♦︎ 02 «Get triggered by chance and not by design»
What drew you to this format? And how did it allow you to develop the dynamic in ways that a traditional narrative might not have?
Lately I read Bluets by Maggie Nelson, An Apprenticeship or The Book of Pleasures and Água Viva by Clarice Lispector, and flipped through the pages of Arthur Rimbaud’s Illuminations. These all spurred reflections on less conventional writing formats, prose poetry, and what I can and would like to do. I thought the format of an interview — not a completely fake one where I make up the questions but the skeleton of a real interview, although adapted — could be an easy trick to give myself writing prompts, and also some constraints. I like the conversational aspect of it too; it gives me the illusion of a slightly less self-centered endeavour.
Did you feel restricted by the form in any way?
No, at least not yet, or not in a bad way. Finding good questions isn’t always easy though, but I shall hunt less for them, and leave it to serendipity. Get triggered by chance and not by design.
Are there any aspects of your style that are especially hard to translate to other languages?
Translation, languages.. I love this topic! There are always going to be words and concepts that have no direct translation in another language. I think and talk to myself in a mix of languages, and sometimes I wish I could write and speak in that mix. I wonder if there is actually something that gets lost in translation. But as I previously said, I feel like if you really want to understand, you can understand.
In our current climate, is there still a need to confront audiences in this way?
Are audiences confronted by this format? I don’t think so. The interview format is pretty common and very accessible. I was about to say it might even feel closer to real life as it is conversational but actually, on the opposite, it is probably very artificial as conversations happen quicker. But that does not make it less real. As physicist Carlo Rovelli said in a video I watched last night, everything is real.
Reworked from Katie Tobin’s interview with Virginie Despentes in Spike Magazine, 2024. Questions adapted; responses my own.