"As a writer, I have only one responsibility, and that's to the language
I'm using and to the thing I'm trying to make." Conversations with
William H. Gass captures the imagination and philosophical acumen of one
of America's most important aestheticians, critical theorists, fiction
writers, and essayists. From his first major novel, Omensetter's Luck
(1966), to his numerous collections of essays and philosophical
inquiries, to his controversial novel The Tunnel (1995), Gass (b. 1924)
has proved himself a meticulous craftsman. Throughout these interviews,
he reveals an aesthetic that combines ideas from sources as disparate as
Ludwig Wittgenstein, Rainer Maria Rilke, Gertrude Stein, and Plato. The
interviews make clear the unity behind Gass's views is by his own
design. Conversations retrace his undergraduate years at Kenyon College
and his subsequent philosophical investigation of metaphor at Cornell
University. Gass has never strayed from his belief that metaphor is
central and fundamental to thought and to aesthetics. In these
interviews he reiterates time and again his belief that the ultimate
understanding of the relationship of language to the world pivots on
one's understanding of metaphor. In interviews, in profiles, and in his
own essays, Gass does not hide from questions about his art and personal
motivations, no matter how frequently they are asked, nor does he toy
with his interviewers. Revealing how he never shies from an intellectual
joust, this collection includes a rousing, contentious debate with John
Gardner, fellow literary pundit and fiction writer. The distinction of
Gass's prose is matched by the clarity and brilliance of the mind behind
it. These talks allow an unobstructed view. Anyone interested in Gass's
writing will delight in hearing the brutally honest voice of the mind
that produced it. Theodore G. Ammon is chair of the philosophy
department at Millsaps College in Jackson, Miss. His work has appeared
in such publications as Romance Notes, Arachne, College Mathematics, and
the Journal of Aesthetic Education.
