Episode 107: On Joy Williams' 'Breaking and Entering,' with Conner Habib

Weird Studies

Phil Ford and J. F. Martel

Society & Culture, Arts, Philosophy

4.8 • 688 Ratings

🗓️ 29 September 2021

⏱️ 87 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Joy Williams' third novel, Breaking and Entering, is the story of lovers who break into strangers' homes and live their lives for a time before moving on. First published in 1988, it is a book impossible to describe, a work of singular vision and sensibilty that is as infectious in its weird effect as it is unforgettable for the quality of its prose. In this episode, the novelist, spiritual thinker, and acclaimed podcaster Conner Habib joins JF and Phil to explore how the novel's enchantments rest on the uniqueness of Williams' style, which is to say, her bold embrace of ways of seeing that are hers alone. Williams is an artist who refuses to work from within some predetermined philosophical or political idiom. As Habib tells your hosts, she goes her own way, and even the gods must follow. Discover Against Everyone with Conner Habib on Patreon Support Weird Studies on Patreon: Buy the soundtrack Find us on Discord Get your Weird Studies merchandise (t-shirts, coffee mugs, etc.) Visit the Weird Studies Bookshop Photo by Wolfgang Moroder via Wikimedia Commons REFERENCES Conner Habib, "Joy Williams: The Best Fiction Writer Alive" Joy Williams, Breaking and Entering Joy Williams, The Quick and the Dead The Paris Review, Interview with Joy Williams Heraclitus, Fragments Joy Williams, “Breakfast” in Taking Care Bret Easton Ellis, American Psycho The Phantom Stranger, DC Comics character James Joyce, Ulysses Eugene Ionesco, Rhinoceros Deleuze and Guatarri, What is Philosophy? Quentin Meillassoux, French philosopher David Mamet, On Directing Film David Mamet, True and False Nicholas Winding Refn (dir.), The Neon Demon Joy Williams, “Congress” Joy Williams, “Hawk” Stephen Sexton, If All the World and Love Were Young Scott Burnham, Mozart’s Grace Special Guest: Conner Habib. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Spectrevision Radio
0:03.3	Welcome to Weird Studies, an arts and philosophy podcast with hosts Phil Ford and J.F. Martel.
0:23.3	For more episodes or to support the podcast, go to weird studies. This is Phil.
0:53.1	Writing these intros can be a pain in the ass.
0:56.3	The one I have to write tonight is for episode 107, in which we talk with Connor Habib
1:01.2	about Joy Williams' novel Breaking and Entering. I've been teaching all day and I don't feel
1:06.5	up for writing anything. Fortunately, though, I have a copy of Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt's oblique
1:12.5	strategies deck, which allows one to pull a card from the pile and apply its advice to whatever
1:17.6	creative task impends. Always first steps is what I got for my oblique strategies pull, and it seems
1:25.7	excellent advice for any occasion, really. As J.F. and I
1:29.5	discussed in episode 82 on the E. Ching, one definition of wisdom could be the ability to see
1:35.6	transformations at the moment of their inception, in the very seeds of formation. When editing these shows,
1:42.9	it's always interesting to note when it is that the
1:45.3	emerging drift of the conversation, a living being all its own, sends up its first green shoots.
1:52.9	In our conversation with Connor, it's only a minute after the beginning of the recording
1:57.2	when Connor remarks that while Williams is a deeply philosophical and political
2:02.3	writer, the philosophy and politics come in on the level of style.
2:08.2	She is, I would say, one of the most profoundly philosophical and spiritual writers who does not
2:15.9	try to insert it, does not try to make political art,
2:20.8	does not try to make philosophical art, but rather it just kind of unfurls from style,
2:26.6	which is a very strange but correct way for it to unfurl.
2:32.5	Connor is quite right. This is the proper aesthetic move.
	...

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