{"id":13054,"date":"2020-04-02T09:24:02","date_gmt":"2020-04-02T13:24:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=13054"},"modified":"2020-04-02T09:24:06","modified_gmt":"2020-04-02T13:24:06","slug":"covid-check-in-with-sven-birkerts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/covid-check-in-with-sven-birkerts","title":{"rendered":"COVID Check-In with Sven Birkerts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Virtual Memories Show
\nCOVID Check-In: Sven Birkerts<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/virtualmemories\/COVID_Check-In_with_Sven_Birkerts.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div>

Podcast: Play in new window<\/a> | Download<\/a><\/p>

Subscribe: Spotify<\/a> | TuneIn<\/a> | RSS<\/a> | More<\/a><\/p>\n

“The people I envy the most are the ones who can attain that higher zen-level of ‘things happen as they need to’. The level I really try to avoid is complete paranoia.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Today’s installment of The COVID-19 Sessions<\/a> comes from Arlington, MA, where essayist and AGNI<\/a> co-editor Sven Birkerts<\/a> checks in to let us know what books and poems provide him some degree of solace during the pandemic. We talk about what normal might look like in future and the way the recent past seems unreal, his daily challenge of taking an interesting photo for his amazing Instagram<\/a> feed, the theme of ongoingness in literature, caring for his 92-year-old mom, and more. Give it a listen!<\/a><\/p>\n

“The main reason I’m reading these Polish postwar poets and essayists right now is that they manage to keep a close poetic eye on the particulars of living, which we can’t let go of, but they also have or incorporate that slightly larger metaphysical perspective that puts circumstances in a larger, historical frame.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n