Kate Zambreno: To Write As If Already Dead; & Susan Bernofsky: Clairvoyant of the Small
On this week's show we're joined by two authors, Kate Zambreno and Susan Bernofsky, who have both written a magisterial work about a past literary master.\nFirst, Medaya Ocher and Kate Wolf talk with Kate Zambreno about To Write as if Already Dead, a study of the writing and photography of Herve Guibert (1955-1991); and, in particular, his work To The Friend Who Did Not Save My Life, which documents Guibert's diagnosis and disintegration from HIV, and portrays a character based upon his close friend, philosopher Michel Foucault.\nThen, Kate is joined by Susan Bernofsky to discuss Clairvoyant of the Small, her biography of Swiss author Robert Walser (1878-1956), one of the most influential modernist writers in the German language.\xa0 Susan\u2019s biography portrays Walser not just as the eccentric outsider figure he\u2019s often made out to be, but as a fully formed artist, with serious creative aspirations, proliferate charms, and many complications.\xa0Clairvoyant of the Small\xa0offers a nuanced picture of his turbulent life\u2014much of its drama stemming from financial precarity, family legacy, and the sweeping pendulums of\xa0early twentieth century European history\u2014as it also illuminates the complexity and beauty of his writing.