{"id":13922,"date":"2020-10-06T17:50:27","date_gmt":"2020-10-06T21:50:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=13922"},"modified":"2020-10-06T18:03:40","modified_gmt":"2020-10-06T22:03:40","slug":"episode-401-john-keene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-401-john-keene","title":{"rendered":"Episode 401 – John Keene"},"content":{"rendered":"

Virtual Memories Show 401:
\nJohn Keene<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/secure\/virtualmemories\/Episode_401_-_John_Keene.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div>

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

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

“How do we think about the past in this country? What tends to be erased? Once we start to dig deeper into a story, we don’t wind up just in one rabbit-hole, but a warren of sorts.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>Author, translator, professor and MacArthur Fellow John Keene<\/a> joins the show to talk about how voices are found and how they’re erased. We get into how Benedictine monks started him on the road to translation, which languages he wishes he had, the perils of knowing just enough of a language to get in trouble, and how translation trains one to let go of ego. We discuss his amazing but uncharacterizable fiction collection, Counternarratives<\/a> (New Directions), along with his powerful essay, Translating Poetry, Translating Blackness<\/a>, and how to explore Black representation across cultural boundaries. We also get into the performative aspects of BLM by corporations and institutions and would it would take to transform into real change, the impact of his MacArthur “genius” grant<\/a>, why he’s trying to move away from Counternarratives’<\/em> narrative density in his new work, and more. Give it a listen!<\/a> And go read Counternarratives<\/a>!<\/p>\n

“With George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, and you go on throughout the list, and these moments remind us of how much still needs to be done, in terms of rethinking how this society functions, and our relationship to each other.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n