Comments on: Desk Space http://www.elifbatuman.net/2009/02/22/desk-space/ Writing a book is a very lonely business. You are totally cut off from the rest of the world, submerged in your obsessions and memories." Mario Vargas Llosa Wed, 21 Jul 2010 20:08:38 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8 hourly 1 By: Tony Abbott http://www.elifbatuman.net/2009/02/22/desk-space/comment-page-1/#comment-912 Tony Abbott Thu, 11 Jun 2009 10:04:28 +0000 http://www.elifbatuman.net/2009/02/22/desk-space/#comment-912 Hi. I just discovered your site from the New Yorker blog; I'm sure you have much better things to do than follow links, but in re: Desk Space, a while back, I asked some children's writers to describe their workspaces -- no pictures, please, you are writers -- and they're posted at http://tonyabbottbooks.com/blog/?cat=7 . Enjoy. And thanks in general for My Life and Thoughts. I'm happy to be a new reader. Hi. I just discovered your site from the New Yorker blog; I’m sure you have much better things to do than follow links, but in re: Desk Space, a while back, I asked some children’s writers to describe their workspaces — no pictures, please, you are writers — and they’re posted at http://tonyabbottbooks.com/blog/?cat=7 . Enjoy. And thanks in general for My Life and Thoughts. I’m happy to be a new reader.

]]> By: Elif http://www.elifbatuman.net/2009/02/22/desk-space/comment-page-1/#comment-903 Elif Mon, 25 May 2009 18:15:39 +0000 http://www.elifbatuman.net/2009/02/22/desk-space/#comment-903 dear matt, many thanks for your kind and fascinating message, and please forgive the delayed reply - i was actually in florence the last 2 weeks, researching a story about dante-mania. (i interviewed a forensic anthropologist who reconstructed dante's skull and found that he didn't really look like that guy in the cave, after all, he was botticelli's invention... the same guy (forensic anthropologist, not botticelli) also exhumed count ugolino and proved he didn't eat his own children (cf. Inferno xxxiii). Apparently he (ugolino, this time) was toothless at the time of death, and hadn't eaten any protein at all for the previous 3 months - not even a wilted lamb-neck.) good luck with your undergraduate labors! elif dear matt,

many thanks for your kind and fascinating message, and please forgive the delayed reply – i was actually in florence the last 2 weeks, researching a story about dante-mania. (i interviewed a forensic anthropologist who reconstructed dante’s skull and found that he didn’t really look like that guy in the cave, after all, he was botticelli’s invention… the same guy (forensic anthropologist, not botticelli) also exhumed count ugolino and proved he didn’t eat his own children (cf. Inferno xxxiii). Apparently he (ugolino, this time) was toothless at the
time of death, and hadn’t eaten any protein at all for the previous 3 months – not even a wilted lamb-neck.)

good luck with your undergraduate labors!

elif

]]> By: Matthew http://www.elifbatuman.net/2009/02/22/desk-space/comment-page-1/#comment-901 Matthew Tue, 19 May 2009 07:44:05 +0000 http://www.elifbatuman.net/2009/02/22/desk-space/#comment-901 the internet brings to light strange coincidences, maybe this isn't one of them. As I'm reading an arbitrarily chosen article called Summer in Samarkand in this literary journal n+1 my creative writing student friend left in my apt, I google the author out of a common compulsion to need a picture of an author's face to attach to anything new i read and I find that this author, Elif Batuman, not only lives in San Francisco, but, as related in this blog entry, ate once at that snazzy foodie temple Incanto, directly across the street from my own "desk space" where I craft my B level undergraduate work. My usual, daily interaction with that restaurant is creepy guy who touches food with eyes, though every time my parents come to visit I make them treat me to it. I have eaten in the Dante Room too: local lamb neck on a bed of polenta and wilted rapini with a side of blood sausage. everything tastes better in hell. the internet brings to light strange coincidences, maybe this isn’t one of them.
As I’m reading an arbitrarily chosen article called Summer in Samarkand in this literary journal n+1 my creative writing student friend left in my apt, I google the author out of a common compulsion to need a picture of an author’s face to attach to anything new i read and I find that this author, Elif Batuman, not only lives in San Francisco, but, as related in this blog entry, ate once at that snazzy foodie temple Incanto, directly across the street from my own “desk space” where I craft my B level undergraduate work.
My usual, daily interaction with that restaurant is creepy guy who touches food with eyes, though every time my parents come to visit I make them treat me to it. I have eaten in the Dante Room too: local lamb neck on a bed of polenta and wilted rapini with a side of blood sausage. everything tastes better in hell.

]]> By: William http://www.elifbatuman.net/2009/02/22/desk-space/comment-page-1/#comment-881 William Tue, 17 Mar 2009 04:08:19 +0000 http://www.elifbatuman.net/2009/02/22/desk-space/#comment-881 I (rather belatedly) read your piece in Harper's. Delightful! I'd really like to read your dissertation. How would one go about locating it? I (rather belatedly) read your piece in Harper’s. Delightful! I’d really like to read your dissertation. How would one go about locating it?

]]> By: Elif http://www.elifbatuman.net/2009/02/22/desk-space/comment-page-1/#comment-852 Elif Tue, 24 Feb 2009 19:51:29 +0000 http://www.elifbatuman.net/2009/02/22/desk-space/#comment-852 Dear Tara, dear Ben, thanks for the brilliant links. I was especially fascinated by the "daily routines." When I visited, the top entry was about Auden: <blockquote>Perhaps the finest writer ever to use speed systematically, however, was W. H. Auden. He swallowed Benzedrine every morning for twenty years, from 1938 onward, balancing its effect with the barbiturate Seconal when he wanted to sleep. (He also kept a glass of vodka by the bed, to swig if he woke up during the night.) He took a pragmatic attitude toward amphetamines, regarding them as a "labor-saving device" in the "mental kitchen," with the important proviso that "these mechanisms are very crude, liable to injure the cook, and constantly breaking down."</blockquote> "Constantly breaking down"... what does that even mean in the context of someone who takes Benzedrine every morning for 20 years (and then lives another 15 years after that)? If anyone ever asks for my daily routine I'm gonna say I get up at 4, put on a wedding dress, shoot up, work on a first draft for 7 hours, run 12 miles, pick my kids up from school, edit a second draft for 3 hours, and am in bed with my thermos of vodka by 9. Dear Tara, dear Ben, thanks for the brilliant links. I was especially fascinated by the “daily routines.” When I visited, the top entry was about Auden:

Perhaps the finest writer ever to use speed systematically, however, was W. H. Auden. He swallowed Benzedrine every morning for twenty years, from 1938 onward, balancing its effect with the barbiturate Seconal when he wanted to sleep. (He also kept a glass of vodka by the bed, to swig if he woke up during the night.) He took a pragmatic attitude toward amphetamines, regarding them as a “labor-saving device” in the “mental kitchen,” with the important proviso that “these mechanisms are very crude, liable to injure the cook, and constantly breaking down.”

“Constantly breaking down”… what does that even mean in the context of someone who takes Benzedrine every morning for 20 years (and then lives another 15 years after that)?

If anyone ever asks for my daily routine I’m gonna say I get up at 4, put on a wedding dress, shoot up, work on a first draft for 7 hours, run 12 miles, pick my kids up from school, edit a second draft for 3 hours, and am in bed with my thermos of vodka by 9.

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