John Crowley: I write in expectation that readers want to participate in a kind of two-sided game: They are trying to guess what I am up to—what the story’s up to—and I’m giving them clues and matter to keep them interested without giving everything away at the start. Even the rules, if any, of the game are for the reader to discover. It’s very important to me that readers win the game: i.e., come to understand what’s at stake, perhaps all in a moment (James Joyce’s “epiphany,” which happens both to the character and the reader) and perhaps in a gradual accumulation. I can’t guarantee readers will win in that sense, or that all of them will; and I of course want to leave some mysterious and unresolved remainder.
via www.avclub.com
The A.V. Club, which always has great interviews, notes that a 25th-anniversary edition of Crowley's Little, Big, with an essay by Bloom and art by Peter Milton, is coming out this fall. Sounds like that would be a great time to read again the story of Smoky Barnable and Daily Alice Drinkwater and their families. But now back to the interview ... if you'll excuse me ...
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