Description

Gregory explains that they found little information about Hauser, so McCaffery asks Hauser about her background. She wanted to be a dancer or a missionary, both of which involved travel. She lied about her age in order to work in the press. McCaffery and Hauser discuss the differences in style between her first book in English and her later work. She includes in her life story how a telephone call interrupted her suicide planning. She saw Otto Rank, the psychoanalyst, who said if she wanted to write she should not be analyzed. The three discuss her experience of and attitude toward dreams and her use of them in her writing. They discuss her book The Talking Room. On the 2nd side Hauser talks about writing while drunk. Gregory discusses teaching Hauser’s work, and they look at the structure of her books. Hauser talks about writing a puppet play and her book Prince Ishmael. Hauser discusses her work in progress and her writing career. She was never an expatriate: “I have no country.” Gregory opens the next side with a discussion of the use of poppy images, leading to a discussion of Hauser’s exposure to war, and being an outsider to U.S. culture. They discuss her short story “Heartlands Beat.” They talk about how much she knows about a work when she begins it, and her work habits. They discuss some of her actions, such as burning her first draft of Dark Dominion, and refusing an offer to translate her shadow play Indisches Gaukelspiel. They discuss her professional/mental growth in the past 20 years and her book The Memoirs of the Late Mr. Ashley. McCaffery asks about specific uses of dreams in her work, and she gives examples. Hauser and Gregory discuss the meaning of love. McCaffery asks about feminism, and they discuss the treatment of women and the Handmaid’s Tale.They look at ways of working at writing. Hauser talks about reading mysteries, and Gregory mentions her book on Dashiell Hammett. They briefly discuss Hauser’s book Prince Ishmael. An edited version of this interview appears on pages 102 to 120 of Some Other Frequency: Interviews with Innovative American Authors, ed. Larry McCaffery, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996.