YouSaid · the spoken record

Michael Orthofer

lines on the record: 61
first: 2016-07-27
most recent: 2016-07-27
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Very much so. Yes, I was disappointed at university basically you could study literature without reading basically, without reading fiction especially, and more importantly without really engaging in fiction, I think. Literature can lend itself to theory. You can build theory around it, but I don't find that a useful way of dealing with literature.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I am. I find the so basically when there's a lot of snow out, I won't just build a snowman, but I will try to sculpt as much as I can out of the snow. I enjoy doing that because the snow is always different, the conditions are always different. What you can make out of it is different. And it's also completely transitory. It's gone usually in a short time, sometimes a few weeks or months. And it's sort of the Andy Gold where these sculptures in nature take into the more extreme because the snow is obviously really very short-lasting. And it also shapeshifts as it collapses, as it falls apart.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Which I find kind of shocking because, I mean, I do review obscure books, but it's not that obscure. I've fascinated the literary hub is a very good website now which collects a lot of literary information. And they've also now started a review aggregating part of the site called Bookmarks. And basically what they do is when they find reviews in three of the publications they monitor, which are basically all American major publications and a few internet sites, if they have three reviews for book, then they'll put that on bookmarks with the summaries and links to the reviews. So sort of what I do. And I find maybe one out of ten of the books I cover qualify, and I find that shocking.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't know if I can I like Amazon because I can get a lot of information about out of Amazon. The way the information is presented and in part with the reviews depending on how widely it's being reviewed part of the problem with the New York Times of course is that they can only review so few books and so you have really so little information or information about so few titles, whereas Amazon, you have at least some information about practically everything. In that sense Goodreads is perhaps even more useful because”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think I don't know that it's as blatant as that. I definitely think it is editors certainly prefer positive reviews and there are some newspapers which basically won't print negative reviews. I think that's always an issue and I mean they can say that we pre-select so that's the way we do it. I mean, one of the things I love about how I'm able to review books is that I just you know I'll review almost anything and I will actually review it even if I do not enjoy the book even if I have immense problems with the book because I think that's just you don't put them down like”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Point readers to because readers, some readers rely on a certain reviewer, and so if I can give them the link to that for this book so that they will get an opinion which perhaps is more informative to them than mine can be because they don't see eye to eye with me, I think that's a very important thing. And having as many different opinions as possible to me, that always seems beneficial. I realize now we have this issue of whether the wisdom of crowds really is wisdom and whether it doesn't just overcomplicate matters as well. But it's always been important to me that I have very strongly held opinions, but please also consider the other opinions because.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But it's still perfectly readable. And I hope I explain that fully in the review itself. Yeah, you did. But one of the things which I also, I mean, the original idea behind the site was to be able to link to other reviews and also I have the review quotes from the major review publications where there are review quotes available, which I actually did sort of as a countermeasure to because I was so irritated by the blurbs you find on the back of like the paperback edition, which are not at all representative of the reviews of the book. So I wanted to give an honest, I wanted to give the honest blurbs of the reviews. But it's always been important to me that my opinion is my opinion and you really should seek out as many different ones as possible. And to be able to give access to all these different reviews.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I hope people use the site in that way. In a way, my reviews presuppose familiarity with the site. I assume that people, you know, they look up a couple of reviews and they get an idea of what this person is doing. And the capsule reviews, I think, are sort of counterbalance also to the longer reviews, in which often I will be more enthusiastic or I mean this ultralight novel I gave it a B because it's perfectly competently done but it's just a vacuous problematic you know there's so little to it”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, you can't overate life. I mean, it's all we got, again, because I don't believe in the religion aspect of it, too. I don't believe in the afterlife. So I definitely think life is underrated. But death is an inevitability. So you take it as it comes because there's no other way to take it.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, I think it's, and many people seem to really obsessive about it in a certain sense. And so that's something, I mean, I don't think necessarily my opinion is strange. It's something so foreign to me. And the other thing is also I have great difficulty with religion. The God concept is just I can't I really don't know what to how to regard that. It is one I can't fit into my worldview when any of my actions and so even though I read a great deal which also again is based on this”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Also, not I mean just more general, I guess the standout beliefs is I don't see myself having the concern for mortality which most other people seem to have. That seems to be a very popular thing in reading as well that there's this obsession with mortality which I find a bit odd.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Start with literary. I don't know. I don't think, see, my opinions are so firmly held. I believe them to be so obvious. No, you may still think you're right. Right, right. Other people don't agree. Yeah, but, well, I don't get those disagreements. They don't disagree to my face, apparently.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, no, I think it just American literature is too often given a free pass, especially abroad, because we're so used to it being so dominant. And so I really think if any is overrated, it is American fiction.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, truly worthwhile. And this goes for many regions of the southern region of Kerala where they write in Malayalam, not Malay Malayalam It's this remarkable literary production there, and we just see so little of it. And it's also what is available because a fair amount is, it tends to be underappreciated, especially in America and the United Kingdom. So it hasn't really reached these shores.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Under, I would absolutely think the regional language literature of India. I think surprisingly, even though India is perhaps the main literary Englishes, the main literary language of India, and a great deal is locally translated. Even there, much of the vernacular literature still isn't available in English. And what one can see of it, and also in part hear about it, we're missing an awful lot. I mean, there is a literary culture there, especially, for example, in Bengali, but we've had that since Tagore. And one of the remarkable things is even Tagore won his Nobel Prize over 100 years ago. There's still novels by him which haven't been translated into English. And he's really a very good novelist.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, he's, I perhaps don't like what his arguments are always employed for. I mean, currently he's obviously a very popular economist to rely on. And I think it gets dangerous with the interpretation of the philosophy. So I'm a bit more leery of too much enthusiasm for him. But again, obviously such a significant figure that it's very difficult to underrate him, I think.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, he's very fashionable, but also I don't think he can be underrated. I'm also completely behind him. I think he was a remarkable author. I've always enjoyed, even though there's a droning similarity to much of his bitter ranting. It completely wins me over. And I don't think I've been disappointed by any Bernhardt.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“All right, yeah, I think people don't also range far enough with Melville. I always, when the argument of the great American novel comes up, I always make a plug for the confidence man, which I think is sort of representative. It says so much about America that I think that would be my choice for the great American novel. And especially from Belleville. But yeah, I think he's also underrated.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Again, it probably depends where I admire her. I think among the political leaders currently operating in Europe, and especially since we're speaking shortly after the whole Brexit vote and the turnover that happened in England there, I think she's probably underrated.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Especially in English, absolutely underrated. Goethe is far more significant author than anybody here seems to realize, and the TLS just has a review of a new Princeton anthology of the essential Goethe a thousand pages. And you can't stuff him into a thousand pages because there's so much there and so much variety too, which is also one of the astonishing things, the greatest poet of the times, the greatest dramatist of his times. And he was an astounding novelist as well. A scientist, a good scientist. Yes, yes. And the conversations with Ekermann and so on, you know, you have all these different things, which are just superior literacy. In English, he's vastly underrated. In Germany, I think they get it. They know it.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“As a writer, I feel perhaps overrated, but as a cultural phenomenon, I think perfectly fine. I mean, it's hard to say underrated because she is sort of the Naples Ultra of Children's Writing.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He's one of those authors who also manages to do. He's not going to fail at these attempts. They are going to be, if they are failures, they're interesting failures. And so that appeals to me greatly. So he's one of those authors where if something new of his is coming out, I'm going to make a beeline for it.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Because he also writes in so many different registers. He's not satisfied with simple, even when he's successful with one way of storytelling. tries out different things, new things. He tells stories in new ways. And also he's been a wonderful chronicler of Spain and especially the Spanish conflict with the Islamic world, which goes back to when part of Spain was Islamic. And so that's been a tension that has been in the culture for well over a thousand years. And he's written several works which I find really superior. And he's one of those authors where you won't get the same book you got last time. You'll get something. Completely different when you pick up the next one.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Antagonia is coming out from Dolki Archive as well. Oh, the same publishers who are publishing Bottom's Dream. Okay, it strikes me as a book you would like.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“One Cottesolo. Luis is the brother. It's the brother, but both of them you like, right? Well, unfortunately, Luis, nothing of his has been translated, although his major work, the title of which escapes me. And Guernia.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And so Bottom's dream and also the school for atheists allow for incredible literary play. And Schmidt is also, I mean, I read a fair amount. I read probably more than most people. Probably. Anna Schmidt is an order or two above me as a reader. Really, that is, he wrote a lot, but basically he's one of the great readers of all times. And one of the reasons I also appreciate him so much is because he's directed me to so much more reading. And there are a couple of others.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, and Schmidt again is one of these writers who you really, it's difficult to translate him just literally. In the case of Bottom's Dream and the School for Atheists, which are these, he called them as typoscript books because they were written on larger than normal pieces of paper and allowed not just writing line by line as we're used to, but the playing with the text. And so, for example, one of his favorite things to do was with words where you can change the meaning, the beginning of the word. So you have both school bus and school child, and so you would have school as one word and then bus and child on top of each other so you could have both meanings of the word. But he would take this to the nth degree.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's being English now. Interestingly, the person who translated all these books is John E. Woods, who is famous for his translations of Thomas Mann. He did the definitive magic mountain in Budenwalks, but he's always been translating Arnauschmidt for decades now. You like the translation.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, if you eventually want to read Bottom's Dream, then the School for Atheists is the one to read. And that's in English.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, it's a work. It covers a seven-day span, and basically it's a story of translation. It's basically some translators come to an expert on Poe and ask his advice about translating Poe. As the title Bottoms Remosa suggested, there's a Shakespearean aspect to it as well. And I don't even know if it's Schmidt's greatest work. It's in some ways because it is such a beyond anything, almost anyone else has ever tried to write. It is an immense accomplishment. It's not the first Schmidt work you want to.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's going to be about this big, and it's written in three columns per page. So there's the main story, and then you have the commentary and not quite the footnotes, but sort of the elaborations on the sides.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“If you're in a book on Shake. I do. But again, it's on Schmidt as a whole, and Schmidt has written in several different categories. So he's also written short novels and stories which are much more accessible.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, the bottom stream, I don't know how many people will actually read that. That is a very complicated piece of work. Anishmit is a fascinating.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Right, but they're the main characters, and again, it's as a book to return, there really are the central characters and the more incidental characters, and the story focuses on groups of characters at a time. They're not 40 people on stage all the time, so that makes it somewhat simpler. It is initially, perhaps, if you haven't read much Chinese fiction, the Chinese names alone can be confusing. But I don't think that's the least of the hurdles to the book, I think. But it's also very accessible. It's just a compelling story. It really describes these characters and their feelings very well. And a wonderful picture also of the China of the Times, which is a totally different world.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's basically a family saga and basically a love story of the main character and the two women girls when it starts out with these young boy. And it's basically a novel which has everything. It's sort of a kind of It's really one that you can get lost in over a long period of time. It's a book that is very easy to return to because there is so much in it.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Again, this is the kind of question I have great difficulty with because I don't know what made me feel happiest, right? I don't know that the immediate satisfaction I couldn't even think of one off the top of my head.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, no, something like that, maybe a little girl. I have difficulty with some of the, especially the verse epics, so I've never finished the Aeneid, for example, or something like that. And I have difficulty getting into some of those. I think of the great authors, the ones I have most difficulty with is probably Dostoevsky. So I've read most of those. I think the prince is probably my favorite or the idiot sometimes translates, but I'm not a big Fan of Dostoevsky.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Which is a huge book, which I've never sat down to read from beginning to end, so perhaps something like that, but nothing really strikes me as because a good book, I want to finish that book. I really, so it would have been a not very memorable book in any case.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Right, right. Yeah, but Can't think of any. I don't think there are probably some long books which I haven't made my way entirely through which I return like let's say Richardson's Clarissa.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think there are. I think probably many which are, let's say, bee novels, so pulp novels, for example, can often be, especially stylistically improved in translation. And you often have so-called literary authors translating crime authors, B-List crime authors, and they do a wonderful job of it. There are also cases where I don't think it's better, but some of the most interesting, the translations that appeal most to me are those of experimental works, which basically are not, you can't translate them literally. So the word for word, don't get close. So the translator basically becomes a recreator of the text and takes a new approach. And some of those are wonderful as well.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think you want to let them loose in a book environment, so in the library, in a bookstore, and you want to give them the freedom to explore for themselves. Because I think reading is very much a personal thing, especially in childhood, and especially where parents are often tempted to, well, is this a book that's good for the kid? And I think you want to avoid that because the child has a completely different perspective and really has to want to read the book. And I think by letting them make their own choices, their own selections, finding their own way, and not really pressuring them. I don't think you want to say reading is good for you. You have to read whatever it is. But just making it easy for them to read whatever they want to read.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It can sway me, but it rarely does. I'm not a big cover person. I'm really a text person, not an image person. And so I try to see beyond the cover. But it does the aesthetics obviously do play somewhat of a role. But it's a very, I think a cover can attract my attention but won't be decisive. I don't think I... Anything about a cover could convince me that this is a book I must have. I think I will leave beyond that, but it can get me to pick up the book.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Right, and it's, but yeah, it's a very personal selection process, I think. And I mean, I think it's whatever information works for you, one source of information for example is seeing what imprint is published at certain publisher. So if new directions or New York review books have brought out a volume, you know possibly what kind of book this might be. And so that helps narrow it down. In a bookstore with used bookstories, you have to be familiar with the older imprints, for example, which just takes a lot of practice, I guess. But that, for example, is one of the sources of information. It's very difficult, I think, to The offerings out there are so rich that you can really find many things just at the extremes.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I think depending on the bookstore, but it works probably even for many of the Born's Noble ones, I really think you should have some faith in the staff that they will be able to best guide you. I'm certain that Strand, for example, which the booksellers there are book lovers, and if you give them a bit of information about what would be suitable for you, that they will be able to guide you. I mean, I like to think that the complete review is meant to guide readers to their books, right? So I think on the more localized level in the bookstore, you hopefully get that as well.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Right, and this was sort of not legendary text, but it had gotten a great deal of attention when it first came out, and then through odd series of coincidences, it just sort of fell from view. And there are many, many, many more books which are gray zone where if you really dig, if you really look, you can still pluck them out. because there's so much new work being published, it's very difficult for it to rise out of that noise.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I worry very much about people who rely on what gets that stamp of approval. And just because it's been, you know, has a cover review in the New York Times book review does not mean that that book really is, if we look at it from five or ten years down the road, that that book will still be a significant work. And I find so much which is highly praised at any one point long-term won't be. And again, however, wait 30 years. Well, much that we look back on is we've lost in the margins as well because it's really hard to keep track of all the great books. And we saw Strand earlier today, Stone or John Williams. This is a book that disappeared from view for a long time. It was always recognized sort of, I mean, people would say this is a great book, but it had really fallen out of view. Helen DeWitt's The Last Samurai was just republished.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Poetry is a bit more difficult because, first of all, there seems a lot more with fewer, less poetry that stands out. It's very difficult often to recognize the great poetry of the day in the time being, especially with modern poetry. I find it very difficult to get a sense of what I really should be focusing on. Because really there is only so much we can read. And I might very well act similarly with poetry because I don't spend that much time reading poetry. But with fiction, I wouldn't accept it.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“For a lot of cultures and languages, there isn't that standout that you know, you know, oh, Russia, Tolstoy, got it. But if you want to read something from the Philippines, you're unlikely to be able to find that one author. And there's so many other languages and cultures. And there's so much being written now, which it really is worthwhile keeping up with.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I think you're really missing so much because the problem is finding what is of value, what is important. And I mean, we have these established books like War and Peace or Crime and Punishment, but Russian literature goes so much deeper, for example, to take just an example of a big language. It also changes with time so rapidly. I think that in every 10-year period, you could select a new set of a dozen recent, relatively recent of the past quarter century from that culture works, which would give you a completely different view and provide you with a completely different experience. And the bigger problem I see, of course, is that you're missing out on so much literature from elsewhere, that there really is”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think so. Although New York still remains such a dynamic place because you also have great shifts in how wet populations come here and how that affects the city, I think. And so there is that dynamism, the changing neighborhoods. So I still think in that sense it is a very vibrant city and it's fairly unprovincial for a metropolitan city compared to even some European. I mean, I'm from Austria. Vienna is a cosmopolitan city, but in the end it is, yeah.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source