For the Sonorous
An Interview with the Dead White Man
The Dead White Man on Legacy
“I don’t think the problem with art nowadays is a lack of historical context. There are too many dead people in history.”
The Dead White Man on the Problem of Translation
“Not at all. Put my guitar next to Georges Braque’s and I’m sure you could tell who was the musician.”
The Dead White Man on Politics
“No no, it’s not programmatic or anti-programmatic, or anything statistical like that. The problem with a school is that everybody has one. Which is coincidentally the solution to the problem.”
The Dead White Man on Method
“Hahaha, I drink too much sometimes, but it doesn’t mean I’m a fatalist.”
The Dead White Man on Theory
“There’s nothing symbolic about it. It’s like anything else. You can’t be symbolic and have sex. You don’t swallow your food and expect it to be symbolic. I think more people should close their damn mouths when they chew.”
The Dead White Man on the Current Moment
“I don’t know. Are most living people invested in post-modernism? As opposed to dead people?”
The Dead White Man on the Dead White Man
“I was born in Cincinnati. Which is a little like coming from a long line of dentists. Luckily, it’s not hard to change your name. Some people treat it as if it were a permanent condition.”
The Dead White Man on Legacy
“You can quote me on that.”
The Dead White Man on Expectation
“I would describe my ideal reader as being polymorphously perverse. I think if more people read Norman Mailer, they’d be better prepared for cunnilingus. And vice-versa.”
The Dead White Man on Style
“Of course, I consider him a tremendous influence on my work. But I guess that’s a little like a chef being influenced by a glass of water. Or Ronald Reagan being influenced by the Washington Monument, haha!”
The Dead White Man on Content
“Oh I love Buster Keaton. He’s my philosophical model! I saw a film of his in which Buster made a girl fall in love with him by falling off a train. It was very moving and terrific.”
The Dead White Man on Progress
“Ultimately, even if George Sand had never existed, there would still have been a Female Eunuch. You can feel however you want to about that.”
The Dead White Man on Legacy
“Of course, we’re out, and in the world, which is neat. Nevertheless.”
Victoria Le received her poetic education from the University of Michigan and Brown University, where she earned her MFA. She is interested in the ways empiricism and revelation interact with manifested life. Her poems and translations have appeared in publications such as White Whale Review and Transference. She is currently raising a son, a husband, and three cats in Tallahassee, Florida, where she teaches writing to inmates.
