Author Jonathan Franzen Dislikes Author Videos

Posted on August 16, 2010

Author Jonathan Franzen is back on the literary radar with his new novel, called Freedom. Franzen has landed the cover of Time and he has a write-up in Vogue. Jonathan Franzen made an author video even though he dislikes them. The fact that a lot of commerce now happens online seems to have made him willing to make them.

Jonathan Franzen says, "This might be a good place for me to register my profound discomfort at having to make videos like this. To me, the point of a novel is to take you to a still place. You can multitask with a lot of things, but you can't really multitask reading a book. You're either reading a book or you're not. To me, the world of books is the quiet alternative, an ever more desperately needed alternative. I understand that not everyone sees it that way, and I understand that a lot of commerce happens online now, so I think it makes good sense to be recording little videos like this."

Take a look:

Image: Time