Here and Now: Letters (2008-2011) by Paul Auster & J. M. Coetzee

Author:Paul Auster & J. M. Coetzee [Auster, Paul & Coetzee, J. M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Literary Collections, Letters, General, American, Literary Criticism, African
ISBN: 9780670026661
Google: lsNfLwEACAAJ
Amazon: 0670026662
Publisher: Viking Adult
Published: 2013-03-07T05:00:00+00:00

February 23, 2010

Dear John,

For reasons I can’t quite grasp (possibly because you are so far away and our meetings are so infrequent), I often find myself wanting to give you things. The package of books last month, for example, and now the enclosed DVD of the Italian edition of Man on Wire. The film is about the same man, Philippe Petit, whose book I translated years ago and included in that package. I was interviewed for the DVD in a hotel lobby in Milan last year, and now I have been sent ten copies. With nine to spare, off one goes to you.

I don’t know if you have already seen the film, which was released in 2008 and made something of a splash (Academy Award for best documentary), but if you haven’t seen it, it’s quite possible that you have no idea who Philippe Petit is. Most famously, he is the man who walked on a wire between the towers of the World Trade Center in 1974.

If you look at the interview I did for the DVD, you will learn of my connection to Philippe—so no need to rehash that here. There is also the essay I wrote in 1982 (“On the High Wire,” in Collected Prose), which was supposed to serve as the introduction to the book I translated but—for highly strange and amusing reasons—never appeared in the volume.

The essay mentions the name of Cyrus Vance, who served as secretary of state under Jimmy Carter and who was present at one of Philippe’s performances that I attended. I included Vance as a rhetorical point—to prove that high-wire walking is an entirely democratic art, able to excite the interest of all people, from young children to former secretaries of state. When I showed my piece to Philippe, however, he said—first—Who is Cyrus Vance?—and when I told him, he said—second—that he didn’t want the name of a politician in his book. I was dumbfounded. Don’t you understand? I said. I included him to make a point about what you do. No, no, Philippe replied, you have to cut out his name, I won’t stand for it. Exasperated and incensed, I told him that he was an idiot, refused to delete the name, and withdrew my introduction.

A small but maddening example of Philippe’s arrogance, self-importance, and single-minded, all-consuming vanity. Then again, without that personality, it is unimaginable that he ever would have tried to do what he did. Fortunately, the quarrel didn’t last. We remained friends, and some years later, when I found him a French publisher for the same book, he was all too happy to have my introduction included.

All that is secondary, not the reason for this letter today. I am far more interested in what Philippe does—particularly the three walks documented in the film: Nôtre Dame in Paris, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and the World Trade Center. I don’t know how you will respond to these feats (or have responded to them), but for me they are among

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