Funds for Bookworm are provided in part by Lannin Foundation.

You are a human animal.

You are a very special breed.

Or you are the only animal.

Who can think, who can reason, who can read.

From KCRW, Sanamanica, I'm Michael Silverblatt, and this is Bookworm.

Today, my guest is Ben Marcus, the author most recently of a novel, notable American women,

published by Vintage as a paperback original.

He's the author as well of The Age of Wire and String,

which were called Stories, published by Donkey Archive,

and recently come out from an art press

is a collaboration with Matthew Ritchie called The Father Costume, and that was published by

arts-based books.

Yeah, brand new.

And I wanted to begin by examining a whole bunch of ideas about writing that aren't very common.

And the first I want to talk to you about is the subject of self-revulsion.

It seems like it's something you've inherited in a way from Michelle Lerries' book,

Manhood.

And I wondered, first of all, about that,

because it seems to run through the work from the very beginning.

Yeah, I think that I'm more comfortable with modest personas and fiction

that when turned extreme, turn on themselves.

...