Interview With Tony Hoagland by: Melanie Greenhouse Date: April 24, 2006
- What Narcissism Means to Me, your third and latest collection, is about a great deal more than vanity, but such a title begs the question: Do you see narcissism as an American trait, a symptom of a deeper cultural void?
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Mostly I have felt that I had nothing to lose. For one thing, telling the truth feels like an invigorating revenge or a rebellion against the sensation of suffocation. For another, I see poems as theatrical—a kind of acting out in which saying things is a sort of experiment. and finally, I have come to assume that my own dark secrets are common human nature, and that there is a sigh of relief when someone puts the naked thing on the table.
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What Narcissism Means to Me, your third and latest collection, is about a great deal more than vanity, but such a title begs the question: Do you see narcissism as an American trait, a symptom of a deeper cultural void?
No subject is taboo: racism, homophobia, hate, violence, our human capacity for each of these behaviors. Are you a risk taker, poetically speaking?
2. An artist has to do what he or she can --- for some of us, the willingness to be confrontational --to make a scene in public can compensate for the lack of more sophisticated means, like French menus, reikki, and scented candles.
3. Your poems often make me gasp with morbid delight (eg. “Adam and Eve”). Do you find yourself in a similar mood while writing? Are you surprised by what comes out of your brain?
4. Well, I think the most interesting data comes from everyday life, and from the complications of human nature and social life—not from the brain, but from walking around. The brain just names things. I think the mind is many things, but that some of those things are: a slave ship, a concentration camp, a whore house, and an orphanage. So there’s really a lot of interesting activity to report on.
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If affluence and consumerism are numbing the American intellect, how do you explain poetry’s current popularity? Is there a rift in American culture?
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An artist has to do what he or she can --- for some of us, the willingness to be confrontational --to make a scene in public can compensate for the lack of more sophisticated means, like French menus, reikki, and scented candles.
4. A couple of poems in Donkey Gospel refer to ‘head and heart being in different time zones’… ‘a distance between self and feelings.’ Could the dissociation be a result of life as an “Army brat” as you describe your childhood, always moving?
5. Yes, that’s true; but coincidentally, dissociation seems to be the common human condition in a first world twentieth century country, too. How fortunate, to be in tune with my times!
5. The poem “Candlelight” (Donkey Gospel) rests on the premise that in order for one thing to exist, another thing must be destroyed, that to exist “you have to decide what/ you are willing to kill.” Thank you for pointing that out. Cheery thought.
6. We fool ourselves and other people by pretending that we can have Everything, or Anything, without the ripple of consequences. Auden says, “hearts that we broke long ago have long been breaking others.” Failure and disappointment should be more prominently a part of our collective belief system. We should pledge allegiance to them too, as well as “Happiness” “Love” and “Success”.
6. Your poems are spiked with contradictory images (eg. “…kissable mouth/ with the nail in it.”). They strike that difficult balance between gravity and humor. Is that where art lies?
7. In the algebra of the moment, there are lots of poignant numerators and denominators. – or maybe that is dividends and multiplicators.
7. What Narcissism Means to Me, your third and latest collection, is about a great deal more than vanity, but such a title begs the question: Do you see narcissism as an American trait, a symptom of a deeper cultural void?
8. Our culture no longer provides us with systems of values greater than ourselves, and we can’t seem to decide on any to hold in common for very long. We’re spinning between Pilates classes and shopping mall while talking on cell phones. That seems like a void.
9. Your poems often include sharp-witted quotes by friends. Do they mind?
No. I always try to give them clever lines.
11. You mention trying to move away from the personal and psychological towards social trauma. Is that your strategy? Why? Aren’t they Siamese twins?
Yes, I think they are Siamese twins—let’s map the organs they share.
12. Poetry has moved through many “Ages”: Classical, Renaissance, Victorian, Modern, Postmodern. If you had to label the current age, what would you call it?
13. I would call this the age of Paisley.