E.L. Doctorow, chronicler of American mythology

by David Varno | Sep-12-2009

In her introduction to E. L. Doctorow, board member Geeta Sharma-Jensen quoted Joyce Carol Oates calling the author of the 1975 award-winning novel Ragtime ” a great chronicler of American mythology.”

Doctorow spoke at length on the anxiety we have for the survival of book culture. 

“What the present situation brings out,” he said, “is that we are one literary community, and in this together.”

He noted the internet’s “Katrina-like impact on all things print,” calling it a symptom of “a national epidemic of attention deficit disorder.”

As live-blogger, he made me wish that this venue offered more time to reflect.  Hopefully, his description of what literature is will remain true for a long time:

“Here is one person writing a book in silence, and here is another person reading that book in silence.”