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Ask the Author: Geoff Dyer

“Ask me a question.� Geoff Dyer

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I just read a really tremendous review you wrote of a beer. Do you have a favorite beer and if so, what is it?
Geoff Dyer I have lots of favorites, depending on the occasion and weather but if i had to choose just one it would be Harvey's, an English bitter brewed in Lewes, available beyond there, of course, but at its best close to the source.
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Geoff Dyer Strange question. The obvious answer to is that slave-holders tried ensure that slaves could not read. The damage that might result from reading is implicit in this.
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I read that you hate to concentrate, and so do I. Can you explain why you hate it? I threw a But Beautiful party. I wrote little intros about the jazz greats, an actress friend read excerpts from your book, a saxophonist played bits from his repertoire for the musician or composer. I wish you could have been there. All became fans of yours that night. Thanks for your work. Vicki
Geoff Dyer Wow, that sounds a great party, Vicki. Wish I could have been there too. (As long as it wasn't too authentically jazzy - i.e. as long as people weren't smoking cigarettes.)
As for concentrating, well, it requires so much concentration. I like the kind of concentration required by sport. In fact I really love that - it's a kind of bliss. Maybe its similar to the concentration required/attained by musicians? And I guess, after a point, I like the concentration required by writing - once I get over my dread of the effort required to get to that point.
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Geoff, you wrote about depression in Out of Sheer Rage, and about the need to survive by simply putting one foot in front of the other. Have you had a chance to reflect on that further since writing the book? And if so, do you have anything to add? For example, what, generally speaking these days, helps you get out of bed in the morning?
Geoff Dyer I never have any trouble getting out of bed. I always wake up in a good mood - though that mood often deteriorates quickly and drastically. I think we're programmed to get out of bed. Putting one foot in front of another is still the best way forward.
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No question-just unalloyed admiration and appreciation for your writing. When one bothers to honestly and artfully put down their inner workings, we readers may make a connection with humanity and ourselves that previously didn't exist. Looking forward to whatever you write.
Geoff Dyer Thank you very much
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You've written often of your enjoyment of routine in daily life. Has living in San Francisco introduced any new elements to it?
Geoff Dyer I'm actually in Venice (LA) rather than SF but my routine, I suspect, is pretty much as it would be in SF, centred around coffee in the middle of the morning and then tennis. Oh, and work, yes, that too. SF would add more culture to the daily mix than Venice, not because LA is a cultural desert - on the contrary, there's loads of stuff going on here, but it's so difficult to get to. the one thing I never ant to add to my daily routine is sitting in a traffic jam.
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Graywolf is releasing two of your earlier novels in "revised form" this year. How extensive were the revisions?
Geoff Dyer See my answer to the other similar question
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With the two novels that you have released to a US audience in a revised form, how would you hope for readers to experience them? Are the revisions extensive enough that reading both versions would be interesting?
Geoff Dyer The Colour of Memory is practically an historical novel now! I've really no idea what people will make of them. To be honest I dpn't think the changes are sufficient to merit a re-reading. It's not like I did a John Fowles re-write of The Magus. I just cut bits, especially a lot of the swearing. I i felt it would be unfair to add stuff, so it's just a tighter edit - in both cases - rather than a fully-fledged remix.
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What do you do in the periods between books when you're not sure what to write about next, or which project to pick?
Geoff Dyer Bits and pieces of writing, essays and so forth, but a lot of the time I just WORRY about what I'm going to do next, whether there will be a next.
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Hi Geoff, Big publication day today in the USA, with your new book and of course the search and the colour of memory, in terms of accomplishments where do you rate your latest work in line to your others? Do you feel you've changed as a writer? And where do you see your next work being on? Cheers james
Geoff Dyer Yes, it's a huge day in American history, people are out in the streets rejoicing. It's like VE Day all over again. Incredible scenes. The new book is different because it was commissioned as part of a series and then gradually became a book by me, if i can put it like that. I've certainly changed - its one of the interesting things about sticking with it over a long period of time because some of the changes are beyond one's control. At the moment I'm writing lots of essays about loads of different things, among them an intro to a new book of photos by An-My Le. See you at the conference, James.
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Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi made me very much want to go to art fairs, and very much worry about losing myself in India. Can you talk a bit about how the two halves of this book relate to each other?
Geoff Dyer Well that's a big question! In a sense the book is ABOUT how the two halves fit together. One thing to emphasise is that in the second half Laura is everywhere present even though she's physically absent. All sorts of little details associated with her crop up incidentally or accidentally in part 2. There are big thematic links and all sorts of things are repeated, paralleled (including some actual sentences), but it's the little repeated details that bind the two watery cities - and the the two halves of Jeff Atman's name - together.
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