Helen DeWitt’s First Time

Helen DeWitt discusses her first novel, “The Last Samurai.” Part of “The Paris Review”'s “My First Time” video interview series.
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This series is made by the filmmakers Tom Bean, Casey Brooks, and Luke Poling.

[@jackjohnhameld6401]

Cyril Connolly said the writer's only goal is to write a masterpiece. Helen DeWitt did it. The Last Samurai hangs always in the mind like the evening star. You are this book's fool, I tell myself, but remain smitten by its brilliance.

[@dogcavanaugh6596]

Holy crap! What a great depiction of what "industry" does to great art and the people who make it.

[@aaronying4989]

Yea I wonder if publishing like that is even worth it? Or it’s better to use the internet and self publishing nowadays?

[@heliopolis]

Every aspiring writer should watch this interview.

[@MarcusSpehBirkenkrahe]

I enjoyed this very much, especially the raw responses of the author in the film. I thought it was brave of her and of the makers of the film to show it. Publication, as it is described here, seems to come very close to a report of a very long, drawn out birth with many strangers in attendance. A nightmare from which this author, evidently, woke up tired but alive, well and writing.

[@aaronying4989]

Yea it seems terrible. No wonder so many writers opt out early lol. Or just publish one book. And stop.

[@Phagocytosis]

Fantastic! Thanks very much.

[@BigBlu1]

Well done Helen - Passion

[@ASoron0424]

I liked this installment too but can't really tell what her attitude is about the final book. Was it published with all of those changes that the editors forced upon it? Does she regret it?

[@danielagioseffi579]

This is the best and most truthful response. This video doesn't say enough in a clear candid way.

[@monroelawrence1774]

She got it basically the way she wanted. She blogged about it on her website. Process seems like hell though, and took years longer than it should've.

[@jackjohnhameld6401]

@@monroelawrence1774 Mailer said the writer needs a superhuman drive rather like the engine of an airplane - Mailer studied aeronautical engineering at Harvard. The writer needs it at the start, middle, and mature period. Mailer said this in reference to Irwin Shaw (see *Irwin Shaw* the biography by Michael Shnayerson 1989). Mailer thought Shaw wrote elegantly, but the absence of any engine failed to keep him airborne. Irwin thought he was here for a good time and tried to get by on personal style.

[@azaadbhat5253]

Love from Kashmir.........

[@sattarabus]

I watched and closely listened to her back story that led to the publication of her novel. Most editors, both sub- and super- are writers manqué. They tend to subordinate the daimon to the drudgery of past dependencies on books that outsold all other competing products. Helen's indictment of her father and the publishers is a bit over the top, but her disappointment and exasperation is heart-felt and justified. She hints at the scarcity of technical editors. She does not define what she means by 'technical'. Nothing succeeds like success. Publishers swear by mouth watering antecedents and precedents. Vikram Seth's 'A Suitable Boy' suffers from swathes of longueurs best suited to a soap opera in numerous episodes. Did the editors edit them out?. Creativity is always trumped by a vertiginous décolletage bedizened by filler-in schlock.

[@nononouh]

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