Was the enclosed-"My" partly a response to that? A way to say “I am speaking of myself, not you”? My goodness, I do return to certain points, there is already repetition within the book – the elliptical structure helped with that.ĭMO: I wondered too about the title – the part where you put “My” in parentheses felt so significant because it seems like such a constant in your career as a writer and a public figure that so many people want to stake out their particular territory, their political goals or personal anxieties, on your body. I didn’t want to belabor points, I wanted to move on once I’d addressed something. There were parts of that book I loved as well as parts that I didn’t, but I loved the structure, and how it never over-explained or overstated things. I was really moved by Maggie Nelson’s Argonauts. RG: No, it was totally unrelated, but I very deliberately chose to make the short chapters part of the book’s structure. It’s written in very short, snapshot-like chapters – was that a strategy that made it easier to take on such an intensely vulnerable project? You’ve talked about how the release date for Hunger was delayed because it was “scary” to write, and I wondered if that had anything to do with the structure of the book. OK, back to your book, which is the reason we are having this conversation. Everyone on this show is my beloved son, and I will gladly fly out to Indiana if you ever want to watch it.
Basically it is “gay ice skating Pygmalion plus Instagram,” if that helps you get a sense of the general vibe. And then there’s my other beloved and wholesome son, Yurio, a terrible little Russian teenager who just hates everything except for doing the splits and buying shirts with animal prints on them.
How are you doing? Have you been watching anything good on TV lately?ĭMO: Oh my God, yes. Maybe about the distinction between considering oneself a victim versus a survivor – I explained that pretty thoroughly in the book, and I don’t have much else to say about it. ROXANE GAY: I’ve actually only done twelve interviews so far, so there’s nothing yet I’m really tired of answering.
Shondaland gave me a professional excuse to talk to her about it.ĭANIEL MALLORY ORTBERG: Are there any questions that you are just really tired of answering about this book? Alternately, are there any questions you wish someone would ask you, either about Hunger or life in general, but hasn’t yet? Also, please do not notice that I am trying to ask you to tell me how to interview you.
Roxane’s latest book, Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body, was released last week by Harper Collins. (Sometimes I text her things like “Did you ever see Montgomery Clift in The Heiress? It is one of the greatest films of all time and there is no rush but whenever you watch it please text me every single thought you have about it” or “I just got a haircut, how are you?” or “THANK YOU FOR SENDING ME THIS NAP POD PILLOW, I AM TAKING IT ON THE TRAIN,” but that has more to do with my being a textual nuisance than anything else.) Talking to Roxane Gay on the phone is something I enjoy doing very much and do not get to do nearly as often as I would like to. Recently the universe gave me a paper-thin excuse to talk to Roxane Gay on the phone. This article originally appeared in the Shondaland summer 2017 newsletter.