Ted Gioia
Author of The Birth (and Death) of the Cool (Speck Press, 978-1-933108-31-5)
When did you start reading, and what did you like to read as a kid?
I spent much of my childhood at the local public library. My interests seemed to change every few months, and as they evolved I moved from section to section of the library. I would read books on history, astronomy, space exploration, spies and espionage, mathematical games and puzzles, myths and legends and other topics. My modus operandi was to read through most of the books on a certain topic, then move on to the next subject. As I got older, my interests gravitated towards the arts and humanities, and I read primarily poetry and fiction, books on visual arts and music, and works of philosophy.
When you were growing up did you have books in your home?
My childhood home was an oddity. There were virtually no bookshelves in the house, but the family owned thousands of books. Many were inherited from an uncle, a brilliant autodidact who died in a plane crash in his late 20s and left behind an extraordinary personal library of musical scores and literary works in many languages—I still own his complete set of the works of Thomas Mann. In addition, my older brother Dana and I both spent a ridiculous percentage of what money we could muster on books, and eventually we accumulated hundreds (and later thousands) of them. My parents, both from working class backgrounds without college education, owned a few books of their own, but their contributions to the household book horde were very modest by comparison. But they encouraged our reading and, in general,our education.
When did you think about becoming a writer?
I loved books from a young age, and started writing stories around the time I was eight or nine years old. I’m not sure when I consciously decided on becoming a writer, but it probably was at a very early age.
How do you write?
I write every day. The biggest challenge is writing well. I’ve learned, over the years, that I need to take great care with the prose even on the first draft. If the first draft is lackluster, no amount of rewriting seems to bring it to life. So the first moment when you put your ideas on the page is the most crucial. The most satisfying moment comes when I’ve written something that has some style and panache about it.
Do you have any particular story to tell concerning the writing of this book?
Many years ago, I first conceived the idea of writing a cultural study of cool. But it was only when I sat down to write it that I realized that cool as a social force was in decline. So instead of writing a history of the cool, I ended up writing The Birth (and Death) of the Cool.
Why do you say the cool is in decline?
For a period of fifty years, cool has been dominant in America as a way of life, almost a personality type. But, as I show in my book, a new cultural style is emerging, based on sincerity and earnestness, almost a cult of authenticity. This is not just another trend, but a distrust of trendiness. In my book, I show how this shift is shaping everything—music, movies, media, politics, marketing, education, even how we talk and dress.
What's some advice that you could offer young writers?
You should only write is you are passionately committed to it. You should write at the highest level of which you are capable, and resist the pressures to “dumb down” your writing—pressures which are more pervasive nowadays than ever before. And, finally, you should write about subjects for which you have great enthusiasm and interest.
What are you working on at the moment?
I am working on a revised version of my jazz history book, The History of Jazz, which was first published in 1997. I need to update the text, and will also use this as an opportunity to improve and expand the work.
What are you reading?
I read voraciously. I review fiction at three web sites that I have built from scratch. The New Canon celebrates the best works of fiction published since 1985. Conceptual Fiction is devoted to classic works of science fiction, fantasy and magical realism. And Great Books Guide is where I review recent books of literary fiction. I review around forty books per years, and my most recent reviews have focused on works by Jonathan Lethem, Alice Munro, Philip Roth, Paul Auster and Fritz Leiber.
