And, yes, I keep returning to my unfinished, flawed, out-of-shape essays (and poems, and stories), and I try to be a reverse Dracula, biting them to make them new: a reverse Dracula, because I don’t want to turn the old essays into undead zombies-I want, instead, to restore the flawed essay’s latently valorous soul, infuse it with a life it might never have had, give it a reason to be giddy, to fly, or to enjoy its landlocked condition. A colleague once told me that I am someone who “refuses to leave anything said alone.” I never quite felt it as the compliment it was intended to be.ĭo you struggle to let old essays lie? Common threads of subject across a multitude of projects are one thing, but it seems like there is an esprit d’escalier about your writing sometimes, where the impulse to rework old material is quite direct. In the essay titled “‘My’ Masculinity Remix”, your intention is to “revoke my earlier version and start the composition all over again” (133).
I’d like to exchange my red turtleneck sweater for another red turtleneck sweater-mine is getting pilly and baggy, and I’d like a tighter, unpilly replacement. This pair, rejuvenating, fits but doesn’t constrain. I haven’t had a pair of blue jeans that I’ve liked in a long time. Grey socks with purple and orange stripes. Why did you choose these clothes? Which item do you like most? What would you rather be wearing? If you could change one item, which would it be?”
#16, please (265): “Describe what you’re wearing. To set the scene, I want to begin by asking you to complete one of your own tasks from “Eighteen Lunchtime Assignments”. In this interview, we attempted to figure out some things together.īlue Painting by Mondschwinge ( Pixabay License / Pixabay) He is a relentless interrogator of culture and many things he wrote two or three decades ago still offer fresh astute points. There are also a good many “assignments” in it, or specific instructions for approaching life more playfully and attentively. Koestenbaum’s latest work, Figure It Out, is a collection of 26 meditations on many of his lifelong interests like punctuation, porn, dreams, and celebrity. Regardless of genre or medium or even subject, to know this avant-garde artist is to love him-for the intensity of his studies, the nuance of his self-reflections, the exactitude of his articulations. He also teaches at the CUNY Graduate Center. Some focus on people like Warhol or Groucho, some focus on feelings of humiliation trance. Wayne Koestenbaum is the author of 20 or so books.
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