Mary Gaitskill on Subjects That Are Vexing Everybody

Conversations with Tyler

Society & Culture, Education

4.8 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 2 November 2022

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Mary Gaitskill’s knack for writing about the social and physical world with unapologetic clarity has led to her style being described both as "cold and brutal” and “tender and compassionate.” Tyler considers her works The Mare, Veronica, and Lost Cat to be some of the best and most insightful American fiction in recent times. And lately she’s taken to writing essays on Substack, where she frankly analyzes “subjects that are vexing everybody,” including incels, Depp v. Heard, and political fiction.

She joined Tyler to discuss the reasons some people seem to choose to be unhappy, why she writes about oddballs, the fragility of personality, how she’s developed her natural knack for describing the physical world, why we’re better off just accepting that people are horrible, her advice for troubled teenagers, why she wouldn’t clone a lost cat, the benefits and drawbacks of writing online, what she’s learned from writing a Substack, what gets lost in Kubrick’s adaptation of Lolita, the not-so-subtle eroticism of Victorian novels, the ground rules for writing about other people, how creative writing programs are harming (some) writers, what she learned about men when working as a stripper, how her views of sexual permissiveness have changed since the ‘90s, how college students have changed over time, what she learned working at The Strand bookstore, and more.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.

Recorded September 26th, 2022

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Just a heads up that this episode of Conversations with Tyler does contain some strong language,
0:04.9	so listener discretion is advised.
0:11.3	Conversations with Tyler is produced by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University,
0:16.4	bridging the gap between academic ideas and real world problems.
0:20.6	Learn more at mercatis.org.
0:23.3	For a full transcript of every conversation,
0:25.9	and hands with helpful links, visit ConversationsWithT Tyler.com.
0:33.3	Hello everyone and welcome back to Conversations with Tyler.
0:36.8	Today I'm very pleased to be chatting with Mary Gateskill,
0:39.9	who is one of my very favorite contemporary writers.
0:43.0	I love her books, Mayor, Veronica, Lost Cat,
0:46.2	her essays, her short stories, Mary.
0:49.0	Welcome to Conversations with Tyler.
0:51.6	Thank you.
0:52.4	Thank you for having me.
0:53.2	One thing I find so intriguing in your writing is your understanding of people who just seem to not
0:59.7	want to be happy flat out, such as Bill Vitt's mother in your novel, Mayor.
1:04.5	These people, what's your understanding of why aren't they happy or why can't they be happy?
1:08.6	Why do they process everything so negatively?
1:11.6	Well, could we talk about one character?
1:13.7	Because I think they're all different.
1:16.5	What is that told story?
	...

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