Available Light Theatre

  • Shows
    • NEXT>>> An Octoroon
    • F.O.O.B.A.R.
    • Bootleg Radio
    • How We Got On
    • Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again.
    • Next Stage Initiative 2018 @ Columbus Museum of Art
    • Every Brilliant Thing
    • FULL PRODUCTION HISTORY
  • TICKETS
    • How to Buy Tickets
    • Champions Club
  • Give
  • Shop
  • Info
    • Pay What You Want
    • Directions/Parking
    • Get Emails
    • Contact AVLT
    • About Us
      • Our Mission
      • History
      • Meet the Company
      • Staff
      • Board of Directors
    • Get Involved
      • Audition
      • Submissions
  • HOME
You are here: Home > Leaving the Atocha Station > Ben Lerner interviewed in “The Believer”

Ben Lerner interviewed in “The Believer”

May 26, 2014 By AVLT Leave a Comment

DID YOU KNOW: Artistic Director Matt Slaybaugh has every issue of The Believer magazine. He’s been a subscriber since issue #9, from December 2003. Says Matt, “Suffice to say, I get a lot of education and ideas from The Believer.”

Poet/Novelist Ben Lerner, author of “Leaving the Atocha Station,” was interviewed by Tao Lin for The Believer magazine upon the release of his novel. Here’s a choice cut:

BLVR: After three books of poetry, you’ve written a novel whose protagonist—Adam Gordon, a young American on a one-year poetry fellowship to Spain—views himself as a fraud on many levels. He considers, even, at one point, that maybe only his fraudulence is fraudulent. Do you think of your novel as arguing for the existence of poetry or exposing its fraudulence? Or something else?

BL: I think the novel both celebrates and savages poetry—or you might say that the novel celebrates poetry but savages poems. Early on Adam says something about poetry quoted in prose. Let me find the passage:

“I tended to find lines of poetry beautiful only when I encountered them quoted in prose, in the essays my professors had assigned in college, where the line breaks were replaced with slashes, so that what was communicated was less a particular poem than the echo of poetic possibility.”

I don’t think this is just an admission that he’s not interested in poetry, or a confession of fraudulence. He does find lines of poetry beautiful, but what he tends to find beautiful is an abstract potential that’s betrayed by actual poems. I can sympathize with this kind of negativity. It captures something about why poetry retains its power in the face of so many failed poems. You’re a poet; don’t you hate most poems?

Please do read the entire, fascinating interview here: http://www.believermag.com/exclusives/?read=interview_lerner

Pass it on:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest
  • More
  • Email
  • Print
  • LinkedIn
  • Google
  • Reddit
  • Pocket

Filed Under: Leaving the Atocha Station Tagged With: learnmore

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

CAPTCHA
Refresh

*

Get AVLT news in your email

@avltheatre

My Tweets

UP NEXT

BOOTLEG RADIO

Back to the Top


BROUGHT
TO YOU BY


  • HOME
  • Shows
  • TICKETS
    • How to Buy Tickets
    • Champions Club
  • Give
  • Shop
  • Info
    • Pay What You Want
    • Get Emails
    • Contact AVLT
    • About Us
      • Our Mission
      • Meet the Company
      • History
    • Get Involved
      • Volunteer
      • Audition
      • Submissions
OUR WORK
Mission
Pay What You Want
Shows
2017-18 Season

GET INVOLVED
Audition
Submissions
SUPPORT
Donate
Shop
Champions Club
ABOUT AVLT
Company Members
Board of Directors
Staff
History
GET INFO
Get E-Mail news
Contact Us
About Us
CONTACT US
614-558-7408
avltheatre@gmail.com
@avltheatre
Facebook
AVAILABLE LIGHT THEATRE | 77 South High St. 2nd Floor | Columbus Ohio 43215
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.