Jonathem Lethem and Mary Gaitskill discussing their works, moderated by Greg Cowles, senior editor at the New York Times Book Review. At first one might wonder what Gaitskill and Lethem have in common. Lethem began his career writing about sci-fi. Gaitskill began her career writing about people who participated in S&M. Lethem is famous for works such as Motherless Brooklyn and The Fortress of Solitude. Gaitskill is famous for Bad Behavior and Veronica. Cowles however, was able to link them by their discussion of class in their novels.

Both Veronica and The Fortress of Solitude bring up the issue of class.
Cowles then proceeded to ask the novelists what role class plays in their
novels. Lethem talked about growing up in Brooklyn and his parents’
excitement over the progress of the Civil Rights Movement. But something
was still wrong. Motherless Brooklyn brings up those issues. “Why does
one character’s life get ruined for using cocaine and for the other,
nothing happens?” Lethem asks. The answer is race. “Class issues are
embedded in race issues.” The lives of people of different classes are
lived in parallel, but never intersect because of their different income
levels.

Gaitskill then posed the question of what literature “ought” to be. Is it
supposed to be “about the struggle of the poor” or can it be “pretty
language about people’s lives”? She concluded that it could be about
both. A novel can be about the struggle of the poor and offer no literary
value, or it can be about people’s lives and reveal the great truths of
life. “Family novels aren’t stupid or self-indulgent because isn’t the
family what makes up modern life?”

Lethem thought that this was a “question of responsibilty”. What should
fiction do? Art has no value, but it needs a function for the modern
world to appreciate it. The productive value is supposed to be clear.
People become uncomfortable when their art has no discernable function.
Gaitskill then piped in with a discussion of the song “Combianation Pizza
Hut/Taco Bell.” She claims that uselessness is allowed in other mediums
of art, but not in literature.

The conversation continued for what I felt was far too long. Eventually,
the audience was given an opportunity to ask questions. One audience
member asked the authors how they feel about the use of footnotes in
literature, i.e. David Foster Wallace and Junot Diaz. This led to another
audience member angrily exclaiming that Tom Wolfe solved all of
literature’s problems.

Personally, I thought the conversation was incredibly boring. All three
of them sounded like pompous assholes when they spoke. Perhaps I am
biased; I was not planning to attend this event. I was supposed to be
covering Hip Hop Hearts Anime at the Comic Con, but it was canceled. The
only thing left to cover was this conversation, since it was very late
into the festival with an hour left. I have never read Lethem’s or
Gaitskill’s books. I’m sure they are well written and probably great
books. But in person, I have never seen a more pompous group. Perhaps
they should stick to the written word, and leave the spoken word to
others.