Sunday 13 November 2005
Charlotte Mandell interview
I'm thrilled to publish an email interview I did with Maurice Blanchot's translator Charlotte Mandell:
Reading Blanchot is a little like watching someone think. You have to have patience, since his essays move by nuance and suggestion, and come to focus slowly. English readers – Americans especially – are used to being fed information; in the case of an essay, they’re used to the conventional statement-exposition-conclusion format. The nice thing about Blanchot (and the thing a lot of people find exasperating about him) is that he doesn’t follow that formula, or any formula for that matter. Often no conclusion is reached. The subject is examined, and questioned, and looked at from different angles, but never really resolved. I like that a lot – it’s sort of like reading poetry.
(For all of my interview with Charlotte Mandell.)
Posted by Mark Thwaite
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