jonathan galassi is the president and publisher of farrar, strauss, and giroux, a poet, and, now, a novelist! his debut novel, muse, was published by knopf on 2015 june 2, and he did a few readings around new york city, so, obviously, i went to more than one.
muse is about the "olden" days of publishing and tells of a young man, paul dukach, who's coming-of-age (essentially) under the mentorship and guidance of two giants (sterling wainwright and homer stern) in publishing. wainwright and stern don't like each other, one reason of whom is ida perkins, the biggest poet of her generation, who is published by wainwright, wanted by stern, and idolized by dukach -- and, god, i'm so awful at summaries, so here's the summary on the penguin random house page.
the first event was at bookcourt on 2015 june 2, and galassi was joined by his editor at knopf, robin desser.
- "the book is in some ways a kind of elegy for the kind of publishing i grew up with."
- speaking of stern, "i knew such a man."
- robin desser: "let's not name names."
- part of it was that he wanted to go on record about what these men did that was remarkable.
- it's an imagined world where a poet can be the major cultural icon of our time.
- RD: "it's a fantasy world."
- hard task was to make ida feel dimensional -- she's a total invention, and trying to make her feel real was his biggest/hardest task.
- "it was a lot easier to write ida's poems than my own because they're hers."
- "venice is an end of the earth where people go to hide out, to become mythical."
- "the editor's job -- there's a vicarious quality to it."
- you stand in for the writer at the publishing houses.
- you're there because you love it.
- there's also a desire to posses -- that possessiveness of the publisher ("my author").
- "the joy of possession is a guilty pleasure, right?"
- "this vicarious quality of the editor's love for the author's work is not entirely selfless."
- whatever goes on with the industry or with publishing houses, what goes on is the work.
- though stern is fictional, everything he says in the book was spoken by someone.
- not everyone he wrote about int he book is dead.
- when people found out he was writing the book, he kept getting asked, "am i in it?"
- if the book is successful, who these people are shouldn't matter because they should have a life of their own.
- you have to give yourself permission [to write].
- ida became the focus -- "you needed a fulcrum."
- RD: "you needed a redhead."
- "a memorial to a certain reality."
- wrote it over a summer and put it away for a year to turn off his editorial sensibilities.
- showed the book to the children [of these people] before turning it in, and they were okay with it.
- "i did write it out of love for them [laughlin and strauss, who inspired wainwright and stern], and they did hate each other."
the second event was at mcnally jackson, and galassi was joined by maureen mclane.
- "[the good old days] were terrible ... but they were also wonderful."
- Q: what was your muse?
- the muse for him was his memory of what publishing used to be like.
- another friend who read the book said that ida is really literature.
- "this business ... that was a kind of ideal for me."
- Q about the ratios of romance and satire in muse.
- "if you love someone, you know them really well."
- love without a measure of honest evaluation is even more idealizing, much like paul dukach's idealization of ida.
- "it's a poet's revenge, this novel."
- "humor is only really funny if it's tinged with a sadness."
- if it were going to be a memorial, an elegy to how publishing used to be, then he wanted to do it his way and took it a step further to a world in which poetry is the end all, be all.
- at the heart of the novel is an assertion that the heart of publishing remains unchanged. the importance of the author is what really drives publishing.
- the kind of romance that goes on between an editor and an author -- a one-sided love ...
- "this book was fun for me."
- if you're going to write about a poet, one of the challenges is making her plausible as a writer.
- in the novel, she's supposed to be the greatest poet, but he didn't concern himself with that, just that there should be plausibility to her poetry.
- he read some of the poems (which was awesome).
- these people are types, like stern as hyper-masculine, sterling as more patrician, paul as very starry-eyed -- they're all these types oscillating around this poet, and they're very universal types, which hopefully resonates, so you don't have to know who pepita erskine is.
- when you see that [something] happens in venice, you know it's a game being played.
- venice has been memorialized/typecast by literature.
- venice is a place where people come to terms with their being in a certain way. it's symbolic.
- "the editor ... also has ambitions of his/her own."
- the accolyte position is inherently unstable.
- "i always loved alternative history as a kid." like, what would have happened if the south won the civil war? so it was fun to play around with it.
- there is that sense of alternate history, that you don't have to dig into too deep, but it's there.
- "i found being published very disturbing and vulnerable-making."
- "i find writing prose to be really very, very exciting."
- "a novel is a kind of essay; it's a way for you to say what you think about things."
- "it'sa bout how you see the world in a definitive way."
- the inevitable Q about process: muse was written mostly on vacation or on weekends and put away for a year.
- "i don't write drunk. i may edit drunk."
- "i can't write at night; i'm too old."
- Q about the bibliography:
- "the bibliography is accurate within the universe of the book."
- "it's part and parcel with the reception of a poet" -- the codification and sifting of her work.
- "the real thing about art, about publishing, has nothing to do with where you're from."
- "i wouldn't say that literature has a class" [at the essence of it].
- has a thought that he should have brought in a young women poet to encounter ida, bring in a new generation -- that would have been interesting.
- "the book is really a moment that's passed."
- "i think my book is more about people should want, used to want."
- "it's about where value really is."
- Q: have we lost that then? if this book is about the past.
- "i don't think so." in the end, ida's work is still hugely loved, even despite all the changes.