I interviewed Paul Auster today. It was really cool. He is a really nice guy. He is speaking here on friday and afterward I am going to chill with him, which is undoubtebly cool. But besides that, things are awsome. I wrote an article on the interview - it isnt that great - but the quotes from the interview are awsome. Here is the article, as will be printed in the Badger Herald tommorow.

Auster on Modern Fiction.

Paul Auster is one of those writers who creates art out of necessity and not desire. “Writing is no longer an act of free will for me, it’s a matter of survival,” says Auster. But Auster has not just been surviving, he has been shaping contemporary literature and defining genre through the individual’s reaction to tragedy.

Auster first made the distinction between writing as entertainment and writing as art. He said to me on Wednesday during a phone interview, that since the inception of the novel, the predominate literary task was entertainment. However, he added, there has always been a “sub current of so called, I don’t even know how to define it, serious writers – artists. People trying to present some new view of reality that’s always been with us, but its [artistic writing] always been a much smaller strain.” Auster is of that strain, presenting the reader with his view of reality and the quest for identity. He said that “fiction has always been about discussing and exploring the individual’s place in the world. I mean that’s the job of the novelist. With the world always changing, it is our job to try to figure these things out.”

Auster’s particular contribution to modern fiction has been his feelings toward dealing with devastation. “How we cope with loss as human beings is a big subject for me, its one of the things that defines us as human beings.” Tragedy Auster says “can happen at any moment, nothing is secure, the boundary between life and death is a very small. It is just a small membrane really…things happen it seems for no apparent reason.” His books contain these magical transformations of tragedy to desire, and from that, Auster creates life. Auster’s fiction is trying to get people to realize that even with tragedy; life can go on, but not as it were. “Every human being lives with loss and grief. We loose people we love, and as we get older more and more of the people we love are gone. [Loss] is something I think people don’t pay enough attention to today - the attitude that people die and your suppose to get over it, a few months a few weeks, and your back to living your consumer life.”

To Auster, defining identity and exploring the individual – as real writers should do – is not separable from the way in which people live with catastrophe. By furthering literary genre and adding new themes and variations on reality, Auster is not only an engulfing author, filling his novels with a bit of the surreal, a bit of fact, and a bit of fiction, but is helping to further our understanding of life and death.

The Book of Illusions (Henry Holt), Auster’s latest, is the story about a college professor David Zimmer, who lost his wife and children during a plane crash. Confronted with depression, the character finds salvation in the silent films of Henry Mann. For a year, Zimmer writes about Mann’s mysterious disappearance and is content. When a letter arrives from someone claiming to be Hector Mann's wife, announcing that Mann had read Zimmer's book and would like to meet him, it is as if fate has tossed Zimmer from one hand to the other: from grief and loss to desire and confusion. This novel contains all the classic Auster themes, loss, grief, and redemption. It promises to be an instant classic by the reviews it has received, even though Auster said “I try not to think about any of this (the press). People say the damndest things and I just try to tune it out.”

Paul Auster will be reading at the Wisconsin Book Festival on Friday night at 7:30 at the Orpheum theatre on State St, followed by some of contemporary fiction’s brightest stars, including Lorrie Moore, Charles Baxter, Mark Winegardner, Kyoko Mori, and Jane Hamilton.

And to continue on the Girls of Avi's life thingy, here is one more, entitled "Erin."

I have this friend Stephanie. One night, Stephanie, who has a very commited long distance relatoinship - allowing us to be platonic - helped me pick up chicks. I saw this girl of about my hight with blonde hair, blue eyes, and a nice pair of (what am I suppose to say here?) shoes. She saw me checking her out and didn't look away, didn't laugh, didn't ask her friends if that creepy guy was staring, instead, she actually looked down and then up again - checked me out right back, and looked away, but looked back to see if I was still looking and then smiled a bit. It was beautiful. Reminded me of "Strangers in the Night," the Sinatra song. Steph noticed and made me go say hello, so I did. Well we talked a bit and that was it. She was really hot - one of the reasons I wanted to come to madison. Anyway, later that night I happened to run by her again and said hello. She was on her way back to the Virgin Vault - which is what we call Liz Waters her in Madison, the only all girl dorm, and I asked if she wanted to come to a party. After some incouragement from her friends, she agreed. We talked all night and she seemed totaly cool. I felt a lot like Hannibal Lector - because Erin wants to be an FBI agent - and that really intrigued me. Intrigue. She was totaly all about that, she was just captivating. I've always believed that certain faces can just trap a person's view, her was like that. Her personality also, you just have to look at it, examine it, see if its real, see what it feels like. All these guys at the party were totaly sweating her and she was with me. After walking her back to the dorm I said goodnight and gave her my number. The next day I did a stupid thing and got her number from the directory called her and asked if she wanted to come out again. She said she isn't going out tonight. But worse of all, I saw her out later that night, I was totaly dissed. Sucks. But she was a heavyweight. I mean shes from Hawaii for god sakes, what was I thinking trying to roll with that? Although I saw her once and didn't say anything but then I heard a distinct giggle turned around and sure enough it was her walking away. Next time I see her I'll say hello. Okay.