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How I Turned into the Writer I Am Not

Geoff Dyer
In conversation with Howard A. Rodman, Professor of Screenwriting, USC School of Cinematic Arts
Thursday, June 26, 2014
01:09:47
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Episode Summary

The work of British writer Geoff Dyer is frequently classified as “unclassifiable;” his writing is wildly eclectic yet gorgeously coherent. His new book, Another Great Day at Sea—about life on an American aircraft carrier—is at the same time a travelogue, unerring social observation, and honed comedy. Zona, his meditation on the film Stalker, by Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky, was supposed to be a book about tennis; his book about D.H. Lawrence, Out of Sheer Rage, is essentially about not writing a book about D.H. Lawrence; and Yoga for People Who Can’t Be Bothered to Do It is definitely not a self-help book. Rodman and Dyer will attempt to account for the “singular restlessness” of Dyer’s writing while happily digressing on other subjects.


Participant(s) Bio

Geoff Dyer is the author of four novels, a critical study of John Berger, and a collection of essays titled Otherwise Known as the Human Condition. Hi has authored six highly original nonfiction books, including the recent Zona and But Beautiful, awarded the Somerset Maugham Prize, and Out of Sheer Rage, a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist.

Howard A. Rodman is a professor of screenwriting at USC's School of Cinematic Arts, Vice President of the Writers Guild of America, West, and has served as Artistic Director of the Sundance Screenwriting Labs. He wrote the screenplays for the films Savage Grace, August, and Joe Gould’s Secret. Rodman is on the executive committee of the Writers Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and is a Fellow of the Los Angeles Institute of the Humanities.



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