Jonathan Franzen Interview: Books Made Me Survive

We visited Jonathan Franzen at his California home, where he shared his approach to writing character-driven novels and his thoughts on being a writer in America: “I play for ‘Team Literature' and so I’m on the lookout for things that threaten the team.”
Franzen had a miserable time at junior high school and felt a need to dissociate, which reading books for hours on end made possible: “… that was how I survived.” Reading gave him a sense of a social life, which he didn’t have much of back then: “You have a community of real people and then you have a community that you form as a reader…”
“Pages are more interesting if you’re blowing something open.” Franzen considers himself to be a character-driven author, and compares creating fictional persons whom the reader will experience as real persons to a sort of drug: “There’s something deeply wonderful about setting out to create a character from scratch.” Moreover, he has come to realise that a writer’s abilities are “not a whole lot bigger than the sum of what you’ve lived, or what you’ve encountered, the people you’ve encountered, the situations you've been in, the emotions you’ve experienced.”
Technologically mediated relations are becoming a growing part of our lives, which essentially means that we have “increasing interactions with robots,” which Franzen finds problematic for literature: “I do worry that the power of technology is so strong that we will see fewer people able to find the private space in which to develop a relationship with books.”
Jonathan Franzen (b. 1959) is an American novelist and essayist. His novel ‘The Corrections’ (2001) received widespread critical acclaim and earned him a National Book Award, a James Tait Black Memorial Prize and placed in in the final for a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Franzen is also the author of the novels ‘The Twenty-Seventh City’ (1988), ‘Strong Motion’ (1992), ‘Freedom’ (2010) and Purity (2015).
Jonathan Franzen was interviewed by Marc-Christoph Wagner at his home in Santa Cruz, California in January 2016.
Camera: Jakob Solbakken
Edited by: Klaus Elmer
Produced by: Marc-Christoph Wagner
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2016

[@ngigenjoroge2213]

I love Mr Franzen from my little world here in Nairobi, Kenya. I haven't loved Kafka yet but J. F. is good place to start-he is to me what Kafka was to him at twenty-one. I also love interviews more when I can see when the interviewer and interviewee both, but it's just as well. It's a twilight interview, like the end is looming nearby.

[@annbecker7550]

He is a wonderful writer, all his novels are amazing.

[@ajsledzep]

He has such a calm demeanor that I enjoy just as much as his books. There is a stillness that he conjures.

[@coreycox2345]

I suspect that "an unusual strategy of coping in an intense family" has given birth to more than one writer who uses humour so well.

[@jacobhoppen1964]

I really enjoy listening to Franzen talk. His cadence reminds me of reading- the way it just keeps unwinding.

[@JonathanWymer]

I love how this interview is taking place as the sun goes down. Like, you can actually watch the progression in real time of this conversation.

[@Burps___]

“I play for ‘Team Literature' and so I’m on the lookout for things that threaten the team.” Thank God there are still writers willing to be on the team. Thank you, Louisiana Channel, for this.

[@billypistol]

He is such an incredibly nice guy. Always worth listening to him.

[@enthronedking]

Freedom is a great book. It deserved the hype. He found a way to question and analyze complex ideas\emotions in a very down to earth way

Wonderful interview with Jonathan. Thank you for sharing it here on KZbin!!

[@josephjordan521]

That conversation on love is remarkable. I think one of the reasons I've gravitated to Franzen's work is through the connection of his characters. Freedom, for example, is utterly amazing. The hook for me was Patty's autobiography. It made me love her and care for her. Such a truthful and remarkable insight that many people miss.

[@pallhe]

The sound in this video is so well recorded that you can hear the whole neighbourhood. It feels very close to actually being there.

[@user-xn2hf9re8r]

I get his idea about dissociation and writing permitting this. Lovely bloke. Fantastic interview - some really poignant questions which provided some inciteful answers. thank you

[@perrycampanella5540]

Wonderful - SLAP HAPPY NEWS reporter was here!

[@signore1043]

Read Freedom and Corrections - reluctantly, bad press, negative friends, the gamut of criticism that puts artists down -but I read them anyway and loved them. A lot of people like Correction more than Freedom, I feel the reverse. But both are worth the time and he sure does have a subtle wit and pointed humor. Just the opening of Freedom is worthy of praise, but read it all and you'll enjoy a great story.

[@mico5755]

Good interview!

[@madhuripillai7756]

My favourite author.

[@tookclosely5480]

his latest story i the new yorker is spectacular

[@JeffMuehlbauer]

I had to put down "Freedom" for a while... The sentence "Poor Walter." absolutely killed me.

[@1joxa]

2016, miserable 82K views, only 70 comments? Shame for future Nobel laureate, soon or later!

[@CroMarduk]

I like Franzen and i actually haven't read anything from him, but I am going to

[@CroMarduk]

***** in the meantime I've read Freedom and Purity and gotta say Freedom is the best book I've read this year.. Not counting Russian classics, that I've immersed myself last winter.

[@CroMarduk]

***** Oh well thank you, if that was a compliment. Brothers Karamazov is the best book I have ever read, also I've read some Solzhenitsyn, Ljermontov, Gogol and i Highly recommend Bulgakov, Master and Margarita is off the charts. But for me, Dostoevsky is the top dog in world literature. Demons, Idiot and C&P are all masterpieces in a world of their own.

[@CroMarduk]

***** Nabokov is a dwarf compared to Dostoevsky, man put his paedophillic imaginations into words, kitsch is which is what you have, when you add too much language ornamentation, which precisely Lolita is. Besides I dont consider him Russian writer, aside of his name, nothing was Russian about him, not his words, not his thoughts....Also Dostoevsky isn't just a writer he is also philosopher and a psychologist, the man influenced Nietzsche, Freud, Kafka and the list goes on..When you once turn to Demons, be sure that you have the copy with Stavrogin's confession, because its omitted from most books. Cheers

[@CroMarduk]

***** No problem, have a great life. cheers

[@sterlingwalter5971]

@immanuel kant you must be kidding.

[@shumanfeng376]

My teacher wants me to write an essay about Jonathan Franzen and here I am 😂

[@rayana4941]

Shuman i’m wheezinggg🤣🤣🤣

[@shumanfeng376]

Rayan A 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@ebrahimsoleimani8006]

Good interview ✍📚

[@bhattkris]

True magic is writing.

[@novacanelove3198]

fell in love with him after reading Purity

[@TheJacksnipe]

Seems to be a nice guy!

[@kamalpreetsingh1686]

i will read writers in future..... novels,short stories and i am 1991 born internet is part of our life but this can't replace literature

[@Dayglodaydreams]

I wish I would have accepted what I was good at without being envious towards those who were good at what I was not, and trying to be them.

[@Dayglodaydreams]

It's the "whitest" thing today, but I am a jazz alto saxophonist.

[@Dayglodaydreams]

He sounds like he had a horrible repressive and "fundamentalist" and authoritarian household.

[@mico5755]

What were you not good at?

[@gk411]

He looks like John denver, nice guy very talented 👏 📚 ✌️ 🇮🇪 2020

[@christinacascadilla4473]

He looks nothing like John Denver.

[@MariaLaura-ly4tb]

“Hand held devices”

[@wonderwoman5528]

I need to read 10 hours a day too, if I want to write

[@rezwanchowdhury3544]

I always Forget to tell you ilu ilovedU. FROM THE VERY FIRST DAY IN HEAVEN

[@izhan6991]

what is his greatest book??

[@artificialescapades2323]

But you have the Freedom to choose.

[@EzeICE]

Artificial Escapades Heeeyyy!! I see what you did there!!!

[@Flore-162]

The corrections.

[@Violetcas97]

Like many others I would argue it's the Corrections, but I also don't feel like The Twenty-Seventh City gets enough attention.

[@Flore-162]

Shane's Book Corner true. Although it was a bit boring at times but not bad.

[@springhillgolfer878]

I enjoyed his novel "Freedom" very much, back about 6 years ago when I used to read books. I don't get the same pleasure from holding a dense paper block with ink on it and staring at it for hours. I think novelists are a dying breed. The only way they can make a living from writing books in the future is if the book gets bought by Hollywood and made into a TV series or movie. Maybe audiobooks will continue to be a thing. If I read something now it has to be on my phone or laptop or turned into a tv series (like Chernobyl) that I can watch on my flatscreen TV. As long as colleges and universities stick around I guess that will be the back up plan (teach fiction or writing) and source of income for 'writers."

[@snowtrack8381]

I have never met a real science fiction fan who says "Sci Fi" instead of "SF."

[@hosseinmasumi2092]

an Articulate man .

[@dirtycelinefrenchman]

Imagine a writer that never reads