flâneur

Phúc Hồng

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on the atlas — 2

highlights — 5

  • But calling them narcissists is about as helpful as calling them obese. What can they do with that diagnosis except hate themselves even more? One good answer comes from a long-dead Austrian psychoanalyst who called himself “Mr. Z”: Take back the word.
    Why Is Everyone a Narcissist Now?
  • Maybe, as a female writer, you don’t kill yourself, or abandon your children. But you abandon something, some nurturing part of yourself. When you finish a book, what lies littered on the ground are small broken things: broken dates, broken promises, broken engagements. Also other, more important forgettings and failures: children’s homework left unchecked, parents left untelephoned, spousal sex unhad. Those things have to get broken for the book to get written
    The Paris Review - What Do We Do with the Art of Monstrous Men?
  • I have to wonder: maybe I’m not monstrous enough. I’m aware of my own failings as a writer—indeed I know the list to a fare-thee-well, and worse are the failures that I know I’m failing to know— but a little part of me has to ask: if I were more selfish, would my work be better? Should I aspire to greater selfishness? Every writer-mother I know has asked herself this question. I mean, none of them says it out loud. But I can hear them thinking it; it’s almost deafening. Does one identity fatally interrupt the other? Is your work making you a less-good mom? That’s the question you ask yourself …
    The Paris Review - What Do We Do with the Art of Monstrous Men?
  • The critic Walter Benjamin said: “At the base of every major work of art is a pile of barbarism.” My own work could hardly be called major, but I do wonder: at the base of every minor work of art, is there a, you know, smaller pile of barbarism? A lump of barbarism? A skosh? There are many qualities one must possess to be a working writer or artist. Talent, brains, tenacity. Wealthy parents are good. You should definitely try to have those. But first among equals, when it comes to necessary ingredients, is selfishness. A book is made out of small selfishnesses. The selfishness of shutting the …
    The Paris Review - What Do We Do with the Art of Monstrous Men?
  • The audience wants something to watch or read or hear. That’s what makes it an audience. At the same time, at this particular historical moment, when we’re awash in bitter revelation, the audience is outraged freshly by new monsters, over and over and over. The audience thrills to the drama of denouncing the monster. The audience turns on its heel and refuses to see another Kevin Spacey film ever again. It could be that what the audience feels in its heart is pure and righteous and true. But there might be something else going on here. When you’re having a moral feeling, self-congratulation is…
    The Paris Review - What Do We Do with the Art of Monstrous Men?