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Conversations with Wendell Berry (Literary Conversations)

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Bit by bit our society is learning the value of eating locally and supporting the local community. Wendell Berry has understood this for years and has lived his life with community and fidelity at its core. The interviews in this book begin in 1973 and extend through 2006. I found some of the interviewers more interesting than others. The one that drew out the most from Berry was Jordan Fisher Smith.

Here are Wendell Berry's thoughts on a stable community in the Plowboy interview in 1973.
"You've got to have people who talk to each other a lot and who have experiences in common. In a settled farming community old friends get together to work and one thing they do is tell each other again the stories they already know. This is a complex community function. They celebrate their old acquaintance in that way, they celebrate themselves. They alert each other to the realities of their lives and their history. And the effect that it has on story-telling is that it improves the stories.

But the stories in the media today cater to the wish people have for everything to be new. That's very much the emphasis in our arts today, for example. That's not different at all from the Madison Avenue ideal that thrives on the establishments and immediate wearing out of fashions and fads. Any culture building itself on this kind of novelty is bound to run thin."

This collection of eighteen interviews spanning thirty-three years underscores not only the prescience but also the consistency of one of America's great treasures: Wendell Berry-- wonderful fiction writer, compelling poet and thoughtful essayist. Whether he is responding to questions about his writing, his views on agriculture, or the state of society, he speaks with a compelling voice, one that more people in this land should hear, more than hear, should listen to. This volume is an excellent introduction to his ideas..