Tyler//Michael Orthofer
Foreign fiction reading in the US peaked in 1970s
Tyler: in some ways NYC is provincial bc they believe the whole world goes there, but it’s actually highly processed
Michael: “I’m a text person, not an image person” (!!! Re: Amusing Ourselves to Death)
Reading is very much a personal thing
To get your kid to read a great book tell them “you’re not ready for this one yet”
Arno Schmidt = one of best read people ever
Melville’s “the confidence man” = great American novel
Regional language literature of India is extremely underrated (!) ex: Bengali
Tugorev (sp?); southern region of Kerala — remarkable literary production there but we see so little of it
American literary dominance is too overbearing worldwide
Tyler: “most American fiction bores me”. Rec = go for 1 year reading only non-American fiction
Tyler: “What belief do you hold that other intelligent people would find most absurd?”
Michael: “I think we fear death too much”
“I have great difficulty with religion/the God concept; I can’t fit it into my world view”