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Robin
Robin asked Ben Marcus:

Hello Ben, Not many writers can knock me off my feet with a short sentence; you're one of the few that can. Do you have an opinion on whether self-publishing is a viable route for the "experimental" writer? Or on smart strategies for a writer situated a long, long way from academia (MFA's, writing courses etc)? At times it can seem like a cloistered (and well-defended) world...

Ben Marcus Hey Robin, it's a really good question. I think it's a great time for new forms of distribution. But is it a great time for sheer interest in writing as an art form? So hard to say. The people who do care about it care as if their lives depended on it. Maybe it's easier than ever for us to find our few readers, but the harder question is how to connect to those readers who don't explicitly know that they'll like something unusual or innovative. Self-publishing has come a long way from its vain roots, but curation of some kind still seems to offer a sense of assurance to a lot of people. Can these forces be combined?
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More Answered Questions

Caleb Wilson
Caleb Wilson asked Ben Marcus:

I feel I have noticed a lot of birds in your fiction. Except they don't really seem to be real birds. Do you attach any particular thematic weight to birds, whether real or unreal?

Steven Felicelli
Steven Felicelli asked Ben Marcus:

there are many ways in which the thing I am trying in vain to say may be tried in vain to be said - Beckett Language acts as an acid over its message. If you no longer care about an idea or a feeling, then put it into language. - Marcus You also describe it as 'a more sophisticated way to cry'. Do you think this understanding of the self-defeating telos of language is a necessary evil?

Effie
Effie asked Ben Marcus:

Ben Marcus! I love your stories! I picked up Leaving the Sea after George Saunders named you as one of his favorite current writers (!) during a reading at NYU. That line that goes something like, fathers are here to temper babies from loving their mothers too achingly (is my memory anything like the original? I don't have your book with me), I remember that line when I look at my parents.

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