Ask the Author: Jennifer Wright
Answered Questions (9)
Jennifer Wright
First of all, thank you so much! I've got an illustrated advice book called Let Them Eat Pussy: Dating Advice From Marie Antoinette, Cleopatra, and Other Historic Ladies that should be out next Spring. Due to some very happy personal stuff (I got married last year, bought a house, embarked on the surprisingly time consuming task of renovating that house) I've been a little behind on writing another long book, but I'm about halfway through a novel that, fingers crossed, will sell. And I do a weekly column about our current political situation for Harper's Bazaar website, if you want to read about the weird and terrifying historical times we currently find ourselves in.
Jennifer Wright
I'm going to go ahead and say: not to their wives and kids.
That said, yeah, I think it we were judging life based solely on how much work a person could produce there would be a pretty considerable benefit to being a sociopath. I'd say I spend about 25% of my waking hours worried about other people in some way -- whether it's being concerned about my loved ones, or upset about the news, or feeling anxious about whether people like/will like or respect me. Honestly, 25% is probably a low estimate. There are definitely times when I lie awake at night thinking about something embarrassing I said at a party years ago when I think it would be GREAT to be a sociopath. If I didn't care about anyone else's opinion of me it would free up a lot of time in my life that I currently spend fretting and... I guess I'd use it to get more work done. If I was talented, as Mailer and Gauguin were, I imagine it would also be very good work.
But here's the thing -- I think I'd no longer be able to do the kind of work I currently like doing. I try to write books that are for other worried people. The pleasure I derive from writing is largely from hearing that the books I write made other people happy, or feel less alone. If I were a sociopath I think the joy of creating work like that would be eliminated. I simply wouldn't really care about anyone else's feelings. So I'd probably write very different books that were perhaps more attuned to making money or enhancing my glory or something else that would be of more immediate benefit to me.
I also feel that everyone, on some level, creates in a way that reflects their own mindset and worldview. It's not surprising that a lot of Norman Mailer's work seems like it's about how much fun it would be to be a white male sociopath (and, again, yeah, it seems like those guys are really free). Gauguin talked about how he wanted to paint people in their savage state, which he saw in himself. I don't see that in myself. My paintings would be about, like, a lady who is visibly concerned her dog is sick. I see the world as a fretful place where people are concerned with others, and I want to speak to people who share that mentality.
So I guess this very long response can be summed up by saying: IDK! Maybe? BUT MAYBE NOT.
That said, yeah, I think it we were judging life based solely on how much work a person could produce there would be a pretty considerable benefit to being a sociopath. I'd say I spend about 25% of my waking hours worried about other people in some way -- whether it's being concerned about my loved ones, or upset about the news, or feeling anxious about whether people like/will like or respect me. Honestly, 25% is probably a low estimate. There are definitely times when I lie awake at night thinking about something embarrassing I said at a party years ago when I think it would be GREAT to be a sociopath. If I didn't care about anyone else's opinion of me it would free up a lot of time in my life that I currently spend fretting and... I guess I'd use it to get more work done. If I was talented, as Mailer and Gauguin were, I imagine it would also be very good work.
But here's the thing -- I think I'd no longer be able to do the kind of work I currently like doing. I try to write books that are for other worried people. The pleasure I derive from writing is largely from hearing that the books I write made other people happy, or feel less alone. If I were a sociopath I think the joy of creating work like that would be eliminated. I simply wouldn't really care about anyone else's feelings. So I'd probably write very different books that were perhaps more attuned to making money or enhancing my glory or something else that would be of more immediate benefit to me.
I also feel that everyone, on some level, creates in a way that reflects their own mindset and worldview. It's not surprising that a lot of Norman Mailer's work seems like it's about how much fun it would be to be a white male sociopath (and, again, yeah, it seems like those guys are really free). Gauguin talked about how he wanted to paint people in their savage state, which he saw in himself. I don't see that in myself. My paintings would be about, like, a lady who is visibly concerned her dog is sick. I see the world as a fretful place where people are concerned with others, and I want to speak to people who share that mentality.
So I guess this very long response can be summed up by saying: IDK! Maybe? BUT MAYBE NOT.
Jennifer Wright
That's a really interesting question and one I think about a great deal. I grew up watching Jon Stewart and later the Colbert Report as a pre-teen and teen. They were my first introduction to the news, as I think they were the first introduction to the news for a lot of younger people. I knew that even if I didn't know much about some of the issues they were discussing I should stay tuned because they would explain it while simultaneously saying something that would make me laugh. It was a formula that ended up teaching me a lot (and never for a second made me think they were less than intelligent and well informed -- so I was spared some older people's notion that you can be funny or smart but not both.) I think the subjects I discuss can be VERY difficult and I want to make sure they're accessible not just to people who love medical textbooks (though I hope they like it!) but to people who might see my books as an introduction to the topic.
Jennifer Wright
First of all, thank you so much! This makes me so happy. As for a book in a similar vein to my treatment on the Borgias, I really love a World Lit Only By Fire. It's not as chatty in style as mine, but it's still very informal and provides some fantastic insight on families like The Borgias and the Middle Ages as whole (if that's a period that interests you). Specifically about Lucrezia -- Sarah Bradford's Lucrezia Borgia biography is terrific. I also recommend pretty much anything by Sarah Vowell or Mary Roach if you're looking for more non-fiction written by funny women.
Jennifer Wright
It's the best kind of question of all! And - this is gross self promotion - my next book, Get Well Soon: History's Worst Plagues and the Heroes that Fought Them comes out in February, and hopefully you might also like it.
Jennifer Wright
Thank you! I tried very hard to insure it was! I'm actually a liberal arts major. I went to college at St. John's College in Maryland. It's known for its Great Books program which focuses on having each students read the classic works of Western Literature, from Plato to Nietzsche, ideally in their original language (so, you learn Ancient Greek Freshman year). That background helped a lot, though I tried to make sure the approach towards history was a lot less esoteric in my book than it was in school.
Jennifer Wright
I'm working on a book called "Get Well Soon." It should be out winter of 2017. It's about terrible diseases in history and the sometimes heroic, often utterly insane ways we cured them (or tried to.) It features one picture of a 16th century woodcarving of the baby Jesus shooting syphilis rays out of his eyeballs, and another picture of Nutz from Mad Max that I'll be drawing myself as we can't get the rights to it. Both of them make sense in the context.
Jennifer Wright
Realize you will be rejected more times than you would think humanly possible. You must be 1) absolutely certain in your heart that those people are fools and your brilliance will eventually be recognized and 2) still willing to respond to them very politely asking how you can polish your pieces into something they would like to publish. Years down the road, you might begrudgingly admit that their input made you much more brilliant than you initially were. Otherwise, learn to think of "no" from an editor not as meaning "no" but as meaning, "try harder, you plucky kid, you." This is good career advice and the worst possible relationship advice.
Jennifer Wright
It is the only job you can legally do entirely in bed in your underwear. And frankly, waking up at 10:30 every day. Also, everything. Everything about it is the best thing ever, and writers who say otherwise are just looking for an excuse to drink.
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