{"id":15596,"date":"2022-10-25T10:06:06","date_gmt":"2022-10-25T14:06:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=15596"},"modified":"2022-10-25T10:06:10","modified_gmt":"2022-10-25T14:06:10","slug":"episode-509-darryl-pinckney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-509-darryl-pinckney","title":{"rendered":"Episode 509 – Darryl Pinckney"},"content":{"rendered":"

Virtual Memories Show 509:
\nDarryl Pinckney<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/secure\/virtualmemories\/Episode_509_-_Darryl_Pinckney.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div>

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

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

“It’s meant to be funny, but it makes me sad to remember it, because it’s a lost time.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>Literary & cultural critic Darryl Pinckney<\/a> rejoins the show to celebrate his new memoir\/memorial, Come Back In September: A Literary Education on West Sixty-Seventh Street, Manhattan<\/a> (FSG). We get into Darryl’s friendship with (& apprenticeship to)\u00a0Elizabeth Hardwick<\/a>, and the relationships he built with Susan Sontag<\/a>, Barbara Epstein<\/a>, and the New York Review of Books<\/em><\/a> in the ’70s & beyond. We also talk about recognizing a golden age when you’re in it, our current professionalization of culture and why it leads to meh art, the value of his literary\/writing education from Hardwick (& others), the NYC New Wave scene he was a part of alongside Howard Brookner<\/a>, Lucy Sante<\/a>, Felice Rosser<\/a>, and others, and why the one place he felt a sense of belonging was on the red sofa in Elizabeth Hardwick’s home. Plus, we talk about his massive project on the history of black literature in the 20th century, why there are so few examples of failure in black autobiographical tradition and why (and whether) he considers himself a failure, why someone once told him, ‘You’re very disciplined at beating yourself up,’ why we bonded over the same character in Middlemarch<\/em>, and more. Give it a listen!<\/a> And go read Come Back In September<\/a>!<\/p>\n

(And go listen to our 2020 conversation<\/a>!)<\/em><\/p>\n

“When you’re buffeted by your own time, sometimes stepping out and consulting a voice from the past helps you to know what to look for. And to put yourself in the stream of history. It gives you some humility.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n