If critically acclaimed author Jonathan Safran Foer adheres to one writing rule, it is to avoid any rules on writing.
Foer, author of the books “Everything is Illuminated,” “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” and “Eating Animals,” used the humor and storytelling for which he has become famous to explain his own writing process and encourage other writers to pursue their literary ambitions. Monday night, Foer addressed an almost full Griffith Film Theater as the opening dialogue of the 2010 Archive Literary Festival.
The 33-year-old author has been both praised and criticized for the ingenuity of his novels. His first book, “Everything is Illuminated,” is the story of a protagonist, also named Jonathan Safran Foer, and his journey to Ukraine to find a woman who may have saved his Jewish grandfather from persecution during the Holocaust. Foer said the novel is loosely related to a trip he took to Ukraine to learn about the history of his own family.
“I really begin with nothing,” Foer said. “I’ve come to think that I actually don’t have ideas or thoughts unless I’m writing.”
Because writing generates ideas, Foer said, the world would benefit from more writing outside of the profession. But he added that art was valuable to society, a fact that is not necessarily reflected in the percentage of humanities majors in U.S. colleges.
“Certainly, [our] culture needs artists as much as it needs business people. It’s just a harder choice to make,” Foer said.
He also noted that it is important to distinguish between critical and intuitive forms of writing, and that he is more visceral in his own work. He later spoke of the process of structuring his fiction.
Foer does not start his novels with an end in mind, he said. To illustrate this point, he told the audience how a story that initially took place in a museum morphed into “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” after he became more preoccupied with a minor character. The novel tells of 9-year-old Oskar Schell’s struggle to come to terms with 9/11.
In addition to speaking more generally about the fiction writing for which he has become praised, Foer went on a self-proclaimed diatribe about his first work of nonfiction, “Eating Animals,” which explores the animal rights and environmental issues associated with eating factory-farmed meat. He explained that factory farms like Tyson were so unwilling to let him behind the scenes, he had to arrange his own visit to a farm—at 3 a.m.
“[In researching factory farming] I saw really gruesome stuff, but nothing freaked me out as much as this veil of secrecy, and how complete it was, how total it was,” Foer said. “I do think it’s worth thinking about this subject. The stakes are so high.”
Several audience members said they appreciated Foer’s down-to-earth nature, noting that he was funny and personable.
“I liked how he gave everyone back the opportunity to be a writer,” said junior Alexa Monroy, a neuroscience major.
The Archive Literary Festival will continue with a talk by author Padgett Powell April 15.
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