{"id":1474,"date":"2023-06-09T08:29:19","date_gmt":"2023-06-09T12:29:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hexliterary.com\/?p=1474"},"modified":"2023-06-09T08:30:04","modified_gmt":"2023-06-09T12:30:04","slug":"interview-with-nick-story-by-adraesteia-wong-and-william-pagliarulo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hexliterary.com\/?p=1474","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Nick Story by Adeline Wong and William Pagliarulo"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The structure of “Does the Pig?” is full of rhythm–it’s almost hypnotic, the way we keep going back to the same event and learn something new every time. What was your writing process like as the sentences expanded? How did you go about balancing the old and new information in each iteration?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the fragment \u201cdoes the pig?\u201d Then I rewrote it a few times and gave myself the task of adding new information about the pig\u2019s situation with each iteration. A few words, a clause or two. I wanted to see how long I could make the sentence, while still having it make sense as a question. New plotlines and connections surrounding the pig started to emerge (the farmer, the knife\u2019s story, the teenage girls), so I applied the expansionary procedure to those parts of the sentence as well. Soon enough, phrases and clauses were sprouting up all over the place, and I was adding a lot to each iteration. This forced me into a balancing act between, basically, narrative and syntax. In theory, the sentence could have gone on expanding forever, but in practice I knew that at some point I had to get off the bus and answer the question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s your favorite word that you use in “Does the Pig?”? (Is it the same as your favorite word in general?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think it might be \u201ciron.\u201d By itself, \u201ciron\u201d isn\u2019t such a beautiful word maybe, but I like the idea that the iron in the knife wants to abandon its function as a weapon and revert to harmless minerality. In general, I think there\u2019s something poignant about fictional works that lend feelings and thoughts to inanimate objects: singing teapots, intelligent soot particles, toasters of modest stature that display certain cardinal virtues\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not sure if it\u2019s my favorite, but I\u2019ve always liked the Yiddish word luftmensch,<\/em> meaning \u201can impractical contemplative person.\u201d It literally means \u201cair person\u201d and I identify with that description really a good deal more than I\u2019d prefer. Another useful word is \u201cmurky.\u201d It\u2019s an honest and helpful word given that life, in my experience, is completely murky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who\/what are you reading right now that you really enjoy?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I just reread Jen Craig\u2019s novel Panthers and the Museum of Fire<\/em>. The story follows Jen, a frustrated writer and delirious overthinker, as she walks from Glebe to inner Sydney, carrying the manuscript of her recently deceased childhood friend Sarah. But the true setting is Jen\u2019s mind, inside the looping, recursive thoughts delivered in Craig\u2019s hypnotic, memory-hopping sentences. The book is basically Jen\u2019s unfolding reaction to reading the manuscript, which includes a reassessment of her friendship with Sarah, reflections on her anorexia, her brief conversion to Christianity, her years of artistic failure, and her tendency to withdraw into thinking as a dubious refuge from life\u2019s many \u201cinterferences.\u201d If this sounds like standard autofictional fare, it isn\u2019t. Craig has a major style, one that contains all the complexity and gathering force of Thomas Bernhard without Bernhard\u2019s loathing and madness; it\u2019s geared more toward self-reflection and self-patterning than the slandering of existence. Craig is one of my favorite living fiction writers and I\u2019m looking forward to her new book Wall<\/em>. Incidentally, I think some of the best fiction writing in the Anglophone world today is coming out of Australia, e.g., Jen Craig, Jessica Au, Nicholas John Turner, Jack Cox\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lastly, what are you working on right now? Or alternatively, do you have a favorite piece you\u2019ve published elsewhere that we can link to?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m working on a novel about a sad park ranger who finds a mysterious egg. The book concerns his relationship with the egg and his half-hearted attempts to save a leatherback nesting beach from residential development. I\u2019m trying to convince myself that it is a Symbolist novel, but it probably isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m also always trying to put together a short story collection. Here\u2019s a link to a recent story: https:\/\/theadroitjournal.org\/issue-forty-three\/nick-story<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

________<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nick Story’s story “Does the Pig?”<\/a> appeared in <\/em>hex on June 7, 2022, and was selected for Best Small Fictions 2023<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The structure of “Does the Pig?” is full of rhythm–it’s almost hypnotic, the way we keep going back to the same event and learn something […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hexliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hexliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hexliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hexliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hexliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1474"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/hexliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1535,"href":"https:\/\/hexliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1474\/revisions\/1535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hexliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hexliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hexliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}