EFE – American Writer Paul Auster Dies at Age of 77 + Louisiana Channel | Marc Christoph Wagner – Paul Auster Interview: What Could Have Been + Idem | Kim Skotte – I Am the Laboratory

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American Writer Paul Auster Dies at Age of 77

Washington – Acclaimed American Novelist Paul Auster, Author of A Prolific Work Including the “New York Trilogy,” “Brooklyn Follies,” and “The Invention of Solitude,” has Passed Away at the Age of 77.

Auster Passed Away on Tuesday at his Home in Brooklyn, New York, Due to Lung Cancer. He is Survived by his Wife, A Daughter, and A Grandson.

Born into A Jewish Family of Austrian Descent in 1947 in Newark, New Jersey, Auster Later Made Brooklyn his Home and the Setting for his Novels, Especially in the 1980’s and 1990‘s.

He Constructed Literary Mazes in All his Works, Akin to Russian Nesting Dolls, Blending Fiction, Reality, and Auto Biography to Captivate Millions of Readers Worldwide.

His Prolific Body of Work Translated into over 40 Languages includes Poetry, Short Stories, Essays, Theater, and Film Scripts, Some of Which he Directed.

Auster Studied at Columbia University, the Epicenter of Current Student Protests against the Israeli War in Gaza. He Participated in the 1968 Demonstrations against the Vietnam War.

After College, he Settled in Paris, where According to the New York Magazine, the Writer was A “Rock Star.”

He made his Debut as A Writer in 1982 with “The Invention of Solitude,” Revolving around the Sudden Death of his Father.

But his True Fame came with the “New York Trilogy,” A Series of Novels Comprising “City of Glass,” “Ghosts,” and “The Locked Room.”

Amid Concerns about his Health in Recent Years, American Paul Auster published “Baumgartner” in 2023.

It features an Eccentric and Tender Philosophy Professor Plunged into Grief over the Loss of his Love. A Story about Chance, Memory, and Mourning by the New YorkAauthor.

His Life was Recently Affected by Tragedy when his 44 Year Old Son Daniel Auster Died of an Overdose.

The Writer’s Son had Been Charged with the Death of his Daughter Ruby, Aged 10 Months.

He Claimed to have Consumed Heroin and Fallen Ssleep, Only to Wake Up to Find the Little Girl Dead from Fentanyl and Heroin Intoxication.

In 2006, the Writer Received the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature.

“I have Spent My Life in Conversations with People I have Never Seen, With People I will Never Know, and I hope to Continue until the Day I Stop Breathing,” he said in his Speech Then.

at SSK

EFE, 1 May 2024

https://efe.com/en/culture/2024-05-01/american-writer-paul-auster-dies-at-age-of-77/

Paul Auster Interview: What Could Have Been

Published Monday, October 30, 2017 at 9:18 AM EST

Louisiana Channel

“I don’t Think There’s A Human Being Alive Who doesn’t Reflect on What could Have Been.” Watch the Great American Novelist Paul Auster on the Impact of the Choices we make, the Obsessive Nature of Writing and Having Reached the Age of 70.

“It’s Impossible for me to Conceive of what my Life would have Been, but It Certainly would Have been hugely different.” Auster feels that Our Choices have an Enormous Influence on Our Life, and that Each Choice can Lead to Possible Alternative Realities. For Example, he Met his Wife Siri Hustved in 1981 at A Poetry Reading that he Initially didn’t Want to Go to, and the Two were Introduced by the Only person in the World They Both Knew. “You Begin to Think about This, and It’s Dizzying.”

Though Auster Initially Only Aspired to Write One Single Book, he Soon Realized that “You Don’t Just Write One Book. There are Many Things inside You, and One Thing Leads to Another.” He feels that There are Very Few People in the Arts Who Keep Going, and that the Ones that Do are Driven by A Sort of Obsession: “I’ve Always Thought of Writing or Any Art as A Kind of Illness, and You Catch It Pretty Early inLlife and You’re Condemned to Do it. Your Life will Be Unfulfilled if You don’t Do It, Even Though it’s Very Difficult and Very, Very Demanding (…) so I don’t Really Feel I have A Choice.” The Extraordinary Thing about Writing, he Continues, is that You can Lose Yourself.“You Leave Yourself Behind, and You’re in the Work that You’re Doing.” Much in the Same Way, Reading A Book is A uniquely Private Experience, Which is Why Books are Irreplaceable: “A Book is the Only Place in the World Where Two Strangers Can Meet on Terms of Absolute Intimacy.”

“In the United States Nobody Listens to Writers, Nobody Cares What A Writer has to Say. We are Very Marginalized and Literature is A Pursuit that Most People are Not Interested in.” Auster Considers the USA A Very Practical nation, Where Most Things Revolve around Money. Movie Actors Seem to Have Filled in the Role of Public Intellectuals in Europe, and Are the Ones Who People for Some Reason Want to Listen to. “Which Seems Neither Good nor Bad, Just Bizarre.”

Paul Auster, born 1947, is A Highly Acclaimed American Novelist. He has Published Numerous Novels such as the ‘The New York Trilogy’ (1985 – 1987), ‘Moon Palace’ (1989), ‘The Music of Chance’ (1990), ‘Leviathan’ (1992), ‘Mr Vertigo’ (1994), ‘The Book of Illusions’ (2002), ‘Man in the Dark’ (2008), ‘Sunset Park’ (2010) and ‘4321’ (2017), as Well as Auto Biographical Books such as ‘The Invention of Solitude’ (1982), ‘Winter Journal’ (2012) and ‘Report From the Interior’ (2013). He has Also Written Screenplays for Films, including ‘Smoke’ (1995). Auster is the Recipient of Prestigious Awards such as the Prix Médicis Étranger (1993) and the John William Corrington Award for Literary Excellence. From 2018 he will Be President of PEN America.

Paul Auster was Interviewed by Marc Christoph Wagner in August 2017 in Connection with the Louisiana Literature Festival in Denmark.

Camera Klaus Elmer
Edited by Klaus Elmer
Produced by MarcChristoph Wagner

Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2017
Supported by Nordea Fonden

Paul Auster Interview: What Could Have Been from Louisiana Channel on Vimeo.

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https://vimeo.com/240482917

I Am the Laboratory

A Novelist is Not A Puppeteer

Enjoy this Vivacious Onstage Interview, where the Renowned American Writer Paul Auster Talks about Writing, in Relation to his Bestselling Novel ‘4321’, the Divide in America, and Puberty. “It’s A Catastrophe, and at the Same Time it’s About the Most Thrilling Thing that could Ever Happen.”

It took Auster More than Three Years to Write ‘4321’, during Which he Felt he “Was Improvising the Whole Time.” He worked Intensely Every Day, Taking A Break when he had Finished A Chapter, to Go Back and Read the Book from the Beginning “So I Kept Reading and Revising, and Fixing and Refining as I was Going Along.” Though Auster Stresses that the Four Parallel Stories about the Boy Ferguson in the Book are Not Auto Biographical, he Acknowledges that there are Geo Graphical and Chrono Logical Similarities and that he has Gone Back to Some Past Experiences: “Because I am the Laboratory for this Book.” In Continuation of This, he Points Out that “A Novelist is Not A Puppeteer. You’re Not Manipulating your Characters. You’ve Given Birth to Them, but Then They Take On an Independent Life. I think Your Greatest Requirement in Writing Fiction is to Listen to What They’re Telling You and Not Force Anything on Them that They wouldn’t Do. They Call the Shots.”

‘4321’ is Set in the US in the 1950’s and 1960‘s. A Time Affected by the “Red Scare,” the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Power Movement, and the Vietnam War. “It was Like an Axe Going through the Whole Nation.” The Same Division, he Continues, Can Still Be Found in America Today. Auster Shares How he Changed the Title of the Book from ‘Ferguson’ to ‘4321’ Due to A Terrible Event in the Town of Ferguson, Missouri, where an Unarmed Black Man was Shot Down by A White Police Man. “It Opened Up A Lot of Old Wounds and Showed, Again, How Racially Divided We are and Have Always Been. And We’ve Never Neen Able to Get beyond Step One or Two of the 28 Steps We need to Take.”

Paul Auster was Interviewed by Kim Skotte on Stage at the Louisiana Literature Festival in Humlebæk, Denmark in August 2017. During the Interview, Auster Reads from his Novel ‘4,3,2,1’ (2017). The Book follows Archibald Isaac Ferguson, Whose Life takes Four Simultaneous but Entirely Different Paths.

Camera Mathias Nyholm
Edited by Klaus Elmer
Produced by Christian Lund
Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2020
Supported by Nordea Fonden