{"id":8595,"date":"2008-11-14T10:33:47","date_gmt":"2008-11-14T15:33:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=8595"},"modified":"2020-11-16T09:30:11","modified_gmt":"2020-11-16T14:30:11","slug":"you-arent-so-much-trying-to-describe-it-as-trying-to-locate-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=8595","title":{"rendered":"\u201c\u2026You Aren\u2019t So Much Trying To Describe It As Trying To Locate It.\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wonderful interview of Seamus Heaney by Dennis O’Driscoll<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One of my favorite excerpts from the interview:<\/p>\n

I had no particular gift for writing what were called “compositions”, and no particular enjoyment of it. But I do remember a moment, early on at St Columb’s, when the topic was “A Day at the Seaside” and I made a connection between the performative student in me and a more inward creature, the writer-in-waiting, if you like. In the middle of the list of usual, expected activities such as diving and swimming, neither of which I could do, I wrote about going into an amusement arcade to escape from a shower and being depressed by the wet footprints on the floor and the cold, wet atmosphere created by people in their rained-on summer clothes. This had actually happened to me, so the image and the recording of it had a different feel. Something in me knew that I was on the right, intimate track – but it took me years to follow up.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And I love his bit about trying to locate<\/i> it.<\/p>\n

A new book is coming out, a compilation of interviews with Seamus Heaney (and he’s a wonderful interview, juicy, intelligent – always leaves you with something to chew on). I’ve seen him read a couple of times, once in a nearly empty classroom at NYU in the middle of the afternoon … and he’s wonderful “live”. Just wonderful. Funny, mischievous, and sharp.<\/p>\n