Gorgeous George

Fresh interview with George Saunders:

I’d like to write a novel, I suppose, but my approach so far is just to find something that interests me, and see how much weight it will bear. Generally, the answer is: Not much. The ideas that interest me are generally “fast-twitch” ideas — they are like those little wind-up toys, which, wound up, then quickly go right under the couch. That’s an aesthetic I understand.

(Via bookslut.)

Currently I'm sipping CivilWarLand in Bad Decline to make it last. Then I will pause. Then I will slowly sip Pastoralia.

Other reading:
Harriet Lerner, Fear and Other Uninvited Guests, very useful for someone in a blind panic about novels
Tim Moore, French Revolutions
Oakley (ed.), On the Edge