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

“I don't know. It might be a cultural thing that America is in many ways always been sort of integrating. It has integrated the immigrants that have come in and it has valued that they become American, that they adopt American values. And part of that has been leaving behind to a certain extent the culture. And there's a great amount of literature of sort of the first, second, third generation Americans and how that. But it's almost all in English. And there's very little of returning to the languages that these immigrants brought with them. On the other hand, it's fascinating how many foreign authors live especially in university settings in the United States. But they live in these sort of isolated pockets. They're not part of the broader American literary culture. Find the bizarre paradox. I don't quite understand why that happened.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'm not sure why exactly it went as far down as it did. The wonderful thing is that translation has really been revived in the past couple of years. I think there really has been a greater interest, especially with smaller publishers who are really interested in publishing translations.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I think actually things have improved a lot in the time I've been running the site. I think a major reason was that there was a generational shift from the, especially the publishing world, the publishers who had come across from Europe around World War II and who obviously brought a lot of international fake chain, who were aware of what was being written elsewhere in the world, mainly in Europe, unfortunately, so relatively localized as well, but still. But you also had it with the interest in Japanese fiction, for example. There was that generation, which is also very much due to the sudden interest in Japan from World War II, the people who learned Japanese, and then began translating the work. And I think there was a generational shift which played itself out most fully in the 1990s.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“More interesting in a way. It's not that I find farm fiction more interesting than American or British fiction, but just I think it's better to read from everywhere, from all over the place rather than one specific locale.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, in part, it also came about the site, I started the site in 1999. It's been around a long time. And one of the reasons I started it was because I saw how many people were posting book reviews online. And suddenly you had the possibility of getting book reviews not just from your local paper or from the national magazines, but from anywhere in the world. And one of the things that struck me, and this is also partly has to do with the timing in American publishing and in American book reviewing, is that there was very little coverage of especially translated fiction, which would be much more popular, say in the 1970s. And suddenly we had reached a real low point. And so I made a conscious effort also to move in that direction. But aside from that, I also find foreign fiction”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Or the proper or probably more than the proper dose. But I think fiction is up there. I think fiction is an important part of it as well. And it's such an easy part to get to as well. So I think people should take advantage of that. In that sense, the marginal cost is relatively low, since you can just go to your local library to the local bookstore and you have such a wide selection.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“At the margin, I would think travel, I think really the experience of the farmplace would be the most benefit because I think most people really don't get that, don't have that opportunity. I don't think they need more TV. I think TV is pretty well covered in the discount.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I think that is reflected in the final product. The final product might seem like a compact 700-page book that's already a very long one. But there is so much that is being worked through in that and in good fiction, great fiction, the work itself reflects that.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I'm full of admiration if you think you could capture spending three days in Jamaica would be the equivalent. I don't think it's equivalent. I think it really is a separate experience. I think also many people don't have the possibility of just traveling and reading a book as much simpler. The access is always there, so you really can. Pick whatever strikes your mood, which if you commit to three days in Jamaica, you're stuck in Jamaica for three days and maybe it turns out that isn't really what you wanted. But I think the Marlon James adventure, his way of seeing it, one of the things we have to remember when someone writing a book, a work of fiction, there's usually years work in that. Sure.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, it varies. I mean, I have to admit that the great deal that I read, I don't get that much out of. And you really, I think one of the reasons I do read as much as I do is because it really takes that whole mass to really find all the different things you're looking for in it. But I definitely think it really, it expands my horizons in a way that other things can't travel, talking to people, meeting people, reading the newspaper, following current events. Those things obviously also help you understand the world better. But I think fiction adds a totally different dimension to it and truly great fiction really can take you much farther than other things can, I think.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I think being knocked down to the actual events, allowing the imagination to roam really, writers are able to do amazing things, and I think that's what we get out of it, that nonfiction, the description of what has actually happened. First of all, it's also very difficult to capture just precisely what has happened. And often fiction allows you to go beyond that, to imagine the reasons behind it which you might not be able to if you were doing just purely following the fact, so to speak.”
2016-07-27 · Conversations with Tyler · Michael Orthofer on Why Fiction Matters · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source