Uploaded May 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Conversation begins at 9:25
With AFFINITIES: On Art & Fascination (NYRB, bookshop.org/a/4669/9781681377261), Brian Dillon completes a "loose trilogy" of books revolving around his connections to art, writing & the world, this time through a series of amazing essays about photography, dance, video, and other art forms, as well as the drift-nature of affinity itself. We get into the tendrils of influence (and how he has to shake himself loose of the reticence of Barthes & Sebald), the act of close looking. the way metaphors & images enable to him to explore art, and why he embraces mood over argument in his essays. We also talk about the ways his recent books (Affinities, Suppose a Sentence (bookshop.org/a/4669/9781681375243), & Essayism (bookshop.org/a/4669/9781681372822)) have served as a reboot of his writing, the challenges in wedding the critical/analytic & the memoiristic, his decision to rewrite by hand the previously published pieces for this book to see if new connections revealed themselves, and how he never knows what to ask an artist in the studio. Plus, we discuss how much personal info is too much in an essay, the parallels between his aunt's descent into paranoia with his own pursuit of close looking/reading, the writers he discovered late, what comes next, why he doesn't shy away from calling Affinities an essay collection, and more! Follow Brian on Twitter (twitter.com/briangdillon) and Instagram (instagram.com/briangdillon/) • More info at chimeraobscura.com/vm/episode-539-brian-dillon • Support The Virtual Memories Show via patreon.com/vmspod and via our newsletter, https://buttondown.email/vmspod
Conversation begins at 9:25
With AFFINITIES: On Art & Fascination (NYRB, bookshop.org/a/4669/9781681377261), Brian Dillon completes a "loose trilogy" of books revolving around his connections to art, writing & the world, this time through a series of amazing essays about photography, dance, video, and other art forms, as well as the drift-nature of affinity itself. We get into the tendrils of influence (and how he has to shake himself loose of the reticence of Barthes & Sebald), the act of close looking. the way metaphors & images enable to him to explore art, and why he embraces mood over argument in his essays. We also talk about the ways his recent books (Affinities, Suppose a Sentence (bookshop.org/a/4669/9781681375243), & Essayism (bookshop.org/a/4669/9781681372822)) have served as a reboot of his writing, the challenges in wedding the critical/analytic & the memoiristic, his decision to rewrite by hand the previously published pieces for this book to see if new connections revealed themselves, and how he never knows what to ask an artist in the studio. Plus, we discuss how much personal info is too much in an essay, the parallels between his aunt's descent into paranoia with his own pursuit of close looking/reading, the writers he discovered late, what comes next, why he doesn't shy away from calling Affinities an essay collection, and more! Follow Brian on Twitter (twitter.com/briangdillon) and Instagram (instagram.com/briangdillon/) • More info at chimeraobscura.com/vm/episode-539-brian-dillon • Support The Virtual Memories Show via patreon.com/vmspod and via our newsletter, https://buttondown.email/vmspod
