else, you might as well let them write."

I dig that very much.
Jonathan Safran Foer Jun 23, 2006, 3:45pm EDT
So things are winding down, and I'll have time for one more question after this. As for books and digital media, I'm not too worried. The things is, very few people in the world read. It's on a scale entirely unlike that of film or music. But that small group is loyal, and passionate. You meet very few readers who wouldn't describe themselves as "someone who loves books," as you do. So maybe digital media will attract people who aren't really readers in the first place, but that's fine. Bringing people in from the outside is very good. But those of us that love books---books themselves---will continue to demand them.
Ask The Author Moderator Jun 23, 2006, 3:52pm EDT
Jonathan, I have a question that was just sent over:
"You seem to have an extremely creative family. Is there anything you can point to in your upbringing that contributed to your (and your brothers') love of reading, writing and creating?"
Dian Parker Jun 23, 2006, 3:52pm EDT
Thank you, Jonathan. This has been one of the most refreshing discussions/dissertations on writing I have had. Thanks for being REAL and not all the hype. Please keep writing.
Jonathon D. C. Jun 23, 2006, 3:52pm EDT
Given the way you play with language, type, page layout, and photos, have you ever considered working on a graphic novel or other collaboration with an graphic artist?
Jonathan Safran Foer Jun 23, 2006, 3:53pm EDT
We all breastfed until our Bar Mizvahs. And that will have to be the final word.
(The final seven words.) Thank you all so much for showing up today. Presumably you have office jobs that were neglected. Oh well. For whatever it's worth, I've had to go to the bathroom for the last ninety or so minutes. Again, my thanks...
Dian Parker Jun 23, 2006, 3:54pm EDT
Your favorite writers? Always looking for great reads.
Ask The Author Moderator Jun 23, 2006, 3:57pm EDT
Thanks again Jonathan,
It was great speaking with you and I know we are all looking forward to your next project. You have offered no hints on what that might be but I think I speak for all of us when I say that your work thus far has given many of us new hope for the future of American lit. And thank you to everyone who participated. Have a great weekend!
Dian Parker Jun 23, 2006, 3:59pm EDT
Thank you so much Jonathan, Gather and everyone. I learned alot.
Diane Seacrest Jun 24, 2006, 12:43pm EDT
I love the creativity and also the fact this is a good way to get people noticed. I would love to see a lot more interviews. Keep up the good work.
Reading Destiny
Diane Seacrest

Join the Conversation
Chime in! Become a Gather member to comment.
Already a member? Sign in
top
 
Gather | Friends | Groups | Share
About Gather | Engagement Marketing | Make New Friends | Gather Points | Advertise on Gather | Gather Press | Privacy | Terms of Service | Community Guidelines
Books | Celebs | Entertainment | Family | Food | Health | Moms | Money | News | Politics | Spirituality | Sports | Travel | Writing
Version 16836, "Oz"; Copyright © 2009 Gather Inc. All rights reserved.