March 5th, 2011 / 3:26 pm
Author News

Lydia Millet Interview at Willow Springs

Sam Ligon interviewed Lydia Millet in Willow Springs. You can read the full interview here (pdf).

Millet: I was asked recently whether I considered my taste to be minimalist in prose, and I never thought of myself that way, but I do like a lot of space on the page. That is to say, not actual physical white space, but I like there to be space, as with, say, some Nabokov, where there’s a lot of metaphysical space that’s somehow created by the language. I don’t like to be overwhelmed with words. I don’t want someone to try to do some “Wham, bam, thank you, ma’am” with their verbiage. I want there to be room for the silence of the mind in the reading.

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4 Comments

  1. herocious

      is bernhard wham, bam, thank you, ma’am, or do his blocks of prose also create silence?

  2. deadgod

      It’s a surprise to see Nabokov – even “some Nabokov” – described in terms of “a lot of metaphysical space that’s somehow created by the language”. For me, his writing is floridly filigreed, which suits a mood – in his way: in spades – , but not any desire for “room for the silence of the mind in the reading”.

  3. Anonymous

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  4. Anonymous

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