Most of the time, what I’ve recorded either sits on the Tivo for a week, or I delete it that day, save for authors who have written books about presidents, one of my passions. I gamely sit through those because I want to write at least three of the same in my lifetime, and from those authors, I want to learn about their research methods, so I can apply them to my own work.
While watching many of the programs featured on Acorn Media’s four-disc A World of Ideas: Writers DVD set, I’ve begun to realize that I shy away from Book TV programs because I don’t like to listen to authors at length. I just want to read their books. And if I do listen to authors talk about their books, I don’t want to know only about that one book. That one book is not just that book. It is many books, such as those the author used for research, and the books the author read while writing that inspired him or her, as well as non-book research. I always hope that if I listen to an author talk about their book, they go beyond that book, into who they are as an author, their lives while writing, their opinions about the worlds they’ve inhabited while writing their book.
To me, the best kind of interviews are the ones featured in this set of programs, in which we, and eminent journalist Bill Moyers, learn about Isaac Asimov’s varied and enlightened beliefs about humanity, science, and the universe; Joseph Heller on why he hasn’t voted in 25 years; E.L. Doctorow about politics in America; MFK Fisher about getting older; Toni Morrison about the challenge of being black, of tearing up the “master narrative” (which she believes decides society’s ideals about those who aren’t white) and writing one’s own script; and playwright August Wilson about being black in America, and why The Cosby Show reflects more white America than black.
Going between 1988 and 1990, when these programs were produced, the ideas never get old, the opinions are still powerful, the stories are still vivid. Listening to Isaac Asimov, one wants to soar through the universe without a spaceship, seeing what Asimov has seen, eyes getting wider in wonderment. These are the interviews I prefer because in author talks, it’s a crapshoot as to whether the author has anything worthwhile to say, which is a risk worth taking if you like the book you’ve read and want to know more about the author. With Bill Moyers, you get informed viewpoints from him about what he perceives in the books he’s read in preparation for these interviews (his references to Joseph Heller’s novels during that interview, which make me want to read all of them, is the finest example), and you get a journalist clearly engaged in his subjects. Once he knows more, once we know more, you still want to know more. You want to set off and explore more of who these writers are in their words. It’s the best of what author’s insights do.
Even with all that this outstanding, upstanding, prestigious DVD set offers in the authors featured, the greatest moment comes from August Wilson, who talks about one morning in which he observed six Japanese men having breakfast together in a restaurant. He compares what he saw that morning with what it would have looked like if it had been six black men having breakfast, and conjures up lines of dialogue right then and there, including my favorite, in which one of the men is talking to the waitress, telling her, “Hey mama, give me your phone number. Don’t talk to him; he can’t read. Give me your phone number.” You’ve also got to hear the jukebox moment. From Wilson, you get a sense of the kind of playwright he is, fully involved in his characters.
The fourth disc has bonus interviews, culled from NOW with Bill Moyers and Bill Moyers Journal, with Barbara Kingsolver, Arundhati Roy, Laura Restrepo, Doris Lessing, Alice Walker, Isabel Allende, Maxine Hong Kingston, and Louise Erdrich. If you watch these DVDs in order, it’s a surprise upon reaching the fourth disc to see how much older Bill Moyers has become, how gray his hair has become. Yet the mind is still as sharp as the 1988 and 1990 Bill Moyers. It’s still insatiably curious, to our great benefit.
Inside the set is a 13-page booklet with an introduction by Bill Moyers, taken from his A World of Ideas book, brief profiles of the authors interviewed, and an article about Americans’ reading habits. It gives just enough of an introduction to what you can expect from these DVDs, and then hands it over to them.
A World of Ideas: Writers is the gold standard I now expect from author talks and interviews. I may venture more into the other Book TV programs I record by actually watching them, whenever I’m not reading, and will always hope for this standard. It’s got to be there. This set inspires confidence in that.
