Another interview of Nathaniel Popkin just posted, this one on WYBC/Yale Radio with Brainard Carey. Here Nathaniel shares the historical story that prompted his novel Everything Is Borrowed: an event from the 1890s demonstrating “the way that we can seduce other people into their own self-betrayal.”
He then explains how he paired this incident with a similar one in the modern protagonist’s own life. The concept is a key to the novel's deep psychological explorations. In everyday life, how often do we lure other people to betray their own best selves, or best principles, without realizing that we're doing so? Do we do it in love? (Think about that a moment.) In business? In politics? The novel prompts us to question our own assumptions of innocence.
Nathaniel also relates the book to “the intense crisis we’re in today,” with issues of “foreignness, immigration, otherness.”
This is a cogent and thoughtful interview.
He then explains how he paired this incident with a similar one in the modern protagonist’s own life. The concept is a key to the novel's deep psychological explorations. In everyday life, how often do we lure other people to betray their own best selves, or best principles, without realizing that we're doing so? Do we do it in love? (Think about that a moment.) In business? In politics? The novel prompts us to question our own assumptions of innocence.
Nathaniel also relates the book to “the intense crisis we’re in today,” with issues of “foreignness, immigration, otherness.”
This is a cogent and thoughtful interview.
RSS Feed
