An earnest, expansive, and rigorous discussion of Colin Marshall

Full Stop comes on the scene as the latest force for "an earnest, expansive, and rigorous discussion of literature and literary culture." The site does its bit by focusing on "young writers, works in translation, and books we feel are being neglected by other outlets." Sounds like a site I can get behind! If you read what I write, chances are you can get behind it too. In any case, it's gotten behind me; Full Stop writer Michael Schapira's interview with me just went up on its front page.

Michael does a solid e-mail Q&A. By way of proof, one question and its answer follows:

In a recent interview with C. Max McGee you both acknowledged working from a position outside of the academy (versus, for example, pursuing your interests within an MFA program or school of journalism). Many of your interviewees come from inside the academy, or are able to develop their work in some sort of productive relationship with universities. How you see your work in relation to the university?

I don’t see my work in relation to the university at all; if I’m lucky, I will continue not to see it that way. Some thrive in academia, but I find it brings out the worst of my slothful, autistic, obscurantist tendencies. I care strongly about how people engage with film, literature, and conversation in — forgive me for this term — the “real” world. How people engage with them in some department? Not so much.

Aw, what the hell. Here comes another, in part:

What have you learned from looking in-depth at a diverse set of podcasts over the past several years? Do you see any in particular pushing the medium?

I’ve learned that most podcasts consist of two twenty- or thirty-something white guys (or sometimes) bullshitting about “pop culture.” Some podcasters make an art of this — Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier on SModcast, Vernon Reid and W. Kamau Bell on The Field Negro Guide to Arts and Culture, or, again, Jesse and Jordan Morris on Jordan, Jesse, Go! — but most don’t. The best come from backgrounds other than “podcaster who’s seen some movies and television lately.” They’re comedians, broadcasters, musicians, filmmakers — not just podcasters, in other words, but three-dimensional people with accomplishments outside podcasting.

So thanks for making me think hard about what I do, Michael. It reminds me that, next time I get back on the other side of the interviewing game, I've got to do the same for my own guests. If you seek older interviews with me, you'll find a few on Mark Dykeman's Broadcasting Brain (which I can't seem to Google up at the moment), Tim Grigsby and Pav Aulakh's Radio Causeway, Giovanni Giorgio's G.I.O Get It On podcast, again on G.I.O. Get It On (but I can't find it), and Ben Casnocha's Think Different TV.

Comments

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this article shows that being a readers can be a writer. You inspired me to write my own blog. I really like your site. :)