{"id":17993,"date":"2026-04-14T16:45:40","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T20:45:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=17993"},"modified":"2026-04-14T16:49:05","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T20:49:05","slug":"episode-673-andrew-durbin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-673-andrew-durbin","title":{"rendered":"Episode 673 – Andrew Durbin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Virtual Memories Show 673:
\nAndrew Durbin<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/secure\/virtualmemories\/Episode_673_-_Andrew_Durbin.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div>

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

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

“I think we live in an era that is so deprived of authenticity, where people can’t live the lives Peter and Paul did, and so many young people are desperate to do that: to live in a cheap neighborhood and make art.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>With THE WONDERFUL WORLD THAT ALMOST WAS: A Life of Peter Hujar and Paul Thek<\/a> (FSG), Andrew Durbin<\/a> brings us a masterful biography of a pair of artists, their art, gay life pre- and post-Stonewall, and more. We talk about his first exposure to each of their art, why he restricted the biography to the years Paul and Peter were together\/around each other (1956-1975), how queer lives are often oriented around death and why he wanted to affirm life with this book, when a biographer can let his subjects go, and why he prefers Thek over Hujar. We get into the ephemerality of much of Thek’s art installations, Hujar’s dissatisfaction with commercial photography and the struggles with getting photos taken seriously as art, the triangle they formed with Andrew’s hero, Susan Sontag, Thek’s belief that marrying the right woman (Sontag, at one point) would have “fixed” him, his regret at not getting to interview Joseph Raffael for the book, and how meeting Ann Wilson changed the course of the book. We also discuss how Andrew became an art-writer\/-editor by accident, how NYC has changed since he left 6 years ago, why young people are enthusiastic about his Thek and Hujar, why he needs to decompress from writing about history, how art criticism feeds his fiction and poetry, and more. Give it a listen!<\/a> And go read The Wonderful World That Almost Was<\/a>!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Photo of Paul Thek and his wax double by Peter Hujar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“You can’t bring people back from the dead, but you can build a bridge.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n