{"id":15559,"date":"2022-09-27T10:44:06","date_gmt":"2022-09-27T14:44:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=15559"},"modified":"2022-09-27T10:44:08","modified_gmt":"2022-09-27T14:44:08","slug":"episode-506-george-prochnik","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-506-george-prochnik","title":{"rendered":"Episode 506 – George Prochnik"},"content":{"rendered":"

Virtual Memories Show 506:
\nGeorge Prochnik<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/secure\/virtualmemories\/Episode_506_-_George_Prochnik.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div>

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

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

“This book is a bit of an intellectual Coney Island. It’s a rollercoaster or funhouse ride through a number of thinkers and themes I’ve been concerned with for years.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>George Prochnik rejoins the show to celebrate his new book, I Dream With Open Eyes: A Memoir About Reimagining Home<\/a> (Counterpoint Press). We get into his family’s decision after the 2016 election to leave America, how his book complements his wife Rebecca Mead’s memoir<\/a> about their move to the UK, the performative & symbolic aspects of their decision, the work of culture, and how it felt to write about the present moment for the first time. We talk about American exceptionalism, the nature of exile & self-exile, the centrality of Freud to different branches of his family, and why he decided to write about the nature of working as a writer and trying to get by as an artist in NYC. We also discuss the apocalyptic nature of our era, how the power of ignorance is stronger than power of knowledge, how we can recuperate the unknown as a space of possibility, and the warnings of two of his past literary subjects, Stefan Zweig<\/a> and Gershom Scholem<\/a>. Give it a listen!<\/a> And go read I Dream With Open Eyes<\/a>!<\/p>\n

(And go listen to our 2014<\/a> and 2017<\/a> conversations!)<\/em><\/p>\n

“I’m only interested in writing about myself as a critique of choices I’ve made, and here and there as a presentation of windows onto other ways of being.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n