The Neurology of Writing

I think some people read my book, for example, and the emotional disconnect is that it is very painful for them to think of literature, of writing literature, as this product of this disgusting organ with the consistency of toothpaste. And half of me knows exactly what they mean.

Back when I was doing author interviews regularly, Robert Birnbaum was something of a self-internalized benchmark, i.e., I'd always be checking to see who he'd snagged for Identity Theory and closely examine everything, especially when we'd both talked to the same authors. I never told him that, because you can't exactly email someone and say, "Hey, I pace myself against you, keep up the good work!" Anyway, he's just posted an interview with neurologist Alice Flaherty about The Midnight Disease, in which she looks at the science behind writer's block--and its near kin, hypergraphia. As he himself points out about two-thirds of the way in, many of the issues that come up in their conversation dovetail neatly into his earlier interview with Rafael Campo. Which is one of the things I happen to like about Birnbaum: when an issue sticks with him, from one book to the next, he's willing to bring that theme up front and examine it more closely.