S01E064 Stephanie LaCava - writer The Superrationals

Stephanie @stephanielacava and I share so many artistic references and influences, we can talk forever. This one is a two parter, as her computer died mid recording and we were chatting anyway so just continued it a few days later until her son needed her. Stephanie's new book The Superrationals is a tight and dense 189 pages. The first thing I said to her after reading a few pages was the you have to live a lot to write that direct. That is, there's lives between the words. We're both major students of Alain Robbe-Grillet, and she even references he and Marguerite Duras in the book. It's a very cool formal exercise read, as it takes a little while to learn how to read her. Her voice is different than many of her peers, I think about Chris Kraus (founder of her publisher Semiotext(e), same as Natasha Stagg, previously on show) and Eileen Miles in through lines other writers merely reference academically. The Robbe-Grillet and Duras ideas surrounding New Roman and Objective Description are truly visible here in a form that exhibits the 60 years past. I read Robbe-Grillet's The Voyeur right before Superrationals, so there are moments I got really excited when I got confused if a word is intended as double entendre, or if a passage of time had occurred or not. It's cool to drift while reading, not elsewhere, but within the narrative. I found myself dabbling back and forth between understandings as I read, but not doubling back to check, just continuing in the flow. Oh she also has her on publishing arm @Small_Press! She's the coolest.