Filmed at the University of South Carolina in 1980, two years before his untimely death, this interview with novelist John Gardner (Nickel Mountain, The Sunlight Dialogues, October Light) is aimed at fledgling creative writers. Recalling his long apprenticeship (he wrote for 15 years before being published), Gardner discusses the evolution of his novel Nickel Mountain, the importance of character in fiction, and sings the praises of endless revision: "you've got to go over it a thousand times, a thousand times." Although 30 minutes cannot do much justice to the range of Gardner's thought (his The Art of Fiction, posthumously published in 1984, is a much better introduction to his ideas about writing), this brief sampling may inspire budding authors to look further. Incidentally, my own approach to writing and thinking about fiction was shaped by Gardner (for better or worse, you have him to thank for my heavy use of dashes and parentheticals). Today, one rarely sees the kind of fabulist fiction that typified Gardner's work, except in a small handful of writers like T. Coraghessan Boyle, Mark Helprin, Charles Johnson, and John Irving. a couple of technical notes: obviously the 1989 copyright listed for the program is incorrect; and although the video box says that the "series is introduced by George Plimpton," the program we watched was introduced by Tom Wolfe. Other titles in the series include: Kurt Vonnegut, Nora Ephron, Pauline Kael, Susan Sontag, and William Styron. Recommended. (R. Pitman)
Writer's Workshop: John Gardner
(1989) 30 min. $59.95. PBS Video. PPR. Color cover. Vol. 9, Issue 3
Writer's Workshop: John Gardner
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