Ehrenreich
Great conversation with Ben Ehrenreich, the novelist and journalist, in the Humanities Gateway at lunchtime. Ehrenreich talked about how he writes fiction (he needs at least three hours alone and unbothered to do any valuable work) vs how he writes nonfiction (give him a deadline!). He talked about the difficulties of reporting when you don’t speak the local language, as when he visited Afghanistan in 2003. Just having the extra layer of the interpreter in the conversation changes the interview, he said. And then, when no one knows exactly who that interpreter is, subjects can tend to clam up, especially in countries where the government is oppressive and dangerous.
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