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

[ngigenjoroge]

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.

[ajsledzep]

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

[jacobhoppen]

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

[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.

[annbecker]

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

[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.

[coreycox]

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.

[billypistol]

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

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

[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

[josephjordan]

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.

[perrycampanella]

Wonderful - SLAP HAPPY NEWS reporter was here!

[xnhfrer]

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

[signore]

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.

[pdelaprimm]

I haven’t really connected to Franzen’s work — I’ve tried — but am enjoying this interview.

In my experience, there’s always something to glean from authorial interviews.

[JeffMuehlbauer]

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

[CroMarduk]

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

[shumanfeng]

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

[tookclosely]

his latest story i the new yorker
is spectacular