Jonathan Franzen interview on "The Corrections" (2001)

Jonathan Franzen talks about his novel "The Corrections," winner of the 2001 National Book Award, and the place and value of fiction in the culture.
Join us on Patreon! / manufacturingintellect
Donate Crypto! commerce.coinbase.com/checkou...
Share this video!

[@ManufacturingIntellect]

Join us on Patreon! www.patreon.com/ManufacturingIntellect Donate Crypto! commerce.coinbase.com/checkout/868d67d2-1628-44a8-b8dc-8f9616d62259 Share this video!

[@patralink]

I loved this book. The opening is one of the best I've ever read. Reading about families is a favorite theme for me. I've read this book twice.

[@wordswordswords8203]

I think novels are more than entertainment, they are educational, they are therapeutic, they are nice to have and hold, they bring people together, I could go on. Books and writing are just wonderful things.

[@ajulian2323]

So true ❤

[@judithbreastsler]

Novels are physical objects that hold the perspectives of other people. Sometimes the perspectives are similar to one's own, and sometimes they diverge.

[@ramdularsingh1435]

Franzen is a brilliant novelist ! He must be awarded with all the honours of our beloved world today......

[@Kashifnasir89]

I just started reading this book it just took me away. Dude I just love that Chip character what a mess he is, I love this author too how humble he is...

[@Kashifnasir89]

@Tara Chew he sounds humble to me

[@MD-rp9nc]

It’s a great book. So fresh. So unique. Well written.

[@josepha133]

I'm reading it right now and Chip is getting on my nerves like no other character ever has.

[@tamarkapanadze3485]

What's about Denise? For me, her character is the worse. Chip and Gary are OK. Does not matter if we like their behavior or not, their characters seem to me logic, what I can't say about Denise. I think the author simply tried too much to describe problems of sexuality, sexual identity, political orientation (left vs right wing) and self identification of simple women in a big city and link this to a single person.

[@rolanddeschain9880]

Oh boy his sister is worse,Gary is least asshole character

[@user-un6sb4kn2z]

The Corrections is an incredible book, a life altering one for me

[@eastwoofer]

this shit is insufferable..."THE MADNESS of an autumn prairie cold front coming through. You could feel it: something terrible was going to happen. The sun low in the sky, a minor light, a cooling star. Gust after gust of disorder. Trees restless, temperatures falling, the whole northern religion of things coming to an end. No children in the yards here. Shadows lengthened on yellowing zoysia. Red oaks and pin oaks and swamp white oaks rained acorns on houses with no mortgage. Storm windows shuddered in the empty bedrooms. And the drone and hiccup of a clothes dryer, the nasal contention of a leaf blower, the ripening of local apples in a paper bag, the smell of the gasoline with which Alfred Lambert had cleaned the paintbrush from his morning painting of the wicker love seat. Three in the afternoon was a time of danger in these gerontocratic suburbs of St. Jude. Alfred had awakened in the great blue chair in which he’d been sleeping since lunch. He’d had his nap and there would be no local news until five o’clock. Two empty hours were a sinus in which infections bred. He struggled to his feet and stood by the Ping-Pong table, listening in vain for Enid. Ringing throughout the house was an alarm bell that no one but Alfred and Enid could hear directly. It was the alarm bell of anxiety. It was like one of those big cast-iron dishes with an electric clapper that send schoolchildren into the street in fire drills. By now it had been ringing for so many hours that the Lamberts no longer heard the message of “bell ringing” but, as with any sound that continues for so long that you have the leisure to learn its component sounds (as with any word you stare at until it resolves itself into a string of dead letters), instead heard a clapper rapidly striking a metallic resonator, not a pure tone but a granular sequence of percussions with a keening overlay of overtones; ringing for so many days that it simply blended into the background except at certain early-morning hours when one or the other of them awoke in a sweat and realized that a bell had been ringing in their heads for as long as they could remember; ringing for so many months that the sound had given way to a kind of metasound whose rise and fall was not the beating of compression waves but the much, much slower waxing and waning of their consciousness of the sound. Which consciousness was particularly acute when the weather itself was in an anxious mood. Then Enid and Alfred-she on her knees in the dining room opening drawers, he in the basement surveying the disastrous Ping-Pong table-each felt near to exploding with anxiety."

[@aaronaragon7838]

Thank you for posting a few excerpts...I will stay away and read Red Hulk instead.

[@spyology]

Franzen: "It's fun to think sometimes"

[@judithbreastsler]

as opposed to mindless consumption, the reproduction of humans and all the status and finances it entails, and the pursuit of base pleasures? yes, I agree. Although, in our current situation, to think in the sense that Franzen is saying is tacitly considered perverse, and ignorantly considered pointless.

[@jonathanhenderson9422]

"The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.” John Milton wrote that in Paradise Lost, and it's as true now as it ever was. The importance of novels is that they (the best ones, at least) give us insight into our own minds and the minds of others. They give us perspective, new and other way to see the world and ourselves. They "hold the mirror up to nature" (to quote Hamlet). The goal of being a "productive member of society" is noble, yes, but the emphasis placed on material gains is useless if we lose sight of what our ultimate goals are. It does no good to build roads if we lose sight of where we're going, and no good to invent medicines if we forget for what purpose we're trying to live. The best novels can remind us, or help us discover, both of those things.

[@rozzaziobrown6515]

One of my favorite books. I haven't read for pleasure in at least a year but once I picked this up I wouldn't put it down and finished it in 3 days.

[@chrisocony]

Franzen = genius

[@paytonking1798]

Going Coastal just because someone is hypocritical doesn’t mean they can’t write a fantastic novel

[@jonathanslacrossesession9388]

Do you think he is like Chip?

[@Violetcas97]

Pompous, loves to hear himself talk, thinks he's so much smarter than everyone around him but with an inarguably big heart and pure intentions? Yeah, I definitely think Franzen projected a lot of his young self into Chip.

[@Kashifnasir89]

Yup

[@cristinab3502]

Totalmente...a mi me da una grima impresionante...

[@prognition970]

I’ve noticed, most instances in which people have such a distaste for an author i.e. DFW, Alexander Theroux, and Franzen, usually it means they are fucking awesome.

[@pg4v377]

I think the books are so much more interesting than the authors.

[@sterlingweston]

@@pg4v377 what is the artist but the human shambles which follows his work around? ;)

[@ajithpr4909]

Let's see what the wise people of the Internet has to say...

[@darcsaster]

his prose didn't grab me at all.

[@rr7firefly]

Oprah, Oprah, Oprah! an eclectic mix of high and low culture. It's an odd place for a serious writer to appear. One easily remembers: 1) Oprah loco over John Travolta and Tom Cruise, whipping her audience into a frenzy, 2) "And YOU get a car... and YOU get a car...etc." 3) Oprah's obsession with expensive consumer items. Jonathan Franzen won a Guggenheim Fellowship -- not a typical guest for her show.

[@librini]

The interwiever is good too. Who is he?

[@lostfoe341]

librini Charlie Rose. He's interviewed quite a few authors over his career.

[@librini]

Thank-you! never seen on Italian TV... I will keep one eye on him.

[@Mateo-et3wl]

Who cares about his sexual habits? He's not good at his job. Perhaps italian interviewers are atrocious and he seems competent only by comparison, but he's mediocre

[@jdc9023]

@@nikolaosmylonas2608 Who cares? Do you expect a notable media member to do otherwise?

[@Earbly]

Interesting that he seems to find reading books so tremendously useless in his utilitarian, food-in-stomach type of way. Yet he writes books apparently from this pleasure of uselessness? He's published a number of books now. I don't really share his view. I think if you take someone who never read a book past age 10 and someone who read 40 books a year, both at 40 years of age I believe there will be a tangible difference in perspective, cognitive function, memory. Open mindedness. And since this effects humans than by default it effects the world of humanity, our sort of constructed world. I think it is a way to bridge cultures, bridge gaps in cultural perspective. A book can lay out a large, nuanced, detailed, meticulous and persuasive argument and vision from a certain perspective from a certain time. Also reading depends on what you read. Yes there is some reading that could be strictly categorised as "entertainment" like Tom Clancy etc.. Or books that can really shift your perspective on the world, and actually change who you are and thus the course of your entire life.

[@paytonking1798]

Drew I agree with all that but he was making an argument in a utilitarian sense, which I would take his side on, because I love art of all sorts, but it isn’t utilitarian, and I would still argue it is far more important than anything utilitarian but in a different way. A bridge can help you get from point A to point B physically, but a novel can help you reach new psychological achievements.

[@sterlingwalter5971]

right you are, thanks for standing up for (good) books.

[@snibradaigh7583]

Well said Drew

[@strangewarmingsof]

I don't get the impression from his statements that he would necessarily disagree with any of this. I don't think that, in this context, "useless" is meant as an inherently negative quality, and I see it more as the idea that literature, as simply a vehicle for human thought, is no more inherently beneficial as anything else a human can think or say (in a practical, utilitarian sense), and that it shouldn't be seen as a higher, more important form of communication. I don't think that's a bad way for an artist to view their work, or literature as a whole - Literacy is not universal, and is not the only, or even the most important, way to learn.

[@zazafiend]

Love this fucker. Good ass book

[@TheNewYorker360]

When Norman Mailer was asked his opinion of Jonathan Franzen, he said, "Well, I've read him, and I'll tell you, I got exactly the same impression from his writing as I did from reading Thomas Pynchon. And that is: he is either a great writer, or he has perpetrated one of the greatest literary frauds in history. That's how I feel about him. As I said, I felt the same way when reading Pynchon. And I admit it: I can't tell whether it's great writing or he's an absolute literary fraud. I would lean toward the latter explanation. But I just don't know."

[@MrKsa1988]

riddle me a tail

[@jonharrison9222]

Likes himself, doesn’t he…?

[@dirtycelinefrenchman]

Franzen talks like a man that’s spent his entire adult life worrying about nothing but meeting his daily word count and figuring out what book he’s gonna read next.

[@tahiragibson6407]

He used to shave back in those days…

[@billgatesleavingyamomshous8177]

What?

[@karsten9895]

That's what Russian people in the late 19th century might have said about Tolstoy, when they saw pictures of him from the mid 19th century. Don't think the beard (or the clean shaven face for that matter) has any influence on literary quality.

[@Julesissneezing]

He was kinda sexy in 2001

[@goofycker]

where is da long hair gone?

I like franzen but idk why people like the corrections (and give awards). He has better books that achieved nothing.

[@josepha133]

Which books of his are better in your opinion?

[@Etherchannel]

@@josepha133 Prolly Freedom.

[@user-un6sb4kn2z]

The idea behind the phenomen of a book club is so fucking stupid it reminds me of high school which kills in me the disire to read what the people from book clubs read

[@theanthropism]

Franzen saying he wasn't trying to convey any sort of message in the book but was instead simply trying to create an experience in which the reader just might happen to think is laughable and antithetical to the nature of pretty all writing. Everything written is imbued with meaning and message, whether it's conscious or not. I really liked The Corrections, but c'mon.

[@erniereyes1994]

That conscious vs unconscious endeavor is (and as speaking as a writer) what separates art from propaganda. The political writer wants to evoke some experience to hopefully initiate change (or conformity) to a certain ideal whereas the other type of writer, the aesthetic writer, simply wants to entertain and carry the reader through an experience. Sometimes the two overlap (via Toni Morrison), but they are different.

[@ilwayeebstay1080]

He is describing his own perspective on composition. He didn’t say it was meaningless. Although I think reducing any great literature to a “message” is daft.

[@andrewmcleod1684]

Charlie Rose is a poor interviewer even for a boomer

[@John-ic9nh]

Cleaning up the ghetto (2:08)? Wow, that little comparison did not age well.

[@Heroball299]

How come? I think he was kind of referencing Robin's vegetable garden in the book, not cleaning up the ghetto in a law enforcement way.

[@John-ic9nh]

@@Heroball299 I didn't consider that. That might be the case, and I hope so because hearing those words in another context from a rather privileged voice like Franzen would not strike the ear well.

[@janettripper3132]

@@Heroball299 no one has said “the ghetto” in like 30 years.

[@brianstephens6913]

@@janettripper3132 Well, this interview was 22 years ago.

[@jaredallebest2160]

I have tried reading this book twice and I couldn't finish it. It is garbage.

[@lincolnhotel4860]

'Corrections' is an ABSOLUTELY boring excuse for a novel. He once criticised Graham Greene's work; that is a scratcher criticising a master.

[@christiangastelum7035]

Don't be a bitch. He was asked to name an overrated writer and he said he "never really got" Greene and then blamed himself for being American. That hardly constitutes criticism

[@AliNaderzad]

that book bored me. probably recommended for anyone with an anthropological bent towards evaluating American society, but boring nevertheless.

[@rolanddeschain9880]

I don't like corrections very much characters are disgusting,story almost doesn't exist,I didn't cared very much characters life.also there is weird deviant sexual moments.

[@nkenchington6575]

stick to children's books

[@patralink]

Hahaha.