Transcripts For CSPAN2 In Depth In Depth With John Updike 20240712

About the imaginary area it was exciting to be somehow in my boyhood terrain and is deeply familiar to me in one thing or another the books are easy to write, i did feel for was enough in the last word and forth book is enough but then i had a half book ten years later. People would murmur robert rabbit when i go by, does not happen too often anymore, im not exactly like him, our books are short in rough background but he stayed and i left is one way to put it. Every ten years readers were treated to look back on the decade filled with historical features of the decade and understanding through his eyes, where you catch me up to date on your reel of america 2005. What did rabbit make of iraq and bush and all that, i really dont know, a lot of robert observation is about the small changes in ease very interested in women and how they dressed and theres been quite a few changes and carried among female dress, he was struck by the rollerskating in the online skating and women began to jog outside, i dont know what he would see now, certainly as he was loyal to nixon during the vietnam years, he happened to be fairly loyal to bush, all passion spent in a way though, you get and the less real news items become. One thing that strikes me as a writer is her computerized the world has become in the 50 years since i been riding in the last 20s, suddenly i feel its almost the first time out of it, i dont really understand how to move around on the internet and i dont dig the lingo, in the first being American Writer and now increasingly locked in to the benefit. My question was not so much how robert wouldve viewed america how youre feeling about the country now. I think iraq is like it wont go away and all the headlines in six more marines killed and its very painful in the sense that its hard to see progress or clear label on objective, i was an adolescent world war ii which had problems we beat the jobs and the not teasing kicked hitler out and now in the more ambiguous and ambivalent world, ive been a democrat all my life and they would not be sorry to see george bush for all of his good qualities, he does not have many good qualities and is able to make contact with the average american in a way not every political candidate put forward by the democrats does, that said i would not be sorry if democrats were elected in 2008 and follow with the elections in 2006. Your current book is a collection of essays on american art but i heard that youre already talking about the book that you finished and sent to the publisher for spring about a terrorist. Is called terrorists its about a terrorist, the only one and its not exactly a thriller, its kind of exciting trillian and its about an 18yearold boy in new jersey who is a product of the mixed marriage and his mother is an Irish American that was kind of flighty and the father a fellow student who abandon her and the boy at his age of three, he has become an ability to the absent father and muslim him hey dont want to tell the hopeful hot i had to feel my way, but i tried to bone up when the areas windows not too familiar and its meant to be a take on terrorism now in the whole world situation, the angry islam and the fact that the world seems more and more painfully divided between the haves and the havenots and if taken the resentment of the u. S. And the general resentment of the third world which is self coping welcoming immigrants and racial minorities, this is europe not america, the world and process in the world that always is. I wonder you mentioned internet and we live in an age of raw information coming out as interested citizens from live reports to raw data on the internet, where does your art sit in for an understanding of the world in a time like this was so much wrong information coming out people. How much raw information gets to me are probably a lot less than it gets to you, i do read the newspaper and i picked it up for my grandparents many years ago and i tried to watch the tv news although i dont always get it to that extent, i try to keep up but im not very politically savvy or interested in a way, i am interested in the american phenomenon in this nation of 200 years plus old and a kind of experiment not kind of i was an experiment when it was created and where is it going to go now as a patriotic really an american even oldfashioned the patriotic one concerned that the world hates us, i dont see much evidence of that in europe but maybe i did not expose myself to it, i was one tourist in their kind of welcome and generally pleasant, i think it is to untrue trutruesite and goodnessn now inside to see you and perhaps its inevitable and no country can remain top dog for over into remain top dog in terms of cars is one thing and morality is another. I think we were a symbol of opportunity and immigrants would still like to come here, more people trying to get in and trying to get out, there is a certain tarnish on everything now that maybe will go away. For those people who are picking up your novel, how did they help them in this world understand this world. It depends a little bit on which novel they picked up, suddenly all of them have some information as far as the texture and the incidentals of life, you cannot write a novel without something that has not been said that we before. That was written with my own experience in a number of americans who were stars of adolescence and i tried to write about one and my father had gathered in many years being a schoolteacher and he would bring back the tales fallen on bad days and robin was a symptom of what might be wrong, its not a terribly gang whole book about eisenhowers america, he feels stuck and a lot of people feel stuck back then in the 50s, some people felt stuck in the 90s, its hard to be human enough to feel someone stuck but it was a kind of being stuck in the book was ambiguous and we seen running but we dont nobodys running to her whats going to happen next and enough people ask me what happened and after ten years no better idea, i tried to write a political book about James Buchanan. I love buchanan and i did a lot of search in the most research ive ever done and i tried to get to understand the atmosphere and the maneuvers and so on and we became very close it seemed to me but i cannot produce the novel i met to produce, something about it struck me as fill me on some deep level, i cannot write it but i wrote a play out of it and am trying to write a novel, was all rather impulsive and lastminute. But the second book received for me are fairly well received committed myself to a set of them, you never know how long youre going to live i might not live to write for what i vote for was about right its meant to be an american life. Let me tell our audience how we can join in, he will be with us for three hours, this is our indepth program and the idea is to involve your questions and comments, if you like to do that by telephone, if you live in eastern half of the United States 202 7370001 mountain or pacific time zone telephone number is 202 7370002. You can also send an email book tv. Cspan. Org the email address or include your questions right away. I guess wed like to get more of your roots on the record before we get to calls from reviewers. I heard you on interview saint pennsylvania is not an ironic place. I said that to susan very impulsively and i dont know quite what i meant except it was a place that it was serious, a lot of the people in my area in pennsylvania were german ancestry and the worth ethic and the german solemnity to it. In earnest yes, there was a rigidity to it in the ironing that has been to my short life in new york and my long life in new england and we dont encounter in pennsylvania. There is humor, if im writing about pennsylvanians much bigger than writing about any other kind of people state wise. Your father was a schoolteacher but the way you described every year he was required at the end of the semester to quit his job. It was during the depression and it was a way of keeping them from rising somehow but it was mentioned in my childhood home and he was a son of the presbyterian minister who had a hard time making a go of that. So my father was haunted what he perceived of a father to american standards and success in enterprise. So he began his postcollege career about being a telephone lineman. He loved to be on the move and he liked climbing the polls, not allowed to climb telephone poles but it was in his, he took up schoolteaching as a result. Sorry getting an elderly throat. He was running scared for much of his life, i dont think they asked him during the war it got sadder and easier and whether they stopped firing him. I remember the figure, he made 1200 a year, not just i and my mother by her parents, all five of us lived on that and what he could make in the summer and i think is my grandfather he was an elderly man also worked. But they were pinched circumstances that i grew up in, when i later talked to my father about it and he apologized for not getting a good bike, the schwinn that he wanted to get me, and i thought it was nice and i had everything that i wanted and i was happy and he said we were poor, that was and beyond to my growing up. He wants to know how you got into writing, your mother i have a photograph of her and yourself, your mother was a masters educated but worked in the local department store. She was very corrosive, she was an only child and it ripped through the Country Schools wherever she grew up which is in southern berks county and was called the normal school, and got out at 15 and she had this record and i dont one partner life of being a writer in the time she was in college and she took a masters to cornell in english lit by walter scott but it was outer canal that she emerged and wish to be a writer. In the magnetism between may 2 parent in the freshman registration remain and they got married at some point in her post tragic life, im not quite clear what happened and it was between my birth in 1932 in their graduation in 23 from her son which is a gap of years and she wanted to be a writer. Her working on short stories and working as a typewriter as one of your earliest memory. I remember being in bed with a fever and if you are sick in bed you got the privilege of being in the front row and that was also where her desk was, there i was and he was a child communicating and i tried to talk to her why she was riding in for her it was severe with me that i stop talking and that was my introduction with the write writers, i watched her type those things and i saw the typewriter that she had a little remington portable in the stacks of paper that she bought, that whole era in the physical thing that interested us but i remember running into the Office Supplies and i remember his stationary store and the kinds of paper and typewriter racers, the pencils and all about having romance for me when i was six, lets say that has remained now that im 72 73 pardon me. But it was the tools and the effort and the pleasure of mailing something that had came back, that was too bad but the notion of being in contact with the writer and still remaining in your cave but you could also send out the feelers to the world at large. We have folks back to talk to ready, this is the magazine the new yorker who is responsible for bringing into the household tell me about the influence of tad on the fx. She was my only sister and she is rather sophisticated and she knew about the new yorker and decided both my mother and i could benefit from a subscription and i think it began to come in the warriors lets say 42 i would say ten and 42, lets say it was 44, at any rate i was impressed by the magazine which was seen much more elegant, the word cool was not around but it was cruel to having an evening post which was a hospital in the refrigerator add and housewives and illustration of stories. I was drawn to even before even for for i was wise enough to read it and i looked at the cartoons and i would be a cartoonist at this point and i fell in love is not too much to say within your worker in my ambition when i came out of college was something to get into the new yorker. Fairly humble ambition but i got a lot of rejection slips already from them so i knew it was not an easy one to crack and it seemed very worthy and the only magazine to aspire to and with magazines, the new yorker as within ambition you get what you pay for and i did, i did get into the new yorker in a bid on it often on into be in closing, last question for calls, explain how it was that catherine right, the new yorker came to you as you were student in england to interview for a new yorker position. The first story in the first poem i wrote after he graduated from harvard in 54 were accepted so i became a contributor and you look very different to the new yorker when ive gotten anything into the magazine because they know it is not easy and that year i was trying to move my writing career forward and they did get a few more stories accepted and a member en vogue and i was very keen to write but it was a stories that show them that i was promising and they happen to be in england and it was not only to see me but not to see me at all but at any rate they both came along every road in oxford and i was in all and it was not real for meeting one mans need for the description and they offered me a job, the new yorker was a proprietary real that can help the magazine and always up for youngblood if you can find it and i was at that point young and promising writer and it was an awesome visit and we had to get babysitter so we can go out to lunch and as we went the job was where most writers began in the talk of the town as a talk of the town reporter and a reporter was somebody who would go out and do the legwork in the interview and a six page account that would be boiled down to the threepage new yorker by one of the Staff Writers and and i was able to write and you had to show up and quite enough for me, then a hundred dollars and that was sent against the stories and it was very pleasant, it turned out to be a job which not every promising fiction writer has but that was it, i love being in new york because thats where he wanted to become a that is where he wanted to be but after two years it was a deadend for my wife and daughter, living in new york is a lot of work and even then and my friends are mostly callings and my wife had very few friends and one thing or another, we are never going to get much Better Writing talk stories in the genre which was a limited genre to in the story of my life, i have the revelation that we should get out of new york and try to live modestly and let me freelance and see if i can do it. Go ahead, i think its my responsibility to push the button in the book you read about your childhood selfconsciousness is a wonderful book and when he left the new yorker, i read once an interview when you wanted to draw your bright for living and that was my first question, the second question, when you first started out in the 1950s, were there any writers who are well known then who have fallen into what is unjustified, people that were big in 1955 and we just dont hear about anymore. Thats a good question, let me tackle the first part, it was the 1950s and i was in my early 20s and it was a possibility and it did not set up to be a novelist and set out to be a cartoonist in four years at harvard and the drawn image in a one to be a magazine writer as a bird you said, and right for the new yorker, this is the sum of my ambition, it was only after several years and i maybe should try to write a novel and americans were expected to land in this is Mount Everest and one novel i was written in the office called home and i showed up early before i did my talk and i would write three pages of this novel but in the end is seen better to let it go, is a youngs persons novel in my life up to then so i abandon that but once i moved to new england and settled down in experimental novel and let me change that, i did and for the first 15 20 years expect them to support me but the trade was to be a magazine writer because they brought in something and they have rather slowly begun as enough, the first novel and the only one which came on 68, as a writer for over a decade in your second question, there was a kind of image they came out of the literary world to make it different now and they wean myself, he was a very gregarious man and in your publisher and the storyteller and he took it upon himself to assemble at the roundtable, ethical lot of the writers are faded and he was not a member of the roundtable in certain writers who required in my vision gotta have one who came from nearby county and he was proof or the pennsylvanian could become a national writer, how many people reader has two read the short stories which are magical into the novelist which are pretty well faded and another writer that is quite big who could do anything and they revived and also his novels were much admired and i dont know how much hes read which is another job reputation but they do subside as one of the conclusions that ive drawn as your life as a human being that is limited and now that we all these are mine we become faded reputations and i dont know if thats true of me or not i treaded not think about it too much in American Writer lives to see himself ridiculed and conned in sudden by younger writers, there is a turnover in the Public Library and whole shelves and the stuff that was very congenial and i went back recently in the same books and of course i was wrong to a turning of their life. My next call comes from san diego, good afternoon. How are you, i always enjoy listening to you, good morning, i have a couple questions, the first ones what in the painted word gave us a negative respon response, you said it was a passive scam but on the back of your book on the upper part of it there is a quote who praises the book but he has been for 20 years promoting a negative aspect in saying the are is dead today and has no meaning for us anymore and how can he remain positive others go so negative in the art and a look at the new book it is mostly some sculptures were long dead, i think the last school i relate to with pop art, it was kind of relief which i was afraid i was not getting and i often went back to new york and then trying to keep up with what was in because it seemed to do what was doing to glorify the ordinary and what theyre really seeing and living among these top artifacts are like nature now, this is our grass and birds, coke bottles and funeral boxes and things like that, since then i cannot argue with the notion that it is drifting into the eclecticism and whats wrong with writing that they have had read too much and theres too much backlog in their heads of the classics or the wouldbe classics and every painter is cautious of all of this that have preceded in the last 100 years or the last 1000 years, in a way it needs a cleansing and from other. In new jersey good afternoon to you. I want to thank him for his for his selfconsciousness in his fiction and how do you feel about your role as a critic and i think you been a very good critic and a fiction writer and how is a bin for you, how does outfitted with your fiction, do you feel is a contemporary writer nowadays, do you feel theres more of a need because were in a different type of world as cold war in earlier periods in our history. Thats a lot to mow over, lets go back to your first question, how do writers feel about me as a critic, i began in about 1960 because they did not think the criticism i was reading was quite good enough, i did not like the way i was reviewed often in even the new yorker and sacred new yorker there was sometimes a skimming that the author was trying to do. So i found myself complaining to sean in a soft way about the reviews any asked me if i thought i could do any better and i said lets try it and he sent me a few books which i reviewed in his literary entiretys and it took me a while to figure out im selfconfident to review anything, i didnt know i had all this rashness in me in such a wealth of the opinion generating faculty but i seem to have it in with other reviewers died often fade away and i became a staple and did many more than ever wanted to and my mother did not reason me too be a book reviewer but i thought i could set an example of courtesy and attention to the book so ive kept up with it and i tried to avoid reviewing people i might meet, i asked not to have to review writers because certain to run into them briefly and also a friend as you review somebody you dont know. I asked that they favor me with books, and what was going on in europe and latin america the time, i thought i could learn something about 30 fiction in my book reviews to help without. I think its made people pay more attention than other ways, since they do have a power of judgment, its not a power that i thought were that i relish, to get me me a little more scary as a figure. Is not something that you relish. Slightly. They dont aspire to that power and thats what segues and to politics and fiction, they tend to be bashful people who want to exempt themselves from a safe place and knock it out there on the podium and the Television Interview and expand their views, a lot of them dont have it, you have impressions in certain things that matter to you in your life and you want to write the song as much as you can but youre not taken a stance politically i enjoy doing them, they need to be shaped from what the story does, there is an artistic component of review, what you choose in your really creating a story about a book in a way and a set of books in another author and all of that borders on the artistic without peanut the top of the mountain so this can be at in reading peoples things, i have a lazy streak so its good to me too crank out a review every now and then. The earlier collar referred to tom wolf being on the program, you showed a clip from that program with him talking about your critiques of his wo work. Who you call the three stooges will get into this lat later, a man to entertainment not literature even the literature like a movie desperate to recoup its Banker Investment in a novel tries too hard to please that led you to say a few things. With this industry not just john but john irving, the three old men with secure literary reputations and suddenly pounced on novel by someone else, i do not think anything remotely like that ever happened and what you just quoted was the tenor of the three attacks which this is not literature, this is journalism, entertainment, that does not bother me at all, im trying to put together hippocratic oath for arista phonic oath, the hippocratic oath begin first do no harm, i think thats interesting that the oath for doctors, do no harm, the oath for writers mightve been what i was putting together since first entertain, to very simple definition, neighboring a person to pass the time pleasantly without physical effort, is that too much to expect something that is written and offered to people, at least do that and then you can sort to the stratosphere if you have the talent but first entertain in these novels have become so uninjured that they did not like the fact that it had sold 1. 4 million copies and that cannot be literature if it sold that much. Reaction. Is a bright guy in a way and dedicated writer and i think if there was an animus in any of those three notices that he gets or in my review it was not a book i wanted to review, i did not think i was going to like it in a like any big book that is bulky actually and they said many kind things about it so might i deal was not to annihilate tom wolf, but there was, he wrote an essay telling what song about American Fiction in two and except himself and i think all of us other writers dont like being lectured or told what were not doing, you do whats possible and what seems just and true to you and the wolf novels had an overblown clause in the city is trying too hard, i not read the last one and i think his success as a journalist has led him to lean too much of a journalistic kind and not enough on the interman, there was some of the inner man in the book was about the south in what was good and interesting is that we tried to talk about the new south and in many ways its new and its not so new in the book hadnt narrative. If i reason anything and resent the time it took me too read the man in full and is quite trusted material in a new reason this notion in which he has on a number of fronts, its invention of people trying to anoint or humiliate with modern art and says its a game and someone, i dont quite believe that in the modern art and fiction as well is a product if we have not live like this before, people have not been people quite like the people now and you need to find a new way to write and not to same going to write like an american. Beyond this public debate with toms work, do you hear frequently from peoples works you critique . Very rarely and mercifully, an factor can hardly remember once in a while i get a grateful review and as a book but and are its about somebody who is born old and i forget how it works but it sounds very complex and it is but in fact is very charming and scary with a whole new way to think about Human Experience and the women he has loved all his life, they become contemporaries as he goes down, she comes up and then he could only come a child and maturity in old age is in hers in the sense of losing your love object to reverse time, he did write me a letter but he was pretty unknown and there is also a washington novelist who grew about lincolns assassination from the standpoint of the other couple in a totally forgot his name under the stress of the video experience but anyway by and large you dont hear much and i try not to respond to reviews of me unless a very kind and you dont always get that together but your service is not to the author but the detective. Im going to ask you we hear your questions from the earpieces and yours is starting to pop out of your ear, i want you to talk into your ear as we listen turn next phone call from louisiana. Hello collar. Hello. How do you to. Such a pleasure. The latter part of the 20th century and now the 21st century for me is that you have not received a nobel literature, would you comment. Disappointment for me. Thank you for caring and for a long time i thought it was something other people got in was quite remote for my aspirations and my possibiliti possibilities, i was worrying about the nobel prize in only the last ten years ive seen myself mentioned as a possible candidate and in the field where you would like to run the race, i now know which i did not know for years when the prize is announced, i would love to alert to a responsibility and i think im past the moment where mightve gotten them for whatever reason, it generally goes to writers in their 60s, some get in their 50s and theres so many of us who are worthy inner way but as my own experience as a judge, same names keep arising and if its a same name often enough youre sick of hearing and you move on to a more surprising candidate, the nobel began as a prize that was received by scandinavians and half the europeans expanded to north america when st. Clair lewis had to expand his horizons to include asian writers, japanese writers, african writers, south American Writers in the field that they must with through if it would be a wonderful thing to win but i think ive given up hope. Next question from richmond. Good afternoon and thank you, its a pleasure to get to chat with you indeed we have something in common, i was born in 29 and i believe in 31 or Something Like that. 32. I also take the new yorker in magazine naming an author could not refuse several years for next number of dollars. Now did you write run rabbit r run. Yes the book is called run rabbit run. And the boys double did not make out. And or have you read the book. Yes i read the book. We missed your last comment. We appreciate your compliments are going to move on. We can understand the question. What me asking when they came in my email that makes reference to the rabbit books, of you are in connecticut named steve, most of the fiction there is music sporadically and in the background, he notices that the bee gees voices have become higher and rabbit is rich listening to roberts version and party scenes have pop hits of the day, he somewhere mentions a ballot from the 40s, my question we know a lot about relationships to the visual arts but what about music are you a concertgoer but recording . I took piano lessons as a lot of kids did in one of the ways that parents of the children to have escaped whatever small bird they were stuck in and i did not have aptitude for, the woman across the street was a piano teacher and she had to cross the street to give me my lesson in my home was a middle class that did not have an appraising so i was a musical dance in a marble that men can sit down and write a symphony, i dont understand keyser orchestration, it was a lot that was a close book to me but i have ears and listened in the pop book of my era which is pretty well lost in the lamplighter was one of the songs that we saying and could sing and then i had a second wave of music when my children matured and we heard a lot of the supremes and the beatles and someone in the house and i dug that and ive been slow to come to Classical Music but my present wife has helped educate me and we dont go to many concerts but i wish we could were wondering why we cant organize ourselves to get involved not getting home before ten has become pregnant test but i dont know much about music in general i know its the purest of the art one that lifts us out of ourselves basically and rabbit my other characters are aware of music in the background but it is a background art and everyone i hope to practice. Tucson you are up. John i heard compelling statistic, half the people alive on earth have never made or received a telephone call, my question for you who is closer to the truth, those who have or who have not. Are truth lies in the direction of the telephone call an electronic entertainment and i think we all feel that somehow this president Lisa Technology were the last hundred years is stretching and painful ways and its a longing to go back to the telephone tree carefree world that israel, i was moved when i was 13 moved to a farm that did not have a telephone or electricity, it was an unimproved farmhouse and they lived with nature and the basics for a year or two before we got these things in my reaction to the state of deprivation was to get sick, i was quite sick that year with cold and huddled by the only heat in the house and i think the answer to your question humanity is moving however, imperfectly and partially toward Tire Technology and we made it and created it and we know how to use it and were stuck with it. Were spending three hours talking with john about his body of work over his lifetime in the most recent book is our criticism called still looking and available in bookstores now this holiday season. Next telephone call is from wisconsin. Hi my question concerns the role of religion in your writing, why do you think the theme of religion plays a role in your personal roads or are you a student of theology and who are your favorites. Also as a followup canoe, on the controversy with intelligent design and evolution, the previous work that you touch on was rogers version if im correct, they can comment on that i would appreciate it thank you. I was relieved and i retained a fun religion truth and changes of denomination sense, to me as part of being human in my own life would be if i believe nothing or nothing of religious content, it also ties in with the practice of fiction since ultimately why are we describing these unreal imaginary lives except to say human life is important and has a dimension to them that is beyond the animal. As to intelligent design, this question has been out there for a number of years in my reading and theology or theological circulation convinced me that there are several things about the cosmos that its exceptionally well tailored for the creation of a planet like hers and things like us did not have to be that way in one little constant being off in the universe were nothing with collaborate in any kind of concentration. I did write about it in roberts version and its been a while since i read that book and i cant elaborate much on what i was trying to say there, i think what has happened since i wrote that version is the complexity of the basic cell of organic life is amazing people with its complexity. The question has arisen which is always been a theological staple or in the last 500 years, how such a thing of the human eye or any of our logical details have come in and we came up with an answer and its an answer that holds up although there are still gaps and theres been books that i read about, the black box and he does not explain, he explains how beaks and birds are different for specialized berries and socialize for worms but he does not really going to basic parts of how did the whale developed for example out of nowhere, this is very specialized and having engineered which it appears nowhere else in nature. Anyway. Describe that . Guest i was a shy about writing that chapter in fact every book was embarrassing in a different way and embarrassing to try to discuss it was a part of me and in a way slightly unusual. The decades since, my father was a great clergyman son and the ba leader in science and i am very aware of the majesty of the material. Scientific american for example, theological publications. So, why am i so tenacious . In part, they are fear. I had crisis ion engine in the very indiscreet folk, but the choice seemed to come down to a believe or be frightened and depressed all the time and it seemed given the facts of life i should maximize my use of my life and identity. Host i also remember reading you so many organized religions and you chose religion of yes. Guest i guess i did. In the terminology i foun termif the theologian to be the most comforting hand the most compromising, but he does locate and dismiss attempts to make via some naturalistic. I liked the tone of voice, so yes and no. He talked about the yes and no and he host in other words, the enjoyment of being in life. Next phone call, phoenix. You are on the air. Caller i couldnt understand. Host do you have a question, you are on the air. Caller im honored to speak to mr. John updike. Im going to make two comments and questions and then hang up. The east coast intellectuals you made a soft complement for president bush i think you will lose friends over that and you can forget about the nobel prize which is strictly political. That i find your writing to be technically almost perfect. The greatest asset, the greatness to have met a man such as that. I would say two things. I find your novel in youve been a critic of other people your self. I think tom is both is one of the greatest living writers. I think technically you are perfect about the novels to me are boring. I cant get through them. I dont mean to hurt your feelings whatsoever. Thing is poetry. You mentioned that right in the beginning. No one has. When i feel bad when i feel like i am depressed or anxious i pick up copies of the works of tea s. Eliot. It shows and i leave now very nervous. Host caller fiction or has many mansions and its nice that there are so many books in a way. More and more in is predicted as something to please everybody asked about getting a child to read whatever entered the and tried to get me to read a few mystery novels and that spoke to me. I am no expert on poets so i must say on the new yorker i look at the cartoons and read the book review and read the prompts so i am a poet still to that extent and i try to write it. I loved and admired eliot. My generation almost the way rock stars or regarded i remember standing in line one long winter night to hear a speech you might say was boring but i wanted to do that because he was magical and had a kind of integrity and honesty and sense of humor. Im sure thereve been a lot of posts of equal merit. It actually kind of bloomed later and was a wonderful writer and sylvia plath, when she was just my age. I was able to write charmingly about almost anything, but i think poetry lost something when it gave any attempt to the form in some ways the bottle that bie the genie so powerful when it came out. In a way the form is haunting. Host hampton bay new york. Caller as an observer of things american and americana where do you think america is going in the present world at the time . Guest the american experiment and actually letting people call the shots and elected officials who could be changed every two or four or six years. There will always be powerful people and people more rich than others but nevertheless a second kind of basic word is assigned to everybody. In the pop culture but they have produced and the idea but it speaks to people all over the globe says something about the american spirit and freedom. I admire the way that our music is still the music that speaks to people rich or poor. I wouldnt sell out america and empires rising and falling into the entities that rises. America falls from its troubles and i dont see it falling. Hello, caller. Caller i havent had the opportunity to read your memoi memoirs. I was wondering if you had the opportunity to have any closes with your father. He was known to be a little eccentric i guess that they would say when i was going to school. Pretty much the same a lot of the Small Businesses of course changed on lancaster avenue and still have an opportunity to drive by johns old home, although i think it is a little different now. While you are showing a picture. I didnt think it was white at this time, but yes it is pretty much still the same. Host what subject matter did you take . Guest i was a science class and i dont remember what specifically it was, but it was a science class. Guest im always happy to hear. I go back whenever i can. And youre right it doesnt change. Where the old property used to be, but the car is changed because they built it so solid from the semi detached houses there was no room to put anything new and its very comforting. My father, as i said at the outset of this he didnt set out to be a teacher, and i think School Teaching didnt come as easily to him as it did to some other of his era. They had to worry. So that ever after minded theres my father pushing me along. I had my father as a math teacher for three years, seventh, eighth and ninth grade he taught junior high math and i had him as a Homeroom Teacher in the eighth grade. She had a child in his class and that generation had a number of schoolteachers and of the son of the assistant principal and Good Students which made it easier i think im a teacher parent. If you read a book called the send file, you would know, i observed him suffering as it were. Too much of an American Army leader in freedom i think they as inhibiting as a teacher should be. 55 years after i graduated and as a success. Host heres one from a viewer named john martyn whos a professor at harvard. For the psychiatrist teaches about development over the life span and writes ive enjoyed your work for many years and perhaps a year ago you mentioned in passing you believed you could do Something Better at 70 and 30. The conversation moved on before you could elaborate, but ive remained curious. What are you better act now compared and what accounts for the development of these new strengths . Guest it reminds me of my exams when i graduated from harvard i had a good record as an english major, but i couldnt quite get into preparing for the exams so i thought of them as a bit of a slob and my mind went blank. In a way i am a better golfer at 73 and i was at 33. I understand about keeping guns close to the body. I was told i had a beautiful natural swing and i was trying to find that particular. Its one sportswriter taking and im approaching the point where i knocked much as a golfer but in some ways im bitter about. Rating with the critics were saying 40 years ago i see that there is a tendency to use too many adjectives so im trying to learn how to be a better writer at the plant its most likely to happen a Better Family man, a better man to be with. Making a final statement when i was in my 30s i wrote on the side. I had a little money to spare so yes i kept writing. Now i feel i am in danger of becoming obsessed. I looked through my stack of emails and there is a question here you want to tackle . This viewer says he was the longest standing affection for golf, what does he like about the game and could you assemble a dream force . Guest i like that it gets you out of doors. Its a sport that you can carry as long as you can mock you can play golf. Ive always loved the landscape and the look of a good shot as opposed to the many bad ones and ive always been intrigued by the mystery of why and why they do not occur all the time. And for equipment, having only wearing one glove and the shoes that used to rattle but they dont know because weve gone on to soft spikes. It gives me access to people that i really dont have an awful lot to say with. Anyway you are kind of naked on the golf course. There is no way of disguising a bad shot. You try to put your emotions are very evident so those are the reasons i liked golf and have been given a life i dont want to play on the dream because im not up to them. The epitome of the natural swing and effective isnt a national motion. For the charisma, not a good swing wonderful attitude and expressive tiger woods would certainly be in that and its wonderful to see a young man exposed to the limelight. It is the moral of watching tiger woods closely. I think that they would get a very short. They would write about the greats of golf. Maybe even life is about. Host we are almost halfway finished our conversation. The next telephone calls from san diego. Caller . I have two related questions. I went to school in iran and came here to go to college. The main literature a few years ago. [inaudible] and also, again as the reviewer, i hurt your interviewer a few years ago and i that is when i became more familiar to john updike. If you had to review your own both if i had to read which book which one would it be. Guest catcher in the rye you might try huckleberry finn. It was very much admired by an influential in creating a kind of american language of section. I would recommend a farewell to arms and the devastating end, but its beautifully written and probably some early software. Hes more admired than the readers now. I never found him terribly congenial but its probably classic but you should read. Host and of your own books . Guest i might recommend a coup to try to get out of suburbia in a different kind of world in the attempts to the Global Situation as it was in the late 70s so i dont think that its very much read it now. As a best seller it portrays american middle class at a certain moment and of recent books its called a month of sundays and its about a minister thats been banished for bad behavior to arizona. Host nashville, you are on with john updike. Caller i will say i appreciate your golf book that ive been buying copies of and giving to golfing friends. It is a delightful short read. Can you think of a protagonist of any reflects your religious or philosophical worldview in your fiction . Is there somebody that you would more identify in the World Outlook . Host youre looking for who reflects the best view . Guest my religious view changes daytoday in a way that i would offer as a character who like me is pretty vague and not especially observant of the fine print and maintains the transcendence and that his life should be something more and that there is a plaintiff you can locate it. Theres also the protagonist called roger lambert, about my age and who cant really respond to a young man coming to him with intelligent design theories so those i would offer you. I mentioned a month of sundays. Its close to mine as well. Host we are going to take about five minutes lets tell you more information about the career and life during that break and then we will be back to take another half program of holes. On your screen is the author john updike spending three hours with us. Our phone lines and the emails are coping for your calls and questions 202 7370001 in the eastern half, 202 7370002 in the western half in our email addresses booktv cspan. Org. Ive got to begin the second half with some photographs mr. John updike has given at various stages of his life, here you are as a young fellow out on the streets of chilling ten . Guest that was the alley next to us. I was somehow sitting there laughing. Here is a much later point in your career but as you recognize the time for this . Guest i was still smoking little cigars. I have a long kind of neo 60s behind me you will see a caricature we know that this is after nine team 68. Host here is one more. We lived for 17 years in a 17th century house in the backyard but made a lot of use of it. Thats my younger daughter miranda on the swing behind me. Host and you are juggling . Guest i taught myself how to juggle three balls but it was an awkward way to do it, not the correct way so i lost that skill. I was showing off for a photographer for life magazine. Host now they will go back to questions. Next from greensboro North Carolina for john updike. Go ahead. Caller im calling from greensboro, North Carolina and have a couple of questions for mr. John updike. I had to read her book for one of my classes and one thing that concerned me a plus the description you give [inaudible] can you tell me the point that you wanted to get across and do you think people should be pigeonholed, black writers, white writers etc. . Guest i wrote it sometime after being in brazil for just a week but i had a long encouraged in brazil when i was in adolescent. This is a disney movie and a song about brazil so i was trying to have feelings and impressions. When i went and had a small experience nonetheless came back and tried to recast the story in the form of the fabled. Its the most magical realist of my novels i think and i liked it. I was happy in brazil and during the months i was writing it. I had a brazilian publisher that pointed out many inaccuracies. I located it. I had to adjust the background as to the blackandwhite divi divide. I forget how i describe him, but you have to describe people as you see them and not worry too much about being politically correct. Politically correct thinking in the end would deny any attempt to dramatize or explore from within people that are of other races and nationalities and i think a writer should be granted as much freedom as he can so that answers the second question do i think they should be pigeonholed i dont think that there is any obligation to. Also if you are successful will you tend to repeat it, but i tried to call it as much as i couldnt use my imagination and my memory as much as i could. I liked the book because it was a leap like i earlier described are mentioned as a kind of leap into the dark. You write about things in part because you know about them but in another part because you dont do without the about themd like to, so there is a yes and no quality. I knew the terrain and what it was like to go to the american highigh school but moffat was le to be a basketball star. I didnt know what it was like to survive. I was a smalltown boy. I came from shirlington, not fretting. So there always has to be a certain adventure for the writer to make the book feel adventurous to the reader. Host we are talking about your characterization so this seems appropriate to talk about the memoirs of your grandfather where you tell other readers your daughter married a man from donna and they have two children who are obviously have black, half white and here is what you write to them. You, my grandsons, how would you fare when the porn in the Hartford Hospital on a cold is super bowl sunday by instinctive thought he would do better if his parents settled in donna. That is i trusted an african country to treat a half white person better than my own country would treat a half black. Now i wonder. Ours is a trade debate changing the world and while racial prejudice operates against blacks in many ways overt and oblique, you write at least now they insist upon equal rights and best corporations and educational institutions to recruit in the effort to write to the imbalances in professional sports and tv commercials constantly offer images of the racial come artery and a Colorblind Society flickers at the forward edge of the evolving one. Guest that seems to be a good description of the situation. My old situation is not awaited my older daughter get married but my older son married a kenyan, so i have three blackandwhite grandchildren, grandsons, they are all boys. I did feel that this is a racist country that may be all countries to some degree are. Certainly europe isnt looking good now with its troubles. You might as well take your chances here and elsewhere. Theres been a big change in what i have observed in the Race Relations since i was a child. Even in pennsylvania, north of the masondixon line it was not much north of it and it was pretty much kept to their own section. I never knew a black president until i went to harvard. There was one family in the system that were elected and they all sang beautifully but basically because they were only one, they were indulged and had been classified half black. I dont think we should ignore the racial tensions or feelings even promotes racism in ourselves. Let that speak. But ive gotten much pleasure out of my black grandsons and its been th that way for me to know not just them tha but other american blacks the situation has changed a lot. Interracial couples are quite a common sight now where they used to be turn your head and stare. [inaudible] host palo alto, california. You are up next. Go ahead. Caller thank you for taking my call. My question is which younger and American Writers, say under the age of 45 or so, do you like or are you reading and do you find significant in the landscape of american literature, and what is it that you find interesting about some of those writers . Thank you. Guest i am by no means an expert. He is a figure to be reckoned with and there is a writer whose two books i have read. He has a remarkable gift and a writer whose bestknown book i forget what its called but about superman. All these writers seem to deal with a world heavily flavored by a comment strips where it meant more to them than it did to me but they all have that kind of vitality and they are willing to exaggerate. They are not tied to realism in just this way the way that i was and john in his term was. But theres a lot of life in them. If i were more learned in younger writers, i would be able to say more. I dont know quite why anybody now goes into writing. The odds are ever longer against making a living by it. Even the wellknown one. Maybe that is a more healthy situation and trying as ive done because as we were trying to get money to become more flexible and compromised and perhaps write things that you shouldnt wear a certain purity is to be decided i was in the world where a professional writer was a real figure. You knew with this class of people i longed to join them and had succeeded in that but there were more magazines around and more open is in the part of publishers. You didnt need to sell that many copies to break even. There were all kinds of factors. On the other hand its kind of a longhaul proposition so if you are dying to do it, go ahead and try but certainly to advise younger writers how to make their way. Some of them may be try to double film writing with real writing. Falconer dead and other writers in the 30s but a certain melodrama begins to affect even the most serious stuff. Host there is an email question i will add in here. Is there another of your novels do you think was suited to so that was never made into one . Guest i have a couple. There was a best seller in a modest way thats number one for a couple of weeks on the bestseller list and it was a great title. The plot was kind of hollywood, romantic setting sort of a nowhere town, sort of a utopia that goes bad and the sinister utopia. I wanted them to be the heroine and i saw him somehow as my hero so it was all in my mind and there was a film that we accept it and a certain amount changed hands but it was never made since i got the money that didnt have to enjoy the embarrassment of the movie being made. But by and large my books are not very fill novel although i was a keen moviegoer and still am. One of the few people i know that goes to the movies once a week. I write in a way that you can read the take and theres more fair and an attempt to weave in and out of images. And its also purely a verbal effect thats hard to translate into a Motion Picture thats basically action and scenery. The only successful film that was a movie made by a quick death although in som also in ss an admirable movie. The movie was if anything too faithful to the book. We were all a lot younger and maybe it is a poor attitude to have when you go to make a movie because you have to be ruthless and there were a couple of Television Adaptations but of all of the books i think that is about the film career in toto and at the same time i thought brazil would make a good movie and there was a filmmaker interested that you couldnt raise the money. That was a melodramatic with a lot involved but we all care about the romance between the handsome hero. Thank you for taking my call and for having this program. I loved the short stories. My only problem is, and i am currently eating the reading the early ones. Every so often i come across a sentence that is just so beautiful in and of itself i have to stop and i lose the storyline just admiring the sentence. I am also a retired teacher just recently and i am a budding writer and im actually reading a little bit now because i have a presence of mind after my second Morning Coffee rather than trying to read after 930 in the evening. I would love mr. Updike to maybe just gave a little advice about his writing and reading disciplines over the years and, you know, how he finds a good writing and reading routine and it still manages to watch a little tv and play golf. Host thank you. Guest i agree with you that when you begin to settle down to read a book at night you dont get terribly far with it. One of my problems as a reader is having with him for much of the morning and into the afternoon, im kind of tired of using my eyes and in tend to do something else. Playing golf is good for the eyes after a day of looking at the computer screen. And i do notice that when i read in the afternoon and i make myself sit down with a book though it is a real occupation, i read much better and see a lot more. Im a better reader in the daytime, and i think we all have a clear mind of the morning and you should get to your writing if you are serious about being a writer as early in the morning as you can, after a nutritious breakfast. Host six days a week still . Guest sometimes. I try to write certainly every weekday i tried to get up to my office which is just above the kitchen, by 9 00 and try to write until about 1 3. Host i have a book that you wrote the introduction to come of the photograph. Theres three photographs of you in a writing environment. It is this still contemporary to the writing t today . Guest those are the rooms i write and. I used to have a big room in georgetown, in massachusetts, but then we moved to a bigger house. The only rooms that seemed to work for me and my wifes arrangement could spare us the old maids rooms above the kitchen, so i have four little rooms and my own bathroom in this little kind of cottage and different desks in different ones. Ones. There you see me in the computer room leaning over looking at the computer and there i spend a lot of my time when im writing. The earlier picture i think showed at the desk where i insert letters and keep up with things and a sort of looking of confucian. Then there is another round where i am expressing to joe dismay at the disorder of my room. A lot of souvenirs. Childhood photos. Im not one of these people but finds it easy to clean house very often. Everything seems to have a potential meaning. It isnt an actual meaning to it. The other around you dont see is a room i set aside for reading and it has a comfortable chair and shelves and i do not sit there as often as they should get a better writer and critic. Host but the discipline that youve talked about in different introductions, the discipline of getting there and writing every single day at least making the attempt is important to be successful. Guest i think so. How else could you do it. Somewhere they talk about the joy of not writing. If you succumb to it you will be an addict of not writing. I cut my searches, bur printersy bridges. I didnt want to be a teacher. My father had done enough i think for the two of us and i thought i could make a living at this by journalism, supplementing and someone so ive been lucky enough to be granted my wish and the easiest thing i can do this to keep a schedule as other men and women do over. My day is shorter than bears and begins later. I am fortunate to be doing something id love to d i love s always challenging and interesting and never quite the same, but im making something more which lost to many workers now get come up with a sense of craftsmanship into something you can make if it takes a year or two you are still added and put your name on it and its yours. So theres many ways to be grateful and shuffle up the stairs to do your days work. Host next call from fort worth, texas. Caller hello, mr. John updike. My father, probably back in the 1940s, was a big fan of roadhouse. How do you think that his work witwould rate today and what wod be the difference . Guest i was talking to somebody about what house saying how delightful and that it saved their sanity this person was somehow marooned in india and didnt have access to a library and read through what house i think. When i was moved t first moved t the age of 13, to entertain myself, i did a lot of reading. I remember the sofa and the way that i would lay on it with a box of raisin on my stomach and read the book. I read a lot of roadhouse in that way. I think that hes thriving fundamentally enough that he created a world even as he was creating it nobody really looked or acted like him anymore. It was a kind of victorian idea of a gentlemans life might be. So it was always a neverland could escape to and it remains a neverland you can escape to. He was a very lucid writer, funny, could make you laugh sitting in the chair like very few others can and a funny, romantic kind of hard. Although he was a lightweight and was always taken as a lightweight and doesnt get too many phds written about him, he is one of the enduring writers of the 20th century and his land would remain a place people discover for themselves and want to hes in front of the time. Other Penguin Books about line of predefined covers and everything so there is a good house market public still. Host o host are all if youre still in print . Guest some dont even tell me. I bought buchanan, a long play at the James Buchanan and using what i learned about him allowed to go out of print and then a pennsylvania publisher picked it up and did a nice new edition using the old plates and photographing them but incorporating some changes and then that went out of print. Host said he died twice. Guest yes. One of the reasons for getting out early stories, a couple of the early volumes collections had gone out of print so i said lets bring them back into print. The other story is kind of grouped and told a story of their own. Host did you tinker with them . Guest i did. There was some trouble with the basic plot is which one he was in was a little muddled and reprinted and so i made it i hope right at last. But its a pleasure to take those stories and try to make them a little stronger. The ones that have where you can write and easily accept it and one little notice, those are more load to change because maybe you are in danger of making a change for the worst. Henry james went through as many of these novels towards the end of his life and turned them all into late james prose which is out of this world. Professors assigned to the earlier one so i dont want to do that but i do want to improve where the improvement is evident. Host greenwood south carolina. You have a question. Caller yes. From the screen i noticed you like james joyce and if you had read also the cs lewis and the news with his book, have you read or been influenced by any of his books . Guest james joyce is somebody you cant get around. The stories are amazingly simple and while effective, yes, but they also open up people but most no right or i can think of does. The example of ulysses as the monumental modernist novel cant be escaped either. I try to read it a couple of times and find it frightening. I was 15 i think the first attempt ended just reeked of a godless world and universe and i think that that was not a bad reading for a 15yearold since he was somebody that had gone to a religious education and suddenly something in the world of matter. Another book that ive never regret although that i intended to from time to time, its a book that i own more than ive read also for so long but i did try once and began to work through it. You almost get the the flavor of the sense of holiday. The holiday book full of explanations and irish talk basically. You have to have an irish accent to hear it right, i think. And its not a book that i think a scholar not enough to stick with, and that is a fault of mine indignation, but im still going to get around to maybe when i retire from writing. Host do you have an estimate of how large your personal library is . Guest no, i ten though, i to hang onto books. I know that my wifes urging i clean out the seller and the borrowing of books and the men took away over 2,000, so i have another thousand or so. Even so, you often dont have the particular books you wish you had come and worse yet, you know you have it but cant find it. Also, when you review, as a critic you get books sent to you and accumulate those that you have reviewed and often die or get others by the same author so yes it is in the thousands. They are not very demanding but they do get dusty. If i move again i think i will have to get rid of some. Host have you made arrangements for your papers to be stored or archived anywhere . Guest to give books, manuscripts, have them evaluated and then you can take the amount of days as a Tax Deduction but that was used by many people, not really by need, it amounted to a couple of thousand a year. Just. John updike the things i have written day by day and year by year. Me. I save everything with the best version so that how i wrote them can be discovered if you have access to these things. I would like to see them preserved. In grandiose notion. Host as a matter of fact, we will do a question from the professor next. Professor at Auburn University prayed in department of english. And he writes about readers response. I am interested in current readership mail and female and how they can respond to attitude towards women. A knife in the novel through remarkable and challenging i wondered about my responses. It is a love hate relationship. Could you comment on whether current readers have as much something to the relationship with women as perhaps early readers good printed response like you more than we can and of course in a postfeminist culture braided. John updike he was heading kind of pre feminist in my attempt was only to show the working of this particular more or less average male mind. He does see women as objects printed and has sincerely harsh words both spoken in but about his wife. But that is part of him and i think it is part of a lot of people and i think is more or less accurate reflection of way that a lot of men thought and 59 and probably still think in 2005. I cannot feel to apologetic about it although if i had to rewrite some of the harsher books like that, i would hardly check the amount but i was a young writer then. And determined to say what he could about and about reality as it continues in the american male. Because it is kind of rough in a way. He more than once has the thoughts to kill his wife. And he sees cakes with him in his mind all of the time. But after all, it is true that is a big concern with all of us. At the sexual signals that both are sending out all of the time. In one of the means in which the world is transacted. As to whether or not he is likable and not afraid of the can read about it with the idea of having a fairly selfish and unkind. Then he runs out on a incompetence woman and deserts little two yearold boy. Who fits the character by the way we see interpreting revisiting the same set of people free to link two 12 32 read so amid the reader to went. As some of the painful events. And some of the examples of the callousness, part headedness. Its the same, i forgotten the exact work verbiage but the hardness of heart. The hardness of heart printed this was struck my attention. Why are we still talking with the hardness of the heart. It is necessary for people to function. To the degree it is. If you totally live to every bit of suffering, this at the entrance suffering that is the lamb that youre eating tonight to beggars on the street entrance treat and the poor on the street. Its in a way, a terrible sense to be alive let alone to be prosperous and happy. To be obvious terribly offensive menu think of that. Theres something about the hardness of part. That was in my heart. And the professor does not have to like him and he doesnt want him to. Maybe because i look with him longer because of middleaged people. But is kind of a dear grandfather really. But some lapses. In his old selfish self. Host go ahead place. Its. I love your books. And since i retired five years ago, one of my hobbies is collecting first editions of your books. Very much enjoyed the huds through the bookstores and San Francisco bay area. Have about five more books to go. My question concerns your experiences in california and the northwest. Except for where beck pleads guilty sections about hollywood we note here. Throughout the west. Do you ever spend much time out here and will you be visiting here lastly, in the bay area, but also we are very proud of all us senior. Have you ever met him. At a time when i was getting aware of writers and somehow i felt of the eastern writer excused from having to read western writer. This is just one of the many jobs marine. But i have and i like his approach to writing. Infection in general. I was born in eastern pennsylvania with the college and moved to new england so my Life Experience has been. Much northeastern. My first wife lived in San Francisco with her family. We see other funds a year. Its a wonderful new world to me. There is a movie buff, longstanding. And been hollywood many times. Vicariously. I always wanted to visit especially the red carpet because thats where the Jeopardy Program used to make jokes. So is cut to laugh. The first arrives in los angeles i was getting off of the plane from australia and a corrected tooth in australia. So i headed to think. Nagging to think that would not go away. I knew i would have to get it attended to and nevertheless my jetlagged into thinking condition, i walked up wilshire boulevard to find any street in los angeles is long walk. In a trend in the long and finally got there and winds are closed and sort of night. I looked through the fence i could see a glimpse that was sort of my first heartfelt experience of los angeles. Ive been there a few times since. So is exhilarating and so different. Just the look and the feel of it in an eastern city. But apart from the San Francisco connection ive not had enough reason together. It is a long flight. Ive been invited to speak there repeatedly but i think the state of california, the taxes, even incidental earnings so little bite is taken out of which you hard. So for a number of reasons, have not been in california very often. The west, west of course is part of the American Heritage and part of being an american is to have a brief of the west. So i went a family trip with a four children night and the mother drove from albuquerque to San Francisco in the northern playback to denmark. Find a couple of stories. I think theres one called nevada for example. It tries to have a western experience. Host color mentioned this book. Really the beauty of this price also defines itself in your memoir. John updike is very start by that. His head of the militant song about fighting and winning. And he has these surreal lines of which in the beauty of the lease, i support across the state. With a growing in his bosom the trans figures you and me as he dies makes men holy, die naked and free. It is truth is marching on. But in the beauty of the lilies. What really sprayed is just desert right, sand right. I was just interested in it for many years. I thought i would write it novel about it. Meaning that is a book about a christian minister who loses faith in about four generations they say how they deal with the Christian Faith or faith in general, faith and life. Faith in themselves. So it is a little bit like abraham and isaac and isaac and jacob and jacob and joseph. Meant to be that kind of parallel anyway, the beauty of the lilies christ is born across the city. Christ wasnt born here. He was born way over there. Somewhere else about christine hannity. It is part of the texture and feelings the distance. The something we embrace but most many of us, it is something far away. Host he is giving up three hours of his day. If you have an email question, but to be at cspan. Org. Youre on, from new york. Thank you. Ive really enjoyed your work over the years. And i congratulate you on your achievements. By questions about some of your favorite authors. Had a question about inventory influenced you with it all. Second one, and wilson, not on your list. Always reminded me of you in terms of his broad ranging interests. A wonderful love of literature. Third, Agatha Christie. Already did mistreat not again to put her writings are so clumsy. There opposite of your own. Now ways when she comes up with host edward wilson,. John updike i didnt know enough to ask about them. What her profession was. Her name is update the wave after she married because you married another epic. She married her first cousin. My First Experience of wilson, came out in 45 or so 46. If such a scandal it was being banned in boston and new york even. Even existed on the pa Public Library. My mother kept it out of the rented. Dont think she read it to not so sure about that. I read it. Its a fascinating book. The First Encounter with the real detective. Certain hands of writers, one named james kane. He wrote mysteries. Other tough american. Dirty. Take off your hat kind of. It was a different motels and hotels. It was under the world. But it did go on in the 30s. Or we wouldnt be here. And he describes it and then i read it with without exhaustively being well read. But the modernist writers. He never improved about it. By the summary of what the strikers did and what they meant. So i admire him really 98 percent for wilson and i guess he is kind of fading away. Because that kind of learning and earnestness and tenacity is lost interest the further we get from them. People do read doctor johnson still event the basically a critic is a journalist who gives his opinion. And then goodbye, it is over. And fiction, it interested me because of the golden, co. In a friend all of his books. Probably who was so firm in his views in everybody elses fiction and himself was so radically productive in itself. He wouldve loved that to be a great novelist. And he had the animus been hurtful decision to have to encourage his young wife to write in the new yorker they took her stories and she became a writer. She had the gift of one of the new yorker wanted. Never to the story by him. So there is something a little dervish and clumsy and serene real about his fiction that i guess is a turnoff to many. Ostomy. Host Agatha Christie was on the list. John updike i love Agatha Christie. I read it when in 19 sprayed is not very, she delivered these village types to the clergymen, the unhappy wives. The gentry up there. The barkeep in the pub. Very efficiently delivered. The novel takes just a couple of hours to read. It always baffles the least me. Im an ideal reader. I was reading novels to get off of that sofa as an escape. She was the best for you thought she was one of the most immediately satisfying. The notion of the book of melissa book, and has some in it and some racism. In a puzzle at the end to be remains an ideal writer, reader, contract. I tried to write mysteries. But i really dont have the mentality for it. For the patients or the cleverness or maybe im too much of a writer rated and a lot of the admired writers 90s now, came to be seems to me to be quite long. Shes trying to be a real novelist. Kristi had no such delusions of grandeur. She was producing a different kind of product in a certain market this still exists. She still read. I believe she was the best in her field. At first time that i read a book off of one of the peen stories. It was in the new yorker. I never seen process that would do these things. So i became a fan very quickly. It was quite well read. Read in the english language works including a long translation. But also more books as well. In the super writer. There are things that are said and believe that in just the way he describes america so magical. Because i guess not being an american, he could see in with an american cant. Can flip through it. Kimberly looked freighted he was a writer the meant a lot to me as a reader. Im not so sure is a writer. It was a little old to be really moved tabulation by wilson. And i wasnt sure i would be helped by going in his direction. I was already instinctively going that direction. Doing the somersault and dance and the verbal polished or whatever. But i admired him as a master and a great presence, the great spirit. He was rich in russia and a noble. If he had everything that you could block progression. And he lost it all. He didnt feel sorry for himself really kept fighting. And he came to this country again chased out of your by hitler. It always made lemonade out of lemons. In his life. Host next color lives in hawaii. When oid lived. Into why. Host nice to have you with us. I just wanted to give an appreciation john for that you planted in my head. I was get a laugh out of this robert rich. And in the late 70s, two bags of quarters. In his wife caring them across the street. And he feels like to curious symbols and their arms. With a time they reach their destination. The other is a poignant one from were a couple i cut guess it is a broken road. The retains regard and sensitivity and their it is too far for him to go. To take her hand across the bridge between the two twin beds. I really appreciate that. That moment in my reading life anointed thank you. John updike thank you. Youre almost making me cry thinking about the maples. Those were not courses or programs. He thinks that he can be smart to invest in something. The late 70s had a kind of a medical race which both the golden it went up to 800 andounce and cougar like wise and so he goes out and puts a number of thousands of dollars into that and then the physical weight is taking things to the safe deposit box becomes this ordeal. Which he and his wife suddenly with these heavy sacks. I too thought that seemed. Funny. Struggling through the main drag. Caring all of this really cumbersome wealth. As to the maples image that you must mention freighted i forgot about that. It syndrome. Couple was trying to repair the marriage by going to run briefly. They hurt him mentally somehow. Maybe all of the marble floors. Dont know what it did it to him. But it is like like this maple stories. Twenty marriage many ways valuable seem to have an underside. Of pain, unfulfilled longing or whatever. Of course the gentleman callers right. Its a tenderness. I remains. Host in this genre of this couple and the maples. It made some references to explicit nature of some of your writings. And heres a time when theres a description of thats. Wanted to use that as we do as he would to think about some of the debates about what is obscene or should be on television and movies. The governments role in all of that. John updike goose consider quite a racy any script so racy in fact that legal advice was sought. And once it was thought it must be followed and i consented. Since i didnt want to be a hero much on this. And think i would get a better deal elsewhere. In many cut. A few cuts. Youd be the most offensive. But it made them. And then this is a 1959 looking around the 1960. Everything loosened up. On the books came out. It seemed effectively ridiculous freighted and i put it back. And later in dickens, and the book was while i was shocked when i was told by the girl at the local. At the counter of the drugstore. She had been assigned by her english teacher and i said did you read it. She said jerry had. Is a queasy area here where certainly television was in everybodys homes. Kids concerning non and i do. And what the governments role should be naturally, i would think is role is to keep his hands off of the writing of the literature, the art of writing writing describing and being truthful and ardent and honest. Smart enough to have censorship. To workaround and then hinted hardbound world that is still more or less the case. But where you get into media with the big public and almost was the phrase. Ready made public. I dont know what you should do. Ive had a number of my books pulled off the shelves. The figure, is my right to write the book. And is their right to take it off the shelf of the library. I felt describing and all of this complexity and disappointing dimensions as well as the static ones. All of this is worth doing in the time was one of the few areas that i can see fiction had been reticent. Here is something that we the people interacted and behaved. And it could be frightened about. Maybe recent surround books. Somewhat empathize. Whether it is too much or per rock convicted imagery. What youd viagra. We are saturated commercial world. When while being unapologetic about my small part in it. I can see why to squeamish feel that way. Host our next colo color. Even wrote a play about buchanan. In that i was wondering if he had an opinion about the conclusion reached by many historians that president buchanan was the only gay president that this country is up ever had. And also a review i read many years ago by mr. Updike, where he speculated about possible connections about homosexuality in his section is wondering if he has any new opinions or ideas on the subject and whether generally the subject of homosexuality is been an important one in his own section. John updike not very. I dont have much strains of it nor i guess, very keen conscious interest in it. But that doesnt mean im not interested in it. I think, it depends a little bit on how you defined gay in the 19th century. Many men, politicians lead lives in which other men were the only important people. And that is buchanan was not unusual. In any room with another congressman for many years running and that they exchanged letters of almost more than friendliness. Real fondness. Although i think it is generally accepted that he had a powerful gay straight, although he fathered four children and he was in a conventional marriage but certainly is writing indicates more than usual appreciation of male beauty and mail camaraderie but whether or not the homosexual acts were part of his life is unknown. I can be talked into that certainly with whitman i could be easily tucked into it. But if you can and i do find it a little hard to believe. He was a very tender and safe and careful man read who had an early disappointment. That is fiance after some talk, went to philadelphia and barely died. Of an opium overdose basically. Its not apparent if it was a suicide. And the life of her mind if and he never courted another woman as far as we know. And it is a lifetime is said that he never shaved going to run shape. And is rumored has been gay. He would call them gay then but very much there. I could leave that he had been burned enough by this heterosexual commitment that he saw a woman ever after. But like many, he was actually bachelor who enjoyed male companionship and enjoyed male prerogative switch word exercise without apology those days. And that was not so unusual to have men as. And often now been are often on one side doing their thing and the women are often used to doing their thing. Host some papers may be that be open that would reveal the relationship between buchanan and speech person. John updike what was, you have to bundle of papers involving his communications with dan coleman. He had no direct heirs so he left and to his executives of his will. And with instructions to bring this packet hundred. In the burned date. So this only packet that had a quite a bite of light and it. Host we have a troubling pinnacle thats called the cspan book tv bus freighted and goes around to libraries and bookstores. As going back on the road this fall to encourage people to read. In one of our stops and we ran into a reader that had questions for you which we have on videotape. Like my question relates to can williams, the baseball player. And your interest of him from your book that you wrote in his last game. Specifically, i know you did and virtual relationship with the boston sportswriters puts the year he had a great great year in baseball. He is not dominated for the mvp. Because of the sportswriters in boston. Can you update me way listeners on just what happened this year. To understand the pulled the Sports Writer to find out which one voted him down there. I appreciate that. Host . John updike my one famous piece and it was written out of the real long harvard and williams. As a child i played a board game and it had baseball and williams is a standout card to get. Didnt know anything about him. Nana began to go to a few games. In philadelphia. I saw williams play and i him all the more. I admired him from afar and went to harvard because it was near fenway park. I havent a good was less game and wrote about his last game which he managed 42 years old as he was, he hit a home run as his final signature prayed and again he circled the bases. Did not to present. He had an adversarial relationship with the fans, many of them and certainly with the sportswriters. I think it is true that his behavior was often related and rambunctious and really offensive. He offended enough boston writers but is that you have been said, the voted him i think nowhere on the ballot as it mvp. Because he was clearly the most leader and all in statistics. And yes. Host he was the bad boy of sports. John updike and also he was the bad boy in time in the beginning to tattle on bad boys. But somehow, the babes greatness and his charm and innocence in a way even though it was a good boy. This roughness was moved over the press. To know how much was supporting a babes drinking or hot dog eating. Her messing around with women but certainly, ted was a perfectionist. Very sensitive. And he could hear everything in the stands. Keep did probably lose not just one but two most valuable awards. You just put them in your resume not with much. But had a good he was and everybody knew that. Host next call comes from woodland, texas. Good afternoon. Thank you for taking my call. Im a great fan of your work. I think you about your views of your life and i am from india. I have one question for you. A lot more people are speaking in english and that part of the world. A lot more English Writers coming up from that part. Have you read any recent English Writers and have any of the books. The second question is how is it going to change the english literary world in general. John updike will that i read the god of small things just written by a young indian woman prayed or less nine was roy. It was quite an amazing performance. I another review reviewer said so. I also read the review by mystery who someone older. And of course, i used to read ryan i think that was his name he wrote short stories and novels about indians. I have read them. And it is true that these people as a group have a society unlike anything that the americans of the english can describe where the australians. So they are opening up or have opened up. I dont know how they feel their native land. If theres enough english readers who can support them. Whether they still depend upon book sales in america and in england. It must be the same way, for any position to begin which i assume they also speak english and indian language as well. English as second language. But theres much going for them. And that novelist in the end. I think they will be more rather than less of them. Theres been a number of americanized indians who have also risen levels about their American Experience peace with their indian experience. This is literary land. Host i wanted to ask you this question by missy. I was struck in your memoir about you describing the blocks they used to play with as a child. The first blocks and he described him so visually. With such detail and them are tactile. Iraqi election method freighted and maybe wonder whether or not you have a sense, overdeveloped sense of visual memory the perhaps the rest of us dont have as a gift. Its a specific question. Among many seem simple, when the boy and father taken to the hotel, is so detailed that it seems that you have perfect recall of all of the details of his childhood. Did he keep a diary or notebook when is where teenager in which he hunted down details. John updike thats a nice observation i think you. I think the reader for the observation. No. Ive never been a no bookkeeper. I believe that the memory retains a better screening would you cant remember, he is worth remembering furthermore, we were talking about is fiction, is a great journal keeper. And his journals are full descriptions of scenery and was not. And moments of which which seemed important to him. But then when you have this sheet of moments that escapes. The worsens themselves are tierney. Like big cranberries in a in re muffin must be very strong where i one is cooking, cooking right just flows. And he catches up to your memory rating brings of arrays that you didnt know you had. You mentioned the blocks. This a very vivid blocks to me. Somehow maybe everything that you handle when you are three years old is vivid in a way. It becomes less and less certainly your trip childhood memories linger in the way that the memories, in your 50s. I can hardly remember things in my 50s. The quality of the mind, your memories blank so everything that happens to you and sort of new and exciting and important. Host gift . Cartoon drawings previous. Yes. Im a huge fan. I know that i rented your first love was drawing. What if you still sketch out a cartoon and then. And also a questions about your habit as a writer. Do you still work on it disciplined writing schedule. Right in the notion hits you. John updike i try to make the notion hit me all of the time. So if you are right without any notion, obviously we would take today off. But never had days like that there was a something that i was trying to work on. I find that they been putting down on very jury days, putting on one sentence tends to breed next sentence. And so you begin to make a story. It begins below the view. A lot of your mind something. And its worth stressing. Like many children, andrew a lot. Andrew passionately. Comic strips and comic books. And i was level with comics really. And i took drawing lessons at some point rated and other thats maybe i am more visual observer than some people although as i write, im often struck by how little i observed. Amity dose no. And it just wiped often, but soandso was wearing or what a certain outfit was. Women i believe i can make a sexist observation. Their much more alert to certain homemaking and dress details. Than men are. I really seat so much less than a really which i did. If i were an ideal writer. So much of it i have to think about or bring up or ask about sues own kind in the patchwork. And so certain moments in my childhood, landscapes, childhood home. Right there. Very close to my mind decide. Host next phone call, albany. Thank you for taking my call. I appreciate you had say that ted williams. I originally called to ask the very question you just answered. So unless you balance the next style of mysteries. Thank you. John updike i really did do reading at some point and dont recall reading many is a dead what i was 50 dont think he wrote his million the time. Its a little hard for a kristi fan to take an american scene as congenial to the puzzle of mysteries. California, los angeles has become a chandler land tour we see at the end, the scene of violence am a of a different kind. Strong sexual attraction and adventures. Encinas. Kevin delicious sinister speediness to southern california. So it is domesticated in a funny way is a scene for mystery novel. In new york took a little getting used to. He drew kids. They had detective drew our kids. Never ventured of the apartment. But in rhythm with pleasure. One for years. Host about seven minutes left with a conversation. All different topics of questions here. This one is about benjamin franklin. Have you are from bend, oregon a cent, 1988, the new yorker publisher wonderful homage to benjamin franklin. What inspired you to write such a magical piece with franklins 300th birthday coming up next month, what you thoughts about this relevance today. John updike that was written when he was retired at the new yorker. Tina took over freighted and so for those few years, robert who i have known from when he was head of random house was the editor. And he had his own scholarly approach to the Books Department and sent me the library of america complete works of benjamin franklin. Think it was complete. Completed enough for me. It is 1200 pages. On franklin. But i was a practicing professional writer and i actually read it. I made as many pleasantly good minute round the piece you probably remember to never hurt anybody other than the scholar have anything to say but that piece. But i was part of it. I thought i was full of information about franklin. In may kind of a story about it. Went back to the puritan void boston. And so the kind of came out from one another. That was my thought. And but she knows the piece is a piece i am proud of. It appears i think either an odd jobs matter. One of the companions of my nonfiction prose. Host from texas. Welcome to the conversation. My question is from the list of writers that hes admires. Theres no my specific question is his view of cormac mccarthy. I will hang up. Thank you. John updike owens read a book or i think a man was living in a cage eating corpses. Even just remembered it but it is certain individuality in a certain power but i think it was personally repellent to me. And to a degree that have not read enough a lot of his books sense. This is my loss. No doubt. To say that im a southern writer is surprises me but when i think about it, it may be truth in it. I read your, think of restoring the she wrote. And i admired captain dan porter. And ive read a fair amount of fokker over the years. A voice wondered if he couldnt have said that quicker. Or something. There is a yearning quality of wendy dennis. A fascination with the sense of spiraling. Some exactly my cup of tea. But the best of his books. When i thought of the american short stories i included the sun. Most wonderful writer. Whether or not the world of the prewar south is somehow so disturbing to her northerner that he does one read about its. I dont know. I read connor quite a lot about reading and again it is another world. This what writing is all about. Host were just about out of time for you to feel the need for some sort of summary conversation of all of these topics. And i wonder if you might be able to encapsulate your worldview into a phrase or just not get you off guard. I wonder if ive got this from your memoir. Its its something that your mother said, the phrase. In the end, you tell your own hide to the market freighted he did say that my mother read to me what is going through divorce and i was feeling very guilty. He had number of sayings rated he tried to work out the meaning of life and he rent did a lot of bible reading. Son of the bible quote that comes to my mind is maybe kind of a motto. St. Paul writes, not to the spirit. And you should live so that you dont quench the spirit. You dont put a hamper on i, you dont lock it up. Dont cut off his limbs, you try to feed it and let it flourish and enjoy it. To be too judgmental in your own life. And in writing i have tried to be accurate. I tried to describe things as they are, and human dialogue in my limited experience. And i think that in the oral fiction troys from the earth of what you know to be the case. In our earthly detail about a place infection often helps the truth of it. Host thank you for your time today. Available right now in bookstores market art. A new into the mountains the spring break on the terrace and it we will show you the list of all 60 of the books he has published numerous long and very good career. Thank you again. John updike thank you very much. When you read the things that were said about thomas jefferson, that he was an infidel and that he was agent of the government. It sounds a little reminiscent doesnt it. The things that were said about abraham lincoln, the things that were said about fdr that he wanted to be a dictator. So it is kind of come with the territory. But i think in trumps case, at least in the modern political era, postworld war ii. Ive never seen anything like it. Some date september 6th at noon eastern on in depth, live to our conversation with author and Freedom Coalition founder refereed this books include awakening, activate is most recent, for god and country. Joining the conversation with your phone call, facebook comments, text and tweets. Much book tvs in depth. Sunday september 6 and noon eastern on cspan2. Heres a look at some Publishing Industry news. Fidel prizewinning activists as much book club in collaboration with a website that offers book selections by notable figures such as professional basketball players and authors using our link. Title peerless intends to promote the voices of others the world too often neglects. Other linguists died earlier this month at the age of 75. As the author of several books on language and regular contributor to the National Public radio program. And the news last week of the association of american publishers, the others killed an American Booksellers Association wrote a joint letter to the chairman of the house and anti trust committee critical of them is on. The stems are a level Playing Field really comes to distributions rather owns and manipulates the Playing Field leveraging pack practices from across to stipend that appears to be well outside their transparent competition. Also in the news, empty be book sales were up over 40 percent and for the week ending august 15th. Adult nonfiction sales on the week of positive sales up 16 percent lead by Shaun Hannity spoke live free or die. In bookstores around the country are celebrating independent bookstore days this weekend. The event coordinated by the American Booksellers Association, anticipate 600 stores participating this year. Annual promotion traditionally takes place in april but was rescheduled due to the coronavirus pandemic. Book tv will continue to bring you new programs and publishing news. You can also watch oliver archived programs anytime apple tv. Org. Drink virtual author event hosted by town hall seattle, healthcare ceo doctor vivian lee looked at the American Healthcare system and presented her plan for reform. Heres a portion of the program. Over 100 different people in healthcare, are positioned patient advocates, community workers. And one thing if you could change something with the magic wand. And if they said what i also believe which is that we choose or change the Business Model of healthcare. Tonight heard by those to as the secret service model. It is built as paying for action. But ive heard that in turn into current model helps with the hospitals to do things to people. Laboratory testing, studies, procedures and solutions. Regardless of whether it is helpful. So as a result, the Health Systems are really incentivized to do more more things to people. And go back to the documents theyre doing more more things to people so that they can charge a bill insurance for them. And instead, really we should be expecting as consumers and individuals truly only pay for care whether it improves health are likely to improve health rated and sometimes a means not doing much of anything. This really ideally how we should be thinking about the Healthcare System. Whether there actually doing things that will help. The secret Service System as we do now and when i say that again private insurance, and the government also is predominantly paying for services. Although that is starting to change. Whether there still predominant services in the system. Our Healthcare System generates fees. As surgical centers. Life cancer centers. We see right now during this covid19 pandemic is absolutely essential which are Public Health, and primary care. The Public Health really doesnt generate things. So by our covid19 responses, when we have some of the best Healthcare Facilities in the world. Is because we simply havent invested in the things that dont generate. We cannot invested in a Public Health infrastructure in this country. We have not managed to the do that. So its focused on making her 5 trilliondollar business and the only way to do that is to do more things to people. I will stop and say that i believe the worst physicians and those clinicians are really trying to do good. I think theyre trying to practice the best healthcare that they can. And we have this knowledge and the economics and such that they are going to starve and try and survive of over treating. Enter the medical system only further supports that maybe even incentivizes that. See of hospitals and doctors who are incentivized to do for more to people. And so the people pay more bills, the Insurance Companies rated and the only way to limit that spending and that perceived overdoing is to place barriers so the Insurance Companies that means saying that if the doctor recommends an mri. And maybe the recommending an mri, maybe the Insurance Company can manage the cost is two deny it. I dont think that is authorized or something. And putting into the barriers like what is called prior authorization. Which is something thats an amount of paperwork that the physician has to do in order for the study to be done pay for. So it really does generate an enormous amount of work. They have doctors and hospitals and their ensuring in their denying and putting in more beds and theyre fighting back and forth. Is like the trillion dollar tugofwar. At the end of the day, the u. S. We spend about 8 percent of our healthcare dollars on administration whereas most of our european counterparts will spend about 3 percent. 8 percent versus 3 percent. That is a huge amount of waste. And then the results is this dispute. What happens as we have the money that to the fault of the individual, the patient in this what we are surprised about. Then scour Current System works. And as you can imagine, it also generates an enormous amounts of other kinds of ways in the system. So much so that today, proximally 25 30 percent of all healthcare in this country again about three and half trillion dollars is considered a waste. So then we have discussions about how can we extend healthcare to all of those who are underinsured. There clearly opportunities in terms of being able to work out that waste and redistributing that to help people. To watch the rest of the program, which our website tv. Org. Org and do a search for doctor vivian lee for the long fix, the title of her book. And starting out, in his book tv and from time. Honor Author Interview program afterwards, mr. Edward both pitches that White Supremacy through the lens of his greatgreatgrandfather, ku klux klan member and years after the civil war. Loose this evening. She describes her grandfathers style. Find more information at booktv. Org. Consult your program guide