2008.11.22: November 22, 2008: Headlines: Figures: COS - Uzbekistan: Writing - Uzbekistan: Internet: New York Times: Stray Questions for: Tom Bissell

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By Admin1 (admin) (151.196.12.195) on Saturday, December 13, 2008 - 12:10 pm: Edit Post

Stray Questions for: Tom Bissell

Stray Questions for: Tom Bissell

"Essentially, I’m on the Web all day. I would say that the Web has destroyed my ability to concentrate while giving me access to a variety of literary encounter greater than all but the most comprehensive library. My relationship to the Web is probably very similar to being in a profoundly unhappy marriage with someone you really love and care about. You hate it; you love it. You want to leave; you know you can’t." Author Tom Bissell served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Uzbekistan.

Stray Questions for: Tom Bissell

Stray Questions for: Tom Bissell

By Gregory Cowles

Tom Bissell is the author of a travel book, “Chasing the Sea”; a story collection, “God Lives in St. Petersburg”; and a memoir, “The Father of All Things.”

What are you working on?

As it happens, a lot. In the last few days I’ve cut 2,000 words from a short story whose protagonist — a Bush administration lawyer — gets into trouble abroad; begun work on another chapter in a travel book about apostolic tombs, this one covering Trier, Germany, and Matthias, the apostle who replaced Judas; and written a dozen or so pages of notes for an eventual GQ essay about video games. What this means in terms of research is going from Philippe Sands’s “Torture Team” in the morning to a lunchtime engagement with “The Apocryphal New Testament” to a midnight round of the game “Far Cry 2.” It occurred to me a few weeks ago that I might be going crazy.

How much time — if any — do you spend on the Web? Is it a distraction or a blessing?

Essentially, I’m on the Web all day. I would say that the Web has destroyed my ability to concentrate while giving me access to a variety of literary encounter greater than all but the most comprehensive library. My relationship to the Web is probably very similar to being in a profoundly unhappy marriage with someone you really love and care about. You hate it; you love it. You want to leave; you know you can’t.

Whose books are generally shelved around yours in bookstores? How does it feel to be sitting between them?

Fiction-wise, I usually wind up next to Maeve Binchy, but I don’t see myself all that often. Over the last three years I have lived in Rome, Las Vegas and Tallinn, Estonia. In this time I have come across my stuff on bookstore shelves exactly once. In Las Vegas, I lived around the corner from a Barnes & Noble. After the paperback of my most recent book came out, I went to check if it had ordered any copies. I didn’t see any, but sometimes things get weirdly shelved. When I asked the nice lady at the information desk if they had any books by Tom Bissell, she typed something up, shook her head, looked at me and said, “We don’t have any books by him and we have never had any books by him.” From what I gather, the chain stores have been reducing their in-store stock to anorexic quantities. Most of us don’t stand much of a chance of surviving that commercial purging—and, to be honest, the last few times I was in a bookstore with any chance of having my books in stock, I gave the B section a radioactive berth. Charles D’Ambrosio said in this space that it’s an honor to have your books on any shelves at all. He’s right: it is. I no longer want to poison that feeling with my own vanity.




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Headlines: November, 2008; RPCV Tom Bissell (Uzbekistan); Figures; Peace Corps Uzbekistan; Directory of Uzbekistan RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Uzbekistan RPCVs; Writing - Uzbekistan; Internet





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Story Source: New York Times

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; Figures; COS - Uzbekistan; Writing - Uzbekistan; Internet

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